VOLUNTARY AND FORCED MIGRATION

The present issue of Acta Historica Tallinnensia is a compilation of papers from historians, ethnologists and folklorists who presented their work at the conference "Voluntary and forced migration in the Estonian migration history" held in Tallinn University on 12-13 October 2010. At the conference, both emigration from Estonia and immigration to Estonia during different times was discussed with emphasis on the motives of migration, i.e. the dichotomy of voluntarity and forcedness. When talking about the forcedness and voluntarity of migration, it seems at first relatively easy to place the emigration waves from Estonia on the different parts of the above scale. However, it becomes evident from many of the papers in the present volume that the dichotomy of the voluntarity and forcedness of the migration is problematic rather than clear-cut. In addition to the migration waves, the papers treat the adaption of the migrants in their new home country. Also the diachronic diapason covered by the papers is wide, stretching from the 12th century to the present time.