From exsilium to exile: coercion in migration. Studia Historica Gedanensia. Vol. 5

The 5th volume of „Studia Historica Gedanensia,” an annual publication of the Faculty of History at the University of Gdańsk, is devoted to coerced migrations in historical perspective – since antiquity to the present. The articles published in the volume discuss issues related to the various stages, or levels, of pressure in migrations; beginning with deliberations on cultural exclusion (emigration as a „philosophical freedom of expression”), through administrative compulsion (an individual between coercion and freedom of choice), refugees and exiles searching for shelter (victims of oppression – dangerous radicals), to their political activities in exile (on behalf of, or against the homeland), the concluding chapters being devoted to the problems of exposition of forced migrations in museums. The collected articles were written by historians, literary scholars, and an economic relations specialist. They allow the reader to discover stunning similarities between distant epochs and ocean-separated regions as he, or she, examines causes of forced migrations, the nature of the exiles’ contacts with the homeland, as well as conditions allowing, or precluding, return migrations. Finding common, recurrent conditions, or patterns, may prove advantageous while addressing contemporary challenges of coerced migrations – both domestic and international.