A (dis)comforting past? Uses of migration history today

Historians often cite the phrase "All history is contemporary history" to highlight how historical narratives are continually reshaped to serve contemporary agendas. This is particularly evident in ongoing debates about migration and integration. Both migration optimists—who view immigration as an enrichment to society—and migration pessimists—who perceive it as a threat—frequently draw upon historical examples to justify their current positions. This project examines how migration history is used in academic discourse and public debates to support contemporary perspectives on migration and integration. Focusing on debates in the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands, the study explores the use of migration history from the Dutch ‘Golden Age,’ 19th- and early 20th-century American immigration, and modern German migration history. Employing the tools of memory studies, the project critically evaluates how migration history is utilized, with particular emphasis on optimistic interpretations, a topic largely overlooked in existing scholarship. This research will fill this gap by analyzing how optimistic narratives are constructed, their underlying assumptions, and whether these interpretations hold up under academic scrutiny. When is the past idealized or selectively used, and do comparisons to the present make sense?