AFFIRMING DIVERSITY THROUGH MIGRATION

THEMATIC REPORT

ARCHIVE / RESEARCH CENTRES

SPECIALISING IN MIGRATION

By

Brian Lambkin
Ulster American Folk Park and Centre for Irish Migration Studies, Omagh, N. - Irland
ODL-Migration: Affirming Diversity Through Migration (Minerva) 56073-CP-2-98-1PT-ODL-ODL

1. BACKGROUND
The general objectives of this ODL project were as follows:
* To increase the understanding of migration into modern European countries through
inventive use of ODL
* To increase the understanding of migration into modern European countries through
conveying to pupils and student of the very same countries their own experience as
immigrants to the United States, Canada etc a few generations ago
* To better the teaching of migration studies through the creation of ODL-supported regional
partnerships of local schools, archives/research institutions, and teacher training institutions
* To better the understanding of the phenomenon of migration as a pan-European issue
through the creation of ODL-supported consortia that will enhance collaboration between
European local schools, European archives/research institutions, and European teacher
training institutions
* To increase school involvement in ODL by systematically using ODL
The object of forming a consortium of archives and migration studies centres was to facilitate
access to resources necessary to support the development of suitable classroom materials and
to provide access to expertise as to the use and interpretation of the resources. All three
centres of the consortium are committed to public outreach in their work and therefore
welcomed the opportunity to participate in the project.

2. CONSORTIUM OF ARCHIVES AND MIGRATION STUDIES CENTRES

The consortium of Archives and Migration Studies Centres was comprised of:
Norway: The Nowegian Emigration Center, Stavanger in association with the Norwegian
Emigrant Museum, Hamar
Portugal: The Centre for the Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations, Univeridade
Aberta (Open University of Portugal), Lisbon
Northern Ireland: Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park in
association with the Institute of Lifelong Learning (formerly the Institute for Continuing
Education) at The Queen's University of Belfast

3. COLLABORATION AND USE OF ODL

Specific objectives for the consortium of archive/research centres agreed at the Omagh
Meeting in January 2000 were as follows:
A. Development of a plan of sharing web-based exhibitions between the three partner
countries
B. Presentation and evaluation of digital archives in the three partner countries
C. Exchange of pedagogical views of the presentation of migration sources to a wider
audience
It was agreed that as much material as possible would be made accessible through the
project's website.

4. EVIDENCE GATHERED
The Norwegian Emigration Center in Stavanger, Norway and the Centre for Migration
Studies at Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh, Northern Ireland in the summer of Year 2 of
the project launched web-based exhibitions focusing on the migration history of both
countries. In Norway, the Norwegian Emigrant Museum, based in Hamar, has, in cooperation with the National Library, also presented their exhibition on the web. Here is a
brief introduction to these web-based exhibitions:

4.1. People on the Move

The Norwegian Emigration Center opened on July 4th 2000 a permanent exhibition called
People on the Move. This launch was part of the 175th Anniversary Commemoration of the
Norwegian emigration to America that started with the sailing of the sloop "Restauration"
from Stavanger in 1825. The Anniversary Program started in Stavanger in March and ended
with a closing ceremony at the Norwegian Seamens Church in New York, Oct. 9th. The
Grand Celebration was on July 4th, the very date of the "Restauration" departure. The
celebration was opened by Rogaland County Mayor and was sponsored by the City of
Stavanger, The County of Rogaland and many municipalities as well as the Norwegian
Ministry of Culture and the American Embassy in Norway. The exhibition describes the
background and motives of the exodus to America starting in 1825, the Atlantic crossing and
the arrival in the New World. After passing through the medical examination at Ellis Island
we follow the immigrants on their way westward to the country side and into the cities. Since
many of the emigrants also returned to Norway and Europe, the exhibit also focuses on the
effect of this return migration, as well as the experience of becoming multicultural countries.
The exhibit was launched on the internet November 25th , 2000.

2. The Art of European Migration

On June 23 this year Centre for Migration Studies at Ulster - American Folk Park in Omagh,
Northern Ireland, opened their web based exhibit The Art of Emigration, which is a virtual
Art gallery displaying images which shows the movement of people from Europe to North
America during the last millennium. The doors to this virtual exhibition opened for the first
time, when the project was launched on the Internet on Friday 23rd June. This launch was
part of the programme of the Thirteenth Ulster American Heritage Symposium, which was
hosted by the Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park as part of
Northern Ireland's Millennium Festival celebrations.
The exhibition presents a collection of images that help tell the story of the millions of people
who moved from Europe to North America during the past millennium. The aim of this
project is to give access to pictures of migrants from all ethnic groups of Europe. The
distinctive feature of this image database is that it allows the user to view any two images
side by side. The aim is to promote comparative study of the common and distinctive features
of the European migration experience.
The visitor to this virtual exhibition can compare images painted in different countries, can
look at paintings from three time periods and can compare and contrast scenes of arrival and
departure. Some of the paintings on display make this quite an emotional exhibition. We see
the wretched heartache as a young son bids his mother farewell in Sean Keating's Economic
Pressure. In this painting the artist portrays emigration as a serious malaise affecting Ireland

in the wake of the Irish Famine of 1845. In Exiles by Patrick Hennessy we see a man stripped
to the waist, his back to the viewer, as he looks out over the shoreline unsure of the future.
All of the paintings in this exhibition will give us a keen insight into many facets of European
migration and its effects on many peoples. The exhibition is interactive and viewers are asked
to contact the Centre for migration studies at the Folk Park with questions, comments and
suggestions for further images. The comparative dimension of this virtual exhibition makes it
a particularly valuable resource for this ODL project. An objective of the consortium's work
was to ensure that the Irish, Norwegian and Portuguese experiences of migration were
represented as fully as possible in the exhibition in order that they might be made use of
particularly by the participating schools.
3. The story of the emigrant
On October 9th The Norwegian-American Collection at the National Library, Oslo Division
and the Norwegian Emigrant Museum at Hamar launched the website "The Promise of
America" which contains a bibliographical database with references to books, extracts of
books and articles, America letters as well as photos, films and videos on emigration. It also
has a web based exhibition called The History of the Emigrant, which is only available in
Norwegian. The exhibit "Emigrantens historie" presents the story of young girl on her way
from the inland to the capital of Norway, across the North Sea to England and further across
the Atlantic ocean to New York. It is a travelling exhibition that will be presented to 178
libraries scattered through the whole of the country.

4. FINDINGS
The three exhibitions differ highly in form and presentation, and will therefore attract various
user groups. The Irish "The Art of the Emigration" exhibit have mainly images from Ireland,
but it invites all European countries to complement it with images from their own countries.
The Norwegian Emigrant Museum hosts a fine collection of various images, which have been
added to this exhibit. This work is going on at the present.
"People on the Move" exhibit is a documentation exhibit, trying to explain the underlying
causes of emigration, as well as the emigrants assimilation process in America. It highly
stresses the transportation revolution on both continents making mass emigration possible.
Since approximately one quarter of all immigrants to the United States returned to their
homeland, it looks at the return migration and what impact that had on the country they
returned to. It also focuses on Norway today, as a nation experiencing immigration from the
many nations, particularly from Third World, and, thus, becoming a multicultural society.
In order to understand the significance of these three virtual exhibitions in relation to each
other and their potential for being used as resources for comparative study, including their
relationship to the complementary work being done on the translation of classic emigration
texts in Portugal, it is necessary set them more fully in the context of the institutions which
support them.

4.1 The Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park
Key aspects of this Centre are:

A Research Library
An emigration database
MA in Irish Migration Studies
Internatinal conferences on themes of migration
Conestoga - the Folk Park Newzletter
Publications
The Centre supports the outdoor museum of the Ulster-American Folk Park in its main
activites by providing reference resources for the study of the history of both the United
States and Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries and the link between the two.
The Research Library
The Research Library at the Centre for Migration Studies comprises a specialist collection of
printed material and an
Emigration Database.
The collection reflects the main interests of the museum:
* Migration History
* History of Ireland and America in the 18th and 19th Centuries
* Life in both countries
* Agriculture, Industry and Crafts
* Social Customs and Religion
* Biographies and Autobiographies
* Native Americans
Types of material include books, periodicals, maps, micro-forms and audiovisual materials.
One particular strength of the collection is the on-going purchase of American publications
both old and new. The Library is funded by the Northern Ireland Education and Library
Boards and administered by the Western Education and Library Board on their behalf.
Scholars, students and the general public are welcome and encouraged to avail of its services.
Emigration Database
The Emigration Database is a computerised collection of primary source documents on Irish
emigration to North America (USA & Canada) in the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains a
variety of original material including emigrant letters, newspaper articles, shipping
advertisements, passenger lists, official government reports, family papers and extracts from
books and periodicals. The project is on-going with documents being added on a regular
basis. It is a vital research resource for historians, teachers, students and genealogists with an
interest in Irish-America.
The Database can be accessed in the Library of the Centre for Emigration Studies at the
Ulster American Folk Park and in the Local Studies Departments of the Education and
Library Boards in Armagh, Ballymena, Ballynahinch, Belfast, Enniskillen, Londonderry and
Omagh.

4.2 The Norwegian Emigration Center

The Norwegian Emigration Center in Stavanger holds probably the largest collections of
genealogical sources in Norway. The sources contain

* parish registers from 1640

* census returns 1801, 1865, 1875, 1900
* emigration lists from all Norwegian ports from 1867 - 1927
* International Genealogical Indexes
* G. Naeseth s Norwegian Immigrants to the United States Vol. 1-2 (1825 - 1846)
It also contains a comprehensive library on emigration literature and local history books.

4.3 The Digital Archive (Digitalarkivet)

Much of the information is still only available on microfilm and paper extracts, but thanks to
the Norwegian Digital Archives, a division of the National Archives of Norway, more than
1400 databases with almost 8 million records are now at hand on the web free of charge. All
in all, these databases enable people to gather substantial information on history in general, as
well as family history and emigration history. Being a "national" genealogical center,
Norwegian Emigration Center, assists people of Norwegian ancestry to trace their family
histories.
The Digital Archives also include the National Emigration Database that was officially
presented on the web July 4th. A CD - ROM version of the emigration database was first
presented at the exhibit Norwegians in New York 1825 - 2000. Builders of City, Community
and Culture in New York, which was opened by the Norwegian King on April 26th, 2000 at
Ellis Island. The database was also presented to a European audience at the international
conference People on the Move organized by the Norwegian Emigration Center in
cooperation with the Stavanger University College in May 2000. Participants of the ODL project took part in the conference.
The Emigration Database contains the names and data - birthplace, age, occupation, agents,
steamship company, names of the ship and destination - of more than 700,000 Norwegian
emigrants. Since the launching on July 4th, the web site has been "visited" by close to
700,000 people - 40 percent of them from the U.S. That is about 100,000 hits per month.
Half of the registration of the database was accomplished by the Norwegian Emigration
Center in the years 1989 - 1993. It involved more than 40 people, and was a result of a
cooperation between the Emigration Center and the local Employment Exchange Office. In
1998 the Digital Archives and the Emigration Center signed an agreement in order to finalize
the registration within July 4th 2000. Work groups situated at the State Archives in Bergen
and Stavanger, supervised by state archivist Yngve Nedreb and Assistant Professor Jan
Oldervoll at Bergen University, completed the computerization in close co-operation with the
Norwegian Emigration Center.

4.4 The Promise of America

On October 9th The Norwegian-American Collection at the National Library, Oslo Division
and the Norwegian Emigrant Museum at Hamar launched the website "The Promise of
America" which contains a bibliographical database with references to books, extracts of
books and articles, America letters as well as photos, films and videos on emigration. All

documents can be used free of charge in the reading room of the library. Documents in
duplicate in the collection as well as microfilms of newspapers may be borrowed in Oslo or
through inter-library loan. A copy service is available for a fee. The library does not carry out
extended genealogical research. Acquisitions catalogued from 1990 are listed in the national
on-line catalogue BIBSYS . The library has also made available the Thor M. Andersen
Bibliography (TMA) which gives references to more than 50000 documents, periodical and
newspaper articles by or about Norwegian-Americans, together with biographical information
on the authors.
Both the Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park and the Norwegian
Emigrant Centre are members of the Association of European Migration Institutions. In order
to understand the significance of this association for the collection of materials needed to
support comparative study and for the dissemination of the three virtual exhibtions, it is
necessary to give a fuller context to the relationship between the two Centres and the
Association.

4.5 AEMI - The Association of European Migration Institutions.

The Association of European Migration Institutions was established in 1992 as a result of a
collaboration between emigration institutions in the Nordic Countries, Germany and England.
At a meeting at the Norwegian Emigration Center in 1990 hosted by the City of Stavanger,
representatives from The Danish Emigrant Archives, The Emigrant Institue of Vaxj,
Institute of Migration in Finland, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, The German
Emigration Museum and The Norwegian Emigration Center decided to broaden the scope
and open up for a pan-Europaan association "whose field of interest concern migration,
research and exhibitions portraying emigration, and who seek to promote understanding of
common goals".
AEMI is today an organisation counting 29 members representing 18 countries, including the
island of land and San Marino in Italy. Its present, a recently re-elected president, is director
Knut Djupedal at the Norwegian Emigrant Museum. The secretariat was until recently
situated at the Danish Emigrant Archives, lead by Henning Bender, but has now moved to the
newly established Research Center of Bornholm, headed by Henning Bender.

4.6 The Centre for the Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations, Lisbon
The main project of the Centre for the Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations in
Lisbon is concerned with making classic texts on Portuguese emigation available in English
translation on the project website as follows:
A - On emigration
a.1. Classics on emigration History:
1 - SERRO, Joel, Emigrao Portuguesa. Sondagem Histrica, Lisboa,
Livros Horizonte, 1972, (Coleco Horizonte,12)
2 - GODINHO, Vitorino de Magalhes, " Lmigration Portugaise du XV
Sicle nos Jours: Histoire dune Constante Structurale", in Conjuncture
conomique et Structures Sociales, Paris, The Hague Mouton, 1974

a.2. Literary works:

3 - CASTRO, Ferreira de, Emigrantes, Lisboa, Guimares Editores Ltda,
23 Edio, 1988
4 - MIGUIS, Rodrigues, Proibido Apontar
a.3. On portuguese emigration to France:
5 - ROCHA-TRINDADE, Maria Beatriz, Immigrs Portugais , Lisboa,
Instituto Superior de Cincias Sociais e Polticas,1973
a.4. On portuguese emigration to Canada:
6 - OLIVEIRA, Armando, Mito e Realidade na Emigrao Aoreana ,
Lisboa, Instituto Superior de Cincias Sociais e Polticas,1996
7 - NOIVO, Edite, Famlias Emigrantes
8 - ANDERSON, Grace, Networks of Contact:the Portugueses and
Toronto, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, 1974
a.5. On the United States:
9 - PAP, Leo, Os portugueses na Amrica
10 - DIAS, Mayonne, Aoreanos na Califrnia
B - On imigration
b.1. General Characterization:
11 - ESTEVES, Maria do Cu (org.), Portugal Pas de Imigrao,
Lisboa, Instituto de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento, 1991 (Cadernos I
E D; 22)
These works are presented with a scholarly introduction and analysis of how the migration
phenomenon has been studied in Portugal.

5. DISCUSSION
The two Norwegian digital archives and the Northern Ireland archive are available to the
public, free of charge, and can therefore be used conveniently by all partners involved since
links are provided through the project web-site. The Northern Ireland database has been
designed to be easily accessible to the first-time user. The main focus on visual images gives
immediate access, regardless of the language skills of the viewer. However, the Norwegian
databases are not so easily accessible to non-skilled persons, but they give a unique
possibility to explore the emigrant history as well as the contemporary history of the
emigration period. Used in combination with sources available through the AEMI - the
Association of European Migration Institutions, the user, being a student or a scholar, will
have access to sources all over the world.
In the course of the project, the members of the archives/research centres consortium
developed a better understanding of each other's work in progress. This was both exciting and
frustrating. It was exciting in that there was a growing sense of the potential for interaction
between the various national projects, which came about through the various presentations
made at project meetings, but frustrating in that the work was not complete or at a stage
where fruitful inter-connections could be developed. For example, the Art of European
Migration and the Promise of America virtual exhibitions were not launched until the
summer of 2000 and People on the Move not until November. It became clear that it is not
sufficient to simply make such materials available on the Internet if best use is to be made of
them by schoolchildren. In-service training is needed to make teachers aware of the potential
use of these materials whose sheer volume can be daunting. Both expertise and enthusiasm
needs to be communicated to teachers by the archivists and researchers responsible for
making these materials available.
The theoretical approach of this project was a good one in that members of the
archives/research centres consortium would have welcomed more approaches from teachers
and indeed students for help with using the resources and interpreting them but experience
demonstrated the need for the research centres to be more pro-active in this respect. In order
to do that there would first have needed to have been closer working between centres on
potential interconnections. Awareness of this potential did emerge eventually but towards the
end of the project by which time it was too late to significantly stimulate or influence work
being done in the classroom. In short a problem was identified with regard to readiness on the
part of the archives/research centres at the beginning of the project. Ideally, the national
projects which were in progress for the duration of the project should have been completed
before the commencement of the development of teaching materials, or at least have been
available for the provision of in-service training for project teachers in their use at the
beginning of Year 2 of the project. The vital connection between archivists/researchers and
teachers was not really made until the Stavanger meeting of May in Year 2 and even then it
was not possible to give effective training in the use of the resources because the main effort
of the archivists/researchers was going into the completion of the various projects.
Once the virtual exhibitions were launched in the summer of Year 2 it was possible to take
stock and consider more carefully the potential for using the resources to support distance
learning within a comparative framework. It became evident that there is great potential in
using pictures or drawings or photographs of people engaged in the process of migration as
initial stimulus material for students, especially since they can transcend barriers of language
and literacy skills. The Art of European Migration Virtual Exhibition is particularly well-

suited to the aims of the project since it is deliberately designed to support comparative study
by allowing any two images to be viewed side by side. The project gave a special impetus to
collecting Portuguese and Norwegian images to complement the Irish images already
collected. Unfortunately, these images were accessible only at a stage in the project when it
was too late to incorporate them to best effect into the work going on in the classrooms.
While visual images provide a good starting point for migration studies they cannot, of
course, be sufficient on their own but need to be complemented by relevant textual material.
It is worthwhile noting that the relationship between text and visual image is usually
reversed, images being seen as of secondary importance to written sources. The
historiography of migration studies generally has been poorer as a result. More recently there
has been a recognition of the potential of paintings, drawing and 'art' photographs as
'documents' of importance for the social historian (as distinct from the art historian) in their
own right. These images remain an under-exploited resource in migration studies at all levels.
The Promise of America virtual exhibition contains both textual materials and visual images.
There are clear connections to be made with the Art of European Migration virtual exhibition
which has space to accommodate all the Norwegian images and the facility to create links to
the Promise of America web-site wherever appropriate. Similarly, connections can be made
between the Art of European Migration virtual exhibition and the text materials collected and
presented by the Centre for the Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations in Lisbon by
making links with the Portuguese images as appropriate.
Further linkages can be made between the images and texts and archives containing family
history information. Study of images showing people engaged in the process of migration
(departure, arrival and return) beg questions about their identity. What information can be
known about these people - their names, dates of birth, marriage and death, occupations,
destinations, and similar information about their relations? Just as students are encouraged to
consider this type of information about themselves and their own families, they can be
encouraged to consider what is known about the many others. This information can be at the
level of the individual or aggregated up to the level of the local neighbourhood, region or
nation. This approach through family history appears to be a key way of motivating students
to investigate more deeply in migration studies. From a base of interest in the migration story
of their own family and neighbourhood their interest can be extended to the bigger picture of
migration at the national and international level, and across time. This is where comparative
studies became particularly valuable. Having become 'expert' in the migration experience of
their own group, students in the partner countries have a strong motivation for exchanging
information with each other in order to arrive at a more accurate assessment of the extent to
which the migration experience of their group was distinctive or common.
Awareness of the richness of the Promise of America virtual exhibition in its presentation of
both textual and visual material promoted further thinking about how to develop the Art of
European Migration virtual exhibition. In particular questions were raised about how the Irish
Emigration Database of text primary sources might be integrated into the work of the project.
It was decided as a first step to make it available to the other project partners and project
schools through the Internet because of its distinctive capability of free-text retrieval. By
searching on key terms identified in relation to a particular image (such as 'ticket', 'luggage',
'memento', 'embrace', 'tears', 'hunger', 'fever'), primary source documents (such as passenger
lists, emigrant letters and journals, newspaper reports) might be quickly identified as
particularly relevant for elucidating the scene depicted by the image. The point needs

emphasizing that it is not sufficient simply to make such a search facility available and then
trust that teachers and students will discover its usefulness without encouragement and
training to do so. It was decided that investing in the equipment and consultancy that would
be necessary to make the Irish Emigration Database accessible via the Internet would be the
most effective way of ensuring a lasting contribution from Northern Ireland to the project.
Even though this facility was only going to be available right at the end of the project it was
clear that the Northern Ireland partners were committed to continuing their work beyond the
formal life of the project and were interested in particular in accessing this Database remotely
in order to enhance their work with documents relevant to their locality.
Furthermore it became clear that it would be desirable to integrate all types of historical
evidence in project work by students, not just pictures and written texts. In particular this
would mean integrating 'sound' evidence in the form of oral history. This could come from
the performance of song or poetry related to the theme of migration or from the spontaneous
spoken word delivered in the context of an oral history interview. The Ellis Island Museum,
New York, for example already has a substantial oral history archive relating to virtually all
the ethnic groups of Europe consisting of interviews with individuals who passed through
Ellis Island. These interviews are rich in information about the conditions in Europe which
resulted in emigration. There are other oral history projects on the theme of European
migration in progress, notably 'Breaking the Silence', which is a project of the Irish Centre for
Migration Studies at University College, Cork which is focused on the effects of emigration
on those left behind at home in the 1940s and 1950s. Given the emphasis given in our ODL
project to investigating the contemporary migration experience of the students involved, the
potential for making use of the material collected by this and other similar projects is great.
The use of and integrated 'multi-media' approach to different types of evidence - visual,
textual and audio - through which the theme of migration can be explored would result in a
richer ODL experience for the students involved.

6. CONCLUSION
If, as we believe, the project objective of promoting understanding of the extent to which the
migration experience of different ethnic groups in Europe was a common European
experience or one that was distinctive to particular groups, is of major importance to the
negotiating of identities in a Europe of the Regions, then archives and research centres
concerned with migration studies need to consider more closely the challenge which this
poses to them. The experience of this project confirmed the strong impression which the
participating archives/research centres had initially of the potential for closer collaboration.
That potential can best be realized in the context of an agreed framework for comparative
studies. The Art of European Migration virtual exhibition has the potential to provide such a
framework. It is capable of containing and providing access to all the images that can be
identified through the collaboration of relevant archives that represent the migration
experience of all the ethnic groups of Europe. Such a database of course depends on the
collaboration of other archives which will continue to present their particular materials, very
often focused on a particular ethnic group, as in the case of The Promise of America.
Value is added to separate ethnically-based collections by bringing together from them for
comparative study images of different ethnic groups that are related either thematically or
chronologically. Thanks to the flexibility of the Internet links can be made that allow the
viewer to pursue the study of a particular image through relevant textual and audio material.

This potential may perhaps be best exploited through the development of an inter-active CD
Rom, designed specifically for use in project classrooms, that would give examples of
comparative study based on sets of images draw from collections of Irish, Norwegian and
Portuguese images, and that would be linked to relevant primary source text materials and
oral history interviews, together with performances of songs and poems related to the theme
of migration. An important area for further consideration is the potential for further
collaboration with archives in North America. Each of archives involved in the project
strengthened its collections through collaboration with North American archives, the National
Archives in Washington, the Ellis Island Museum, the Balch Institute in Philadelphia and the
Immigration History Research Center in Minneapolis. Since Portuguese, Norwegian and Irish
emigrants often ended up living together in North America, a logical extension of this project
would be to develop partnerships with other archives/research centres and schools in order to
produce teaching materials that would be of collective interest and benefit.
Ideally, the development of such a teaching resource, depending initially on the identification
of suitable material for inclusion by the archives and research centres, would have been an
outcome of this project. A major outcome of the project, so far as the archives/research
centres consortium was concerned was the identification of such a potential. Awareness of
what might be done developed as the partners achieved a fuller understanding of the nature of
each other's work in progress. What has been largely lacking in migration studies so far has
been a thorough-going comparative approach. While committed to making their resources as
widely available as possible, nationally and internationally, this project obliged the
participating archives/research centres to think much harder about the extent to which there
was a comparative dimension to their work and it raised their awareness of the richness and
complexity of the resources which they are responsible for collecting, preserving, and
presenting to the public. Simple questions which are accessible and relevant to primary
school students such as 'was our experience of migration in our area unique?' are capable of
being investigated and answered at increasing levels of sophistication right up to postgraduate
research level. What the experience of involvement in this project makes clear to the
participating archives/research centres is that it is not enough to be reactive and respond to
requests for assistance in making use of or interpreting the resources of which they have
custody. They need to be proactive in raising awareness of the richness and complexity of the
resources for migration studies and in demonstrating how its potential for comparative study
might be realized.
This was an extremely ambitious project and in retrospect the participating archives/research
centres may have overestimated their state of readiness for stimulating and supporting the
teachers and students in the participating schools. However the archives/research centres are
agreed that their engagement in the project has brought lasting benefits. All three virtual
exhibitions are now accessible on the Internet. Good personal relations have been developed
between the institutions which share a long-term commitment to improving public access to
their collections and supporting their use, especially by school students. Good relations have
also been established with the network of participating schools which evince a strong interest
in continuing their work on the theme of migration beyond the life of the project. In short, the
archives/research centres have established a relationship with the network of project schools
which is set to develop and which provides a model for extending their work with schools
both nationally and internationally. A distinctive feature of the virtual exhibitions is the
manner in which they encourage inter-activity between users of the exhibitions and their
curators. We anticipate a continuing demand from schools for support in their work on the
theme of migration which has proved so productive a way of coming to terms with what it

means to have an ethnic or national or European identity in a rapidly globalising world. The
participating archives/research centres are heartened they have a clear sense of the value of
the work achieved and of the direction in which to develop it further beyond the life of this
project.
THE WAY AHEAD
This conclusion points the need for a new project which would be focused on the objective of
producing teaching materials that would demonstrate the richness and complexity of
resources relating to migration studies and their potential for comparative study. These
materials should be in the form of an inter-active, multi-media CD Rom. The basic
framework of the Art of European Migration, which arranges primary source material
according to theme (Departure, Arrival, Return) and time period (Sail, Steam and Air) could
be adopted. A set of images for each theme and time period illustrating the migration
experience of each of the ethnic groups (Norwegian, Portuguese, Irish) could be selected.
Primary and secondary source text materials relevant to each image could be selected and
also, where possible, extracts from oral history interviews. This material could then be
presented to the user integrated in a multi-media presentation. Links would be available to
take the user to the archive or library holding the original 'document'. 'Hot-spots' in the image
and texts would prompt the user with stimulus questions and offer some information that
would aid, but not pre-empt, interpretation. Two or three images could be presented side by
side for comparative study and evaluation. A facility would be available for the users to
record their answers in a systematic way that would allow individual answers to be
exchanged electronically with partners elsewhere for them to be systematically compared.
The provision of a set of images for comparison would be intended to be indicative rather
than prescriptive. A facility would also be provided for teachers and students to show
initiative by modifying the teaching and learning resource by importing other 'documents' of
image sound and text from the databases of the participating archives which they had
discovered through their own research and selected to be of particular interest and value.
In this way participating students and their teachers would be supported by a proactive
approach on the part of the archives/research centres. They would not be left with the burden
of designing teaching and learning materials more or less from scratch with the responsibility
of taking the initiative with the archives/research centres. Paradoxically, a more systematic
approach to comparative study of this kind is likely to result in a much more productive use
of the resources of the archives/research centres and of the distance learning technology
which gives access to those resources and enables the fruits of research in them to be
communicated.

7. PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS IN THE MINERVA PROJECT

ODL-Migration: Affirming Diversity Through Migration (Minerva)
56073-CP-2-98-1-PT-ODL-ODL
Project period 1998-2000. Supported by EU (Socrates/Minerva). Use of internet, ODL
(Open Distance Learning) in teaching migration (history) studies. Use of ICT in digitising
migration history data/material. Coordinating institution: CEMRI/Universidade Aberterta.
CEMRI (the Centre for the Study of Migration and Intercultural relations). Northern-Ireland:
Centre for Migraton Studies/Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh. Norway: Stavanger
University College, Inst. for History and Philosophy.
Universidade Aberta & CEMRI (Center for Migratory Studies and Intercultural Relations,
Lisboa
Escola Basica Intergrada/S das Lajes do Pico, Portugal
Escola Secundaria de Sebastiao e Silva, Oeiras, Portugal
Escola Superior de Educacao Joao de Deus, Lisboa, Portugal
Jardin Escola Joao de Deus, Faro, Portugal
Stavanger University College, Norway
Norwegian Emigration Centre, Norway
Karmy Pedagogiske Senter, Kopervik, Norway
Byfjord skole, Stavanger, Norway
Skudenes ungdomsskole, Norway
Stangeland ungdomsskole, Norway
Frakkagjerd skole, Frdesfjorden, Norway
Sandnes Upper Secondary School, Sandnes, Norway
Ulster American Folk Park and Centre for Irish Migration Studies, Omagh, N. - Irland
Omagh Intergrated School, Tyrone, Northern Ireland
St. John's Primary School, Derry, Northern Ireland
St. Mary's College, Derry city, Northern Ireland