ABSTRACT
Migration reflected the complexity of life influenced by political events, military campaigns, religious discrimination, economic circumstances, social organization and demographic characteristics while population movements also exhibited regional variations and fluctuations. This chapter focuses on key developments in the migration history of East Central Europe: from “mixing” of various ethno-linguistic and religious communities in the period of empires to “unmixing” after the triumph of the nation-state; and from Cold War travel restrictions to renewed economic and ethnic migrations after the collapse of communism. While the causes, nature, and extent of population movements varied, similar labor and seasonal migration patterns emerged while state policies involving immigration, emigration, and forced migration likewise developed along parallel lines. Demography influenced migration as population pressures provided their own spur to relocation. Migration movements and population shifts in East Central Europe have been covered extensively in the historiography of the region, especially since the 1970s when more scholars started paying attention to demographic processes and diasporic linkages.
