ABSTRACT
The cultural heritage of refugees and immigrants makes contributions to their lives in multiple ways. Cultural heritage enables displaced communities to maintain their relations with present and future generations of their homeland, even though they do not live there anymore. One clearly important question in the management of cultural heritage of all kinds is how immigrant communities can be enabled to relate to the cultural heritage of the receiving country. Europe is experiencing an unprecedented wave of migration from the strife-torn countries of the Near- and Middle-East, especially Afghanistan. While most of these migrants are asylum-seekers desiring to be accepted as refugees in ‘safe’ countries, recent years have seen an increase worldwide in the phenomenon of economic migration and this affects all continents. Attitudes to mass migration in the receiving countries have likewise varied, as much in the academic community as in the wider population. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
