Imagined Homes.

Imagined Homes

Hans Werner

University of Manitoba Press

301 St. John's College, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3T 2M5

9780887557019, $29.95 www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress 1-800-565-9523

While immigration is usually considered to be moving from a country of origin to a foreign nation, it can also refer to ethnic populations returning from their present country to the one from which their ancestors had originated in an earlier migration. Such was the case for groups of ethnic Germans located within the borders of the Soviet Union who, during the years of the Cold War, migrated out of the Soviet Union, some to Canada during the late 1940s and early 1950s, some to West Germany during the early 1970s. This is the subject of a seminal study by academician Hans Werner (Professor of History, University of Winnipeg) who found that those ethnic Germans settling in Winnipeg, Canada expected to have to learn a new language, adjust to different customs, and generally assimilate into an society and culture unlike that with which they had drown up. Professor Werner then contrasts this group's expectations and experiences with those of the later group of ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union who settled in Bielefeld, Germany, thinking that they were essentially 'coming home' to a culture, language, and society within which they would quickly and easily assimilate. Drawing upon illustrative oral accounts and writings from members of each of these groups of emigres, "Imagined Homes: Soviet German Immigrants In Two Cities" is a seminal sociological study employing a cross-cultural comparative framework that also encompasses the factors of how the receiving societies viewed the new arrivals, the impact of secularization, evolving sexual mores, and media revolutions influenced the perceptions of all sectors of the receiving communities, and how these factors impacted the two diverse immigrant experiences. A superbly crafted and deftly presented study, "Imagined Homes" is especially recommended reading for students of 20th Canadian History, 20th Century German History, and Immigration Studies, as well as a valued addition to academic library 20th Century Sociological Studies reference collections.