Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
October 2019
Portfolio around the year 2016
On October 7, it is World Architecture Day. The theme for 2019 ‘Architecture … housing for all’ addresses questions of sustainable, social, and ecological urban development. World Architecture Day has been celebrated since 1985 and was moved in 1996 from the first Monday in July to the first Monday in October to coincide with World Habitat Day. This day focuses on the right to housing and accommodation, as well as our collective and societal responsibility for shaping residential areas.
Historical Context
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. And cities will continue to grow in the future. By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to reside in urban areas. This creates both opportunities and challenges for global movements.
Migration and mobility have been crucial for the development of cities. The emergence of new job markets, for example through industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries, led to migrations from regional-rural and international areas to urban centers. Urban contexts today offer significantly broader job market opportunities for various skills and qualifications than rural areas.
In media and political discussions, cities in immigration societies are often problematized. Terms like ‘parallel society’ or ‘ghettoization’ are frequently used. Many cultural and social scientists criticize this form of discourse, which continues to argue with cultural difference, thereby ethnicizing and ignoring issues like social inequalities or the surveillance of mobility.
Short Biography Martina Filligoi
‘I thought to myself: If I don’t go now, I will never do it.’
Martina Filligoi was born in 1988 in Udine, in northeastern Italy. She studied architecture in Venice and Lisbon, lived in Berlin for six months due to an internship, and later worked in Milan. Due to the poor situation of the Italian job market for architects, she decided to seek employment abroad. She traveled with a one-way ticket to Hamburg, where she had acquaintances, and set a deadline for herself: “If I hadn’t found a job within three months, I would have returned and retrained in Italy.” However, Martina Filligoi secured a position within the first month and has been working in an architecture and design office in Hamburg since 2017.
Significance of the object
The architect Martina Filligoi packed her portfolio first in her suitcase. It was meant to help her during the three-month application phase in Hamburg – and also determine whether she would move back to Italy. Martina Filligoi recalls the important phase of assembling it:
“It took a long time for me to finish it. It was supposed to evoke emotions in those who would see it, and be appropriate for potential employers. At the same time, it was a process where I reflected a lot on my past as an architecture student and architect.”
Do you also …
… have a story of migration or immigration from your family to share and wish to pass it along with the corresponding objects and documents to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau at the phone number 0471 / 90 22 0 – 0 or via email at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de
Archive: Previous Objects of the Month
Show all objectsDo You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de