Elysia Louise Heitmar
Thesis Title: Refugee Voices: Exploring the Life Stories of 1956 Hungarian Refugees in Britain.
The 1956 Hungarian refugee crisis was pivotal to the emergence of new regimes of migrant management and the architecture of international aid. Following the explosive events of autumn 1956, an estimated 200,000 Hungarian nationals fled their country. Of these, approximately 21,000 had arrived in the UK by the summer of 1957, of whom 14,312 remained permanently. This thesis listens to the voices of the Hungarian refugees who were resettled in Britain, as a means to contribute to a better understanding of the lived experiences of contemporary asylum-seekers and immigrants: how they understand loss of homeland, mobility and displacement, and how they imagine and create new forms of belonging, identity and community in their host societies.
Within the field of refugee studies there has been increased interest in relocating refugee voices to the centre of historical analysis, highlighting how their life stories are shaped by wider social, cultural and administrative contexts. Building on this trend, and by applying oral history methodologies combined with analysis of archival material, this thesis will explore how the Hungarian refugees – especially those who came as children - navigated, interpreted and communicated their experiences of flight and resettlement in a new country, with all the material, social and cultural challenges that this entailed in the short and longer-term. As such, it will contribute to a better understanding of twentieth-century East European experiences of displacement and resettlement, as well as offering general insights into administrative and humanitarian responses to refugee crises.
Biography
Elysia Louise Heitmar is an ESRC-funded 1 + 3 student at the University of Nottingham on the Area Studies pathway. Elysia completed both her undergraduate degree in Modern Politics and History and MA in History at the University of Manchester, where she first began to explore the value of applying oral history methodologies to the 1956 Hungarian Refugee Crisis. Alongside her primary studies, she is especially interested in social history, historical memory and commemoration in contemporary Europe.
Memberships
Royal Historical Society, Oral History Society
Area Studies
University of Nottingham
2023-24 Cohort 1+3
www.linkedin.com/in/elysia-louise-heitmar
Supervisory team
Dr Nick Baron
Professor Sarah Badcock