Seminar "Migration studies". Thom Loyd "From Local Connections to Global Networks: African students in the Soviet Union, Europe, and the World, 1960-1976"

On November27, 2018 was held a session of the regular seminar "Migration studies" together with School+ organized by the Higher School of Economics Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs and the Institute of Social Policy. Thom Loyd, Georgetown University, presented his recent research "From Local Connections to Global Networks: African students in the Soviet Union, Europe, and the World, 1960-1976". 

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In this paper, I will focus on the movement of African students to the Soviet Union in a global context. Using documents published by the Tanzanian government yearly between 1960 and 1970, I map the place of the Soviet Union within the global movement of Tanzanian students; this focus helps us understand not just on the growth of the African presence within Soviet universities, but how these numbers compare worldwide. Using records in Russia and Ukraine, I will then look at the movement of Africans between the Eastern bloc and the West, and within the Soviet Union itself. Freedom of movement distinguished visiting students from Soviet citizens, and understanding the African experience illuminates the ways in which the African presence in Europe contributed to overcoming the Cold War division between East and West.