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This introductory chapter sketches out the context of receiving European emigrés at NSSR and Colmex during the 1930s. It analyses how European scientists managed their forced migration and exile existence in New York and Mexico City between the poles of assimilating, return orientation and transnational strategies. It also asks for the impact of their theories and academic work on the intellectual live in their regions of arrival and perhaps later in their countries of departure. The chapter also deals with the institutional context and interests: While the exodus was a challenge and drama for the individual forced migrants, it was considered an opportunity and a benefit for the receiving organizations. The chapter comments on the concepts of transnational migration and travelling theories. While migration and exile migration were predominantly analyzed in terms of either emigration and assimilation or Diaspora-suffering and return orientation, the transnationalizm approach leaves room for a more differentiated analysis and understanding of refugees multiple belongings. The focus on travelling theories holds that scientific theories are always intertwined with the social, cultural, political and economic context. If theories which originated in one specific societal context, by means of textbooks, persons or international scientific journals, "travel" to another societal context, they will necessarily be changed, adapted and assimilated. And the other way around: If the scientists who produce those theories shift from one socio-cultural space to another, this will probably alter their theory production. Especially in social sciences and the humanities, the specific themes to investigate, the theoretical framing and the methods are strongly determined by societal contexts. This is explicitly relevant for emigrés.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-99265-5_1

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