She applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Uprooted: How post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe, and reported the following:
Page 99 of Uprooted discusses associational life in West German communities that received Germans expelled from Central and Eastern Europe after WWII. Simply put, associational networks did not cross group boundaries. The locals found numerous ways to exclude expellees from their associations, including rules based on duration of residency, property ownership, and religious affiliation. For example, a local rifle association in Westphalia only accepted Catholics and stipulated that its chairman be a long-time resident. Page 99 illustrates the effect this had on the expellees:Visit Volha Charnysh's website.Expellees dealt with exclusion not only by retreating into the private sphere but also by founding their own associations and interest groups […] A survey conducted in the early 1950s indicates that 20 percent of expellees participated in clubs alongside natives; 40 percent were active in expellee organizations; and the remaining 40 percent were entirely isolated (Wurzbacher 1954, 146).Page 99 successfully conveys the first part of my book’s argument: rearranging ethnically homogeneous populations in space creates new cleavages based on migration status and region of origin. Germans who did not experience uprooting resented having to accommodate their expelled compatriots. They closed their ranks to defend access to jobs and housing. Expellees likewise stuck together, organizing around their shared experience of forced migration and economic hardship.
Unfortunately, readers who stop at page 99 would miss out on the book’s central message: Forced migration negatively impacts societal cohesion in the short term but ultimately creates opportunities to build stronger states and more prosperous economies. By engendering new societal divisions and eroding cooperation needed for public goods provision, the arrival of forced migrants also creates a window of opportunity for strengthening the state. Uprooted heterogeneous societies have more to gain from the state’s presence and are also less able to resist the expansion of state authority. As governments invest more resources into these communities, they build greater institutional capacity. This enhanced state capacity, combined with the skills migrants bring from their diverse places of origin, can improve economic performance in the long run.
My book draws on qualitative and quantitative evidence from Poland – whose borders were moved 200 km west in 1945, uprooting millions of Poles and Germans – and West Germany – which received German expellees from Poland and other countries. Within-country analysis maximizes internal validity, while cross-country comparisons support the generalizability of my conclusions.
I do hope page 99 inspires readers to delve deeper into Uprooted!
--Marshal Zeringue