Migration is a constituent part of human experience – beginning with the first nomad cultures and continuing until today and into the future when human beings will eventually leave our planet to visit outer space. To migrate to another place is, in principle, an individual choice based on various push and pull factors. However this choice may be constrained severely by one specific kind of influence so that the consequences of a decision become almost totally inevitable: for example the book of Genesis provides us with the story of Adam and Eve. In their sum, individual acts become a collective action. In a certain country at a certain time, conditions may be such that action is directed more towards emigration or more towards immigration. The direction and extent of this collective action affects the whole fabric of a society and its politicaladministrative sub-system. The system as a whole has a wide variety of possibilities to respond to that stimulus, and it may, in its turn, influence – to some extent, at least – the individual decisions forming the collective action. If this happens in a conscious and deliberate process, a phase of collective reflection and discussion precedes the political-administrative sub-system's reaction. We then encounter a complex and everchanging system of influences and counter-influences by individuals as well as by the social and political sub-system on which mankind's experience with migration is dependent. “Migration matters”

Koser, Khalid: International Migration. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2007, esp. p. 1–15 (“Why migration matters”).

With the notion of change and even more with that of changeability in human issues, history and historians provides a particular perspective. Their description, analysis, and pondering of the past contribute to enlarging the possible number of cases that may be studied by those responsible for the future; notably to widen the scope of experiences from the present into the past and to enrich the empirical basis about mankind's actions and their consequences.

That is what the members of the IIAS/IISA Working Group on Administrative History have once again tried to do in their tenth volume. The Group's members are ‘specialists’ in their country, and as such they have prepared national reports. On the other hand, they are also ‘generalists’ who followed guidelines which were developed by the Group's Rapporteur General and enriched by in-depth discussions of all members of the Group. This method of work is part of the Group's experience and complements the ‘comparison cycle’: after a common discussion of the first version of the guidelines by all the generalists in the Group, each member prepares a national report. The Group then discusses the national reports, often resulting in ideas for a comparative conclusion. In a second and final meeting the conclusion will be discussed and finalised. The Group will then decide on the choice of its next topic. Although this book may be the result of only two intensive one-day meetings, it is also the outcome of at least two years of focussed attention and dedicated work.

So I feel grateful to the many contributors – first of all to our Rapporteur Général and editor of this tenth volume in our series, Peri Arnold, who set us a clear path and accomplished a great deal of valuable work in the common interest. In the beginning, Vida Azimi had joined him in this task providing many ideas and support, despite serious personal problems that eventually prevented her from taking part as she had wished. I should also like to extend my thanks to the members of our Group who succeeded in producing a remarkable analysis of fundamental human experiences, hopes, and fears connected with migration, from the perspective of a collective attempt to provide a certain direction. And last but not least I feel grateful to the IIAS/IISA for publishing this book in its distinguished series, and especially to Rolet Loretan, its Director General, who has continuously encouraged our work of comparative reflection about the past with respect to the future. A special thanks to Fabienne Maron, who coordinated our meetings in Paris / France in 2008 and at Leiden / Netherlands in 2009 and most efficiently helped us with our project.

I hope that this book about the past will find attentive readers who will draw their own conclusions with a view to discussing and shaping the future.

Stefan Fisch,

German University of Administrative Sciences, Deutsche Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer, Germany