Book explores Windsor German immigrant experience

Coming to a new country is risky business, says Norbert Hartmann.

“Immigrants have to deal with uncertainty and the risk of not being able to rebuild a satisfactory life in a new socio-cultural environment,” he says. “They must find their way in an alien, sometimes hostile, milieu.”

book cover: From Ties of Blood to Community of MemoryHartmann, a member of the UWindsor Board of Governors, explores the theme through the experience of Windsor’s German-Catholics in his new book, From Ties of Blood to Community of Memory: Ethnic Faith Communities in Multicultural Societies.

“Through an examination of the life of German-Catholic parishes in Windsor … from the late 1920s to the present, this work details the contributions that the everyday activities of ethnic faith communities make to successful adaptation and integration into new cultural contexts,” says Hartmann.

He says that while his story focuses on a particular time and place, it parallels those of more recent refugees, asylum seekers, and economic immigrants.

Hartmann is a retired assistant deputy minister of education. He joined the UWindsor board in 2012.