GAST:ARBAJTERSKI R:ADIO – Migration and media in Serbia

“GAST:ARBAJTERSKI R:ADIO”, realized by Danijela Pivašević-Tenner and Stefan Tenner, is a research and oral history radio and web project which deals with the migration of workers from south-east to western Europe since the 1960s. The project was initiated in the summer of 2008 in the town of Požarevac and the surrounding villages, East-Serbia (Ex-Yugoslavia). At this time of year, the so-called “gastarbajteri” and their families, coming mainly from southern Germany, Austria and Italy, return “home” for their holidays. The main objective of the project was to find out more about this phenomenon, with the focus on the current situation in Serbia, the place from which the guest workers originated. The questions raised were: how did the migration and the money transfer from the west affect this area? How is the situation for the second and third generations? And how are people living here and abroad?The aim of the GAST:ARBAJTERSKI R:ADIO project was also interventionist, as it wanted to bring people and their stories together through media. More specifically, radio is still very popular in Serbia and the idea was to use this medium as a filter and communicator. Many of the conversations were recorded and a selection of them were broadcasted on the local private owned radio station Boom 93 in Požarevac and documented as a web-audio-archive at www.gastarbajter.tk. On the last day of the project, the people on the streets could participate in an open microphone broadcast, which was aired live on FM via a micro radio transmitter in the centre of the town.