In recent years, new emigration and asylum laws opened the door for ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Asia to return to their homeland. Yet many of these immigrants-called "Aussiedler," meaning literally "out-settlers," or "Spataussiedler" ("late out-settlers"), referring to those who have arrived since 1994-now find themselves foreigners in modern German society and culture."Returning Home: Stories of Aussiedler in Germany" is a collection of the rich and diverse experiences of Aussiedler living in Jena, Germany.
	A collaboration between Ellen Eischen, a descendent of Germans who fled from the Volga village of Neu-Frank and settled in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the photographer Marcy Levy, Returning Home brings together the stories these new immigrants shared over two years. Returning Home also includes family portraits and the voices of Aussiedler adolescents and children, who tell about their lives through writing, photography, and drawings.
	The exhibit presents diverse perspectives on Aussiedler, how they view themselves and how others view them, and includes voices from America, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Romania, and Russia. Raising issues of population migration, diversity, integration, and remembrance that resonate in many communities, "Returning Home" touches on the experiences of immigrants and refugees everywhere.
Returning Home is supported by the Hart Fellows Program at Duke University, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and the Trent Foundation, with help from the Jena Methodist Church Social Service Program and the Heinrich-Heine Grade School in Jena, Germany.