Norwegian-American essays 2014 : "Migrant journeys: the Norwegian-American experience in a multicultural context"

Between 1825 and the 1930s at least 850,000 persons emigrated from Norway to the USA, but for the last 50 years remigration also was significant. This migration pattern coincided with the overseas migration from Europe between 1815 and the 1930s with an estimated 55 million people. Although a major movement, the Atlantic migration system only existed as one of several global migration movements in this period. This said, it is by studying such migration systems more closely that we as readers can decipher details in the migrant epic. In this respect, the essays in this publication each reveal the fine fibers that make history; which were the factors that influenced migration; how did the journey affect them in their encounter with migrants from other regional, economic, and social backgrounds in the United States? As a consequence, all contributors are less concerned with the history of Norwegian migration than with aspects of American migration and ethnic history. Each article discusses the transnational nature of the emigrant story, but from various disciplinary perspectives. They treat various aspects of ethnicity formation through the dichotomy of tradition and change, in other words, through cultural retention or assimilation.