Emigration and return
migration
BACKGROUND
The project
Emigration
Memories
IN AMERICA
The
emigrants
Their
destination
Work
Daily
life
Returning home
IN NORWAY
House
and home
Recipes
Words and
phrases
OTHER INFO
Funding
Archive
Links
BACK
What do you think of when you hear the word emigration? There is a good chance that what you imagine is something like the following:
It is some time in the 1800s. A family has packed all their belongings and is on the way to an uncertain future. Maybe they are sitting on a wagon while the horse takes them to the port where they will leave by boat. And where are they going? Correct – they are going to cross the Atlantic to the American East Coast, then travel onward into the country to the Midwest – the prairies – where they will buy a plot of land. They will cultivate the land, and build a house and hay barn; they will sow and they will harvest. And they will stay in the new country for the rest of their lives…
That’s how many people imagine the emigration from Norway. And that’s what it was like for many of the emigrants. But there are also other stories about going to America – for example this:
Kåre is 19 when he decides to go to America. It is 1954. He and his friend Lars take the train from Storekvina to Stavanger. Their passports and their papers are in order, and on 29 July they board the plane that is to take them to the other side of the Atlantic. They are going to New York where Kåre’s uncle lives. He has provided a guarantee for them and they are to start working as carpenters in two days’ time. Then they’ll see how long they will stay. Two, three years maybe – long enough to earn some money for a first-rate car that Kåre will bring home with him.
From southern Norway, return migration has been just as common as emigration. But while those who emigrated most often stayed in America for good, those who migrated to get work often intended to stay in America for a while and then return home. They often spent several periods in America – hence the term return emigration. After some months, years or decades many of these so-called “birds of passage” returned to Vest-Agder’s villages and towns with the money they had saved, their new belongings and their experiences.
Postcard from the beginning of the 1900s showing emigrants
Many young boys dreamt of going to America and buying a car
Photograph of a wedding in Brooklyn in the 1950s