Swedish Emigration to America and Oregon After World War II

Swedish Emigration to America and Oregon after World War II L a r s N o r d s t r o m wedish emigration to the United States following World War II is not a widely studied subject, perhaps for the simple reason that it involves a relatively small number of individuals, and perhapsS also because, in comparison to the foreign immigration to Sweden during the last couple of decades, this group is small indeed. If we want to understand the two distinct communities that have emerged in the United States during the last thirty years or so— the Swedish-American community and the scattered groups of utlandssvenskar (expatriate Swedes)— it is helpful to take a broad look at the main currents in modem Swedish emigration. Relying on various statistical sources and earlier research, this article surveys the general character of Swedish emigration following the end of World War II and attempts to answer the following ques tions: Where have Swedes emigrated to during this period? How many individuals make up this migratory- flow? What is really meant by the temi “a Swedish emigrant”? How reliable are official statistics in describing the fluid patterns of individuals moving from one coun try- to another? What are the proportions between Swedes and Swed- ish-Americans in the state of Oregon today, and what is the size of Swedish immigration compared to other immigrant groups? The second part looks into the main causes behind modem .Swedish emigration to the United States. Perhaps a bit surprisingly, it finds that today it seems just as common to emigrate because one has LARS NORDSTROM is a freelance writer, translator, historian of the Swedes in Oregon, and grower of grapes. A migrant himself, he holds his B.A. from Portland State University and a Ph.D. from Uppsala University (in American literature). Fora list of some of his publications and the work of the organization he has helped to develop see: http://wiviv.sivedishrootsinoregon.org/. 136 fallen in love with an American as it is because one dreams of better opportunities and a higher standard of living. The third part of the article contains some personal observations on the nature and needs of the Swedish-American community in a state like Oregon, and compares them to those of the modem Swed ish immigrants. It also describes how radically the Swedish immigrant experience in the United States has changed during the last thirty years, and how it has redefined what it means to be a Swede living in America. For almost a century, the United States of America was the unquestioned destination for more than a million Swedish emigrants. But the great wave of Swedes seeking new lives in the New World began to subside noticeably after 1924, when the United States Congress passed the Immigration Act, which contained what are commonly known as “the quota laws” that restricted immigration to a limited number of individuals from each country. The diminished flow was also due to improving conditions in Sweden. In 1930, as the Depression set in, the migratory flow suddenly reversed. Throughout that entire decade, more people moved back to Sweden than emi grated to the United States. The year 1932 represents the peak of the reversal, when only 474 individuals emigrated to the U .S. while 5,654 moved back to Sweden. Then, during the years of Word War II, emigration shrank to its lowest point since at least 1851— in 1944 only 30 individuals emigrated (and 71 returned.)1 Following the war and up through the end of the twentieth century, emigration never regained the momentum it had once had. Having been spared the ravages of World War II, conditions rapidly improved in Sweden, making it a prosperous nation by the early 1960s. Even though a broad range of cultural impulses in music, film, and lifestyles from the United States were embraced by many young Swedes during the 1950s and 1960s, there was also a parallel trend of growing criticism of the United States. This ranged from internation ally acclaimed intellectuals, such as Gunnar and Alva Myrdal, to the growing opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The political left in Sweden also raised increasingly vociferous objections to what they saw as “American financial and cultural imperialism,” 137 causing anti-American sentiments that might have influenced migra tion negatively. The fact that a noticeable number of young Ameri can men chose to come to Sweden rather than serve in the Vietnam War might also have influenced migration trends. During the period following World War II, an average of 1,500 to 2,000 Swedish citi zens has emigrated annually to the United States. (During the Swed ish economic crisis of the 1990s, emigration rose slightly.) Statistics compiled in Sweden also show that slightly more women than men have emigrated after 1970.2 Many of these individuals have remigrated to Sweden, and a slight majority in this group of returnees has been women as well. Statistician Åke Nilsson states that “a nile of thumb is that two out of three Swedish-born emigrants return to Sweden. The percentage of returnees is higher among indi viduals with both parents bom in Sweden. In this group four out of five return. K [However], individuals who move to North America retunt to a lesser degree than persons who emigrate to our Nordic neighbors and Asia.”3 Since 1970, the annual net migration to the United States has fluctuated between 300 and 1,400 individuals4— meaning that this is the number of Swedes remaining in the United States once the returnees have been deducted from the number of emigrants.5 One should keep in mind, however, that numbers are numbers and emigrants are individuals, and some are not perhaps what we think of when we casually say “a Swedish emigrant.” Definitions are sometimes elusive. For example, in the decade following World War II, a number of individuals who ended up in the statistics were naturalized refugees, some Jewish and some from the Baltic coun tries.0 Take the example of Axel Lindström, who was bont into the Swedish-speaking farming community of Ormsö (Wormsi) off the Estonian coast, an island where Swedes have lived continuously since the late Viking period. Lindström escaped to Sweden by way of Finland in 1944, and in the mid-1950s he emigrated from Sweden to the United States. Statistically, he was counted as a Swedish emi grant, even though he really was an Estonian-Swede, akin to the Swedish-speaking Finns in Finland/ Another similar example would be a Jewish friend’s father, Michael Kastan, who was bont in Radorn, 138 Poland. He came to Sweden in 1946 and became a naturalized Swedish citizen. In 1961 he left Sweden and a few years later contin ued to the United States, where he eventually became a naturalized U.S. citizen (and where he passed away).8 This general category of Swedish emigrants with a foreign background might be growing again today. During the last thirty years, there has been a rapidly increasing segment of naturalized citizens in Sweden (in 2000 approximately 12 percent of the country’s population of nine million was bom abroad). Some of these new “Swedes” might be following a multi-step migra tion pattern in which Sweden turned out to be just one country along a multi-nation route. Then there are cases like my oldest son, who was bom in Sweden but “emigrated” with us at the age of six months. He is a Swedish citizen (as well as an American citizen), fluent in Swedish, has visited Sweden a number of times, and knows a fair amount about the country’s history, culture, and geography. But he has grown up in the United States and has had his identity shaped primarily by his peers and by American culture. Nevertheless, in the Swedish statistics, he is counted as an emigrant. Of course, not all young children who have emigrated as members of families have been able to preserve their native language, or maintained an active contact with Sweden; nevertheless, statistically they too are considered Swedish emigrants and are counted as utlandssvenskar (Swedes living abroad). The United States is still an attractive destination for Swedes seeking a life abroad, but it has lost its leading position to another Nordic nation. Since the beginning of the 1970s, Norway has been the country receiving the highest number of Swedish emigrants every' year, even though the total number of Swedes in Norway is not yet as high as the total number of Swedes in the United States. There are many reasons for this including Norway’s strong oil economy, the open and visa-free Nordic job market, the geographical proximity to Sweden, and a similar language and culture. More recently, due to the open European Union (which Sweden joined in 1995), migra tory patterns have changed again. Since the turn of the new millen nium Great Britain and Ireland have received roughly the same number of Swedish immigrants as America.9 Since 1990, the annual migratory flow out of Sweden has been around 2,000 to the United 139 States, 5,000 to the Nordic countries, and 5,000 to the first 15 European Union nations.10 Today the international Swedish organization Svenskar i Världen (Swedes around the world), estimates that there are 400,000 Swedes (4-4 percent of the population) living outside their native country.11 However, the exact number is difficult to pin down for several rea sons. First of all, what do we mean by “living abroad” ? The Swedish Bureau of Statistics defines “living abroad” as a residency that contin ues for longer than a year (so that most students, au pairs, and short term project workers are not included), and estimates the number Swedes living abroad at 300,000.

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