Migration och Identitet : En studie av utvandringen från Blekinge till Danmark och Tyskland 1860–1914

According to the statutes of the United Nations everyone has the right to know his own history, but many family trees have branches which have not yet seen the light of day because of lack of documentation. The survey is about the emigration from the south of Sweden to Denmark and Germany which took place in the shadow of the great emigration to America, which has been thoroughly documented. The survey illuminates a large amount of different sources and theories about the so called forgotten emigration. It describes the motives for the emigration, what their route looked like, where they went and what their lives developed into. The survey shows the way the mobility and rootlessness of people is viewed from a perspective of morality and what it would mean to men and women, married and unmarried, children and adults. The study also shows the effect of the powers that be on the women’s organizations, emigrant agents and immigration, in the different areas of emigration and reception. Among other things it illuminates how the structures of society on different levels handled the situation of the poor lower class. Cheap labor was set against the wish for a better life of the individual. This created a mobile seasonal work force which was not documented by the authorities. Many people stayed abroad and eventually became German and Danish citizens. It is however very difficult to map these historical seasonal travels and neutralizations due to the poor documentation of the hundreds of thousands people between Sweden and Denmark and Germany. Through different types of empirical studies this survey shows that unregistered people from Blekinge can be found in Denmark and Germany. Lastly a contemptuous view on these travelers to Denmark and Germany can be ascertained in the source material which illustrates the perspective of the powers that be