Invisible Migrants : Norwegians in Brazil, 1820-1940

The present study focuses on Norwegian migration to Brazil from a macro-level perspective: how many migrated, when, where, how and why. The present analysis is based on data from emigration and immigration records, passenger lists, as well as other “alternative” sources such as travelogues, personal and historical accounts and letters, collected both in Norway and Brazil. Official emigration and immigration statistics on this group are often incomplete, unreliable or simply inexistent, in part due to how the categories of “emigrants” and “immigrants” were defined. Also in migration history Norwegians who migrated to South America are often portrayed as “adventurers” or “outcasts” rather than migrants. Were they just “exceptions” to the rule or can Norwegian migration to Brazil be understood in the context of the transatlantic migration system