Norwegian diaspora
Encyclopedia
Kola Norwegians
The Kola Norwegians were Norwegian settlers along the coastline of the Kola Peninsula in Russia.-History:In 1860 the Russian Tsar Alexander II granted permission for Norwegian settlements on the Kola. Around 1870, scores of families from Finnmark in northern Norway departed for the Kola coast,...
, Norwegian American
Norwegian American
Norwegian Americans are Americans of Norwegian descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and...
s, Norwegian Canadian
Norwegian Canadian
Norwegian Canadians are Canadians of Norwegian descent.There are approximately 1.2 million Canadians of Scandinavian descent living in Canada, representing around 3.9% of Canada’s population. In the Canada 2006 Census 432,515 Canadian residents claimed Norwegian ancestry, making up 1.4% of the...
s, Norwegian Australian
Norwegian Australian
Norwegian Australian are Australians of Norwegian ancestry, the majority of these people were part of the Norwegian diaspora.-History:An organized European immigration to Australia was initiated in 1788. Most of the early emigrants were deported from Britain to the "Penal Colony". Also some...
s, Norwegian New Zealander
Norwegian New Zealander
Norwegian New Zealander are New Zealanders of Norwegian ancestry, the majority of these people were part of the Norwegian diaspora. Around 10,000 New Zealand residents declared they were born in Norway...
s, and Norwegian South African
Norwegian South African
Norwegian South African are South Africans of Norwegian descent. When most Norwegian emigrants moved to America, some people also moved to South Africa, Madagascar, Angola, Mozambique, South America and Oceania. In 2008, only 24 Norwegians moved to South Africa...
s.
History
NorsemenNorsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
left the area that is now the modern state of Norway in the Viking expansion
Viking expansion
The Vikings sailed most of the North Atlantic, reaching south to North Africa and east to Russia, Constantinople and the Middle East, as looters, traders, colonists, and mercenaries...
, including the settlement of Iceland
Settlement of Iceland
The settlement of Iceland is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the 9th century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration may be traced to a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia, and civil strife brought about by the ambitions of...
and the conquest of Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
.
In the 1500s and 1600s there was a small scattering out of Norwegian people and culture as Norwegian tradesmen moved along the routes of the timber trade.
The 19th century wave of Norwegian emigration began in 1825. The Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
, especially the states of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, was the destination of most people who left Norway. The first modern Norwegian settlement in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was Norwegian Ridge, in what is now Spring Grove, Minnesota
Spring Grove, Minnesota
Spring Grove is a city in Houston County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,330 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land...
.
As of 2006 there are over 5,000,000 Norwegian American
Norwegian American
Norwegian Americans are Americans of Norwegian descent. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the later half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 million Norwegian Americans according to the most recent U.S. census, and...
s. In Canada in a 2006 survey, 432,515 people reported a Norwegian heritage. 55,475 Americans spoke Norwegian at home as of 2000, and the American Community Survey
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey is an ongoing statistical survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, sent to approximately 250,000 addresses monthly . It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census...
in 2005 showed that 39,524 people use the language at home.
Early emigrant communites in the US were an enthusiastic market for books written in Norwegian at least from the 1890s to 1930s. One popular writer for the Decorah-Posten, a major Norwegian-language newspaper in the US, was Torbjørg Lie, who imagined her readers "not so much adopting a new country as living in a diaspora." Meanwhile, newspapers in Norway were also eager to publish letters that recent emigrants had written home, telling of their experiences in foreign countries.
According to scholar Daniel Judah Elazar, "It was the Norwegian diaspora in the United States which initiated the separation of Norway from Sweden, which led to Norwegian independence in 1905." The Norwegian-American community overwhelmingly favored independence of Norway from Sweden, and collecting money for Norwegian rifle clubs in case the conflict should become violent. In 1884, the Minneapolis chapter of Den Norsk-Amerikanske Venstrefoening sent 4,000 kroners to Norway's Liberal Party (the party that favored independence.) Norwegian-Americans campaigned enthusiastically for the US to recognize Norway's independence from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, with petitions and letters arriving in Washington, DC from most major cities. One petition from Chicago's Norwegian community bore 20,000 signatures. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
did not change his stance, however, and remained neutral until after Sweden accepted the change.
Ties to the homeland
The Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Hamar, Norway is dedicated to "collecting, preserving and disseminating knowledge about Norwegian emigration, and to the preservation of cultural ties between Norway and those of Norwegian ancestry throughout the world," according to the museum's website, which states that a million Norwegians emigrated to other countries around the world between 1825 and 2000.The Sons of Norway
Sons of Norway
Sons of Norway is a fraternal organization representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. It describes its mission as "to promote and to preserve the heritage and culture of Norway, to celebrate our relationship with other Nordic Countries, and provide quality...
("Sønner av Norge"), originally a small fraternal benefit organization, now has more than 60,000 members in the US and almost 3,000 in Canada. It is dedicated to promoting Norwegian culture and traditions.
The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa is the oldest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant ethnic group. The collection contains over 24,000 artifacts reflecting the experience of Norwegian-Americans, particularly in the Upper Midwest...
in Decorah, Iowa
Decorah, Iowa
Decorah is a city in and the county seat of Winneshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 8,172 at the 2000 census. Decorah is located at the intersection of State Highway 9 and U.S...
, is the oldest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant ethnic group. It was founded in 1877 in association with nearby Luther College
Luther College
Luther College is the name of several educational institutions:*Luther College , in Decorah; a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...
and re-dedicated in 1975 in a ceremony involving Norway's late King Olav. King Harald V of Norway
Harald V of Norway
Harald V is the king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991...
will be present in October 2012 for the celebration of Luther College's sequicentennial.
Self-identified Norwegians, whether in Norway or elsewhere, celebrate "Syttende Mai" on May 17 as Norwegian Constitution Day
Norwegian Constitution Day
Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai or syttande mai , Nasjonaldagen or Grunnlovsdagen , although the latter is less frequent.- Historical...
. They may hold a children's parade, wear traditional clothing, or display ribbons of red, white, and blue. Norwegians in Sweden maintain their own Norwegian band "Det Norske Korp" for these celebrations.
Members of the Norwegian emigrant community in the United States "took a special pride" in Norway hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer failed to win the bid for the 1992 event. Lillehammer was awarded the games in 1988, after having beat...
in Lillehammer
Lillehammer
is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...
.
See also
- Sons of NorwaySons of NorwaySons of Norway is a fraternal organization representing people of Norwegian heritage in the United States and Canada. It describes its mission as "to promote and to preserve the heritage and culture of Norway, to celebrate our relationship with other Nordic Countries, and provide quality...
- List of US Communities where Norwegian is spoken
- Norse colonization of the AmericasNorse colonization of the AmericasThe Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America....
- Scandinavian migration to the United Kingdom
- Scandinavian diasporaScandinavian diaspora-Viking and Old Norse:Scandinavian explorations, conquests, and emigrations during the Viking expansion-Modern diaspora:The term "Scandinavian diaspora" is also used to describe more recent emigrations and emigrants originating in one or more of the countries of Scandinavia.-Swedish diaspora:It...