Scanadanavian migration to US

[marc26]

i was watching a travel food show and they were in Minnestoa and it was mostly Scandanavian food
got me curious
would any Scandis know why they settled in that area. just seems like such an odd area to migrate to
i did some reading on google and they explained that the Scandis prefereed rural areas over big cities and nothern areas but still a weird area

[Dupree00]

Maybe they like the giant Paul Bunyun statue in Fargo.

[MrDK]

Many of the earlier people that migrated from Sweden and Norway and to some extend from Denmark did so (in large parts) for religious reasons.
The goal was to find a place to declare homestead where they were free to practice their religion as they saw fit.
Many of the migrants were farmers and sought areas suitable and similar to home. Minnesota and the surrounding states are in many ways similar to southern Norway and southern Sweden.
Once an area was settled by some of one nationality or ethnic group it tended to have a snowballs effect .... not just Scandinavians.
My first home in the US was in Minnesota, because of a company's Danish affiliation.

[marc26]

Originally Posted by MrDK

Many of the earlier people that migrated from Sweden and Norway and to some extend from Denmark did so (in large parts) for religious reasons.
The goal was to find a place to declare homestead where they were free to practice their religion as they saw fit.
Many of the migrants were farmers and sought areas suitable and similar to home. Minnesota and the surrounding states are in many ways similar to southern Norway and southern Sweden.
Once an area was settled by some of one nationality or ethnic group it tended to have a snowballs effect .... not just Scandinavians.
My first home in the US was in Minnesota, because of a company's Danish affiliation.

what was their religion, Lutheran?

[jimholio]

About 1 million Swedes left for US in the middle of 1800.

There are a few different factors to this emigration as i understand it.

1# Bad weather for a few years (Which affected all the farms) hence the farmers made no money.

2# Industrialism, stuff got more automated etc which lead to unemployment.

3# Religion as MrDK said, people had no freedom of choice in how to practice their beliefs.

4# Unemployment.

Reasons for moving to US of all country's

I suppose the American dream was known all over the world already by that time.

And also i had to google this one because i was curious. US also had something called the Homestead act which meant that immigrants would be given land for the purpose of farming, after 5 years of farming they would be allowed to own the land. It was a way for US to populate western and the middle parts of the country.

[marc26]

Originally Posted by jimholio

About 1 million Swedes left for US in the middle of 1800.

There are a few different factors to this emigration as i understand it.

1# Bad weather for a few years (Which affected all the farms) hence the farmers made no money.

2# Industrialism, stuff got more automated etc which lead to unemployment.

3# Religion as MrDK said, people had no freedom of choice in how to practice their beliefs.

4# Unemployment.

Reasons for moving to US of all country's

I suppose the American dream was known all over the world already by that time.

And also i had to google this one because i was curious. US also had something called the Homestead act which meant that immigrants would be given land for the purpose of farming, after 5 years of farming they would be allowed to own the land. It was a way for US to populate western and the middle parts of the country.

what my question was though was why they picked minnesota
most immigrants settle on the coasts

[Dupree00]

Originally Posted by jimholio

US also had something called the Homestead act which meant that immigrants would be given land for the purpose of farming, after 5 years of farming they would be allowed to own the land. It was a way for US to populate western and the middle parts of the country.

Hence the phrase "Stake Your Claim". The Tom Cruise movie "Far and Away" had a great scene about this. It was set up as a race. When the gun fires you ride your horse to the piece of land you want and slam a stake into the ground. first comer wins.

[MrDK]

Yes.
I am not sure of all the details of the religious persecution that took place in the 1800's, as it was mainly in Sweden and Norway.

I read a study once detailing which US states had the highest population of Swedes, Norwegians and Danes respectively. I remember Minnesota was number 1 for both Swedes and Norwegians, but a distant 3rd for Danes. California is number 1 and strangely Utah is number 2. Strange because there is no particular link between Denmark and Mormons (that I know of).

[snakebite911]

Originally Posted by marc26

what my question was though was why they picked minnesota
most immigrants settle on the coasts

I can't really talk for the rest of scandinavia, but the some of the reasons for the Norwegians settling in Minnesota has to do with timing, the US government opened different interior areas for settling at different times, when a large push from Norway came, Minnesota was free for the taking, and later settlers came to places where others from their area lived, where they could speak their old language, and also, Minnesota is a lot similar in climate to Norway and Sweden, the people knew how to farm in such climate. Quite a large contingent of my family emigrated to the US, and they first took land in the midwest, under the Homestead Act, after a few years there they were forced to move, due to a draught, they started working on the railroad going to the Pacific Northwest, there they bought land from the railroad, and settled farms. Both areas are similar to the parts of Norway they came from.

[MrDK]

The was a a Swedish movie that was quite popular in the early 70's called Utvandrarna (the migrants), which is about a family immigrating to the US (Minnesota). With English subtitles it is titled "The Emigrants" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067919/).
I found one small clip on YouTube, but no subtitles: YouTube - Utvandrarna revisited.

Should be available for rent at most larger movie rental places in North America.

[Capt. Fantastic]

Originally Posted by MrDK

... a snowballs effect ...

Would SE Asian migration have a "riceball effect?"

Sorry... could not resist.