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Norway's New Minorities
| Article
# : |
16778 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1989 |
3,586 Words |
| Author
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Long Litt Woon
Social anthropologist Long Litt Woon, an emigrant from
Malaysia, is now working as a senior executive officer at the
Department of Immigrant Affairs in Oslo, Norway. She has
published scholarly and popular articles in English and
Norwegian on topics dealing with immigration. |
Norway is a country of fjords and mountains tucked into the periphery of northern Europe, and Norwegians are known for being close to nature and their country's rugged landscape. This relationship is reflected in the popular enjoyment of outdoor life and winter sports. Today, the small population of 4.2 million lives in relative comfort, and security is provided by a well-developed social welfare system. However, life in Norway has not always been comfortable or secure. During the last century, conditions led many Norwegians to immigrate to the United States.
Alphild Skjorestad's life story illustrates aspects not atypical of Norwegian emigration history. Alphild is a Norwegian-American lady who lives in a red, white, and blue wooden cottage by a fjord on the west coast of Norway. Two months after she was born, her parents emigrated from Norway to the United States, leaving her behind in the care of closer relatives. At the age of two, she was sent to the United States to be reunited with her parents. Later, she married Bjarne Skjorestad, a young Norwegian immigrant in Chicago. In 1969, when Alphild and Bjarne were in their sixties, they moved back to Hommersak, Bjarne's small Norwegian hometown, as pensioners. On their living room sofa is a cushion they brought from the United States. On it is embroidered "Kan du glemme gamle Norge?" ("Can you ever forget good old Norway?").
To an outsider, it might seem that Norwegian emigration history provides Norwegians with a unique angle on recent immigration to their country. After all, the accumulated experience of Norwegian immigrants to the United States, including the fates of those who put down roots and the unavoidable adjustments of those who returned to the "good old
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