Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 1. Labour Questions and Social politics - Emigration. By A. Molin
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v. social movements.
With a few exceptions, the investigations into the question of
emigration have not yet led directly to State action. Thanks, however, to the
clearer appreciation of the nature and importance of the emigration
question, which has resulted from its ventilation by special enquiry
and public discussion, progress has been achieved. By degrees private
initiative, seconded by financial support from the State, has led to ever
increasingly extensive, direct, and positive work in the direction of
instituting a definite policy in dealing with the emigration problem.
Within the periphery of the work, so to say, we encounter, in the
first place, efforts to preserve the Swedish language among the
emigrants and endeavours to maintain contact with Swedish
culture. Such efforts have originated with the emigrants themselves,
in Europe as well as in other continents, especially the United
States. They have been based on religious foundations: the so-called
Augustana Synod, a union of the Swedish Lutheran congregations of
North America, has, with its Swedish congregation-life, its teaching
institutions, and its charitable organizations, afforded the most powerful
support to the Swedish language and the traditions of Swedish culture
in America. Other associations and the Sivedish newspapers published
there have also been of importance in the matter.
Not until recent years have these efforts been seconded by a
corresponding movement at home, which is principally directed by
The National Association for the Preservation of "Swedishness" Abroad,
founded in 1908. According to its statutes, the mission of this association is
"to afford moral and economic support to the work for the preservation of the
Swedish language and Swedish culture among Swedes living abroad; to promote
the feeling of sympathy between Swedes at home and abroad; and otherwise to
work for spreading a knowledge abroad of the Swedish language and culture".
The Association tries to attain its object by co-operation with associations abroad,
and by facilitating their contact and relations with the- mother country. The
Association has tried to arrange lectures before these associations about Sweden
and Swedish conditions; it has also tried to promote the establishment of Swedish
schools in the larger Swedish colonies in Europe and has assisted their activities.
So far, however, this programme has not been able to be followed, except on a
small scale. By the arrangement — in Gothenburg in 1912 — of a congress for
Swedes living abroad, the Association has tried to focus the attention on its
efforts of Swedes living at home and abroad. The Association publishes a
yearbook as its organ.
In this connection may be mentioned certain preliminary measures to
arrange, with the help of State assistance, labour erchanges for the
assistance of Swedes living abroad, who wish to find a means of livelihood in
the mother country again.
With the aid of the State, County Councils, Agricultural Societies,
and the Communes, efforts aiming directly at preventing emigration have
been organized during the last few years by
The National Association against Emigration. This Association was
founded at a public meeting held in Stockholm, in the May of 1907. The
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