TITLE:
Migration between Norway and Sweden over the Last 150 Years
AUTHORS:
Anders Gustavsson
KEYWORDS:
Border Crossing, Border Closure, Covid-19 Closure, Migration, Mixed Marriages, Second World War closure, Tourist Migration
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
27,
2024
ABSTRACT: In the two neighboring countries Norway and Sweden there are clear cultural, social, political and legal differences. By comparing human border crossings within a time period of 150 years, it is possible to see both recurring patterns and differences. Migration in this study of that has meant for the living conditions in the border areas. How was the integration process? The main objective has been to investigate how human cross-border contacts were viewed and handled by the authorities, travellers, and by the people living near the border, in changing political, economic, legal, and cultural circumstances. A national border can cut across local cultural, social, and ideological boundaries. Border closures have led to particular problems for border residents. Illegal border crossings have occurred and at some periods also smuggling of goods. This border study builds on several categories of sources. They are, first, the records in ethnological archives in Sweden and Norway. I have also performed interviews in the border region. In addition, there is plenty of newspaper material, especially from the local Strömstads Tidning. The lesson from this study is that cultural and other similarities significantly facilitate integration, while cultural and other differences have the opposite effect at border crossings. The integration problem does not have to do with national borders, but instead with cultural, religious, linguistic and social borders.