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❖ 37 ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ Chapter 3 Preserving a Cultural Heritage across Boundaries A Comparative Perspective on Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt and Nordmanns-Forbundet Odd S. Lovoll “Immigration,” Nancy L. Green and François Weil wrote, “has come to be seen as a litmus test for how nations define themselves.” Indeed, historians have traditionally directed major attention to the countries of immigration and how the immigrantsintegratedintoanewsocietyandinfluencednationalself-­definitions. The historically considered monocultural Nordic countries currently defining themselves as multicultural societies are an illustrative case in point. A 2003 published three-volume work on Norwegian immigration history from 900 to 2000 and its contemporary relevance might be viewed as symptomatic of prevailing scholarly inquiry. The intent of the study, as declared in the introduction, is “to show that immigration is not a new phenomenon.” “Historically Norwegians have not,” the authors insisted, “been as uniform as some versions of their history maintain.” Norway has, in other words, always been a country of the immigration experience. Nevertheless, the historical path tracked through eleven hundred years concludes with a chapter titled “The Multicultural Norway,” covering the final quarter of the twentieth century and the so-called new emigration from third-world countries. In its 1996–97 parliamentary report, the Norwegian Storting stated explicitly “that Norway now is a multi-cultural society.” The following caption to a photograph of dark-skinned youth carrying Norwegian flags suggests a common scholarly reading of how immigration redefines national identities: “Newcomers have through time functioned as a mirror for the permanent residents, people one could define oneself in comparison to. And the newcomers altered the concept of what is ‘Norwegian.’” Green and Weil, editors of the anthology, titled Citizenship and Those Who Leave, proposed in the introduction “to reverse this perspective in order to examine how nations also have defined themselves by their attitudes toward those who leave.” The volume, which contains fourteen separately authored chapters, “casts an eye to emigration and expatriation worldwide.” The emigration perspective—the relations nations seek to maintain with their citizens and 38 ❖ Odd S. Lovoll their descendants abroad and why—may be considered from economic, political , and cultural points of view. A comparative analysis will be presented of two organizations, one Swedish, the other Norwegian, of how they reached out to citizens who had left the country, permanently or as temporary expatriates.1 The Founding of Swedish and Norwegian Societies Nordmanns-Forbundet—or the Norse Federation, the current official English name—was formally organized in Oslo (Kristiania) on June 21, 1907. Riksf öreningen Sverigekontakt—its name from the 1970s, rendered in English as the Royal Society for Swedish Culture Abroad—saw the light of day in Gothenburg on December 3, 1908, as Riksföreningen for svenskhetens bevarande i utlandet (National Society for the Preservation of Swedishness Abroad). The new name will be employed throughout this chapter. The two organizations appeared during a period of heightened nationalism in both Norway and Sweden as well as on the European continent in general. No fewer than ten new European nation states appeared during the two first decades after 1900. The founding of the Swedish and Norwegian societies reflected the nationalistic spirit of the time, which was not unique to the two Nordic nations. Other national organizations with similar aims in time came into being. Foreningen Dansk Samvirke (The Society for Danish Joint Action), now Danes Worldwide, made its appearance in 1919; Finland Samfundet—in Finnish Suomi Seuro (The Finland Society)—was organized in 1927; and Utenlandssvenkarnas förening (The Expatriate Swedes’ Society), since 1988 Föreningen Svenskar i Världen (The Society Swedes in the World), was organized in 1938. The different Nordic groups cooperated and arranged joint meetings.2 The histories of the five organizations identified above are intertwined; only two, Nordmanns-Forbundet and Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt, will be considered . Both have passed the hundred-year mark and will be viewed through a century of activity. A comparison of purpose, activity, and results can be viewed in historical space that witnessed great changes in national attitudes and worldwide communications. The spirit of the time, as historian Lennart Limberg submits, was also influencedbytherestlessnessandanxietybroughtaboutbythelossofcitizensthrough emigration. The impressive twenty-volume analysis (Emigrationsutredningen) of the nature and cause of Swedish emigration by the statistician Gustav Sundbärg, published during the years 1908–14, emanated from diverse actions to hinder the nation from becoming impoverished of human resources from the departure of “the young and progressive who disappeared across the ocean.” In both Sweden and Norway societies were founded in the early twentieth century to limit...

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