Rutten till Brasilien : Svenska emigranters texter om migrationsindustri och nätverk

• During the 1800s until the First World War, the migration to Brazil by Swedish citizens reached several thousands. The majority of these migrants were poor laborers or peasants traveling in the hope of finding a prosperous life in the new country. The Swedish migrants migrated to the new country with minimal economic resources at their disposal and with limited opportunities to decide on their own situation. This article is concerned with the migrants’ representation of their routes in different Swedish newspapers or booklets at the time of their migration. These texts provide insights into the conditions the migrants experienced while traveling to the new country and establishing themselves there, as well as the confinements they experienced when encountering a powerful migration regime linked to the Brazilian government and the migration industry that consisted of agents that organized and administered the travel as well as ex-migrants of Swedish or other Scandinavian origin that offered different kinds of services. The article discusses how the Swedish migrants accounted for their attempts to improve their life-situation while dependent on the migration industry for their survival. However, their strategies also included networking with their friends and neighbors for both community and instrumental reasons. In this perspective, the migrants’ interest in publishing their experiences on the routes fits into their attempts to reclaim social agency and expand their social networks to include the broader Swedish society. One conclusion of the study is that the transatlantic migration of the 1800s seemingly had a resemblance to the current migration from the Global South toward the Global North; the migrants are struggling against exploitation and a powerful migration regime by investing their engagement in a larger social network.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Brazil

Swedish emigrants

migration industry

social networks

turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

Brasilien

svenska utvandrare

emigration

migrationsindustri

sociala nätverk

sekelskiftet 1800–1900

Social Anthropology

socialantropologi

Portuguese

portugisiska

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)