Who are the Norwegian Americans

Running Head : WHO ARE THE NORWEGIAN

Who are the Norwegian Americans Introduction

We , Norwegian Americans , are the successors of Norwegian immigrants who came to the United States in the later half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century . We have the contribution of more than 4 .5 million people in the population of America (Wikipedia . Though we were spread everywhere in America but mainly we live in the Upper Midwest and West

We are supposed to be the first Europeans to discover America . Most of us who

first migrated to America were farmers and fishers . Due to our quiet and simple way of living , we were oppressed in our homeland and the first group of us migrated to America in 1825 and after it was followed by others . That time it was considered that only the descendant of a Norwegian parent who had The US citizenship was a Norwegian American

Now ethnic membership in the United States has turned into subjective through the new aspect of Census 2000 , which is called `subjective identification . According to this if anybody feels that he is a Norwegian American then he is . This rule says that anyone whether a black , an Eskimo or a Latino has the right to think that he is a Norwegian American Migration

The main reasons that forced us to leave our country , Norway , were poverty , growth of population , national dependency , religious containment and fighting for the freedom from Sweden and World War I For getting better living many of us left our old country . Economical condition became the major cause of migration

Social and Political differences between America and Norway compelled us to migrate to the United States . In Norway , social system used to be very strict . Lower status people had to show the respect to the higher class publicly . On the other hand the United States did not have such kind of discrimination so we found it an interesting place to live Politically also we got more freedom in United States such as right of vote

Economically also we found this place much more attractive . In the United States there were many job opportunities and also the wages were higher than Norway . The earning potential was too good . Many news and authors in Norway appreciated the job possibilities in America . In the period of 1864 , The Bergenposten gave the advertisement for many mining jobs in Lake Superior region

Earlier Norwegian settlers in America used to send letters to their family members and friends back to their homeland about the advantages of living in the United States and request them to give them company They were successful also in calling the higher rate of migrants to join them . First these migrants join the original Norwegian settlements but later they decided to move in the west direction where the land was abundant and not that expensive . Many farmers and laborers settled themselves there

After the Dakota conflict of 1862 and the Civil War Norwegian settlement expanded...