Migration

The Swedish film The Emigrants was released in 1971 to general acclaim and went on to win Best Foreign Language Film at both the Golden Globe and the Academy Awards of 1972. Directed by Jan Troell, The Emigrants tells the story of the migration of one couple, Karl Oskar and Kristina, from Sweden to North America in the nineteenth century, a time when more than one million Swedes left their homeland for Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South America, but overwhelmingly for the United States (Martenius, 2014, p. 1). The Emigrants explores themes that are purportedly common, both both the popular and the scholarly imagination, to the migrant experience: Karl Oskar and Kristina, a farming couple, leave home following poor harvests and the death of their child (push factors); they choose the United Sates as their destination because they have heard of the prosperity to be found there and because friends and neighbours have already made the journey (pull factors); and on their arrival and for some time after they experience a sense of loss, dislocation and alienation (assimilation barriers). But this is their chance at a new life, and they firmly intend to stay, and to belong. Migration, then, entails permanent relocation, and the creation of a new identity, and a new, albeit problematic, sense of belonging to a new home.