Chapter 9. Internal migration in 19th and 20th century Norway. An overview 1865 to 1960

At the national level, we can distinguish between three main flows of migrants: emigration, immigration and domestic migration. It is strange to what degree the first two flows have been the subject of summary Norwegian studies relative to the latter. Already shortly after the War, Ingrid Semmingsen published her comprehensive summary of US emigration in two volumes, a pioneering work also in an international context (Semmingsen 1941, Semmingsen 1950). And just after the turn of the millennium, immigrants received their three volume history, with the addition of a summary book in English the result of a comprehensive team work (Kjeldstadli 2003, Brochmann and Kjeldstadli 2008). Although there are a number of local and regional studies of internal migration in Norway, we lack a broad summary overview. A brief and concise overview can be found on the website Norgeshistorie.no under the heading “On migration to and within Norway” authored by Jan Myhre, a prolific author of migration history. The website contains as much about the quantitatively modest immigration as about the extensive internal migration.1 The only reference to the latter theme is to an edited book about the 19th century, mainly a collection of regional and local history articles (Gjerdåker 1981). These include local moving on the west coast, long distance migration from southern to northern Norway as well as labour migration in southern Norway. Three articles are based on the social history project about Ullensaker parish (with