Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 73

SWEDISH EMIGRATION TO AMERICA
63
602,000, or 62 per cent. lived in towns, while 215,000, or 22
per cent. were agriculturists, and 150,000 resided in rural districts
without being engaged in agriculture. The explanation of these
disparities is probably that the main stream of Swedish immigra-
tion in earlier years turned into the channel of agriculture, while
it later on came to be directed increasingly towards the towns
and industrial employment. There has therefore been a greater
number of deaths up till now among the older, predominantly
agricultural stratum than among the younger, predominantly
town-dwelling stratum.
The Swedish immigrants and their descendants thus con-
stitute only a minority of about 2 per cent. of the population of
the U.S.A., but they constitute more than 4 per cent. of the total
immigrant population, and they used to constitute nearly 6 per
cent. of the latter. These figures do not, however, give an ade-
quate picture of the part played by the Swedish-American popula-
tion in the U.S.A. It has often been asserted by leading Americans,
mdustrialists and scientists, that in proportion to its numbers
the Scandinavian immigrants have played a greater part than the
immigrants from Southern and South-Eastern Europe on account
of their physical and moral qualities, their enterprise, energy
and industry, and the technical ability which they often possess.
In Canada, climatic conditions make special demands on the
population, and here the Scandinavians have proved to possess
qualities which fit them especially for life in the Dominion. That
the Swedes tend to become Americanized in comparatively short
time does not mean that they are deficient in national feeling.
It is rather a sign of an adaptability, which circumstances have
to some extent forced on them. Most of the Swedish immigrants
were poor, and their work in the new country, especially during
the first years of their life there, left them little time and op-
portunity for such cultural tasks as the preservation of Swedish
nationality in America. Nevertheless, there are numerous ex-
amples of Swedes who, once they have attained to a fairly secure
economic position, have devoted much of their time and money
to cultural work, on a Swedish national basis, among Swedish-
Americans. In the big cities, in which an increasing proportion
of the Swedish-Americans now live, it is especially difficult for
small national minorities to preserve their distinctive national
stamp, and it is therefore to be foreseen that Swedish nationality