Introduction

Authors

John Mark Nielsen

Abstract

In 1992 a conference was held in Aalborg, Denmark, sponsored by the Danes Worldwide Archives (now The Danish Emigration Archive). The purpose of this conference was to celebrate the centennial of the birth of Marcus Lee Hansen, an American historian of Danish descent. Hansen had played a major role in challenging historians to consider the wider forces of migration. Before him historians tended to focus on immigrants in America while paying little attention to the conditions that had motivated individuals to emigrate from the lands of their birth. Although Hansen did not discuss this experience using the terms of "push factors" and "pull factors," terms that have come to dominate current immigration studies, his research suggested the need to understand the economic, social and political conditions in Europe that inspired emigration from that continent. The papers presented at the Aalborg conference and later published under the title On Distant Shores treated the "classical" period of Danish immigration, a period dating from 1870 to 1925.

Recommended Citation

Nielsen, John Mark (2004) "Introduction," The Bridge: Vol. 27: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thebridge/vol27/iss1/6