DO LOCAL AMENITIES AFFECT THE APPEAL OF REGIONS IN EUROPE FOR MIGRANTS?*

ABSTRACT This paper delves into the factors, which determine the attractiveness of regions in Europe for migrants. Contrary to the literature on the United States, which has increasingly focused on the role of amenities, existing research in Europe tends to highlight the predominance of economic conditions as the main drivers of migration. Differentiating between economic, sociodemographic and amenity‐related territorial features, we examine the appeal of various regional characteristics for migrants by analyzing net migration data for 133 European regions between 1990 and 2006. Our results show that, in addition to economic, human capital‐related and demographic aspects, network effects and—in contrast to existing literature—different types of regional amenities exert an important influence on the relative attractiveness of sub‐national territories across the European Union. Our findings therefore indicate that locational choices in Europe may be much more similar to place‐based preferences in the United States than originally thought.     

The effect of ethnicity and economy upon intergenerational coresidence: northern Norway during the last part of the nineteenth century

During the last part of the nineteenth century, Finnmark province and the northern part of Troms experienced a decline in intergenerational coresidence. This article discusses what impact ethnic affiliation and economic activity had on the living arrangements of the elderly, and what contributed to the change. Logistic regression shows that ethnicity played a role but its effect disappears after controlling for economic activity. Intergenerational coresidence was positively associated with being a married Sámi male with an occupation in farming or combined fishing and farming. As such a person grew older, he was increasingly likely to live separately from an own adult child. This pattern changed toward the end of nineteenth century. By the close of the century, ethnic differences had disappeared, and headship position, irrespective of marital status, was strongly related to coresidence.     

‘The Old Woman as Hare’: Structure and Meaning in an Irish Legend

This paper looks at the St Kitts and Nevis Mummies' plays as published in Folklore by Roger Abrahams (1968). It demonstrates that the texts were originally taken from a play published by the Victorian children's author Mrs J.H. Ewing. This play appeared in several editions, most notably in two series issued by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Mrs Ewing's text was itself compiled from three northern English chapbook texts and a version from Silverton, Devon. The relative contribution of these texts to Mrs Ewing's play, and the way she put them together, are both explored.     

Dendrochronological Dating of Wooden Artefacts using Photography

Core sampling is normally used for dendrochronological age determination of both timber and living trees. As core sampling can seriously damage artefacts, a photographic method was tried on 29 wooden objects made of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). These were photographed and tree‐ring sequences for dendrochronological analysis were measured on the photographs in the laboratory. Nine objects could be dated. The undatable objects had few tree‐rings or a non‐matching tree‐ring pattern. The region in Norway where the material had grown could be determined by matching against various regional chronologies.     

OBITUARY

Samandrag:

Artikkelen gir eit oversyn over dei ulike språklege resultata av språkkontakt i Nord‐Noreg. I fleire hundre år har det rådd ein fleirspråkleg situasjon i dette området. Her kunne ein høyre og observere ikkje berre eitt eller to språk i bruk, men mange: Norsk, samisk, finsk, russisk, svensk, dansk, engelsk, tysk og fransk. Denne artikkelen tar først og fremst for seg norsk, samisk og finsk. Dei ulike språklege resultata som er oppstått av dette fleirspråklege miljøet, kan oppsummerast slik: 1. Ulike slag primitive augneblink‐språk med stutt levetid og utan verknad på andre språk i området. 2. Eit langvarig russisk‐norsk pidginspråk, russenorsk, som blei brukt i om lag 150 år i pomorhandelen mellom nordmenn og russarar. 3. Adstratum‐element frå norsk i samisk og i finske dialektar i Nord‐Noreg, og frå samisk i finsk. 4. ?Samenorsk? med mange klare samiske sub‐stratelement. 5. Språkdød, som spesielt rammar finsk i Nord‐Noreg, med mange døme på analogikonstruksjonar og reduksjon i form‐verket. 6. Reduksjon og utjamningar i det morfologiske systemet i norske dialektar i området som eit resultat av språkbytte (frå finsk og samisk til norsk). ‐ Desse ulike lingvistiske resultata gjer Nord‐Noreg til eit svært interessant område i den faglege drøftinga om språkkontakttypologi.     

Oral/Past Culture and Modern Technical Means in the Literature of the Twentieth Century in Greenland

Abstract

The present article takes as its starting point a short story from 2001 and relates it to the development of the Greenlandic literature in the twentieth century. The Greenlandic literature evolved around 1900 and mirrors the socio-political trends and the stages of nation building through the twentieth century. The overall tendencies of the century start with a striving towards more knowledge of and competence in European culture (including technical know-how) before 1950. Then a feeling of overwhelming impact from Danish culture followed during the Danification policy of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and this resulted in a protest movement in the 1960s and 1970s and Home Rule from 1979. However, if we read the literature in details and supplement it with the contemporary newspapers a much more diverse picture of an appropriation process (i.e. a conscious adaptation of selective parts of the impact from outside) emerges. The present article focuses on how these sources give us glimpses of an ongoing debate already in the first half of the twentieth century i.e. in colonial times: the Greenlandic population was not just passively under colonial domination. The history of the twentieth century is the history about a fairly well functioning appropriation of technical means and cultural impact from outside up till 1950, and then – after three decades of heavy modernization and Danification –-a process from 1979 on towards more and more agency in a “ glocalized” Greenland.