Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories is the winner of the Nordic History Book Award 2025
Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories sheds light on the often-overlooked histories of forced migrants in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during the 20th and 21st centuries. It offers the first comparative, region-wide volume focused specifically on the histories of refugees and other groups of forced migrants across the Nordic countries.
Nordic historiographies have long tended to marginalise or omit the presence of these migrants, producing a perception of forced migration as something ‘new’ or ‘exceptional’. This volume challenges that notion by uncovering the long and varied histories of forced migration within, between, to, and from the Nordic region. In doing so, it repositions forced migrants as integral to the shaping of Nordic societies.
The volume includes contributions from and about all the five Nordic countries. It examines both national specificities and shared regional patterns, offering insights into how forced migration has been regulated, remembered, and represented in public discourses across borders.
The chapters engage with a wide range of forced migrant groups, such as wartime evacuees, refugees, deportees, Holocaust survivors, and more recent asylum-seekers. Central to the volume is the recognition of forced migrants as historical actors. Drawing on oral histories, personal testimonies, and archival research, the book foregrounds the agency of forced migrants themselves, countering their frequent portrayal as passive or voiceless.
By tracing historiographical trends and shifting discourses, regulatory frameworks, and memory practices,
Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories contributes a vital historical dimension to contemporary debates on forced migration.
‘[T]he book is a pioneering work in that it provides the first comparative overview of patterns of inclusion and exclusion of forced migrants in Nordic historiography, hopefully motivating further historical research in this important field. It is notable that many of the chapters highlight the fundamentally transnational nature of forced migration histories, emphasizing connections and contrasts across borders.’
- Award committee of the Nordic History Book Award 2025.
Louis Clerc, Professor, University of Turku, Merethe Roos, Professor, University of South-Eastern Norway, and Guðmundur Hálfdanarson, Professor, University of Iceland.
