Migrant men in misery : Result from a qualitative life history analysis on individuals and families concerning internal migration, health and life circumstances in early 19th century, Linköping, Sweden

Abstract

he purpose of this paper is to present and evaluate the first results from an ongoing study, which aims to explore and understand, in a hermeneutic sense, under what life conditions, including their health, internal migrants lived, in a small pre-industrial Swedish town during a time of considerable social change, and also how these migrants coped with their everyday lives as new residents in town. In other words, under what circumstances could these migrants better their lives in town and under what circumstances was their strive for improvement hindered? After an introduction to previous research, followed by a presentation of the method used in this study and a characterization of the context of the town, Linkoping, examples of migrant life courses will be presented and discussed. T