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The emigration to the United States and Canada

Although these countries were not among the favourite destinations of the Valaisans during the 19th century—unlike emigrants in other Swiss cantons—about a hundred Upper Valaisans from the Vispertal settled in Morrilton, Arkansas, as early as the 1880s.

In the following years and until the First World War, North America became a preferred destination for emigrants from the Valais, especially from regions that had been little affected by the rise of industrialization.

Among the advertisements that were printed in the Valaisan press, in 1883 there was an emigration offer from the Andreas Zwilchenbart agency in Basel, which was represented in Sion by the notary Louis-Xavier de Riedmatten and in Saint-Maurice by Gabriel Veuillet, Café du Chemin de Fer.

Bibliography

Alexandre CARRON & Christophe CARRON, Nos cousins d’Amérique. Histoire de l’émigration valaisanne en Amérique du Sud au XIXe siècle (2 vols.). Sierre, 1989 and 1990.

Patrick WILLISCH, "Das Wallis in Bewegung. Ein Forschungsbericht zur Migrationsgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert", in Blätter aus der Walliser Geschichte, 48 (2016), pp. 85-172.

The emigrants from the Valais all over the globe Virtual exhibitions on the emigration History of emigration from the Valais

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