Fra stormflodsflygtning til erhvervsmigrant. Mobilitet fra Limfjordstangen 1825-1910'erne.

This article investigates mobility patterns from a coastal area exposed to changing and challenging environmental conditions are investigated by identifying the driving forces towards three waves of relocations from Limfjordstangen (an isthmus on the West coast of Denmark) in the period 1825 to 1915. Inspired by contemporary migration studies, we use records of valuations of the victims' losses, descriptions and reports from the local administration, the arrival and departure lists of the church registers, as well as topographical and historical descriptions of the conditions on the Limfjordstangen to piece together narratives that analytically illuminate the numerous and mutually related driving forces of mobility. Throughout the studied period, mobility was characterized by group moves. The mobility patterns away from the isthmus were in the first periods characterized by storm surges and floods putting pressure on the population's housing and land properties. The last of the three relocation waves was characterized by families migrating to optimize fishing and earning opportunities. We thus conclude that there is a change from forced relocations affected by natural disasters to more planned well-considered and profit-seeking relocations. The article discusses the change in mobility patterns as part of an emerging modernity seeping in at the isthmus and consider the possibility that a special local tendency to migrate occurred in the area during the late 1800s.