First Finns moved to North America with the Swedish as early as in the 1600s. A huge emigration wave began in the middle of 19th century. Over 80,000 Finns moved to North America.

Sailors and newspapers spread out information about "the land of hope and glory". The most famous ship that transported emigrants from Southampton to New York was R.M.S Titanic, which hit the iceberg and sank in 1912.

Most emigrants were from the countryside in Ostrobothnia. First these people moved to towns in Finland to find a better job. But it was not a very good idea. So people moved to North America. Emigration began in the north of Finland and spread towards the south.

People left from Ostrobothnia because steamships and sailing vessels became general and the demand of tar decreased. Another reason was high growth of population in Ostrobothnia and migration became a fashion phenomenon.

Most of the emigrants had low skills. There isn’t as many emigrants as 100 years ago because they need linguistic abilities and professional ability.

Nowadays emigrants are highly educated and leave to go abroad just for a while. Study, getting more linguistic abilities, getting experience of life and human relations have replaced "0old reasons" to emigrate like livelihood motives. In the group of emigrants are much more so-called seasonal emigrants.

Reasons why people became emigrants:
   - Changes in land owning caused problems like excess population in the               countryside
   - Property was handed over to the oldest son, the other siblings were left no land.      They had to leave their home estate and find their living somewhere else
   - Gold fever in California
   - Political reasons, Finland was under Russian rule