The Emigrant database EMIBAS was created by the Swedish Emigrant Institute (SEI) in 1991. During the 1990s SEI started up a number of projects for registration of databases throughout Sweden.


In these projects the records for moving and parish catechetical meetings for the period 1840-1939 were excerpted. As the projects were financed through unemployment measures the registration was terminated before the intended time, as unemployment fell.


The aim of the new project is to convert EMIBAS to a modern database environment and complete the registration of all Swedish emigrants during the period. In the project a survey of the great Swedish labour migration to the European Continent during the same period will be commenced. This creates good opportunities for studies of circular migration. In EMIBAS almost 1,1 million emigrants are registered. Most of Sweden is covered, but approximately 300, 000 persons are not yet registered in the database.


The memory data base which EMIBAS administrates is still in the old Dbase format, which makes it impossible to receive complements or make new registrations in the application.


SEI is participating in a new cooperation together with several emigration institutes aiming at publishing databases on the internet, EMIWEB. This means that the registration through this new publication form will facilitate public accessibility. As a second phase in the project registration of Swedish labour migrants will be commenced.