Sikhs In Continental Europe From Norway to Greece and Russia to Portugal

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This book is the third in the trilogy of books looking at the comparatively less-known destinations of Sikh migration to non-English speaking countries. The first one was Sikhs in Latin America, followed by Sikhs in Asia Pacific . . . Yangon to Kobe.

Earlier Sikh migration was focused on the British Commonwealth and the USA. Once restrictions were placed on entering the UK, the Sikhs were forced to explore the possibility of migrating to other countries including Continental Europe. The pace of migration picked up in 1970s. Later there were more asylum seekers in the 1980s and 1990s adding to the migration numbers. Some could enter Europe through legal channels, while others found alternative routes as undocumented migrants. Sikhs found employment mostly as unskilled labour but now they have been able to create niche professions such as dairying in Italy and restaurants/bars in Finland.

There is now a large second generation who is fully qualified to enter other professions. The author describes how Sikhs have kept up their traditions through 'Nagar Kirtans', Turban, Youth Summer camps, and `sewa'. There are almost 140 gurdwaras in Europe with a meagre population of less than a quarter million.

Swam Singh Kahlon obtained his Bachelor's degree from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Thereafter, he went to the USA to get his Master's degree and gain work experience in the US and Austria. On his return to India he joined Imperial Chemical Industries in Kolkata and later Mumbai. In 1999 settled down in Chandigarh and set about to complete the Sikh Diaspora map involving extensive travel over the last fifteen years. He has so far visited 80 countries.

I had set about visiting and writing about Sikhs in countries and places about which comparatively less is known as they are present in small numbers in these locales. These Sikh desti-nations were invariably in the non-English speaking countries.

The first in the series of Sikh Global Village writings was the book Sikhs in Latin America: Travels among the Sikh Diaspora published by Manohar Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi in 2011. The volume was based on my travels to seven countries, viz., Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Belize and Cuba in 2005 and 2006. This was a pioneering venture as no one had covered this continent for the study of Sikh Diaspora and probably even the Indian Diaspora.

The second book in the series Sikhs in Asia Pacific: Travels among the. Sikh Diaspora from Yangon to Kobe published in 2016 by Manohar covered eleven countries of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan. The visits were more spread out between 2007 and 2014. Fortunately there was some coverage by researchers available on the subject for some countries.

Sikhs started to look seriously at Europe as a migration destination in the mid-1960s when restrictions were placed by the British Government on free movement of the erstwhile citizens of their colonies to UK. But the real movement to the continent is a 1970s phenomenon, followed by larger numbers in 1980s arising from political turmoil in Punjab as a consequence of Operation Blue Star and largescale killing of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of India post assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. The numbers of migrants continued to increase till early twenty-first century—to seek asylum and also to meet the need for labour in several countries. The earlier migrants were mainly male who could subsequently bring in their families on getting Residence status. This boosted the numbers and now there is a significant presence of second generation Sikhs. Illegal immigrants are an important feature of Sikh migration to Europe.

Historically there was a Sikh connection with Europe through employment of some European soldiers by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and later on through the stay in Paris of Maharaja Duleep Singh. Sikh soldiers as a part of British Indian Army were also actively involved in both World Wars in Europe and in other fronts.

The author would like to pay tribute to the work done by the 'Sikhs in Europe—Lund Group' during the period 2005-13 involving four conferences and publication of a book, Sikhs in Europe (2011), by Jacobsen and Myrvold.