Sweden Finns
- a
national minority
The
Finns in Sweden got a minority
status in year 1999. In the same year five municipalities in Northern Sweden were proclaimed
as areas where Finnish language is a minority language. However, the
majority of Finnish speakers in Sweden live around an
area called Mälardalen, i. e. an area around lake Mälaren. The Sweden Finns
claim that the official minority status covers the whole country.
The new wave of immigration
The movement of immigrants from Finland to Sweden was relatively
constant till the end of the 1960's and beginning of the1970's. At that
time an economic downfall hit Finland hard. Hundreds of
thousands of Finns, mainly from the countryside, sought their way to Sweden
that, in turn, badly needed more labour force to its thriving
industrial development. Some major companies even had regular
recruiters in Finland seeking people
that would be willing to move to Sweden... The "new wave"
of Finns soon settled down in Sweden
and a need for a Finnish language public service and infrastructure
araised. Already in the 50's several Finnish clubs had been established
in different parts of the country in addition to the few that had
mainly existed in Stockholm,
and in september 1957 nine of these clubs decided that they needed a
nationwide body to coordinate their activities. The National
Association of Finns in Sweden (NAFS = National
Association of Finns in Sweden) was founded in
autumn 1957.
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A short history of Finns in Sweden
Scholars still
argue about who inhabited Fennoscandia (Scandinavia including Finland and western parts
of the Kola peninsula)
first: the Germanic ancestors of current Swedes or the Finno - Ugrian
ancestors of the Finns. New linguistic discoveries suggest that the
clock of history should be rewinded, i.e. that Finno - Ugrian tribes -
ancestors to Finns, Estonians and the Samis - have arrived to
Scandinavia first following the melting ice line from the latest
glacial period. Whatever with the past, a historical fact is, that
throughout the times from early 13th century till 1809 the Finns and
the Swedes formed a common state from a common platform based on
equality between these two parts of the empire. After a series of wars,
however, Sweden had to succumb Finland to czarist Russia in 1809.
Together
for more than six centuries
Thus for at least 650 years inhabitants of both countries were able to
move around relatively freely within the common state without crossing
any borders. One could say that in the common state more people moved
from Finland to Sweden
and vice versa than what is happening today. There is a lot of evidence
of this movement even if exact numbers of these "domestic immigrants"
cannot be found in any books. Some historians say hundreds of thousands
pro century, some claim tens of thousands. What is known is that during
some periods the state ordered peasants from different parts of Finland to move out and
inhabit parts of Sweden,
mainly the woodlands in the west and north. During the Middle and New
Ages, the King and the State often set on harsh limitations to the
trade. Therefore Stockholm
became the most important export harbour for the whole nation and even
Finnish goods were traded mainly through the capital, subsequently
drawing many Finns to the nation's capital not only to import or
export, but to work, often as servants or maids in the capital's
thriving households. One has also to remember that until the secession
of Finland to Russia, a large part of the ranks of the Swedish armed
forces consisted of Finnish recruits; even many of the officers were
born and raised in Finland and often commanding troops of their of
neighbourhood. Finnish language was thereby widely used throughout the
country.
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A Finnish congregation since 1533 Following the population
movements a Finnish church and congregation was established in Stockholm
1533. It still exists and flourishes... Finnish was also spoken in the
Royal court where a large part of the lower ranked staff were native
Finns. It has even been established that King Gustaf Wasa ordered his
sons to learn Finnish and had a Finnish clergyman as their tutor.
Gustaf Wasas son, Duke Carl, ordered in the 16th century that a number
of peasants from eastern Finland would have to
move out and inhabit parts of Dalarna and Värmland in central and
western parts of Sweden.
As a result thousands of families wandered through the whole country to
settle in the Swedish woodlands. Even after secession of Finland to Russia, contacts between
Finland and Sweden remained very
good and flourished, especially in the academic circles. Stockholm and Uppsala with their
universities were important for the Finnish scholars and their pupils
even if Finland
has universities of its own, both in Finnish and in Swedish. During
common historic times many families of nobility and bourgoisie had
split in two branches, one Finnish and one Swedish. (And some still
are..).Therefore the Swedish language prevailed as the major language
of Finnish civil servants even after becoming part of the Russian
empire.
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