Talk:Sweden Finns

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zuni girl; photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1903 This article falls within the scope of WikiProject Ethnic groups, a WikiProject interested in improving the encyclopaedic coverage and content of articles relating to ethnic groups, nationalities, and other cultural identities. If you would like to help out, you are welcome to drop by the project page and/or leave a query at the project's talk page.
NB: Assessment ratings and other indicators given below are used by the Project in prioritizing and managing its workload.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale.
High This article has been rated as High-importance on the Project's importance scale.
After rating the article, please provide a short summary on the article's ratings summary page to explain your ratings and/or identify the strengths and weaknesses.
WikiProject Ethnic groups open tasks:
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Finland, a WikiProject related to the nation of Finland. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
WikiProject Sweden The article on Sweden Finns is supported by WikiProject Sweden, which is an attempt to improve the quality and coverage of Sweden-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page; if you have any questions about the project or the article ratings below, please consult the FAQ.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.

I believe I've seen nice Finnish statistical graphics showing that it really was the 1950s and 1960s being the decades of mass emigration, followed by re-migration after 1972/1973. I can't point at any source for that, but:

Quoting from secure.rogerbooth.co.uk/rsa/gdansk/ Persson%20Neubauer.doc:

Since the free Nordic labour market was established 1954, more than one million Nordic citizens have used their rights to move freely between and settle down in the differing Nordic countries. In spite of the liberation of the migratory rules, the short-time effects were limited. Immigration to e.g. Sweden remained at the same level as the period before liberalisation (Bergström ed, 1997, p.8 ff.). The explanation to this is simply that Sweden had introduced a liberal immigration policy already before 1954.
(...)
The definitely most apparent result of the common Nordic labour market was instead, as indicated above, an outflow of labour from Finland to Sweden, which reached its peak in 1969-1970, that resulted in a large return migration some years later. During these two years 80 000 people moved from Finland to Sweden. This was probably too much for the Finnish authorities and milder restrictions against labour migration were introduced. The limitations of migration at that time were probably unnecessary because the demand for labour in the Swedish industry had already slowed down. After the two extreme years, there was a period when return-migration exceeded immigration to Sweden. The major part of migration to Finland is return-migration and there is a close connection between the number of emigrants to Finland and immigration to Sweden some years before. The response to immigration with regard to return-migration was quite diffuse until the late 60s when the peaks in immigration are followed by responding peaks in emigration.

-- Ruhrjung 12:08 May 15, 2003 (UTC)

I think my source was the soc.culture.nordic FAQ, but after some looking around a bit I think you might be correct. So I'am putting back 50s and 60s in the article. -- Jniemenmaa 16:17 May 15, 2003 (UTC)
The s.c.nordic FAQ has its advantages. But, to quote the editor (-emeritus), it gives a true picture of commonly hold beliefs in the mid 1990s. :->> -- Ruhrjung 19:06 May 15, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Moved back from "Finnishspeaking Swedes"

"Finnishspeaking Swedes" get zero google hits. I think moving the page should be discussed here. -- Jniemenmaa 09:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

This page was moved without discussion first to "Finnishspeaking Swedes" and now to "Finnish-speaking Swedes". I propose we move it back to "Sweden Finns" which is a much more widely used term. Besides, I think the term "Finnish-speaking Swedes" is inaccurate as it excludes all Finns (people who are Finnish citizens or just consider themselves Finns) living in Sweden.

Here is a quick google check:

  • "Sweden Finns" - 711 hits
  • "Finnish-speaking Swedes" - 81
  • "Finnishspeaking Swedes" - zero

-- Jniemenmaa 08:07, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

If Finland Swedes is incorrect English and should be changed to Swedish-speaking Finns, as some Finnish nationalists claim, then Sweden Finns must also be incorrect English and should be changed to Finnish-speaking Swedes. Den fjättrade ankan 18:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't know about it being incorrect English, but it's clear that these two groups are different. The Sweden Finns that this article talks about moved to Sweden in the latter part of the 20th century and consider themselves Finns. On the contrast, most "Finland-Swedes" consider themselves Finnish and many Swedish speaking families have their origin in Finnish families who started to speak Swedish during the Swedish reign. There are always some exceptions but this is how it is generally. Jniemenmaa is a Sweden Finn himself, I'm sure he knows that he's a Finn, not a Swede. P.S. Of course there has always been Finnish population in Sweden, even before the Swedes themselves migrated to Sweden. --Jaakko Sivonen 19:17, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
The name may be a problem whichever way it goes. In my experience, both the Swedish-speakers in Finland and the Finnish-speakers in Sweden see themselves as Finns. For that reason, I think the names "Sweden Finns" and "Swedish-speaking Finns" are the best, although far from perfect. Dusis 20:33, 16 January 2007 (UTC)


Does Sweden Finns mean "People from Finland living in Sweden" or does it mean "Finnish speaking people in Sweden"? The article says "Finnish speaking" but the list of people seems to show "People with roots in Finland, regardless of language"

83.241.212.40 (talk) 09:41, 27 May 2008 (UTC)