Finland today
Finland has a population of 5.5 million, with a density of 16 inhabitants per km2 (2020). While 85% of the population lives in urban areas, 15% of Finns live in rural areas. In the vast expanses of Lapland, population density does not exceed 2.2 inhabitants per km2. In addition to Finns, who make up the majority of the population (93%), Finland is home to three minorities. The largest is the 300,000 Finlandssvenskar, or Swedish-speaking Finns. The country is in fact bilingual, with two official languages coexisting: Finnish and Swedish.
The second minority group comprises the 6,000 or so Saami (formerly known as Lapps) who live north of the Arctic Circle, but whose dialects, like Breton in France, are becoming less and less common. Although still taught in schools, a language center specializing in Lappish languages has been set up at the Sajos cultural center in Inari in the north of the country. Unlike the Inuit, the Lapps came into contact with peoples further south at a very early stage, and the intermingling has been more profound.
The third group is made up of around 5,000 Gypsies, who have been living in the country for 400 years. The Mustalaiset, as they're known here, were once Romani nomads, but are now sedentary.
Russian is also a language that is still widely taught in schools, not to mention English, which is spoken throughout the country and greatly facilitates exchanges with foreigners. Immigration to Finland is virtually non-existent. Here's a breakdown of the different speakers in Finland:
Native Finnish speakers: 91%.
Swedish mother tongue: 5%.
Native Russian speakers: 1.3%.
Saami mother tongue: 0.04%.
Mass emigration
In the middle of the 19thcentury , emigration to the United States and Canada took off on the same scale as in Sweden. However, independence in 1917 slowed the phenomenon considerably. Finnish emigration to Sweden in the 1950s and 1960s can be explained by the marked difference in living standards between the two countries at the time. Thanks to a spectacular economic take-off, Finland has now closed the gap. The inferiority complex long in vogue vis-à-vis the Scandinavian world no longer applies. Emigration has stopped.
The Finlandssvenskar, the Swedish-Finns
Contrary to their official name, Swedish-Finns are not immigrants. These Swedish-speaking Finns - for they are indeed Finns - have only the Swedish language. They do, however, retain a number of Scandinavian traditions. Their settlement dates back to the 12thand 13thcenturies . It was at this time that Finland became part of Stockholm. Swedish peasants emigrated to clear and cultivate the virgin land along the Finnish coast. The nobility, clerics and merchants followed. Settled across the Baltic and at the head of key positions, they imposed Swedish as the language of the elite. In fact, Swedish speakers dominated the entire country until Sweden's defeat by Russia in 1809. Nevertheless, in addition to these descendants of the "Swedes of the Kingdom", native Finns also adopted the Swedish language to rise in the social hierarchy. Swedish-speaking Finns have never been an oppressed minority. On the contrary, it was Finnish that was discriminated against. At the time, the vernacular was considered a vulgar language, unsuited to modernity. When Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809, Swedish was still the country's only official language (for education, administration and justice). However, the majority of Finns stubbornly retained their language, despite pressure from the Swedish-speaking elite. The 1860s marked a historic turning point. In 1863, the Finnish language was recognized as an official language alongside Swedish.
The language war
Under the aegis of philosopher Johan Vilhelm Snellman, the Fennomanes succeeded in convincing Tsar Alexander II to officialize the status of the Finnish language. From 1863 onwards, Finnish was used in public administration. However, the 1919 constitution maintained official bilingualism. Gradually, linguistic duality took on a political dimension. Swedish-speaking Finns, the holders of wealth and power, were frequently the target of accusations. Extremist groups such as the Lapua movement succeeded in getting the Ministry of Education to ban the word "Finnish" from schools in favor of "Finnish". In the 1940s and 1950s, the Swedish-Finns, sensing the tide turning, cultivated their specificity and defended their prerogatives tooth and nail. In 1962, they succeeded in obtaining a law defining the bilingual status of the cities of Helsinki (Helsingfors in Swedish), Turku (Åbo) and Vaasa (Vasa). Swedish-speaking Finns also won the right to use their own language in contacts with the authorities, to send their children to school in Swedish, and to do their military service in a Swedish-speaking battalion. Because the Swedish-Finnish have defined themselves according to linguistic rather than cultural criteria, the country has remained largely indifferent to their demographic decline. Today, they account for just 6% of the Finnish population, compared with 12% at the beginning of the 20thcentury . The prospect of the disappearance of Swedish is therefore not unthinkable in the long term. Mixed marriages are accelerating the process. Young Finns of Finnish descent are reluctant to learn Swedish, preferring English by far. However, when young people take a state examination, they are required to provide a certificate of bilingualism. The last remaining Swedish-speaking areas are concentrated along the south coast, in the Turku archipelago, the Åland Islands and Ostrobothnia. Unofficially, some restaurants, cafés and even neighborhoods tend to be Swedish-speaking.
The Finno-Ugric language
The Finno-Ugric languages derive from the same ancient language, which differentiated itself over time as speakers dispersed. While many of the distant ancestors of the Finns left Russia, driven out by the Slavs, some remained and were integrated into the Russian Empire and the USSR. These small tribes, drowned out by the overwhelming Russian majority, managed to preserve their language.
The Saami language (formerly Lappish) is also a Finno-Ugric language spoken by around 2,000 people in the Lapland region. The Saami people speak different languages in western and eastern Lapland.
In the south of the country, many Finns are bilingual (Finnish-Swedish). English is also spoken by a large majority of the population, especially young people. TV series and foreign films, systematically broadcast in their original version with subtitles, encourage language learning. You' ll have no trouble making yourself understood in English. French, on the other hand, is still not widely spoken, although the trend seems to be improving since Finland joined the European Union. North of the Gulf of Bothnia, Finns are often more fluent in German than in English. Pocket-sized Finnish-French dictionaries are available in major Finnish bookshops and in France.
The Sami people
The Saami reject the term "Lapp", literally meaning "dressed in rags". They rightly prefer the term "Saami" from their own language. This concern reflects a legitimate revival of identity. Their origins are still uncertain. Some suggest nomadic tribes from Central Asia. Following the retreat of the glacial fringe, they dispersed until they reached northern Finland and eastern Karelia during the last millennium B.C. The ethnic group is divided into four groups: the mountain Saami, the forest Saami, the lake and river Saami and the coastal Saami.
In Finland, only a minority of them are involved in traditional activities such as forestry and reindeer herding, where the snow scooter has largely supplanted the sled. Geographically, they are spread throughout Lapland, a territory of 260,000 km2 (less than half the size of France) straddling four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Of the 60,000 Saami, 35,000 live in Norway, 20,000 in Sweden, 6,000 in Finland and 3,000 on the Kola peninsula in Russia. In Finnish Lapland, they live mainly in Inari, Utsjoki, Enontekiö and Sodankylä. Their pastoral culture and language, distinct from Finnish but related to the Finno-Ugric group, make them a distinct minority within the country.
Unlike other Arctic peoples, the Saami came into early contact with southern populations. Their earliest traces date back 10,000 years. Settled in the far north of Europe, they were renowned for their craftsmanship and expertise in fishing, hunting and boat-building. As early as the 11th century, the rise of the great Scandinavian countries brought new beliefs to Lapland. In the 13th century, Norwegians settled near the fjords, forcing them to turn to agriculture and cattle breeding. Reindeer were already at the heart of their activities. A century later, the process accelerated. While some Saami continued their nomadic lifestyle, towns such as Inari became commercial crossroads. In the 16th century, Sweden acquired the previously neutral and open Saami territories by force. Fishing and hunting (still essential activities) were taxed. In 1751, the Trömstad Agreement delimiting the border between Norway and Sweden authorized the Sami to cross the border freely, in order to ensure the seasonal migration of reindeer. From then on, they were taxed in only one country. Nation states thus imposed their views on nomadic peoples, for whom the notion of frontier had previously been meaningless. In the 19th century, the construction of nomadic schools contributed to the development of education. Between 1824 and 1827, the strict demarcation of the northern borders between Finland, Sweden and Norway plunged this nomadic people into disarray. Declassified in Scandinavia and Finland, the Saami were forbidden to use their mother tongue in Norwegian and Swedish schools.
The independence of Finland in 1917, previously and successively a province of the Kingdom of Sweden and the Grand Duchy of Russia, changed the situation slightly. The 1919 Constitution formally guaranteed respect for minorities. In practice, however, they continued to be the victims of racism for a long time to come. The adoption of a Saami flag in 1989 signaled the return of the Saami debate and identity to the public arena. In Finland, the issue is still topical.
The Sami of the 4 countries are united and organized politically with their own parliament, and are part of the Sami Council created in 1956 in Norway. They also have their own flag, anthem(Sámi soga lávlla, literally "the song of the Sami people") and national holiday (February 6). Since 1995, the Finnish Constitution has recognized them as an indigenous people, until the creation of the Sámediggi parliament in 1973. The latter is located in the magnificent Sajos Cultural Center, inaugurated in 2012 in Inari. Its 21 members and 4 deputies oversee the fair distribution of subsidies for education, reindeer husbandry, language, Saami culture or simply the representation of their people on the international stage. Other parliaments also exist in Norwegian and Swedish Lapland, and perhaps soon in Russia. Demographically, however, the Saami population has been in sharp decline since 1945. The Chernobyl accident also had disastrous repercussions on the economy, making lichen unfit for consumption and, consequently, reindeer meat as well. The community's survival now depends to a large extent on tourism. The great finesse of the craftsmanship demonstrates the skill and originality of a people whose citizens have long suffered from unacknowledged discrimination on the part of the Finnish and Scandinavian authorities. Leatherwork, birchbark weaving and pewter embroidery are among the most sought-after items. Saami culture is based on oral tradition. The joik, a kind of very moving melody, is still sung by the younger generations and can sometimes be heard on special occasions such as the national holiday (December 6).
