Institute for Language and Folklore
Sweden
The position of the Finnish language in Sweden is a topical political issue with deep historical roots. Until 1809, Finland and Sweden were one and the same state, united under the same monarch, legislation, administrative structure and state church. But the population had several different mother tongues. The largest of these languages were Swedish and Finnish. Within today's Swedish borders, Finnish has been spoken at least since the Middle Ages, probably considerably longer.
While the status of Finnish and Swedish has occasionally been a conflict-filled political issue in Finland from the 19th century onwards, the position of the Finnish in Sweden has long been something of a non-issue. Everyone in Sweden was expected to master Swedish, and there are numerous examples of strong historical pressure to assimilate Migration from Finland to Sweden has taken many different forms over the centuries. It has been continuous, but decreased significantly after 1809. An important stage is the labor-related migration that took place from Finland to Sweden during the 1960s and 70s. In total, it is estimated that approximately half a million Finns came to Sweden after the Second World War. Most of these had Finnish as their mother tongue. This wave of immigration ebbed in the latter part of the 1970s.
The large-scale immigration and new political winds have had great significance for the Finnish language in Sweden. In 1977, the Swedish government decided that municipalities would be obliged to offer mother-tongue education to students whose mother tongue is not Swedish. The possibility of conducting bilingual education was also eventually regulated by law.
There are no official statistics on languages in Sweden, but it is estimated that 200,000 – 250,000 inhabitants of Sweden are Finnish speakers. Since the 1980s, the number of Finnish speakers has gradually decreased and so has the number of students studying Finnish at school. The government inquiry of mother tongue teaching in 2017 was able to state that participation in mother tongue teaching in Finnish decreased from approximately 10,000 students in the academic year 1994/95 to a minimum of approximately 3,000 in the academic year 2007/08. According to the Swedish Education Agency, the number of students in the 2021/2022 school year was 4 657.
It was only in 2000 that the Finnish language received an official legal status in Sweden when the government ratified the European Charter on Regional or Minority Languages. Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani Chib and Yiddish was then recognised as national minority languages. In the Language Act, which came into force 2009, public authorities were given a special responsibility to promote and protect the national minority languages. In 2000, a law on the right to use Finnish, Sami language and Meänkieli in contacts with administrative authorities and courts entered into force. It also stipulated a right to be offered preschool and care for the elderly in these languages. The right was linked to five administrative municipalities in northern Sweden. The rights were clarified in 2010 through The Act on National Minorities and Minority Languages. Today, 66 out of a total of 290 municipalities in Sweden are administrative municipalities for Finnish.
In 2005, the Swedish Parliament decided to establish language policy goals, and the decision led to the state's language policy efforts being brought together. The Language Council was formed as a department within the Institute for Languages and Folklore (Isof). As early as 1975, the Swedish-Finnish Language Committee had been formed. The board consisted of the Language Council and today there are two employed language experts in Finnish at Isof.
With experiences from the Sami language centre, established in 2010, The Sweden Finnish Delegation and The National Association of Swedish Tornedalians, pushed the issue of forming a corresponding centre for Finnish and Meänkieli. In a report to the Ministry of Culture in November 2015, it was proposed that a joint language centre for the languages be established as part of Isof. The task of the Language Centre would be to actively promote and stimulate the increased use of Finnish and Meänkieli in society, disseminate knowledge about revitalisation, provide expertise and develop methods to strengthen individuals' ability to use and reclaim their languages. The proposal for a language centre was picked up by the inquiry into a strengthened minority policy that the government appointed in 2016. The inquiry suggested that Isof investigate the forms for establishing language centres for Meänkieli and Finnish and the conditions for establishing language centres for Romani Chib and Yiddish. The government gave such a task to Isof in June 2018. Isof proposed in 2019 that four language centres should be established.
In December 2021, Isof was tasked with setting up the language centres, in accordance with the proposal submitted by Isof. However, the assignment was time-limited to three years and Isof was also to produce indicators for the long-term survival of the languages. Isof started building the language centres in the spring of 2022. Today, three so-called language promoters in Finnish work at the agency. Isof has also strengthened its expertise in revitalization, multilingual terminology and language technology aimed at national minority languages. The Finnish language centre works in various ways to promote and stimulate increased use of Finnish in society and among individuals. The centre provides expertise, develops methods to strengthen individuals' conditions to use and regain Finnish, and spreads knowledge about revitalization. Except for individuals, the activities are targeted for example at schools, municipalities, other government authorities and Sweden Finnish associations.
The formal rights linked to the language have been strengthened, but Finnish still has a pressured situation as both the contexts for speaking the language and the amount of the speakers have decreased in recent decades. However, many testify to an increased willingness among residents in Sweden with a Finnish background to identify themselves as Sweden Finns and an increased interest among young Sweden Finns in Sweden Finnish and Finnish culture, even among those who do not speak the language. At the same time, the need for personnel who can speak Finnish has increased. For example have those who came to Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s reached an age that means they often need elderly care, and there is a lack of speakers to meet the need.
Developments in the outside world have made the already strong ties between Sweden and Finland even stronger. In order for Finnish to survive in Sweden into the future, long-term and purposeful efforts are required from public actors in Sweden, as well as a commitment and a will from the Sweden Finnish minority in Sweden. The establishment of a language centre is one of many efforts needed to maintain and develop Finnish as a living language in Sweden.