Culturally diverse Finland

Finland has been a culturally and linguistically diverse country for centuries. The term ‘linguistic and cultural minority’ primarily refers to national, ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious minorities in different countries.

The Sámi people are a recognised indigenous people who live in regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.

Finnish language and cultural minorities include the Finnish–Swedish, Roma, Ingrian Finns, Karelians, Jews, and Tatars as well as linguistic and cultural minorities who have moved to Finland after the 19th century.

According to the UN Declaration on Minorities, people belonging to a minority have the legal right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. Provisions on the rights of minorities to maintain their own language and culture are laid down in several different acts, such as the Constitution of Finland and the Language Act.

The history of culturally diverse Finland in brief

Finland has always been inhabited by a culturally diverse population. In 2022, about 9 per cent of the Finnish population had a foreign background.

People move to Finland for various, individual reasons. For example, changes in the world, crises and conflict situations have increased migration to Finland at times. However, the most common reason for moving to Finland today is family reasons. This is the reason for moving to Finland for about one third of all immigrants. Approximately one quarter have moved for work and 11 per cent have moved for studies. Approximately one fifth of immigrants have arrived as asylum seekers or refugees. Return migration is also one of the reasons.

In addition to Finnish, Swedish and Sámi, more than 160 different mother tongues are spoken in Finland, the most common of which are Russian, Estonian, Arabic, English and Somali. In addition, there are increasing numbers of bilingual people living in Finland, but there are no statistics on this. The Roma also have their own language.

People have moved to Finland from different countries at different times

1500–1600 BCE: Sámi
1500: Roma
1800/1830s: Jews
turn of the 20th century: Tatars
1970: Vietnamese
1973: Chileans
1990: Somalis, Ingrian returnees
2015: Iraqis, Afghans
2022: Ukrainians

Explore our indigenous people and cultural minorities

The Sámi are the only recognised indigenous people in the European Union. The Sámi homeland (map: Sápmi area) extends from the central parts of Sweden and Norway through the northernmost Finland to the tip of the Kola Peninsula. According to various estimates, there are a total of 75,000–100,000 Sámi living in four countries, of which 6,000–10,000 in Finland, depending on the method of calculation.

There are nine living Sámi languages. In Finland, Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Northern Sámi are spoken.

Under the Act on the Sámi Parliament, the Sámi homeland of Finland comprises the municipalities of Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjoki as well as the northern part of the municipality of Sodankylä, the reindeer owners’ association of Lapland. Approximately half of the Sámi in Finland live outside the homeland.

The connection between Sámi families extends across national borders, which is why the Sámi are an indigenous people in the territory of four countries.

The self-government of indigenous peoples in Finland is carried out by the Sámi Parliament. The Sámi have similar self-governing bodies in Sweden and Norway. The Sámi people of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia form the Sámi Parliamentary Council together.
Most of the more than 290,000 Finns speaking Swedish mainly live in the coastal area, but there are Swedish-speaking minorities also in large inland cities. Åland is a Swedish-speaking autonomous region with approximately 28,000 inhabitants.

The national languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. The Constitution of Finland mandates Swedish and Finnish speakers to have equal access to public services in their language. Based on the Constitution, Finnish Swedish people have a stronger position in society than other national minorities.
The Finnish Roma are a Finnish linguistic and cultural minority who has lived in Finland for over 500 years. The first written references date back to the 16th century. It is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 Finnish Roma in Finland and 3,000 Finnish Roma live in Sweden. The Roma population in Europe is estimated to be between 10 and 15 million.

The status of the Roma as a national, traditional minority is safeguarded in the 2000 Constitution. Finland has had a Roma policy programme in line with the EU strategy since 2009. Its general objective is to promote the inclusion, participation and equality of the Roma in different areas of life. Prior to the EU strategy, a report on Roma policy strategies was published in Finland.

In 2018, THL published the ROOSA study on the wellbeing and health of the Roma. In addition, Finnish Roma have been studied in several doctoral dissertations using qualitative methods, such as ethnography.
A permanent Jewish settlement is considered to have been born in Finland in the first half of the 19th century. The Finnish Jewish population originates from Jewish soldiers of the Czar’s Army and their family members, who arrived in Finland for their military service, and later migrants from the Russian Empire. In January 1918, the Jews gained full civil rights as a result of Finland’s independence. Since then, Jewish people have also arrived in Finland from elsewhere, such as Israel. The Jewish community is diverse in its nationalities.

There are about 1,500 Jews living in Finland, the majority of whom belong to the Jewish parish of Helsinki. In recent decades, the number of members of the Jewish parish in Helsinki has increased as a result of migration from the former Soviet Union and Israel.

The national representative body of Finnish Jews is the Central Council of Jewish Communities of Finland.
The Tatars are a uniform linguistic-religious minority. The Finnish Tatars originate mainly from 20th-century Imperial Russian Tatar Villages, and they, like Jewish people, arrived in Finland with the Czar’s army. Civilians working as traders then formed a permanent Tatar minority. The Tatars are a Turkic people that practises Islam. They speak Tatar as their mother tongue.

There are about 900 Tatars in Finland, and most of them belong to the Finnish-Islamic congregation established in 1925 (formerly the Finnish Mohammedan Congregation).
African descent can be defined in many ways. For example, the population groups examined in THL studies are Africa excluding North Africa. In addition, the definition of African is strongly linked to self-identification.

Afro-Finns are Finns with family roots in Africa. They have lived in Finland since the 19th century, when the first Finnish citizenships were given to people of African origin. The number of African Finns is difficult to map, as no data on ethnicity is collected in Finland. It is estimated that Afro-Finns form one of the largest cultural minorities in Finland. Afro-Finns have only recently been recognised as one of Finland’s historic minority groups.

People with Somali background are the largest group with African background in Finland, and some of them also identify themselves as, for example, Afro-Finns.
Russians are currently our largest foreign-language minority. There are approximately 93,000 people speaking Russian as their mother tongue living in Finland. In the early 2020s, the number of Russian speakers in Finland has increased considerably, by approximately 3,000–5,000 people each year.

People with a Russian background and Russian-speakers form a diverse population group. The term can be seen as a umbrella concept, under which several more integrated population groups are included. These population groups include Old Russians, Ingrian Finns and Russian-Finnish.

People with a Russian background have a long history in Finland. They have moved to Finland in many different periods and still do.

In statistics, at least three overlapping groups are specified according to which the Russian-speaking population in Finland can be examined: Russian speakers, Russian citizens and persons of Russian origin with a Russian or Soviet background.

Researched information on a culturally diverse Finland

There is qualitative research data on national minorities. Experiential research data is considered an important method, for example, among the Sámi and the Roma.

However, there is little statistical research data. Information is needed, but collecting it includes various ethical questions and problems related to experienced historical injustices. So-called ethnic data collection has been avoided, and statistical data on different sections of the population cannot be obtained in Finland other than on the basis of mother tongue and country of birth.

In addition to immigrants, THL’s research and development has mainly focused on the Roma and the Sámi.