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Finland MINORITY GROUPS
Compared with many countries, Finland was quite
homogeneous.
There were few foreigners, and the ones who were present
were
usually white-collar employees required for commercial
reasons.
Very few persons of other races were seen on the nation's
streets, and only a handful of refugees were granted
asylum.
Finns were open about their desire to avoid admitting
workers
from distant southern countries and hence to avoid the
kinds of
situations that had led to minor racial incidents in
neighboring
Sweden and Denmark, let alone those that had caused the
serious
social problems experienced by Britain.
Finland did have one significant minority, the Swedishspeaking Finns, who had been in the country for more than
1,000
years and who, for centuries, had been the source of its
ruling
elite. Nineteenth-century nationalism, some fierce
struggles in
the twentieth century, and changing demographic patterns
had
deprived this group of its traditional dominance, but law
and
compromise had allowed the Swedish-speaking Finns a secure
and
peaceful place within Finnish society. Two smaller
minorities had
not been successfully assimilated. One, the Lapps, was
descended
from the original inhabitants of the land; the other, the
Gypsies, was a much later addition. The former lived
mostly in
the high north; the latter were found throughout the
country.
Neither group was a threat to Finnish society, but both
occasionally posed problems for social workers, and their
treatment at the hands of their fellow Finns was sometimes
cause
for regret. Also present in Finland were tiny Jewish and
Muslim
communities, both of which had roots going back into the
nineteenth century.
Data as of December 1988
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