Celsius Centre for Scandinavian Studies

Vol 2 1998 - Cameron Munce

Ethnicity and nation building in the Nordic world

Sven Tagil (ed)

C. Hurst and Co
38 King Street, London, WC2E 8JT
ISBN 85065 216 3
ISGN 85065 239 2

Sven Tagil has edited an important collection of essays on Nordic Nation Building. Nine scholars from Scandinavia have collaborated under the sponsorship of the Joint Committee of the Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities to produce a survey of multiculturalism.

Part four, written by Harold Rublom, is particularly interesting dealing as it does with immigration to Scandinavia after World War II. Rublom points out how international migration has served as a dynamic element in Nordic societies since 1945. Migration has altered the ethnic and linguistic variety, and confronted individuals and local committees with a spectre of new life styles. Immigration also challenged traditional behaviour and policies in education, justice administration, medical services and the church.

Rublom points out that Finland has led the way in migration search, when a special centre was set up for the purpose in Tarka at the Institute of Migration. This is itself a curious development, as Finland has the lowest percentage of total population by number of foreign citizens. According to table on p.285, Runblom shows Finland with 17,269 foreign citizens a rate of 0.4 per cent was well behind its Nordic neighbours and the major recipients of migrants, West Germany and France and for different reasons, Switzerland.

In the (mysteriously selected) year of 1986, Sweden had 390,800 or 4.6 per cent foreign citizens, Denmark 116,949 or 2.4 per cent and Norway 109,286 or 2.6 per cent. The Swiss borders contained 956,000, or 14 per cent, the West German 4,483,600 or 7.4 per cent and the French were hosts to 3,680,000 or 6.8 per cent.

Behind the broad figures were several complex issues. In Sweden, for example, (in 1989) the largest group of immigrants were Finns, 123,867. Although the Swedes did always think so, Finns were not particularly foreign, compared to contact with the Turks who, while numbering only 24,152, were far more conspicuous. More Turkish was heard on some underground stations than in areas of Istanbul and the Kebab culture made savage and welcome inroads into the land of the Korv. But as Runblom pointed out:

From the point of view of the individual Finnish migrant, the move to Sweden was also a step towards urbanization, since the Swedish target areas were cities and industrial towns. The emigration to Sweden was strongest from Ostrobothnia, southwestern Finland and the Åland Island, all Swedish-speaking areas. The majority of the population in these areas has long been Swedish-speaking (the Åland Island totally), and by tradition all have had strong migration contacts with Sweden.

Some of the most interesting material in this work concerns changing attitudes in the Nordic area to immigration. Runblom demonstrates how in the interwar period, all Nordic countries were restrictive in their attitude to refugees and immigrants but how also gradual changes in the laws governing aliens reflected the desire to keep Scandinavia free from foreign elements. In Sweden their was talk of the mixed race, the importance of preserving pure Swedish stock, and the popularity of the slogan 'Sweden for the Swedes'. The Nordic people did not go so far as their Australian cousins, when the country's most nationalist newspaper was produced under the slogan 'Australia for the white man', but the message was the same and indeed worse, as in Australia there was no xenophobia directed against Jews. Jews were not defined as political refugees, and if they fled Nazi Germany they were more likely to be received in Sydney than Stockholm. Raoul Wellenberg's activities in Budapest and his subsequent fate, points out Runblom, gave Sweden 'a heroic reputation that may not be wholly deserved, if one considers its prewar refugee policy'.