The Finnish government provides social assistance to Finnish Roma for wearing the national costume
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SUOMI: A MULTINATIONAL COUNTRY
Here are Indian families with strollers containing children wrapped up despite the weather, and noisy groups of Somali girls with earrings down to their shoulders, and Filipino nurses returning from their hospital shifts. Past them will glide importantly, rustling huge velvet crinoline skirts, Finnish Roma women, and the driver of the arriving bus will turn out to be a Turk with impeccable Finnish.
The main ethnic groups (national minorities) living in Finland include the Sami, Russians, Finnish Roma, Finnish Jews, and Finnish Tatars. Overall, according to approximate estimates by the Helsinki Magistrate (Maistraatti), representatives of more than 165 countries live in the capital, and on the streets you can hear at least 150 different world languages.
Today, the main reasons for coming to the capital (and for obtaining a residence permit – oleskelupa) remain study and work. For example, free higher education (particularly master's and doctoral programs) and the Nokia corporation’s interest in foreign specialists. Due to the latter, the number of applications for family reunification is increasing: foreign specialists, or 'expats' (from 'expatriation'), as they half-jokingly call themselves, bring their wives and children to support each other in a country of difficult language, endless winter, and high prices.
According to forecasts, by 2030 the number of guests in the capital living temporarily or permanently should double, which is not so hard to imagine.
Finnish Roma (Suomen romanit, Roma or Kaale)
The history of the Finnish Roma began in the 16th century, when King Johan III of Sweden ordered all itinerant Roma to be expelled from the province of Norrland to 'Eastern Sweden', i.e., modern Finland. Today, the community numbers about 10,000 people, though they have long since ceased to lead a nomadic lifestyle. Modern Finnish Kaale drive cars and live in apartment buildings, but their integration into Finnish society (which began as early as 1809, when Finland became part of the Russian Empire) is still far from complete.
First of all, the Roma, as a freedom-loving people, have always been wary of attempts at forced assimilation. Moreover, it is difficult to idealize the daily relations between Roma and Finns: the historical past, closely intertwined with stereotypes, is still reflected in the problem of Roma employment. But over the past two decades, the situation has improved: in 1995, the Kaale received the status of a national minority, and in 1998, the same status was granted to their language (the public broadcasting company even broadcasts news in Romani).
More and more Roma want to get an education and work in social support, light industry, IT, or traditionally in horse breeding. Or take, for example, the colorful Roma women who still wear black blouses and vast floor-length velvet skirts adorned with silver lace – the Finnish government provides them with social assistance for wearing the national costume. So the female half of the Roma make a living by daily emphasizing the country's multinational character.
Finnish Tatars (Suomen tataarit)
The oldest Muslim community in Scandinavia. The first Finnish Tatars, fur and textile traders, came from villages of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate at the end of the 19th century. When the Grand Duchy of Finland ceased to exist, many chose to settle in Helsingfors and continue successful trade.
Today, the Tatar diaspora in Finland numbers about 1,000 people, living mainly in Helsinki, Turku, and Tampere. This is an example of complete, if not brilliant, integration into Finnish society: among Finnish Tatars there are lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, economists, and athletes. And yet, the community has managed to preserve the traditions and language of its people for five generations already.
Finnish Sami (Saamelaiset)
The Sami are the only indigenous peoples of the North who inhabited the territory of modern Finland and Scandinavia as early as 10,000 years ago, long before the arrival of the Finns proper (the Sami also live in Norway, Sweden, and Russia). The number of Sami in Finland is about 8,000, and the vast majority of them live in Lapland, engaged in reindeer husbandry and traditional crafts.
Despite the fact that it was in Finland that the first political body of the Sami was created (the Sami Delegation, which became the Sami Parliament in 1996), complete idyll in Finnish-Sami relations has not yet arrived. On the one hand, the Sami enjoy cultural autonomy, that is, they have a constitutional right to preserve and develop their language and culture, but on the other hand, Finland is still slow to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This, in particular, slows down the resolution of the issue so important for the Sami regarding land ownership in traditional Sami territories.
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ETHNIC FLAVOR OF FINLAND