The Swedish diaspora consists of emigrants and their descendants, especially those that maintain some of the customs of their Swedish culture. [1] Notable Swedish communities exist in the United States, Argentina, [2] Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and the United Kingdom as well as others.
The New Sweden Company established a colony on the Delaware River in 1638, naming it New Sweden. The colony was lost to the Dutch in 1655. [3]
Between 1846 and 1930, roughly 1.3 million people, about 20% of the Swedish population, left the country. [4] [5]
In the United States members of the diaspora had access to Swedish films starting in 1922 with The Treasure of Arne which was shown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some films were made just for the Swedish American diaspora community such as The Film About Sweden and The Old Land of Dreams . [6]
The first recognition by Sweden of the 19th century emigration to the United States occurred in 1923 with a visit by Nathan Söderblom and the 1926 visit by the crown prince, who would later rule as Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. [7] [8] He would visit again in 1938. [9]
Swedish expatriates in Manhattan celebrate Midsummer as "a particularly grand example of the Swedish diaspora's ability to hold on to its culture while fully integrating on a global scale." [10]
The Swedish-speaking Finns or Finland-Swedes form a minority group in Finland. The characteristic of this minority is debated: while some see it as an ethnic group of its own [11] some view it purely as a linguistic minority. [12] The group includes about 265,000 people, comprising 5.10% of the population of mainland Finland, or 5.50% [13] if the 26,000 inhabitants of Åland are included (there are also about 60,000 Swedish-speaking Finns currently resident in Sweden). It has been presented that the ethnic group can also be perceived as a distinct Swedish-speaking nationality in Finland. [14] There are also 9,000 Swedish citizens living in Finland. [15]
Approximately 23,000 Swedes live in Germany. [16]
The presence of Swedish-speaking permanent residents in what is now Estonia (Estonian Swedes) was first documented in the 14th century, and possibly dates back to the Viking Age. There were an estimated 12,000 Swedes resident in Estonia in 1563, mainly distributed along the coastal regions and islands. Estonia was under Swedish rule 1558–1710, after which the territory was ceded to Russia in the 1721 Treaty of Nystad. In 1781, 1,300 Estonian Swedes of the island of Hiiumaa (Dagö) were forced to move to New Russia (today Ukraine) by Catherine II of Russia, where they formed Gammalsvenskby (Old Swedish Village). According to the 1934 census, there were 7,641 Estonian Swedes (Swedish speaking, 0.7% of the population in Estonia), making Swedes the third largest national minority in Estonia, after Russians and Germans. During World War II, almost the entire community of Estonian Swedes fled to Sweden. Today there are, at most, a few hundred Estonian Swedes living in Estonia and a few hundred in Russia and Ukraine, with the estimates varying widely depending on who identifies, or can be identified, as a Swede. Many of them are living in northwestern mainland Estonia and on adjacent islands and on the island of Ruhnu (Runö) in the Gulf of Riga.
In a nationalist context, the ethnic Swedes living outside Sweden are sometimes called 'East-Swedes' (in Swedish: östsvenskar), to distinguish them from the ethnic Swedes living in Sweden proper, called rikssvenskar.
Many Swedes spend their holidays in France especially in the South of France, small towns and villages. altogether totaling 20,000 to 25,000. [17] They live in Ile-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Languedoc-Rousillon, Midi-Pyrenees, Brittany, Poitou-Charentes, Picardy, Upper Normandy, Lorraine, Alsace, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Centre-Val de Loire and in the Gallic country. [17]
Many Swedes spend their holidays in Portugal and many Swedish pensioners have moved to the country in recent years. Official statistics suggest that 5,486 foreigners holding Swedish nationality (thus not taking into account 36 Swedes who have acquired Portuguese nationality since 2008 and descendants of immigrants, as well as people of more distant ancestry) live in Portugal. They live especially in the South (Algarve) and in Lisbon Region. Other estimates suggest that as many as 8,000 Swedes may be living in the country [18] [19] [20] [21] Notable Luso-Swedes include filmmaker Solveig Nordlund.
There are numerous Swedish descendants in places like the United States and Canada (i.e. Swedish Americans and Swedish Canadians), including some who still speak Swedish.
The majority of the early Swedish immigrants to Canada came via the United States. It was not until after 1880 that significant numbers of Swedes immigrated to Canada. From WWI onwards, almost all of the Swedish immigrants entered Canada coming directly from Sweden. In addition to Swedish immigrants from south-central part of Sweden, a relatively large number of Swedish immigrants came from Stockholm and northern Sweden. The newcomers played an important role in the development of the Canadian prairies.
Swedish Canadians can be found in all parts of the country, but the largest population resides in British Columbia. Many Swedish social, cultural, political, business and welfare organizations, both religious and secular, can be found in all major Canadian cities and some of the smaller towns and rural communities. Some of the Swedish traditions, such as Midsummer, Walpurgis, and St Lucia are still celebrated by the community today. [22]
Swedes settled mainly in Argentina. [23] Numerous communities can be found in South America, especially in the Misiones Province and Buenos Aires, in Argentina, in the South and Southeast of Brazil, and there are some Swedish communities in Uruguay.
Many Swedes settled in Australia and New Zealand. Organized immigration from Sweden occurred during the 19th century when Queensland and Tasmania invited immigrants to take up farming leases. Many people of Swedish descent can be found in these countries.
Scandinavian migration to Britain is a phenomenon that has occurred at different periods over the past 1,200 years.
The demography of Sweden is monitored by the Statistiska centralbyrån. Sweden's population was 10,555,448, making it the 15th-most populous country in Europe after Czech Republic, the 10th-most populous member state of the European Union, and the 87th-most populous country in the world. The total fertility rate was rated at 1.66 in 2020, which is far below the replacement rate of 2.1.
The German diaspora consists of German people and their descendants who live outside of Germany. The term is used in particular to refer to the aspects of migration of German speakers from Central Europe to different countries around the world. This definition describes the "German" term as a sociolinguistic group as opposed to the national one since the emigrant groups came from different regions with diverse cultural practices and different varieties of German. For instance, the Alsatians and Hessians were often simply called "Germans" once they set foot in their new homelands.
The Swedish-speaking population of Finland is a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural or linguistic group or, while not regularly, as a distinct nationality. They speak Finland Swedish, which encompasses both a standard language and distinct dialects that are mutually intelligible with the dialects spoken in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, other Scandinavian languages.
Sweden Finns are a Finnish-speaking national minority in Sweden.
Estonians or Estonian people are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group who speak the Estonian language. Their nation state is Estonia.
The Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as Polonia, the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages.
Finns or Finnish people are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland.
The Ingrians, sometimes called Ingrian Finns, are the Finnish population of Ingria, descending from Lutheran Finnish immigrants introduced into the area in the 17th century, when Finland and Ingria were both parts of the Swedish Empire. In the forced deportations before and after World War II, and during the genocide of Ingrian Finns, most of them were relocated to other parts of the Soviet Union, or killed. Today the Ingrian Finns constitute the largest part of the Finnish population of the Russian Federation. According to some records, some 25,000 Ingrian Finns have returned or still reside in the region of Saint Petersburg.
Swedish Americans are Americans of Swedish descent. The history of Swedish Americans dates back to the early colonial times, with notable migration waves occurring in the 19th and early 20th centuries and approximately 1.2 million arriving between 1865–1915. These immigrants settled predominantly in the Midwest, particularly in states like Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin, in similarity with other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans. Populations also grew in the Pacific Northwest in the states of Oregon and Washington at the turn of the twentieth century.
Finnish Canadians are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers in the early 20th century and well into the mid-20th century. Finnish immigration to Canada was often a direct result of economic depressions and wars, or in the aftermath of major conflicts like the Finnish Civil War. Canada was often chosen as a final destination because of the similarity in climate and natural conditions, while employment in logging or homesteading attracted landless farmers in the early 20th century. Migratory movements of Finns between Canada and the United States was very common as well.
Swedish is the official language of Sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the 10.23 million inhabitants of the country. It is a North Germanic language and quite similar to its sister Scandinavian languages, Danish and Norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forms a dialect continuum. A number of regional Swedish dialects are spoken across the country. In total, more than 200 languages are estimated to be spoken across the country, including regional languages, indigenous Sámi languages, and immigrant languages.
The Somali diaspora or Qurbajoogta refers to Somalis who were born in Greater Somalia and reside in areas of the world that they were not born in. The civil war in Somalia greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many Somalis moved from Greater Somalia primarily to Europe, North America, Southern Africa and Australia. There are also small Somali populations in other pockets of Europe and Asia. The UN estimates that in 2015, approximately 2 million people from Somalia were living outside of the country's borders.
Somalis in Finland are residents and citizens of Finland of Somali ancestry. As of 2022, 24,365 Finns had a Somali-background, making it the fourth most common foreign country of origin and the largest from Africa.
Russians in Finland or Russian Finns are a linguistic and ethnic minority in Finland. As of 2022, there are 93,535 Russian-speaking people, or 1.7% of population, in Finland. It is the largest linguistic minority in the country. However, many of Russian-speaking immigrants are ethnically Ingrian Finns and other Finno-Ugric peoples.
The Romani people have several distinct populations, the largest being the Roma and the Calé, who reached Anatolia and the Balkans in the early 12th century, from a migration out of the Indian subcontinent beginning about 1st century – 2nd century AD. They settled in the areas of present-day Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Moldova, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, by order of volume, and Spain. From the Balkans, they migrated throughout Europe and, in the nineteenth and later centuries, to the Americas. The Roma population in the United States is estimated at more than one million.
The Estonian Swedes, or Estonia-Swedes, or "Coastal Swedes" are a Swedish-speaking minority traditionally residing in the coastal areas and islands of what is now western and northern Estonia. During World War II, almost all of the remaining Swedish-speaking minority escaped from the Soviet invasion of Estonia and fled to Sweden in 1944. Only the descendants of a few individuals who stayed behind are permanent residents in Estonia today.
Swedes are a ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, in particular Finland where they are an officially recognized minority, with Swedish being one of the official languages of the country and with a substantial diaspora in other countries, especially the United States.
Estonian Argentines are Argentine citizens of Estonian descent or Estonia-born people who emigrated to Argentina. Argentina is home to the fourth largest Estonian community in the Americas, behind the United States, Canada and Brazil.
The Albanians in the Nordic countries refers to the Albanian migrants in Nordic countries such as Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway and Sweden and their descendants.
the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland ... people settled far from their ancestral homelands.
Its original purpose was to preserve records, interviews, and memorabilia relating to the period of major Swedish emigration between 1846 and 1930 when 1.3 million (about 20%) of the Swedish population left the country.
... part of the 19th century Swedish diaspora from 1840 to 1910, 33 percent of Sweden's population left for Minnesota ...
As a comparison to these issues, and in order to see what happened to Swedishness in the diaspora, I am going to explore how the Swedish-Americans in special exhibitions used Swedish film to remember their home country and to construct their cultural identity as Swedish ...
These trips inaugurated an official recognition of what, from a Swedish point of view, now was a Swedish diaspora. ...
A brilliant dinner by President and Mrs. Coolidge at the White House tonight, attended by every member of the Cabinet in Washington and other distinguished guests, topped off a lively day for Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus and Crown Princess Louise of Sweden, which was divided between sight, seeing and a round of social functions.
For the first time since 1926, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden will arrive in the United States tomorrow. Accompanied by his wife and his third son, Prince Bertil, he will take part in the celebration marking ...
The New York City Midsummer celebration is a particularly grand example of the Swedish diaspora's ability to hold on to its culture while fully integrating on a global scale.
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See also: Nordic diaspora and Swedes | ||
