Anti-Finnish sentiment
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Anti-Finnish sentiment (sometimes known as Fennophobia) is the hostility, prejudice, discrimination or racism directed against
Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, or Finnish culture.


Britain

The Finnish people have been discriminated against in Britain during Brexit, especially for speaking a different language. For example, Finnish people inside trains have been commanded to leave for speaking the Finnish language. Finnish people have been also commanded to leave the country and blocked from getting jobs.


Estonia

In recent years anti-Finnish sentiment has grown in Estonia, particularly in areas with many Finnish tourists and residents. Finnish tourists and residents have experienced verbal harassment and at times physical violence.


Norway

Finns have been emigrating to
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
since at least the 11th century. There exists a Finnish minority in Norway, the Kvens. Speaking a Finnish dialect or a closely related Finnic language (their form of speech is now called
Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "La Voz 1520 AM & 96.3 FM") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language news/ta ...
) was forbidden in Norway, and they experienced discrimination. Before
WW2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Norway feared mass immigration and invasion from Finland. This was used as an excuse to discriminate against Kvens.


Russia and the Soviet Union

The Russian word "
chukhna Chukhna, Chukhnas, Chukhontsy (singular: Chukhonets (male), Chukhonka (female)) is an obsolete Russian term for some Finnic peoples: Finns, Estonians, Karelians, Ingrian Finns. It is thought to be a derivative from the ethnonym ''Chud''. The 1 ...
" () is a derogatory term for Finnish and Finnic people. The ministry for foreign affairs of Russia called for Russians to not use the word.
Ingrian Finns The Ingrians ( fi, inkeriläiset, ; russian: Ингерманландцы, translit=Ingermanlandts'i), sometimes called Ingrian Finns, are the Finnish population of Ingria (now the central part of Leningrad Oblast in Russia), descending from Lu ...
were heavily persecuted in Soviet Russia, including being subject to forced deportations. 8,000–25,000 Finns were killed during the
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
, including the
Finnish Operation of the NKVD The Finnish Operation of the NKVD was a mass arrest, execution and deportations of persons of Finnish origin in the Soviet Union by the NKVD during the period of Great Purge (1937–1938). It was a part of the larger mass operations of the NKVD wh ...
.


Sweden

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a significant influx of Finnish economic migrants into Sweden. Between 1950 and 1980 the number of Finns in Sweden increased from 45,000 to over 300,000. Attitudes towards Finnish immigrants were quite negative in Sweden. Derogatory expressions "en finne igen" ("yet another Finn") and "finnjävel" (equivalent to "Finnish bastard" or "Finnish devil") were commonly used. An anthology ''Finnjävlar'' was published, in which 15 Finns in Sweden describe their lives and lives of their parents in Sweden. In Sweden also the
Tornedalians The Tornedalians are descendants of Finns who, at some point, settled to the areas of today's Northern Sweden near the Torne Valley district and west from there. History Tornedalians migrated from today's Southern Finland, mainly from Häme and ...
were once seen as an inferior race and speaking Finnish was banned in school. Both Finnish and
Meänkieli (literally 'our language') is a group of distinct Finnish dialects or a Finnic language spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of the Torne River. Its status as an independent language is disputed, but in Sweden it is recogn ...
(spoken in Tornedal) became
official minority languages of Sweden In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five official minority languages: Finnish, Sami, Romani, Yiddish, and Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish). The Swedish language dominates commercial and cultural life in Sweden but ...
in 2000, and the
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
state started an investigation about the historical treatment of Finns and Tornedalians in 2020.


Finnjävel

Finnjävel (singular) and Finnjävlar (plural) are derogatory terms used in Sweden for Finnish immigrants, mostly during the 1950s and 1960s. In this context, jävel or djävel, literally meaning "devil", is a generic strong insult.


United States

The prominent role of Finnish immigrants in the 1907 and 1916
Mesabi Range The Mesabi Iron Range is a mining district in northeastern Minnesota following an elongate trend containing large deposits of iron ore. It is the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota ...
strikes in
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
led to blacklisting of Finns. It was a time of anti-Finnish sentiment in the area, and one could see signs "No Indians or Finns allowed." When many Finns came to America they started to set up schools, saunas and political unions, and the involvement in unions caused a bad reputation to Finnish people. Finns also had problems learning English and because they were "new" Finns faced much discrimination. The fact that the
Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedis ...
is a
Finno-Ugric Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...
language and not related to most other European languages, was used as proof that the Finns were not European and thus a fair subject to discrimination.


China Swede

China Swede was a
derogatory A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
term used for Finnish immigrants in the United States during the early 1900s, particularly in northern Minnesota and Upper Michigan. Another term was "roundhead"."Finland Was a Poor Country: Part 2 By Mary Losure and Dan Olson June 10, 1997"
/ref>


Jackpine savage

The term ''jackpine savage'' was used in northern Minnesota during the early 1900s, referring to the term ''Indian savage'' used for Native Americans. Finnish businesses were also harassed with the pretext that they were illegally dealing liquor to Native Americans.


Åland

In
Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1,580 km2, and a populat ...
Finnish people are sometimes discriminated against and insults like Finnjävel ”Finnish devil” are used against Finns.


See also

*
Chukhna Chukhna, Chukhnas, Chukhontsy (singular: Chukhonets (male), Chukhonka (female)) is an obsolete Russian term for some Finnic peoples: Finns, Estonians, Karelians, Ingrian Finns. It is thought to be a derivative from the ethnonym ''Chud''. The 1 ...
* Lynching of Olli Kinkkonen * Mesaba Co-op Park *
Russification of Finland The policy of Russification of Finland ( fi, sortokaudet / sortovuodet, lit=times/years of oppression; russian: Русификация Финляндии, translit=Rusyfikatsiya Finlyandii) was a governmental policy of the Russian Empire aimed at ...
*
Genocide of the Ingrian Finns The genocide of the Ingrian Finns () was a series of events triggered by the Russian Revolution in the 20th century, in which the Soviet Union deported, imprisoned and killed Ingrians and destroyed their culture. In the process, Ingria, in the ...


References


Further reading

*Aleksi Huhta
Debating Visibility: Race and Visibility in the Finnish-American Press in 1908
''Nordic Journal of Migration Research'', 4(4), 2014, 168–175, {{doi, 10.2478/njmr-2014-0028
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
Finnish diaspora Racism Foreign relations of Finland