U.S. English Foundation Research

SWEDEN

Language Research

Updated (November 2001)

Approximately 447,000 Sweden-Finns and Finland-Swedes live in Sweden. Most Sweden-Finns are bilingual but it is difficult to preserve the Finnish language in Sweden today and not to assimilate too fast. Those Finns who arrived first were called "the quiet generation" since they were ashamed to talk Finnish or broken Swedish. Even the second generation showed similar tendencies. Only the third and fourth generation started to appreciate their roots again.

Nowadays Swedish representatives themselves (in the report of the Education Board of the Swedish Government) admit that although Sweden is a multicultural society, the co-living between cultures remains a problem, as multi-linguistic and cultural variety is seen as a difficulty rather than richness.

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Updated (March 2002)

TORNEDALIAN MINORITY

The Tornedalian minority in Northern Sweden reported Swedish Television, Swedish Radio and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company for discrimination against Tornedalians in radio and television. According to the Swedish Law, Tornedalians, whose language is called Tornedalian Finnish or Meänkieli, enjoy a “unique position” in Swedish media together with the Finnish and Sámis. But the Tornedalians say that they have considerably less programs than the two other linguistic minorities. A Control Board however disagreed with them and ruled that the current broadcasting situation is sufficient to guarantee the “unique position”. Minority is now approaching Council of Europe's Committee of Experts with their complaint.

“The Control Board decided that about 4 hours of television per year - including reruns - is sufficient to fulfill the State's agreement of a “unique position”. Around 5 hours radio broadcasting per week in Meänkieli is also considered sufficient, and we are not allowed to compare our situation with the Finnish or Sámis, which both have more broadcasting time,' said Birger Winsa, a Tornedalian researcher at the University of Stockholm.

Pääjärvi, the Chairman of the Association of Swedish Tornedalians, thinks that Meänkieli is often mixed up with Finnish. The two languages resemble each other, but the Tornedalians have their own distinct culture and history. Tornedalians, numbered roughly 70,000 people, are also seen as an original minority population.

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Updated (January 2008)

SWEDISH-ONLY AT THE WORKPLACE

Katri Linn, Ombudsman Against Ethnic Discrimination, has received proposals issued in Enköping and Uppsala municipalities, which state that employees may not speak any other language than Swedish in the workplace.

In Enköping municipality, the language ban appears in a proposal submitted to the municipality's executive board as a part of the ongoing implementation of a diversity plan.

According to the Ombudsman, a similar ban exists in Uppsala municipality in their agreement crafted with the involvement of the trade union SKTF.

Now it is the Ombudsman's work to examine the proposals. However, the Ombudsman is on record already with the statement that there are instances when it is appropriate to require Swedish in the workplace, but it is unacceptable to issue a general prohibition against other languages.

Kent Lyckstedt, HR officer for Enköping municipality, defended the proposal by saying that the municipality is not moving towards a ban on languages other than Swedish but their point is to ensure that people communicate in a way that does not affect its activities.

He pointed to the increased risks if employees do not have an adequate command of Swedish. As an example, Mr. Lyckstedt noted that if warning labels on chemicals used by cleaning staff are not understood, “dangerous things can happen”.

According to Ombudsman's website, she plans to take up the matter with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.

Source: The Local, News, December 22, 2007 by David Landes http://www.thelocal.se/9484/20071222/

UPROAR OVER THE BAN ON MINORITY LANGUAGE USE AT THE UPPSALA CITY COUNCIL

The Uppsala City Council and the Swedish Union of Local Government Officers (SKTF – Swedish acronym) have recently restarted negotiations over a controversial language agreement as it limits the employees' right to use languages other than Swedish at work.

The dispute over the language rights started in 2006 after two Finnish employees in the social welfare section of Uppsala Council were forbidden to use Finnish in office corridors. The case was also reported to the Swedish Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination.

After negotiating on the matter, Uppsala City Council and the SKTF agreed that Swedish would in fact be the required language in the administration's public spaces, for example, in the staff coffee room. However, the agreement was worded unclearly and the Ombudsman, Katri Linna, has requested that the two parties reword the agreement.

The incident, echoing the banning of Welsh in the workplace last year, caused quite a storm in the Finnish and Swedish media over recent weeks. It resulted in a lot of angry mails from Finns in both Finland and Sweden. In addition, the members of the Nordic Council sent a letter to the national governments and the delegation of Swedish Finns requested the Council of Europe to give an official statement on the matter.

Maarit Feldt-Ranta, a member of the Nordic Council and a Finnish MP, who also raised the question to the Swedish Government, emphasized that the rights of language minorities are an integral part of the Nordic pluralistic social model and therefore this agreement insult all minorities living in Sweden, not only the Finns who are the largest national minority in the country.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Holmstedt, the Mayor of the Uppsala city, assured on the city's website, that the use of Finnish language is still allowed among Finnish employees and that no language prohibition exists.

Now the agreement is being re-drafted. Both parties, the SKTF and the Uppsala City Council, have affirmed that they have considered the criticism they received from private individuals, politicians and the Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination. Lars-Sture Persson, the head of Human Resources Department at the City Council, wants to re-word the clause which states that in common work areas, including hallways and coffee rooms, only Swedish should be spoken.

According to the Ombudsman, such regulations are in violation of Swedish Discrimination Law as well as international agreements.

Source: Eurolang News, January 29, 2008 by Katriina Kilpi http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3020&Itemid=1&lang=en

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Updated (February 2008)

ENKÖPING COUNTY IS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION ON LINGUISTIC GROUNDS

Enköping County having been questioned by the Ombudsman for Discrimination over a clause in one of their documents requiring all employees to speak Swedish during working hours, the Head of the County Council's Human Resource Department defended its intent to foster multilingualism in the area and said that the phrase was added to a document by mistake.

The County and the Ombudsman have agreed that the County would clarify that the ban was a mistake both on its web page and in its staff magazine. Furthermore, the County added that it would certainly not want to limit the use of languages in its diversity plan but, on the contrary, continue to foster its multilingual staff.

Source: Eurolang News, February 24, 2008 by Katriina Kilpi http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3030&Itemid=1&lang=en

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