Helsinki as a multilingual language community

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Helsinki as a multilingual language community
Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

• Pirkko Nuolijärvi
• Barcelona, September 30th, 2010

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Contents

• demographic situation in Finland and language
  rights
• immigration and the linguistic repertoire of
  Helsinki
• the multilingual image of the city
• multilingual public services
• languages at school and language use in
  universities
• Helsinki from the sociolinguistic point of view
• similarities and differences with other urban
  areas
• concluding remarks

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Four main stages of Finlands political history

• a period of Scandinavian hegemony and union with
  Sweden from the Middle Ages down to 1809
• a period as an autonomous grand duchy of Russia
  18091917
• a period as an independent republic 1917
• a period as a member state of the European Union
  1995

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Finnish and Swedish today

• the official languages in the European Union
• the national languages in Finland
• Finnish as the majority language in Finland used
  by 4.8 million people
• Swedish as the second language in Finland used
  by 300 000 people as a mother tongue
• Swedish the majority language and Finnish the
  minority language in Sweden (in northern and
  centre municipalities

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Finnish and Swedish in Finland 1.1.2009

• Finnish 4 828 747
• 91,5 of the population
• Swedish 289 609
• 5,5
• Source Statistics Finland

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Constitution 2000

• Section 17. Right to ones language and culture.
• The national languages of Finland are Finnish and
  Swedish.
• The right of everyone to use his own language,
  either Finnish or Swedish, before court of laws
  and other authority, and to receive documents in
  that language, shall be guaranteed by an Act. The
  public authorities shall provide for the
  educational, cultural and societal needs of the
  Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking populations
  of the country on an equal basis.

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Language Act 2004

• Unilingual or bilingual state authorities in
  Finnish and
• Swedish
• Unilingual municipalities in Finnish (292) or
  Swedish (19)
• or bilingual municipalities in Finnish and
  Swedish (18,13)
• (Totally, 1,5 million inhabitants live in
  bilingual
• municipalities.)
• The right of the individual to use his or her
  own language
• in authorities
• Flexible service in both languages
• Information in both Finnish and Swedish
• Authorities to ensure language rights

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Monolingual and bilingual municipalities

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Population in Helsinki

• Total population (1.1.2010) 583 350
• (in the Helsinki region 1.3 million people)
• Men 46.9 Women 53.1
• Finnish-speaking 83.7
• Swedish-speaking 6.1
• Other languages 10.2
• Foreign citizens 7.2

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• Table 2. The whole population by mother tongue in
  Helsinki at the turn of year 2008/2009
  (Statistics Finland 2009).
• Mother tongue Persons
• Whole population 576 632
• Finnish 486 218 84,3
• Swedish 35 124 6,1
• Other languages total 56 321 9,6
• Russian 12 470 2,2
• Estonian 6 217 1,1
• Somali 5 792 1,0
• English 3 798 0,7
• Arabic 2 534 0,4
• Chinese 1 968 0,3
• Kurdish 1 562 0,3
• Spanish 1 558 0,3
• German 1 366 0,2
• French 1 238 0,2
• Turkish 1 177 0,2
• Vietnamese 1 031 0,2

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The image of Helsinki

• highly educated people
• state administration and public sphere visible
• cultural national institutions
• activities and hobbies
• names of buildings and gates

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Signs and information

• Mannerheimintie Kaupunginteatteri
• Mannerheimvägen Stadsteatern
• Helsingin rautatieasema
• Helsingfors järnvägsstation

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Languages at school (1)

• Separate Finnish and Swedish schools in every
• bilingual environment and also in many
• unilingual towns
• Instruction of native language (other than
• Finnish, Swedish or Sámi) 2 h / week

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Languages at school (2)

• Helsinki comprehensive school
• Instruction in 40 mother tongues (Russian,
  Somali,
• Estonian, Arabic, Vietnamese etc.)
• 12 of pupils learn Finnish as a second
  language
• Bilingual education in some schools
• in Russian and in Finnish
• in Estonian and in Finnish
• in Somali and in Finnish
• in Arabic and in Finnish
• in Chinese and in Finnish
• Language immersion in Swedish for
  Finnish-speaking pupils

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Languages at school (3)

• A-languages of the secondary school graduates in
  2006
• 99,3 English as an A-language
• 8,9 German
• 7,7 Swedish
• 6,3 Finnish
• 2,3 French
• 0,7 Russian

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Integration Services in Helsinki include

• guidance and advice in everyday routines and
  social functions with information about language
  courses and other training.
• acquiring information about social security,
  assessing the clients economic situation and
  when necessary granting a living/integration
  allowance
• appeals integration-related discussions and
  meetings on a personal or family level with
  social workers and
• guides a possibility for refugee families to get
  psychological services to support childrens
  integration acquiring information about matters
  concerning family reunion
• Services are applied at the Immigration Unit by
  making an appointment personally or by phone.
  The service is produced by the Immigration Unit
  in cooperation with other authorities if
  necessary. The services are free of charge.

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Language strategies University of Helsinki

• The University of Helsinki maintains, encourages
  and supports an active bilingual environment.
  Because the University is the academic flagship
  of an officially bilingual society, bilingualism
  within the university community must be both
  omnipresent and functional. Teaching and learning
  should meet the requirements set by Finlands
  bilingual society and by legislation. The
  internationalisation of teaching and research
  requires ongoing activity in foreign languages.
  Arranging teaching in English supports the
  educational targets set by the University without
  undermining the position of Finlands national
  languages.

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Concluding remarks

• It is needed
• language strategies and good practical solutions
  to
• maintain and develope Finnish and Swedish in
• universities and in scientific work
• special support for the minority language
  Swedish in
• Helsinki
• more support for the minority languages in the
  comprehensive
• school
• more support for courses of Finnish and Swedish
  as a second
• language
• more social and health service in minority
  languages (e.g. Russian-
• speaking doctors, interpreters in various
  languages)