ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses four smaller and not so well-known minority groups in the Nordic countries. The Roma and the Jews are found in all Nordic countries apart from Iceland, while the Kven is a group found in Norway and the Russians are found mainly in Finland. Among the Nordic states none of them has assumed far-reaching obligations concerning the Romani language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Nordic states have ratified many of the international legal documents concerning the protection of minorities. Persistent waves of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe revitalised Jewish culture, though the high degree of intermarriage with non-Jews enhanced assimilation in Nordic societies. Contemporary Nordic countries the Jewish communities comprise both Jews with old roots in the region as well as East European Jews many of whom arrived in the second half of the 19th century and after the Second World War.
