Minority and Majority Language Use in the Family Among Four Immigrant Groups in the Nordic Region

Since World War II, and particularly in the last 15–20 years, the Nordic Region has changed from an ethnically relatively homogeneous area within Europe to a vastly more heterogeneous one. Immigrants to the Nordic region have joined the indigenous minorities such as the Saami and Fenno-Swedes and have included migrant workers, refugees and so-called family tie migrants. In recent years, migration to the Nordic region has been dominated primarily by refugees. Sweden has been the host to the largest number of migrants, both in terms of absolute numbers and percentagewise, while Finland has had a restrictive immigration and refugee policy, so the number of migrants living there has until recently been low. Tables 1 and 2 provide some statistics for the numbers and percentages of foreign-born residents in the Nordic Region and some of the major countries of origin of its foreign citizens. Table 1 Foreign born residents in the Nordic region, turn of year 1989–1990.

Country	Number	% of total population
Sweden	758,454	8.9%
Denmark	220,232	4.3%
Norway	183,309	4.3%
Finland	58,775	1.2%
Iceland	9,473	3.7%

Table 2 Major countries of origin of foreign citizens in Nordic region, by country, in thousands

	Sweden	Denmark	Norway	Finland
* Finland	123		3
Yugoslavia	39	9
Norway	35	10
Iran	35	8
Denmark	28
* Turkey	24	27
Chile	19
Poland	14
FRG (form.)	12	8
* USA	7.5	4	9	1
UK		9	12	1
Sweden		8	11	5
Pakistan			11
* Vietnam			6	0.3
USSR				2

*

informant group in NISU project

Source: Yearbook of Nordic Statistics, 1991.