9T SOMALIS
The Somalis in Finland as a Minority Group
Anton Laitinen, Ilija Kovachevich and Ilona Vuori 9T
Research question:
How has the Somali integration in Finland changed from the 90’s to nowadays?
CONTENTS:
Introduction
History and Background
The Somali Diaspora
Somali Integration in Finland
Somali Culture and Assimilation
Discrimination and Racism
Somalis in the Finnish Society
Conclusion
Sources
Introduction
The Somalis are currently the third biggest group of foreign-speaking people in Finland after the Russians and Estonians. The ongoing war in Somalia and other background factors have all led to the Somali diaspora that has also spread to Finland. They first came here over 20 years ago and since then a…show more content… For example, the letter “q” is pronounced like a Finnish letter “k”. Also, the letter “c” resembles the larynx sound. This is why many names in Somali such as Abdullahi, are written with a “c” in the beginning. Some letters though, such as “j” and “y” are pronounced the same as in English.
The Somali language being documented dates back to before 1900. Somali is one of the best-documented Afro-Asiatic languages. Somali is classified to be a part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages, which consists of approximately 40 different languages. Somali is part of the East Cushitic branch, and is the most widely spoken of the Cushitic languages. Somali is very closely related with the Afar and Oromo languages.
Did you know that there is a word in the Somali language, titaanig which means a person that has come to Finland from Somalia after successfully finishing an extremely dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean…show more content… This negative attitude towards Somalis is largely due to the fact that many Somali teenagers “hang out” near public places in groups and in some cases cause trouble. The reason why many Somalis are not at home very often is due to poor relationships at home in some families. Many of these teenagers who hang out in public places with their Somali friends of the same age is because they like to think that they are family. Everyone wants a family and these teenagers create their own with friends that they hang out with every day. They can also relate to each other very easily since they are all classified as immigrants in the Finnish society even if they have a Finnish citizenship. A very good example of Somali brotherhood in Finland is when they use the term “weli” when referring to each other. They also sometimes give each other and themselves nicknames in their groups. An example of a nickname would be “Suomen