From Europe News:
Meet Ahmed: A Swedish-speaking Finnish Somali
yle.fi 9 December 2011
Ahmed Hassan was nine when he arrived in Finland as a refugee from Somalia. In Finland, he grew up in a Swedish-speaking environment. Today he is on a mission for other foreigners to learn Swedish, Finland’s other official language.
In an interview with YLE’s Swedish-language radio news this week, Hassan, 27, says Finnish-Swedish culture is a part of his life. He is an active member of the Swedish People’s Party and works with helping foreigners integrate into Finland.
"I feel like I was lucky compared to my friends in Finnish-language schools, where they faced prejudice and racism,” says Hassan, who grew up in Helsinki.
In his opinion, racism is more of a problem in Finnish-language circles than Swedish ones.
Minority bubble?
Hassan is a proponent of newcomers in Finland learning Swedish. He rebuffs criticism that foreigners who learn Swedish do themselves a disservice, becoming "minorities within a minority." Hassan points to his own research that found that refugees in Swedish-speaking areas in Vaasa and Ostrobothnia have thrived in their new environments, where they learned both of the country’s official languages. (...)
Posted December 9th, 2011 by pk
Meet Ahmed: A Swedish-speaking Finnish Somali
yle.fi 9 December 2011
Ahmed Hassan was nine when he arrived in Finland as a refugee from Somalia. In Finland, he grew up in a Swedish-speaking environment. Today he is on a mission for other foreigners to learn Swedish, Finland’s other official language.
In an interview with YLE’s Swedish-language radio news this week, Hassan, 27, says Finnish-Swedish culture is a part of his life. He is an active member of the Swedish People’s Party and works with helping foreigners integrate into Finland.
"I feel like I was lucky compared to my friends in Finnish-language schools, where they faced prejudice and racism,” says Hassan, who grew up in Helsinki.
In his opinion, racism is more of a problem in Finnish-language circles than Swedish ones.
Minority bubble?
Hassan is a proponent of newcomers in Finland learning Swedish. He rebuffs criticism that foreigners who learn Swedish do themselves a disservice, becoming "minorities within a minority." Hassan points to his own research that found that refugees in Swedish-speaking areas in Vaasa and Ostrobothnia have thrived in their new environments, where they learned both of the country’s official languages. (...)
Posted December 9th, 2011 by pk
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