Swedish diaspora
The Swedish diaspora consists of emigrants and their descendants, especially those that maintain some of the customs of their Swedish culture. Notable Swedish communities exist in the United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, and the United Kingdom as well as others.
History
The New Sweden Company established a colony on the Delaware River in 1638, naming it New Sweden. The colony was lost to the Dutch in 1655, but the colonists were allowed to remain.Between 1846 and 1930, roughly 1.3 million people, about 20% of the Swedish population, left the country, largely for economic reasons.
In the United States members of the diaspora had access to Swedish films starting in 1922 with The Treasure of Arne which was shown in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Some films were made just for the Swedish American diaspora community such as The Film About Sweden and The Old Land of Dreams.
The first recognition by Sweden of the 19th century emigration to the United States occurred in 1923 with a visit by Nathan Söderblom and the 1926 visit by the crown prince, who would later rule as Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. He would visit again in 1938.
Swedish expatriates in Manhattan celebrate Midsummer as "a particularly grand example of the Swedish diaspora's ability to hold on to its culture while fully integrating on a global scale."
Distribution
Finland
The Swedish-speaking Finns or Finland-Swedes form a minority group in Finland. The characteristic of this minority is debated: while some see it as an ethnic group of its own some view it purely as a linguistic minority. The group includes about 285,360 people, comprising 4.9% of the population of mainland Finland, or 5% if the 26,000 inhabitants of Åland are included. It has been presented that the ethnic group can also be perceived as a distinct Swedish-speaking nationality in Finland. There are also 9,000 Swedish citizens living in Finland.Germany
Approximately 23,000 Swedes live in Germany.Estonia
The presence of Swedish-speaking permanent residents in the area of present-day Estonia was first documented in the 14th century, and possibly dates back to the Viking Age. There were an estimated 12,000 Swedes resident in Estonia in 1563, mainly distributed along the coastal regions and islands. Estonia came under Swedish rule from 1558 to 1710, after which Stockholm ceded the territory to Russia in the 1721 Treaty of Nystad and the area became the Reval Governorate. In 1781, 1,300 Estonian Swedes of the island of Hiiumaa were forced to move to New Russia by Catherine II of Russia, where they formed Gammalsvenskby. Some Estonian Swedes made careers in the Russian Tsarist system, like Adam Johann von Krusenstern.According to the 1934 Estonian census, 7,641 Swedes lived in Estonia, making Swedes the third-largest national minority in Estonia. From 1943, during World War II, almost the entire community of Estonian Swedes fled to Sweden. Today there are, at most, a few hundred Estonian Swedes living in Estonia and a few hundred in Russia and Ukraine, with the estimates varying widely depending on who identifies, or can be identified, as a Swede. Many of them live in northwestern mainland Estonia and on adjacent islands and on the island of Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga.
In a nationalist context, the ethnic Swedes living outside Sweden are sometimes called 'East-Swedes', to distinguish them from the ethnic Swedes living in Sweden proper, called.
France
Many Swedes spend their holidays in France especially in the South of France, small towns and villages. altogether totaling 20,000 to 25,000. They live in Ile-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Languedoc-Rousillon, Midi-Pyrenees, Brittany, Poitou-Charentes, Picardy, Upper Normandy, Lorraine, Alsace, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Centre-Val de Loire and in the Gallic country.Portugal
Many Swedes spend their holidays in Portugal and many Swedish pensioners have moved to the country in recent years. Official statistics suggest that 5,486 foreigners holding Swedish nationality live in Portugal. They live especially in the South and in Lisbon Region. Other estimates suggest that as many as 8,000 Swedes may be living in the country Notable Luso-Swedes include filmmaker Solveig Nordlund.North America
There are numerous Swedish descendants in places like the United States and Canada, including some who still speak Swedish.The majority of the early Swedish immigrants to Canada came via the United States. It was not until after 1880 that significant numbers of Swedes immigrated to Canada. From WWI onwards, almost all of the Swedish immigrants entered Canada coming directly from Sweden. In addition to Swedish immigrants from south-central part of Sweden, a relatively large number of Swedish immigrants came from Stockholm and northern Sweden. The newcomers played an important role in the development of the Canadian prairies.
Swedish Canadians can be found in all parts of the country, but the largest population resides in British Columbia. Many Swedish social, cultural, political, business and welfare organizations, both religious and secular, can be found in all major Canadian cities and some of the smaller towns and rural communities. Some of the Swedish traditions, such as Midsummer, Walpurgis, and St Lucia are still celebrated by the community today.
South America
Dom Pedro II, the second Emperor of Brazil, encouraged immigration, resulting in a sizeable number of Swedes entering Brazil, settling mainly in the cities of Joinville and Ijuí. In the late 19th century, Misiones Province in Argentina was a major centre for Swedish immigration, and laid the foundations of a population of Swedish-Argentines.There are also Swedish communities in Uruguay.