<p>Over the last few decades, the Swedish society has become more and more multicultural, which has resulted in the fact that the differences between different ethnic groups have become more and more noticed and debated. Studies have shown that persons belonging to minority groups are often wronged by majority decisions, which leaves the minorities in a disadvantageous position in relation to the majority. The scientific problem is how a state should compensate different minority groups for their disadvantaged position in order to be able to guarantee justice and equality for all individuals of the state.</p><p>The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish government’s attitude towards minority rights, and to analyse whether this coincides with Will Kymlicka’s normative minority rights theory. The research questions are:</p><p>• How should the majority society treat minorities according to Kymlicka?</p><p>• Which is Swedish minority policy’s stance on minority rights?</p><p>The methods used in this thesis include a qualitative text analysis and a field investigation among Finnish-speaking people living in Borlänge.</p><p>The conclusion of this essay is that the Swedish government in all likelihood has a positive attitude towards minority rights, since it has assigned group differentiated rights to the national minorities in Sweden. Furthermore, the Swedish government’s view on minority rights coincides to a great extent with Will Kymlicka’s normative theory.</p>

Sverige har förbundit sig att följa europeiska konventioner om minoritetsrättigheter i sin minoritetspolitik sedan år 1999 men både Europarådet och bland annat regeringens utredare Lennart Rohdin har nyligen kritiserat Sverige för att inte leva upp till dem.                       Sverigefinnar är den största av de fem nationella minoriteter som finns i Sverige men minoritetspolitiken fungerar inte felfritt ens för deras del. Det finns brister speciellt på kommunalnivå men till exempel minoritetslagstiftningen är också missledande. Syftet med mitt arbete är att visa hur sverigefinnarnas minoritetsrättigheter följs eller inte följs idag. Dessutom har jag försökt gräva i vad det kan bero på att minoritetsrättigheter inte realiseras som de ska.                       Arbetet består av fem journalistiska artiklar som grundar sig på den svenska minoritetslagstiftningen och en av dem på friskolefrågan bland sverigefinnar samt en reflektionsrapport där jag resonerar kring mina undersökningsmetoder, källkritik och genre. I rapporten berättar jag också om tankar kring de etiska funderingar som jag hade under arbetets gång och beskriver sverigefinnarnas och minoritetsrättigheters bakgrund i Sverige. Meningen har varit att belysa även den svenskspråkiga majoriteten om sverigefinnarnas angelägenheter eftersom den största delen av minoritetsnyhetsbevakning för sverigefinnarnas del nuläget är på finska och inte når den svenskspråkiga minoriteten. Istället för att skriva korta nyheter har jag också velat gräva och kartlägga situationer mer grundligt och sätta de enskilda fallen i en bredare kontext.

Over the last few decades, the Swedish society has become more and more multicultural, which has resulted in the fact that the differences between different ethnic groups have become more and more noticed and debated. Studies have shown that persons belonging to minority groups are often wronged by majority decisions, which leaves the minorities in a disadvantageous position in relation to the majority. The scientific problem is how a state should compensate different minority groups for their disadvantaged position in order to be able to guarantee justice and equality for all individuals of the state. The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish government’s attitude towards minority rights, and to analyse whether this coincides with Will Kymlicka’s normative minority rights theory. The research questions are: • How should the majority society treat minorities according to Kymlicka? • Which is Swedish minority policy’s stance on minority rights? The methods used in this thesis include a qualitative text analysis and a field investigation among Finnish-speaking people living in Borlänge. The conclusion of this essay is that the Swedish government in all likelihood has a positive attitude towards minority rights, since it has assigned group differentiated rights to the national minorities in Sweden. Furthermore, the Swedish government’s view on minority rights coincides to a great extent with Will Kymlicka’s normative theory.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how female Swedish Finns reflect upon their socialization and their social identity in the Swedish society. The main theoretical framework for this study originates from sociologists such as Goffman and Tajfel. Goffman describes social interaction in terms of theatrical performance and deviant role with the concept of stigma. Tajfel explains how social identity can be understood as the part of the individual's self-concept, which derives from their knowledge and pride of their membership of a social group. A web survey (n=78) and semi-structured interviews (n=7) were conducted with female Swedish Finns, who were born in the 1970’s. They were asked to reflect upon their socialization in the Swedish society, the term Swedish Finns and their current social identity. I found out that the women of this study felt their social identity as being mostly Finns. They showed pride of their origin and of being bilingual. The Finnish language keeps them tied to Finnish traditions, family and friends, which inhibits the socialization to the Swedish society. As time goes by these women gradually move away from other Finns to socializing more with the Swedes. The stories of the seven Swedish Finns implicate that normification takes place and the stigmatized Finn strives to appear as an ordinary Swede in social situations. However, these women recognize themselves mostly as Finns at heart, but also as Swedes depending on the social context. They can best be described as different kind of Swedish women.