s
Gypsy group 1849
From the 1500s to World War II The first recorded Roma arrived in southwest Finland and
Åland in the 16th century from the area that is now
Sweden. The Finnish Kale primarily descend from the
Romanisael who came to Finland via Sweden after being deported from Sweden in the 17th century. The ancestors of Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian Romani are
English and
Scottish Romani, who were deported from the kingdoms of Scotland and England. In the Swedish part of the kingdom, "Tattares" are said to have arrived to
Sweden and
Stockholm for the first time in 1512, when people referred to as "Tattares" were traveling through the country. According to the minutes of the Stockholm city council, a group of about 60 people arrived in the city, reportedly from Little Egypt. The idea that the Roma came from Egypt was common in the stories of Roma groups traveling across Europe, which is also the origin of the English word
Gypsies. The initial reception was friendly, but already during the reign of
Gustav Vasa in the 1520s, the king aimed to expel the Roma from the kingdom.
John III continued the same policy, ordering the "Tattares" to be driven into Norway and banning them from returning under threat of the death penalty. After the abolition of monasteries due to the
Reformation, there were fears that itinerants would become a burden on state welfare. As foreigners, itinerants were also suspected of being spies for hostile powers. The first known record of Roma in Finland dates from 1559, when the bailiff of
Kastelholm Castle ordered the cessation of "inappropriate trading by Tattares" and their arrest. The next mention is from 1580, when a Tattare named Bågdan Bålatzen was reported to be imprisoned in Turku Castle. Four years later, in 1584, a total of 11 Tattare men were imprisoned due to complaints from peasants. The women and children of the group stayed outside the gate. In 1597, a Tattare group of about 100 people is known to have stayed in the province of
Olavinlinna Castle.
17th century In the Kingdom of Sweden, a decree titled
Placat om Tartarens fördrifwande af landet ("Proclamation on the Expulsion of the Tattares from the Country")—commonly known as the Hanging Law—was issued on November 24, 1637. It ordered all Roma to leave the country within a year and a day. After this deadline, Roma men found in the country could be
hanged without trial, and women and children were to be driven beyond the kingdom's borders. The law used both the term "Tattare" and “sikeiner” (cf. zigenare), the latter becoming the more common term. Execution without trial conflicted with principles of the
rule of law already present in Sweden, and the law was apparently never enforced. The execution provision was officially repealed only in 1748. In practice, in Finland, for example,
Governor-General Pietari/Per Brahe hired Tattares for construction work and tried in the 1660s to settle them near the eastern border in
Pielisjärvi, where Roma were moved to cultivate abandoned farms and at the same time help defend the poorly protected border. Elements of the
Karelian culture, such as traditional
Karelian stew, remain part of Finnish Roma culture. Life in the remote forests of Northern Karelia during years of crop failure proved impossible for the Roma, and they abandoned their settlements after a short time despite harsh threats. The Roma continued their nomadic lifestyle in Finland, practicing their own trades. Men earned their living mainly through horse trading and horse care, while women engaged in activities such as fortune-telling and bloodletting. Roma also served in the Swedish army. At least 15 Roma were listed in Gerhard Schantzenstierna's dragoon squadron inspected in 1676.
19th century The attitude of the Lutheran
Church toward Roma was strictly negative: they were denied all church sacraments and healthcare, which had long been the responsibility of the Church. The Vagrancy Act of 1852 reinforced earlier practices and classified Roma as
vagrants: Roma without protection were to be arrested immediately, brought before the governor, and sent to a
labour house for an indefinite period. Men unfit for general work were to be sent to Crown fortresses, and women to
Spinning Houses. Due to a lack of available labor institution space, the law could not be widely implemented. Between 1842 and 1861, an imperial decree was also in effect ordering that sons of Roma women placed in spinning houses be forcibly sent to
Cantonist battalions in
Tallinn and
Pskov. The Vagrancy Act contained until 1883 a clause known as the "Gypsy paragraph," which effectively subjected Roma to harsher treatment than other vagrants.
From the turn of the 20th century through WWII In early 20th-century rural Finland, nomadic Roma had established routes with farms where they regularly stayed overnight. In return, they helped with work on the farms. Men participated in field and forest work, while women helped with laundry, cleaning, cooking, and childcare. In addition, Roma traded horses, told fortunes, and sold handicrafts. Hosts were mostly modest rural people –
smallholders,
tenant farmers, and
cottagers. Roma were also sometimes welcomed in rural
parsonages. Wealthier
landowners were generally more reluctant to host them. From the late 19th century, many Finnish municipalities began issuing regulations imposing heavy fines on households that accommodated Roma. Roma sometimes slept outdoors in homemade tents while traveling. Their belongings often traveled with them by horse and cart. Roma generally stayed within or near their home parishes. The rural population came to know the Roma in their area and often treated them quite kindly. As they traveled, Roma relayed news to the majority population and thus served as important messengers of local events. Though Romani children often did not attend school because their families lacked permanent housing. Its resulting report, presented to the imperial
Senate of Finland in 1900, focused on recommending how the Roma could be rapidly and effectively
assimilated into the majority population. The committee felt that the Roma were unfit for agricultural work due to their physical and mental traits and instead suggested vocational training in handicrafts. However, its proposals were not implemented in practice. From the early 1900s to the 1950s, much of the interest in Romani affairs in Finland was handled by the religious missionary organization
Gypsy mission, founded in 1906 by Oskari Jalkio, who also served as its long-time chairman, originally, Oskari Jalkio intended to go do missionary work in
East Asia, but when a young Roma boy, close to freezing, came to ask him for a coat, he realized that there was enough need for help in Finland, and founded the
Gypsy Mission. Like the Walle Committee, he believed the only way to improve the Roma's status in Finland was to assimilate them into the majority. From the outset, the mission's ideology emphasized the “problematic” position of Romani children. According to Jalkio, Romani mothers taught their daughters to steal, tell fortunes, and beg, while fathers taught their sons to drink and trade horses. The organization's main goal for decades was to remove Romani children from their "unfit" parents and raise them to become "respectable" members of society. Researcher Martti Grönfors, who studies Finnish Roma, stated that the mission largely ignored Roma culture and needs and described the organization's attitude as “benevolently patronizing.” During the
wars of 1939–1945, at least 300 Romani men served in the
military, with at least 60 killed. Many of these veterans later reported experiencing a level of equality on the front lines that was otherwise rare in Finland both before and after the wars. During the Continuation War, a project was initiated in Finland by
the Ministry of the Interior's Central Board for the Care of Evacuees under the leadership of
Urho Kekkonen. The goal was to force Roma into employment. In 1943, Parliament passed a special labor camp law, which effectively meant the establishment of forced labor camps for Roma. The law was justified by the perceived increase in Roma vagrancy and associated criminal threats. At least one such camp was established in
Lappajärvi, where men were assigned to cut and strip logs and float timber in streams. Romani men labeled "work-shy" by authorities were placed in a vagrants’ camp in
Kihniö during the Continuation War, while a separate camp for Romani women was established in
Vieremä.
After the Second World War Major changes By the late 1930s, over a thousand Finnish Roma lived in the
Karelian territory that would soon be been annexed by Russia in the aftermath of the
Winter War. Like the 430,000 other Karelian residents, the Roma from the region had to be
evacuated to other parts of Finland due to the war. Evacuated Roma from the
Karelian Isthmus mostly spread throughout Southern Finland, while many of those who left from the area around
Sortavala and northern
Ladoga Karelia settled in municipalities in
Savo and
North Karelia. After the wars, evacuated Roma suffered severe housing shortages in many areas. As a result, communities inhabited by Roma sprang up on the outskirts of Finnish cities, where living conditions were often poor. Many evacuated Roma ended up in the
Helsinki metropolitan area, living in makeshift tents and spruce shelters in
Espoo's
Mäkkylä forest and in
Helsinki in barracks and old train cars near
Malmi and
Puistola. Elsewhere in Finland, “gypsy ghettos” formed near cities like
Lappeenranta,
Kuusankoski, and
Pori. Some Roma in the capital region managed to slightly improve their living standards in the 1950s by finding employment in ports, factories, and construction sites in Helsinki. Municipal authorities and local residents in many places tried to prevent Roma arriving from elsewhere from settling in good-quality rental housing in their area. A state committee addressing the “Gypsy question” between 1953 and 1955 claimed that the Roma were largely to blame for their own housing issues due to their “unsuitable lifestyle and lack of cleanliness.” Roma who had received housing were forcefully and unlawfully evicted by their neighbors in, for example,
Kemijärvi (1951),
Vehmersalmi and
Huittinen (1955), and Pankakoski in
Pielisjärvi (1956). Soon after the war, state actors began proposing the removal of Romani children from their communities. Traditional Romani life was seen as spiritually and economically decayed, and harmful to children. Large numbers of Romani children were placed in
orphanages, where they were raised according to mainstream norms. These children were isolated from their parents and pressured to abandon their culture. It is estimated that one in two Romani children spent time in orphanages at some point between the 1950s and 1980s. After the war, Finnish agriculture began to mechanize, reducing the need for traditional rural labor. The use of money increased, and barter systems lost their importance. The rapid restructuring of Finland's economy in the 1950s and 1960s led to large-scale migration from rural areas to cities. This also undermined traditional Romani occupations, forcing many Roma to move to growth centers in search of livelihood. For many, this marked the end of a centuries-long nomadic lifestyle. As barter declined, interaction between the majority population and Roma decreased, and mutual attitudes became increasingly negative. The 1969 book
Gypsy Life described the transformation over the previous two decades as follows: In this new reality, obtaining housing and employment in Finland was made harder for Roma by the strong prejudices of the majority population. Consequently, large numbers of Finnish Roma began migrating to
Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s, where they experienced better housing, job opportunities, and social security than in Finland. Sweden's broader internationalism and tolerance created a more favorable environment. Finnish Roma there faced far fewer obstacles in finding work and many found jobs especially in industry, construction, and services. In Finland, Roma housing and livelihood conditions began to improve gradually during the 1960s alongside the development of the
welfare state.
Social mobilization From the late 1960s onwards, Finnish Roma began participating in national Romani policy by demanding
equality and addressing the group's social issues in society. This new Romani policy emerged as a counter-reaction to traditional assimilationist policies—new activists rejected the idea that Roma should only be passive subjects of intervention. They also opposed the religious justifications behind such measures and the dominant role played by religious organizations led by non-Roma, such as the
Mission to the Gypsies (now Romano Missio) and the advisory board on Gypsy Affairs. The
Finnish Romani Association (originally the Finnish Gypsy Association), founded in 1967, began working to improve Roma conditions while respecting the cultural characteristics of the Romani population. The organization demanded better living conditions without forced assimilation. Its core goals included bridging the gap between Roma and mainstream society via mutual communication, reforming attitudes among both groups, and preserving valuable Romani traditions. The association contributed significantly to late 1960s and early 1970s studies that highlighted poor living conditions and offered solutions. It was also instrumental in pushing through a housing law for Roma, passed by
Parliament in 1975, and monitored the enforcement of the 1970 anti-discrimination law. == Culture ==