It has been written that if being born a Finn is like winning the lottery then being born a Swedish-speaking Finn is like winning the lottery and getting the bonus ball. This is an out-dated view according to according to Ida Asplund, the chairperson of the Finland-Swedish Association.

Miss Asplund is a Finland-Swede and a student at Umeå University in Sweden. The Finnish culture minister (himself a Swedish-speaker) called her the worst 'enemy' of Swedish-speaking Finns because she sees them as a race rather than a language group and thinks that Finland-Swedishness is a matter of genetics.

Miss Asplund has been accused of racism for her view that Finland-Swedes are more cultured than Finnish-speaking Finns. However, she thinks that Finland-Swedes are discriminated against and prejudged because of their ethnicity. She thinks their rights are trampled on, if they speak out they'll be threatened and that immigrants to Finland that chose to learn Swedish will be doubly discriminated against. Miss Asplund's group is determined, as they see it, to fight back.

Tell me about the Finland-Swedish Association and your involvement in it?

For 1,5 years I've been president of the Finland-Swedish Association (FSA), founded five years ago. The organisation was established explicitly to assemble Finland-Swedes (no matter what political party they support), strengthen Finland-Swedish culture and political interests and promote the Finland-Swedes' rights. We also believe in building or reconstructing the political opinion concerning Finland-Swedish matters, not least from a perspective of International Law. The Minority Rights area is, as you are surely aware, a very new legal area and consequently Minority Rights is still a much-unknown field on various levels of society. Many (especially local) authorities are not aware of their responsibilities regarding National Minorities. It is therefore important to enlighten society about these duties (which the Finnish government does not), to enlighten society of the national minorities, the national minority languages and their rights.

Many Finns feel that Finland-Swedes are 'priviledged.' Do you, then, feel that they discriminated against like other minorities?

Finland-Swedes are mistreated because of their ethnic background or more specifically because they speak Swedish. As a Finland-Swede, for example, if you apply for a job within an authority, your application will maybe be declined because you wrote it in Swedish (which you of course are fully entitled to do), because you have a Swedish name or because you are a Finland-Swede. The FSA has recently investigated such a case. Last week the social authority in Helsingfors/Helsinki had a job advertisement in Hufvudstadsbladet, a Swedish newspaper, in which they wrote in Swedish that applications would be accepted only in Finnish. This violation of the Language Act was detected and protests from the Swedish People's Party were put forward and resulted in a new advertisement. We and I personally see this as a very important issue to highlight in the debate. I also know of ethnic harassment at companies, where Finland-Swedes have been harassed and insulted because of their ethnic background.

But is your group necessary when there is already the Swedish People's Parliament to speak up for the rights of Finland-Swedes?

Other operators already fill this role, such as Folktinget. However, very few or none fill the role of Finland-Swedish activists who dare to speak out about our situation and the future and present threats against our language and culture. One reason for this is that if you try to promote human rights in Finland from a Finland-Swedish perspective, it is very likely that you will to receive death threats or experience language related violence. I have personally had my life threatened a couple of times and so have some of my co-workers. Some of the police investigations are still ongoing.

Another reason for the "silence" in the field is that Finland-Swedes have in some cases very sadly adjusted to the fennonationalist view that Finland-Swedes are privileged and should not complain – they are after all treated much better than they are (morally) entitled to. They are according to this view distant colonizers, even if Sweden's crusade to Finland cannot be seen as a colonization, according to many historians. Also, the creators of the Finnish nationalism which resulted in the situation we have today were Finland-Swedes themselves and have been seen as heroes for a long time among Finland-Swedes.

And what is your organisation doing proactively to promote the rights of Finland-Swedes?

The FSA believes in a public, open-minded and free debate where everyone who would like to contribute to the discussion is welcome to participate. Therefore, we have arranged a number of seminars and lectures, panel debates and open discussions on various topics. A week ago we e g met up in Närpes and discussed minorities' right to health care. We believe in enlightening Finland-Swedes of their rights in order to facilitate access to justice for the group. This is especially important since our rights are individual and not collective and the Nordic countries have difficulties to accept human rights as groups' rights, such as the rights of peoples such as the Saami people. As an individual, it is very tiring to always have to be the strong one and claim your rights in relation to e g an authority. Therefore, our organisation can help with legal support and general support and understanding too, of course.

Other areas of great importance are the "judicial watch-dog-function" (on a national and international legal level) and to provide international organs, like the Council of Europe, with information concerning how Finland-Swedes and the Swedish language in Finland are treated according to international law. As far as I am concerned, no other Finland-Swedish NGOs supply the CoE with such information and, consequently, the work of the FSA is even more crucial. A recent result of our work is to be found in the Second Report of the CoE Advisory Committee concerning the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. In the report it is stated that the Committee worries about Finland-Swedish rule of law, such as the lack of Swedish-speaking judges and laymen, and about racist harassment of Finland-Swedes taking place mostly on the Internet.

How has this programme been successful recently?

Another recent happening (and success) was when the Parliamentary Ombudsman in spring 2006 stated that the Court of Appeal in Vasa/Vaasa discriminates Finland-Swedes. The FSA had investigated the situation and it turned out that it takes more than 70 % longer time to get a verdict in Swedish compared to a Finnish matter. The investigation covered both civil and criminal cases. We filed a report to the Parliamentary Ombudsman who also made the same conclusion. He has further demanded equal reports from the Courts of Appeal in Åbo/Turku and Helsingfors/Helsinki. There are reasons to believe that the situation there will turn out to be even worse. The FSA has also made a research project about Finland-Swedish prisoners and their situation which resulted in improved linguistic and human rights for them at some prisons in the Swedish and bilingual parts of Finland.

What are your concerns about the future for Finland-Swedes in Finland?

We are deeply concerned about the current development, where Swedish (and Finnish) education in upper secondary schools has been made voluntary (in the final examination). This has already resulted in fewer students with good skills in Swedish. We also worry about the constant neglect of the Language Act and the Constitution and how the linguistic rights will be treated in a societal context where fewer people have good knowledge in the other official language and fewer municipalities work in unilingual Swedish. On the other hand, there is no state in the world which has abolished an official language and we do not think Finland would put itself in a situation where it would receive severe international critics, which such behaviour would result in. Therefore, we think Finland will continue to act as one of the world's best examples in minority right on the paper, but continue to disrespect theses rights in practice. This is indeed a very convenient solution, but we hope an increased international watch on Finland will promote human rights.

We also worry about the municipal reform which is currently being planned and threaten to scatter Swedish areas and make Finland-Swedes into a minority in municipalities in which they have formed a majority, in violation of international law. This will also affect national legislation. If Swedish language is not used in all functional domains and exists in Finland as a complete language which works at all levels of society in some parts of the country, the Swedish language in Finland will turn into a private home language. We regret that the status of the Swedish language in the municipalities does not have any guarantees. With nowaday's tourism and the popular coastline as traditional area of living for the Finland-Swedes, a Swedish municipality or bilingual too can become unilingual Finnish more or less over a night. This is problematic, since the strength positions between the languages could be compared to an ant versus an elephant. Logically, no bilingual municipalities have turned unilingual Swedish, but many of them have turned unilingual Finnish. This also affects our cultural heritage, such as names of places and towns traditionally inhabited by Finland-Swedes become Finnish.

So you're concerned that Finland-Swedes are going to be wiped off the map in Finland.

I would like to quote Juha Janhunen, professor in East Asian languages at Helsingfors/Helsinki University, who has said that Milosevic should have learned from Finland before he committed genocide. Finland is doing the same thing with the Finland-Swedes and has soon succeeded, Janhunen says, but in a very modest way in order to avoid international and national criticism. I admit the quote is extreme, but still one cannot avoid seeing some truth in it. Personally, I definitely think there is a hidden agenda in Finland's case, where the political aim is to diminish the life conditions for Finland-Swedes. Too much in the linguistic development has proved not to be coincidental. Politics of assimilation are realized in small steps.

And with Finland's new reform of the historical education, criticized on an international level, it is now voluntary to learn Finland's history before 1808. This means tomorrow's adult generations will have very little knowledge of the 600 years of Swedish era and the status of the Swedish language is likely to decrease even further and probably also the understanding of Finland-Swedes situation and interests. However, we in the FSA want to take this fight and try to stop the current development. We want to promote human rights and extinct racism and intolerance in Finland and work for a multicultural and -linguistic, heterogeneous state.

In what ways do you think Swedish-Finns are different from Finnish-speaking Finns?

The Constitution speaks of "two national languages", it admits the Swedish culture and there are in other acts statements of a municipal's linguistic status, which show that Finland-Swedes form more than an ethnic group or a part of a homogenous Finnish people. Among the Finland-Swedes, there are factors which indicate they form a nationality: a relatively high political awareness, independent organisations and a certain aim to self-determination. I would also like to quote the famous Tore Modeen (Europa Ethnica 3-4 1999). He writes that citizenship and nationality are two different things. It is not correct to call a nationality a linguistic group or minority if it has developed a culture of its own. If there is not only a linguistic fellowship but also other characteristics such as folklore, poetry and literature, folk music, theatre, a population can demand to be called a nationality.

I personally share Modeen's ideas on this topic. Finland-Swedes definitely have their own cultural traditions and cultural heritage. One could add that Finnish doctors such as Markku T. Hyyppä has done research of Finland-Swedes' health and come to the conclusion that they live longer than the majority and feel happier and have better health. But it would be just as good to be a Finland-Swede even if this would mean we would live shorter and feel more miserable than the majority! I find this very important to highlight.

What do you think of Finnish nationalist groups such as Perussuomalaiset (True Finns)?

I think I can speak for the whole FSA when I say that we find it important that fennonationalist groups are observed, since some of their rhetoric tangles ethnic intolerance or racism. We find their aim very antique and out-of-date. The axiom which was used in the middle and late 1800s "one people, two languages" the FSA and many experts find hopelessly obsolete and an obstacle in order to maintain Finland officially bilingual in the future. The FSA and I find it important to highlight the multicultural status of Finland. It has never been ethnically homogenous and will never become so. We should all promote a democratic, tolerant society and a public discussion without agitation against other ethnic groups/nationalities. It is important to keep an eye on nationalist groups and their agenda of development and never fear to enter into discussion with these groups. We are happy that Suomalaisuudenliitto lost their state support some years ago, partly because of agitation against Finland-Swedes.

What are your views regarding third-world immigration into Finland and its possible effects on the position of the Swedish-speakers? (IE: They will mainly learn Finnish even in towns like Kokkola [a bilingual town])

Immigrants should have a free choice to learn what official language they please and most important – they should be informed that Finland is a bilingual state. As it is today, there seem to be severe lacks here. I am personally a member of I-FISK, which is a an organisation for immigrants in Finland who speak Swedish, and the members can all testify the "double discrimination" which often occurs for Swedish-speaking immigrants in a Finnish context. It is a fact that immigrants are very well accepted in the Swedish parts of Finland, such as Närpes, which is known to be a very good and friendly town for refugees and immigrants mostly because of the open antiracism attitudes of the Finland-Swedes there including the local population's great engagement and interest to facilitate their situation. This suggests that it is indeed very good to learn Swedish in order to integrate. But, of course, it is also very good to learn Finnish in order to integrate in the majority society. I definitely think it should be possible and encouraged for immigrants to learn both languages. Many positions demand knowledge in both languages and learning both languages would be a way to open doors on the labour market and prevent discrimination.