http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078/

in 1890 there were nearly twenty times more Swedes than Finns in the USA.

Then again, I find it hard to believe … Perhaps the lawmakers just were familiar with the race science which at the time started to classify Finns as a seperate race from the “Germanics”, or the “Aryans” as Hitler and co put it. Previously they were confused enough to think that the Finns were, sort of, semi-Swedes, and as such worthy of free entrance to the USA. Now the Finns became “semi-Mongols” - and who would like to have such people in a civilized country!

By the way, I find it rather funny when Americans - or should I say Anglo-Saxons - talk about how racist the Finns are

Large scale movement from both countries to the US started in earnest only in the 1860s mainly aided by widespread crop failure and famine in both countries. It is fairly obvious, at least, that by the time Finnish mass-immigration to America peaked in 1900-1914, a considerably larger number of Swedes had already moved there. For example in the year 1900 the Swedes were the third largest immigrant community in Chicago, which as a “Swedish city” only lost to Stockholm in terms of population. By the turn of the century there was already some 600 000 Swedes in the US, when the number of Finns was at that time only closing 200 000.

The total number of Finns moving to North America in 1850-1930 was around 400K and the number of Swedes around 1,3 million. In the links Phil provided we can see that the number of people claiming Finnish ancestry is only bit higher than the number of original immigrants, when as the number of people with Swedish ancestry is double the original figure. I know almost 1/3 of Finnish immigrants returned home after earning money “for the house”, and apparently the Swedes stayed in America in greater numbers… And made more Swedes.

No?? Why not? That would be nice because we already have higher GDP per capita than Sweden!

“funny how this is not discussed in other western, developed countries anymore, but i keep hearing of it from Finland.” Oh really? When PISA thing was going on early -04 in Finland that was all about how great school system was but in foreign countries (Germany, USA etc.) it was more about national IQ this and racial IQ that.

being called by a racist by someone like you is a badge of intellectual honor these days.

Modern zeitgeist is very much against discrimination based on race or ancestry, which is quite right. Ancestry is something an individual cannot help, which is why discriminating individuals based on their ancestry is morally questionable.

But the problem is that anti-racism tends to be enforced by assorted zealots, aspiring totalitarians, idiots, demagogical identity politicians, and profiteers.

http://www.hs.fi/keskustelu/thread.jspa?threadID=35244

“Joka viides turkulaisnuori uskoo rotujen älykkyyseroihin”

proving yet again, that finland is so much more socially backward than we give it credit for.

when you are capable of believing that the average IQ in sweden is ‘a couple points’ higher than in Finland, then you are also capable of believing that races have inherently different intelligence levels.
funny how this is not discussed in other western, developed countries anymore, but i keep hearing of it from Finland.
Perhaps Swedish immigrants did better than Finnish ones because they weren’t occupying themselves with being so damn bigoted?

There are millions of factors that can answer these questions. You need to ask yourself why the first explanation that jumped to your mind was that Swedes are more intelligent than Finns, that’s the real question.

Why in this particular case? What about the many other cases where the gap is several times larger and also the real world differences?

That’s possible.

http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article298fe.htm

You shouldn’t believe all that racist crap the PM’s daddy produces. Then again in this particular case there may be something to it. In the 1860s there was a severe shortage of food, probably over 10% of the population died of hunger and resulting diseases. As late as in the 1920s people still could die of hunger in remote areas. Malnutrition again hinders normal development. People will, well, become less intelligent (a saying like “people have always been the same” is, in other words, not true). That doesn’t mean that the children of these “poorly developed” immigrants would have inherited the low intelligence, but perhaps their starting point was a bit worse than that of the Swedish immigrants.

On the other hand, a much more likely explanation has to do with social factors. Finns were often latecomers working mostly in low-paying jobs, in mines or forest industry - and building sky-scrapers I’ve been told. The best farming land was often already been taken. And they were often communists, not exactly the right attitude to have in a new country. At the same time many Swedes had already settled and become middle class, a few even wealthy. And there were much more of them. There is no question which group had better networks, which are pretty essential for any group of immigrants.

Majority of Finnish immigrants, however, didn’t arrive until late 19th century. From 1870–1929, some 400,000 people left Finland for USA. 80% of them came from Vaasa and Southern Ostrobothnia and were from rather poor conditions. AFAIK they tended to often live in communities and as a result didn’t always assimilate into the culture that easily. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Swedes were able to learn the English language more easily and were generally-speaking better educated (Finland was hopelessly backwards nation, after all) .

I think Swedes had the advantage of being in the US longer, but they also followed a completely different path.