Response to interpellation 2023/24:253 on language centers for national minority languages
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M believes that the public has a special responsibility to protect and promote the national minority languages as they are part of the common cultural heritage 1. M argues that the language centers have contributed to the dissemination of knowledge 1 and that the government wants to continue prioritizing them during 2024 1. M emphasizes that it is important to build an educational chain for staff within preschool and elderly care 2 3. S believes that it is difficult to recruit and train bilingual staff 4. S argues that it is important that the language centers are allowed to continue their work because the languages are disappearing rapidly 4. M shares the commitment to preserve and promote national minority languages 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! Mirja Räihä has asked me if I and the government are prepared to take the step to evaluate, and consider making permanent, the economic resources allocated to language centers for national minority languages with the aim of ensuring their long-term survival and continued work to preserve and promote national minorities' cultural heritage and languages.
During my time as Minister for Culture, I have had the privilege of meeting several representatives for the national minorities in individual meetings, during site visits, and in special consultations. Several have highlighted the importance of and the joy in being able to speak their minority language and that the language is a carrier of culture, knowledge, and memories. At the same time, there is also an enormous sorrow among those people who have lost their language and among those where the language is not passed on to the next generation.
The national minority languages are part of our common cultural heritage, and the public therefore has a special responsibility to protect and promote the national minority languages.
From my meetings, I know that the activities of the language centers are both long-awaited and appreciated. The Government follows the language centers' work closely and, of course, takes part in the reports submitted by the responsible authorities. I have personally visited the language center for meänkieli in Övertorneå and taken part in the fine activities conducted there.
I can state that the language centers have contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about the national minority languages and that the conditions for the preservation of the minority languages have improved thanks to the language centers' activities.
The reinforcement of the minority policy is fixed, and the government wants to continue to prioritize language centers within the framework of the national minority policy during 2024. As the member surely understands, I cannot anticipate upcoming budget processes, but the government is keen to continue working towards the minority policy goal and to preserve and promote the national minority languages.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
There is a Finnish stand-up comedian named Ismo Leikola. He has a performance about the Finnish language and how easy it is to learn. Two words are enough: No niin. Everyone should be able to understand what it means, depending on how you say it. It is a bit too simple but still quite funny.
The Language Centre for National Minority Languages has an immensely important role. The overall mission of the language centres is to meet the current minority's needs and right to reclaim the language by actively promoting and stimulating increased use of the language, strengthening individuals' conditions to use and reclaim the language, as well as spreading knowledge about the language and how it can be revitalized. The long-term goal of the measures is to increase the use of the languages both at the individual level and in society at large, as well as to promote a functioning transmission of the national minorities' languages and culture to the next generation.
In June 2018, Isof was commissioned by the government to investigate how language centers for the national minority languages can be organized. An initial report was submitted in February 2019, with proposals for the establishment of language centers for Finnish and meänkieli. In October of the same year, proposals regarding Yiddish and Romani were submitted.
In October 2021, the government announced an initiative on national minority languages, and in the regulatory letter for 2022, Isof received a mandate concerning this. Now the language centers are in place, and they have adopted the first operational plans. This takes a long time.
Mr. Speaker and Minister! The minority languages have been handled in very different ways over the decades, and the view on the position of minority languages has changed. Families no longer look like they did before. I can relate to my own life and my own children, who were born in 1979, 1984, and 1986 and who are therefore middle-aged men today. Back then, one was often married to a Finn. One spoke Finnish at home and passed on the language and the culture, everything from Finnish tango to all other Finnish culture, to their children. It was a natural way for the children to learn the language. The preschool could see that the children developed into bilingual individuals when school began.
These children became adult men, and then the Swedish daughters-in-law entered the family. Then it was not quite as easy anymore. It became significantly harder to carry forward the language, and thus the culture and the roots, to the grandchildren. Families look different today, and therefore the needs are different.
There is obviously a need for preschools with a focus on minority languages, and there is a need for elderly care in minority languages. If we grow old and are affected by memory-related diseases, we lose the learned language and revert to the language we learned first. Here, the language centers have an immensely important role in supporting the municipalities' minority coordinators in the work with the issues that one is obliged to work with.
I have not demanded in my interpellation that the Minister should now provide answers on how much funds there will be in upcoming budgets, but as it stands now, the current budgeting complicates the recruitment for the language centers. The language centers are not a project for a few years, but it is about working long-term with the issues that exist in the mandate for the language centers. Therefore, a promise that the operation will be able to be permanent would be welcome and important for the future, especially for those who run the language centers and for those who work there.
Can the government at least start considering how the government can make the activities for the language centers, which we have demanded in two budgets, permanent, in order to provide security to all the language centers that exist?
Emma Ahlström Köster (M)
Mr. Speaker! The national minority languages and their culture must be preserved, developed, and live on. The language centers, which we highlight in this debate, have played a large and important role and have successfully contributed to just this. In many different contexts, the government highlights the preservation of our minority languages and their culture and emphasizes their importance. It is clear that the government prioritizes what is being discussed and also how it prioritizes funds. I perceive that the Social Democrats also view what the government has done so far positively, for example, the extra investment in Samling for Jewish life. It is a long-term and genuine investment, which the Social Democrats say they want to see more of.
The Minister has in an exemplary manner explained why the government will not be able to anticipate the budget process. She has also explained how important the issue is for the government, and I share the view that it is important that we continue to work to preserve and strengthen the minority languages in the political goals. I am also proud that a clear position has already been taken to strengthen and support our minorities when it comes to both cultural heritage and language.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the member for an important interpellation. It concerns both the language centers and the overarching question of how we shall ensure that our national minority languages are given the conditions to continue to live on and not just become ancient languages, but languages that are spoken and continue to live.
The activities of the language centers have been important for both increasing knowledge about and preserving and promoting the national minority languages. Let me point out again that I obviously cannot anticipate the budget process and give any financial commitments, but that this is an important activity and that the language centers make great efforts for our national minority languages, I hope was clearly conveyed in my answer.
Let us remember that the government has also made other investments. The language centers are an important piece of the puzzle, but other investments have also been made to promote the national minority languages. There is a specific action program, which is based on the strengthening of the national minority languages. The government has also on a number of occasions increased the contributions to language revitalization, and these funds are distributed by Isof.
Just over a week ago, the government also announced that Äldreomsorgslyftet can be used to provide training in our national minority languages. I believe this will be an important piece of the puzzle that the member is requesting: How do we ensure that families get access to what they are entitled to in order to be able to speak their minority language, and that elderly people who have lost their second language but still have their mother tongue get the opportunity to make themselves understood in it when their memory fails?
I look forward to this work being implemented and to an educational chain also being created, because one thing I hear when I meet the national minorities is that it is difficult to find staff who can speak the national minority languages for preschools and elderly care homes. Here I believe we have a journey to make when it comes to building the knowledge chain all the way, even when it comes to employees who are to work within preschool, school, and elderly care.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Mr. Speaker! I believe I know that there are great differences in Sweden regarding what is included as rights in the municipalities that are administrative areas. It is easy in Stockholm. Last time I counted, there were 13 preschool departments with a focus on Finnish, and in Söder there is a preschool department that focuses on meänkieli and Sami. There are two elderly care homes with bilingual staff, and there are two Swedish-Finnish schools. But in other municipalities, it is more difficult. Luleå is said to be best at preschool activities in Finnish, but my little grandchild Juni Maria did not get in because the queue was so long. This can lead to language death.
The language centers' mission is extensive and not a short-term project of a few years. They shall work for language carriers throughout the country and regularly analyze the needs and the language situation for each respective minority. They shall collect and convey good examples and experiences of language revitalization at national, local, and international levels. Naturally, they shall also support families in language transmission and individuals in language use. They shall also support other actors within the revitalization work and cooperate with other language centers and with municipalities, regions, educational actors, resource libraries, authorities, associations, and organizations throughout the country. The language centers thus have an incredibly broad mission so that they can truly be able to work with our minority languages. They shall also, naturally, inform about the minorities' linguistic rights and make the language visible in society.
The municipalities' minority coordinators are also important spiders in this network, and it is important that there is an active cooperation between these and the language centers.
Mr. Speaker! Language death risks becoming a reality in the third generation, and to some extent, it already exists. Two Sami languages are facing extinction according to the Sami Language Centre, and I see language death even when it concerns the largest minority language, Finnish. Many of us who are part of the minorities do not have the whole family here. My grandchildren have their great-grandmother in Finland, 86 years old and lively. But they cannot communicate with her. When communication ceases, the roots also become unclear for the children. Where do I come from? Who am I really? Here, I believe that the language centres can play an important role.
In his answer, the Minister promises that the government will prioritize the work with the language centers during 2024. What signals does this give to the operations regarding the ability to work long-term? Now it is 2024. Does the Minister believe that this prioritization should continue even after 2024? I am not asking for budget funds but for some kind of confirmation that the language centers will be allowed to continue, as their work will take decades, not a few years.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Mr. Speaker! I share the view that it needs to become possible to use one's minority language in everyday life in more places than in Stockholm. During my time as Minister for Culture, I have had the opportunity to travel around Sweden and meet our minorities in several different ways and in different constellations.
It can only be stated that this is a concern. The municipalities, especially the administrative municipalities, bear a great responsibility. And I know that the municipalities are struggling with this task. I am completely certain that the municipalities want to fulfill their commitments when it comes to national minorities and the languages. But they are struggling with the question of recruitment, and they are struggling with the question of how we can ensure that we put together an educational chain where we also get employees, staff, teachers, and nursing assistants who acquire this competence.
That is also why it is important for the government to take steps in that direction, which we are now doing with, for example, Äldreomsorgslyftet. We ensure that the funds for it can also be used for this purpose.
Also when it comes to the work that has to do with language revitalization, I share the member's view that it is something that needs to happen comprehensively and over time. It is nothing that will happen in a year, five years or even ten years.
We must remember that our national minorities are a part of our common cultural heritage. The languages are a part of our common heritage. They are a part of our common history in Sweden, and therefore society and, above all, the state bear a great responsibility to ensure that language revitalization works and that it is possible to maintain our national minority languages over time.
Then it is another question how it shall take place and in what forms. Today we have a form for it. Today I cannot promise that that form will endure. I am not saying that it shall, and I am not saying that it shall not. I say that I cannot provide a statement on the matter.
But what I can say is that the government is well aware of the current form with language centers, which do a fantastic job. We look forward to taking part in the reports and accounts that will now be submitted on how work has been carried out during the past year. We will take this into account when we look at what the future should look like for the revitalization of the national minority languages as a whole.
Mirja Räihä (S)
Madam Speaker! I agree with the Minister, because I also know that recruiting bilingual staff is very difficult. It is obviously a solid issue for the municipalities to work on in order to obtain bilingual staff. On the other hand, I do not think that one can train bilingual staff, because these are quite difficult languages.
One can solve the problems in different ways. I have dealt with elderly care issues and have had proposals for solutions, but unfortunately, I did not sit in the majority then. I also know what it becomes for the elderly when the Swedish language disappears and one cannot make oneself understood in one's own language. It becomes a rather desperate situation.
In the two most recent budgets, both for 2023 and 2024, we have demanded that the activity with the language centers be made permanent. And we will continue to, with a fool's persistence, demand that a possibility be given for the language centers to continue with their work, because just as I said, this is not a project of two or three years. This is something that we need to do for five or six decades because there are so many who have lost the language.
At the universities, it is said that more and more people are applying for individual courses to study Finnish, for example, in order to be able to reclaim the language. In some places, it is important, and I can attest from my own experience that the language is disappearing so incredibly fast. When the adult sons moved out of the home, I had no one to speak Finnish with at home, other than the cats. Then I suddenly notice that I can no longer do it, and when it becomes like that, one has to handle it oneself. But for the sake of our children and grandchildren, the language centers need to continue.
Kulturministern Parisa Liljestrand (M)
Madam Speaker! I would really like to begin by expressing my gratitude to the member for today's debate on language centers for the national minority languages. I think this is a genuinely important issue, and I share the commitment. I am also pleased that the member has this commitment to the issue.
Public knowledge about Sweden's national minorities and also about the national minority languages is low today. There is also a genuine concern among the language speakers that the national minority languages will die out in the long run.
That is why it feels very good that we have been able to have this debate today and highlight examples of how one can work to preserve and promote our national minority languages. I am convinced that it is through those types of good examples that we will be able to increase knowledge about our national minority languages but also create the conditions to keep them alive.
Even though the government cannot provide any announcements today regarding funding in the future, I want to once again emphasize the government's will to continue working for the minority policy goal and to preserve and promote our national minority languages for future generations.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.