Американцы финского происхождения

Americans of Finnish birth or descent

Finnish Americans (, ) comprise Americans with ancestral roots in Finland, or Finnish people who immigrated to and reside in the United States. The Finnish American population is around 650,000. A significant number of Finnish immigrants also settled in northern Minnesota, especially in the Arrowhead Region, along with portions of Aitkin, Crow Wing, and Carlton counties, often working in the region's iron mines. A number of the Finns fleeing the Russification efforts in their native country also immigrated to many of the mill towns of New England, where they became known for their woodworking skills.

The first immigrants to North America arrived at the New Sweden colony by the lower Delaware River in 1640. Finland was an integrated part of the Kingdom of Sweden at the time, and a Swedish colony in the New World thus had subjects from Finland as well. In two years' time, the number of Finns in the settlement had grown to fifty, and was increasing. New Sweden changed hands and came under Dutch control in 1655 and the Finnish community, while still small, was growing. Among the Finnish settlers of New Sweden was Martti Marttinen, who came to North America in 1654 and changed his name to Morton. John Morton, the politician who signed the U. S. Declaration of Independence on behalf of Pennsylvania in 1776, was his great grandson. Migration to North America from Finland continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was very sporadic in nature and only a few individuals and groups dared make the move. This was largely due to the long distance between Europe and America, and the difficulties associated with crossing it. However, as the Industrial Revolution began with the turn of the 19th century, bringing with it such technological innovations as railroads and steam ships, these obstacles slowly began to disappear. While the rest of Europe was industrializing, Finland, by now a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, was to a great extent excluded from the revolutionary process. The society was largely agrarian, and unemployment was rising, thanks to population growth and the fact that there was now little land left to cultivate in the country. America, on the other hand, possessed abundant natural resources but lacked a workforce. Rural life in Finland during the 1860s seemed doomed to remain laborious, stunted, and forever at the mercy of unpredictable weather. In 1867, a severe crop failure in Finland drove masses of Finns, especially from rural Ostrobothnia, to migrate into Norway, from where they later moved to the United States and Canada.

The Laestadian Finns longed for a rural way of life and religious toleration which they believed they would find in America. Thus, a group of Laestadian preachers and their followers immigrated to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, bringing their faith with them. In 1873 the Finnish Laestadians started their own congregation at Calumet, Michigan. By 1906 the Laestadian or Apostolic Lutheran movement in America had 68 churches and a communicant body of over 8,000. The denomination was a significant minority within the Finnish Lutheran community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Most Finnish immigrants at the time joined the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which eventually became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and remains in Calumet, Michigan, alongside various Apostolic (Laestadian) Lutheran churches.

Most Finnish migrants had planned to stay only for a few years in North America, and then return to their native land once they had become rich. However, only about twenty percent of the migrants returned to Finland. Those who did, managed to import new ideas and technologies into Finland and put them into use there. Approximately ten thousand Finns returned from the New World, not to Finland but to the Soviet Union, in the 1920s and the 1930s to "build socialism" in the Karelian ASSR. This took place mainly for ideological reasons and was strongly supported by the political elite of the USSR.

Architect and product designer Eero Saarinen immigrated to the United States in 1923 when he was thirteen years of age and grew up in Michigan. His father was architect Eliel Saarinen, the first president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He studied architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and later the Yale University and graduated in 1934. After touring Europe and Africa for a couple of years he returned to the States and became a citizen in 1940. During the Second World War Saarinen worked for Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which later became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Saarinen is famous for his furniture and architectural designs. His designs include the Gateway Arch at the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, Missouri, the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the main terminal of Dulles International Airport near Washington, D. C. Eero's son, Eric Saarinen, is a cinematographer and film director, who has photographed and cinematographed several features, including The Hills Have Eyes, Lost in America, and Exploratorium.

Notable Americans of some Finnish descent also include several film stars such as actresses Anna Easteden, Christine Lahti, Marian Nixon, Maila Nurmi, Pamela Anderson, Leslie Mann and Jessica Lange, actors Albert Salmi, Matt Damon, Richard Davalos and George Gaynes, and director David Lynch. Other notable individuals are author Jean M. Auel, historian Max Dimont (born in Finland of Russian Jewish parentage), cook and cookbook author Beatrice Ojakangas, politician Emil Hurja, labor activist T Bone Slim, U. S. Communist Party leader Gus Hall (originally Arvo Kustaa Halberg), Finnish Kiowa Comanche U. S. Attorney Arvo Mikkanen, mathematician Lars Ahlfors, musicians Dave Mustaine, Jaco Pastorius, Einar Aaron Swan, Jorma Kaukonen and Mark Hoppus, singer songwriter Amelia Presley, science fiction author Hannu Rajaniemi, computer scientists Linus Torvalds and Alfred Aho, former Google executive and CEO of Yahoo Marissa Mayer, co founder of Apple Mike Markkula, chairman and CEO of General Motors Mary Barra, astronaut Timothy L. Kopra, special forces officer Larry Thorne, ice hockey player Matt Niskanen and serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Porn actress Puma Swede is of Finnish descent although she was born in Sweden.

FinnFest USA is an annual festival held to celebrate Finnish heritage and culture in the United States. Organized by a non profit organization of the same name, FinnFest USA has been held in a different location each year since 1983, often incorporating regional cultural elements of the local site into the year's event. To date there have also been three FinnGrandFests, a collaboration between Finnish Americans and Finnish Canadians: 2000 (Toronto, Ontario), 2005 (Marquette, Michigan) and 2010 (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario). Finnish American culture is also celebrated at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan, formerly Suomi College, which has been the only Finnish American institution of higher learning in the United States since the closing of Work People's College in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941. Finlandia was established by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and is now affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2023, Finlandia University announced that it would be permanently closing following the completion of spring semester classes. Finlandia Foundation National, based in Pasedena, CA is working with the Finnish American Heritage Center to preserve their archives and continue the Finnish American Reporter newspaper. Salolampi Finnish Language Village is a Finnish language immersion camp in Bemidji, Minnesota. Founded in 1978, it is a member of the Concordia Language Villages, and celebrates Finnish and Finnish American heritage, culture, and language.

Finnish Americans historically favored Democratic Party candidates, owing to their frequent employment in mining and other blue collar industries. This has changed in recent decades as many of the rural regions in which they are numerous have swung to the Republican Party. In 2010, the three congressional districts with the highest concentrations of Finnish Americans (Michigan 1st, Wisconsin 7th, and Minnesota 8th), all adjacent to Lake Superior, flipped from Democratic to Republican control.

A history of a Swedish Finnish immigrant family. .

Heliölä, Mikko and Ruuskanen, Esa (2000). "Suuri Amerikan siirtolaisuus (1870–1930)". Retrieved September 6, 2005. Kauppi, Jorma J. (2001). "Suomalaisten siirtolaisuus Pohjois Amerikkaan". Retrieved September 6, 2005.