The above sounds right to me. :D

I won't have any issues with Finland, but thanks. :D (It's still Finns who constitute the largest immigrant group in Stockholm and not Swedes the biggest group in Helsinki, right? Fortunately, the Finns are now considered legal in Sweden, although that was not always the case. :D ) In any event, I'll collect a few more obligations before any such need. And some Finnish ambassador telling me about the HEL-DEL route in advance does not cover that. ;)

Now back to deportations/expulsions/etc. from Costa Rica (or any other country): once expelled, getting back in can be harder.

Any updates on what the OP has extracted from the airline if anything?

Iceland is considered part of Scandanavia, Costa Rica is not :p

M8

I wonder what the OP thought of the in-flight service from FAs on the flight back from Costa Rica. Perhaps you can help. Do the Costa Rican FAs provide good service and when you see a Costa Rican FA, do you think of zippers or not? :D

source?

1Q: Finns in Sweden
I'm not sure to be honest, fully possible though. However, it depends if you include 2nd generation Finns who might be unlikely to have Finnish passports / speak Finnish. The period when a lot of blue-collar workers moved to Sweden was late 60s and early 70s, AFAIK.

This link provides some figures (in Finnish); ca 550,000 Finnish citizens have moved to Sweden since 1945, 300,000 have moved back during the same period (until 2001). In 2001 there were 193,000 1st generation Finns in Sweden (250,000 2nd generation).

2Q: Illegal Finns in Sweden
I think your second statement is slightly racist, but naturally everybody here is entitled to their own opinions.

http://www.execulink.com/~donslau/Scan.html :D

More seriously, isn't Icelandic a Scandinavian language? (I know Finnish is not. :D )

I'll refrain from using the term Scandinavian to apply to Finns and a few others ... and just use Nordic. :D

ok, ok :) - I think the problem is that the definition of 'Scandinavia' is vague and used quite loosely in English language. However, I'd still argue that only Sweden, Norway and Denmark form Scandinavia.

Icelandic is a Scandinavian language. Faroese is as well. You're right, Finnish certainly isn't.

Regarding foreigners in Finland;
http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/ne...ntNWSAID=25787

In the "Finnish immigrants to Stockholm", I am only including those Finnish citizens who are not Swedish citizens but residing in the Greater Stockholm area. Finnish-speaking Swedes (Swedish nationals or Finnish-Swedish dual-nationals) are Swedes and not to be considered immigrants as far as I am concerned, nor were they considered immigrants in the reference I made. The reference to illegal Finnish immigrants was a historical reference to the time before the laws changed permitting free movement of peoples within the area. Nowadays, it's not possible to be an illegal Finnish immigrant in Sweden or an illegal Swedish immigrant in Finland. All the better as far as I am concerned. :)

To think my statement somewhat slightly racist -- against Finns??? :confused: -- is a mis-characterization of my statement. Besides the language and some cultural and historical aspects, Swedes -- which I am not -- and Finns seem to be in the same boat in most all regards.

The use of Scandinavian varies from place to place. Strictly-speaking, I like to constrain it to the geographical section of Denmark and through parts of the Fenno-Scandia/Scandinavian peninsula, explicitly Norway and Sweden.

Thanks for all that info. ^

Always learn something new on FT. :)

GUWonder,

I have to admit that I got slightly annoyed by your statement regarding illegal Finns in Sweden - it could be that I'm just ultra-sensitive to any sort of criticism to Finland (at least when Sweden is mentioned in the same sentence). :) My mistake and bad choice of words.

As for Finnish citizens in Stockholm area, you might be right. I'd think a significant number of Finnish people still choose to move to Stockholm because of studies / jobs; for some Swedish-speakers moving to Sweden might be the obvious option, and some Finnish-speakers are likely to be motivated to improve their language skills.

Yeah, an interesting discussion indeed! ^

Sometimes it's just easier to use 'Scandinavia' instead of 'Nordic Countries', as the latter concept might not be known all that well abroad. However, I like correcting people when they refer to Finland as a Scandinavian country. Whether this makes any difference might be worth another discussion.

Finally, historically it's been very important for Finland to improve the country's links to its Scandinavian neighbours - and highlight the fact that we share the same language (Swedish) / culture / history etc with them.

While Costa Rica may not welcome American visitors without a passport nowadays and America may not welcome Costa Rican visitors without a passport&visa either, apparently Finland and Sweden do welcome each other a lot more nowadays -- and without passports. ^ :D

[Until I started coming to the region much and interacting with some FTers here, I had no idea this intra-Nordic region immigration and historical ethnic affinities was such a sensitive issue STILL. For us Americans, it's all snow and some variation of Santa Claus ... and a few reindeer, right? :D Ok, there's Ericsson and Nokia too. :D ]

7th grade geography course :)

M8

Yes, indeedy! And for Scandanavian FAs too :D

Sí. Gringo go home! :D

M8