America also has a lot people who have lived here for generations too, at least long enough generationally to not particularly matter much any more. That’s not something particularly unique to Finland.
America just more uniquely treats some people much worse than others. For example parts of my family came to the US as immigrants around the turn of the 1900s and it took a while for italians (who at the time were the “dirty brown people bringing drugs and crime to our streets”) to gain “white people” status around the 1970s. I have friends who’s families have family trees much longer rooted in America, but have historically been treated a lot worse than I or my parents ever have even into the present day.
America also has a lot people who have lived here for generations too, at least long enough generationally to not particularly matter much any more. That’s not something particularly unique to Finland.
I don’t wanna weigh in on either side of this issue overall, but… Yes, America is unique in its historical “melting pot” of cultures, or at least is very different from Finland in this respect.
If we really wanted to explore the concept further there’s also been a not insignificant about of cultural exchange that happened between the Scandinavian area and numerous regions outside their immediate area, as vikings traveled around, they encounter the early British, Normans and Franks, the had encounters with the late Christian and early Muslim world surrounding the Hagia Sophia, as evidenced by the viking graffiti carved I to stonework in there. They’ve had Christian missionaries proselytize their lands and convert them to Christianity away from the Norse traditions and dramatically retold those traditions from a christocentric framing.
Finland isn’t some culturally untouched place, left to their own devices for centuries. They both invaded others and were invaded, they engaged in trade and cultural exchange, they influenced other cultures and other cultures influenced them.
America also has a lot people who have lived here for generations too, at least long enough generationally to not particularly matter much any more. That’s not something particularly unique to Finland.
America just more uniquely treats some people much worse than others. For example parts of my family came to the US as immigrants around the turn of the 1900s and it took a while for italians (who at the time were the “dirty brown people bringing drugs and crime to our streets”) to gain “white people” status around the 1970s. I have friends who’s families have family trees much longer rooted in America, but have historically been treated a lot worse than I or my parents ever have even into the present day.
I don’t wanna weigh in on either side of this issue overall, but… Yes, America is unique in its historical “melting pot” of cultures, or at least is very different from Finland in this respect.
If we really wanted to explore the concept further there’s also been a not insignificant about of cultural exchange that happened between the Scandinavian area and numerous regions outside their immediate area, as vikings traveled around, they encounter the early British, Normans and Franks, the had encounters with the late Christian and early Muslim world surrounding the Hagia Sophia, as evidenced by the viking graffiti carved I to stonework in there. They’ve had Christian missionaries proselytize their lands and convert them to Christianity away from the Norse traditions and dramatically retold those traditions from a christocentric framing.
Finland isn’t some culturally untouched place, left to their own devices for centuries. They both invaded others and were invaded, they engaged in trade and cultural exchange, they influenced other cultures and other cultures influenced them.
Informative ty