Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Historical Geography of the Finns in the Sudbury Area

Chapter VI: Conclusions and Retrospect

CHAPTER VI Conclusions and Retrospect This study has presented some of the broad features of the "Finnish factor," as it has affected Sudbury's historical and geographical devel­ opment. Many of the essentialqualities of the Finnish­Canadian experience in the Sudbury area have been defined. The main virtue shown by this work is that the Finnish immigrantswho came here were full of energy and ideals, and that they successfully struggled to shape their lives and environ­ ments within the context of their own ambitions. In one way or another they, along with other ethnic groups such as the Italians, Ukrainians and Poles, greatly affected Sudbury's growth pattern from the turn of the cen­ tury to the present. While this investigation has sought in part to provide those of Finnish extraction with a greater sense of their personal past and heritage, it has also attempted to establish a firm position for the ethnic group within the region's historical geography. The driving force behind the growth of the Finnish presence in Canada came in the form of three major waves of migration linked with the pre­World War I period, the 1920s and the 1950s. Finnish immigration began early in the 1870s, peaked in the 1961­71 period and then declined substantially. It can thus be concluded that the era of Finnish immigration to Canada has come to an end. Over the years, a gender change from male to female dominance occurred in the migratory flow; as well, there devel­ oped a trend for non­immigrant Finns, because of exogamous marriages, to be of mixed rather than single origins. The general distribution of Finnish settlement throughout the century has remained fairly constant, showing a preference for Ontario, British Columbia and the Prairie provinces. Within this provincial framework, Finns initially showed a predisposition toward rural and small towns, but most can now be found in larger metropolitan Notes to ChapterVI are on pp. 298­99. 263 264 Between a Rock and a Hard Place centres such as Toronto, Thunder Bay, Vancouver/Victoria and Sudbury. While the association of Finns with the Lutheran religion remains firm, intermarriage among second­ and third­generation Finns has fostered alle­ giance with other denominations; a growing secularization trend has also emerged. Among the contemporary features shaping the ethnic environ­ ment can be included a high degree of transfer from Finnish to the every­ day use of English, and an aging of the Finnish population.With respect to the former, it is clear that there has been a dramatic retreat from the use of the Finnish language and that there is little sense of "language loyalty" among the non­immigrant group of Finns. At the same time, the gradual passing away of the immigrant group of Finns has been accompanied by an erosion and change in the Finnish institutional base. At first glance, the above analysis points to bleak prospects for the survival of the Finns as a distinctive ethnic group in Canada andparticularly in the Sudbury area. The lack of new immigrants, the shift to a non­ immigrant and mixed ethnic composition, the decline in the use of Finnish as a home language and the aging of the Finnish immigrant group suggest that the Finnish heritage in Canada is rapidly losing ground. There can be no doubt that the Finnish population in Canada has in many ways become an indistinguishable part of Canadian society. Some researchers have used these trends to support the existence of a crisis for Finnish cultural survival.1 Lindstrom, in contrast, has come to the viewpoint that the Finnish­Canadian culture, especially in Toronto, is not dying or experienc­ ing any serious illness; rather, it has simply changed and continues to reflect a community that is very much alive.2 Another manifestation of vitalitywas the holding of the FINNFORUM II and V academic conferences in Toronto and Sudbury in 1979 and 1996 respectively.These conferences are an ongoing reflection of the academic interest in North American Finns that began in Duluth in 1974. Some support for Lindstrom's more optimistic viewpoint conies from the fact that, in addition to the 39,230 single­origin Finns recorded in the 1991 census, approximately 40 percent of the 59,865 Canadians with partial links to Finnish culture were fifteen years of age or less. A significant poten­ tial thus remains for the maintenance of Finnish roots in Canada. Indeed, census data has been used by the Canadian government to support the con­ tention that ethnic...