AHC: Make the Finnish-American Population Much Larger

Ellis MacVey

Donor
Okay, so in OTL, there really are not that many Finnish-Americans. They do exist, but there are very, very few of them. Here's a map:
Finnish Americans map.png


Quite honestly, I don't know why I want to make the Finish-American population larger, I just think it might be interesting. How do you think this could happen?
 
Mr_Fanboy

Mr_Fanboy

Here is a point of divergence after 1900: in a world where the Soviet Union successfully conquers Finland at any point, it seems plausible that large numbers of Finns could become refugees in other parts of the world, including the United States.
 
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funnyhat

Well there are not a huge number of Finns in Finland either - about 5,5 millions. There are about 700 000 Finnish Americans so that is actually a significant diaspora.

As mentioned you probably need things to get really bad in Finland so that there is ethnic cleansing.

Or go back really far and have Finns conquer Scandinavia somehow so that Nordic countries are assimilated into their culture.
 

Lalli

It is indeed difficult get Finno-American much bigger as it is in OTL without very early POD or something going terribly wrong like Finland being totally defeated on Winter War and USSR annexing Finland.
 

FillyofDelphi

Banned
Scorpio Retindar said:
Quite honestly, I don't know why I want to make the Finish-American population larger, I just think it might be interesting. How do you think this could happen?
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This is actually a really... controversial topic with my extended family (It's weird, I know, but my parents hometown has ethnic tensions with the Finnish community), so I've picked up a few things on this. Really,it's hard to get them to grow much faster than they already did in our timeline; a fairly large percentage of the population of Finland already came over to work in the mid-19th century timber boom of Lake Superior, and they're already one of the faster breeding Caucasian groups in the Midwest. There's just flat out not enough Finns to grow them too large unless they start poping out like a dozen kids each,as even if you get a Red Finnland I doubt the Soviets are going to allow mass migrations
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

FillyofDelphi said:
This is actually a really... controversial topic with my extended family (It's weird, I know, but my parents hometown has ethnic tensions with the Finnish community), so I've picked up a few things on this. Really,it's hard to get them to grow much faster than they already did in our timeline; a fairly large percentage of the population of Finland already came over to work in the mid-19th century timber boom of Lake Superior, and they're already one of the faster breeding Caucasian groups in the Midwest. There's just flat out not enough Finns to grow them too large unless they start poping out like a dozen kids each,as even if you get a Red Finnland I doubt the Soviets are going to allow mass migrations
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I'm guessing that you're either from Northern Minnesota or the Upper Peninsula, hi from the Twin Cities BTW.
 

the_Atom

funnyhat said:
Well there are not a huge number of Finns in Finland either - about 5,5 millions. There are about 700 000 Finnish Americans so that is actually a significant diaspora.
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There weren't a ton of Irish either, but they made a pretty significant impact on American history.
 

FillyofDelphi

Banned
Gabingston said:
I'm guessing that you're either from Northern Minnesota or the Upper Peninsula, hi from the Twin Cities BTW.
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Northern MN, but my parents are both from Cokato which is where my extended family mostly lives around. Its an intresting dynamic, to be sure... it actually ended up creating some real drama for us after my grandmother's death and half my aunts wanted to make sure we didn't sell the house to a Finn.
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

FillyofDelphi said:
Northern MN, but my parents are both from Cokato which is where my extended family mostly lives around. Its an intresting dynamic, to be sure... it actually ended up creating some real drama for us after my grandmother's death and half my aunts wanted to make sure we didn't sell the house to a Finn.
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Home Buyer: Hello, I've heard you're selling your house, and I'm interested in buying it.
Aunt: Oh, that'd be swell, could I see some information please?
Home Buyer: Sure, here you go.
Sees that the last name ends with -nen
Aunt: Oh...
Pulls out sign that says "we don't sell to n**roes, ch**ks, b**ners, t**elheads or finns".
Home Buyer: Walks away and gives middle finger from car.

Please don't kick me for using censored racial slurs in a post as an example to show how ridiculous not selling to someone because of race or ethnicity is.
 

Hvalrossen

funnyhat said:
Well there are not a huge number of Finns in Finland either - about 5,5 millions. There are about 700 000 Finnish Americans so that is actually a significant diaspora.
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Norway with a population of around 5 million, but has a diaspora in USA of around the same.
funnyhat said:
As mentioned you probably need things to get really bad in Finland so that there is ethnic cleansing.

Or go back really far and have Finns conquer Scandinavia somehow so that Nordic countries are assimilated into their culture.
Click to expand...
Or maybe the Finnish refugees in Sweden post WW2 are not accepted in Sweden, instead they may emigrate to USA? This might be unlikely though.
 

Snufkin

There was an US plan to transfer Finns to Alaska during the Winter War. The war ended too soon for the plan to go much further as Alaskans were against it in Congress.
 
Dan1988

Dan1988

Lalli said:
It is indeed difficult get Finno-American much bigger as it is in OTL without very early POD or something going terribly wrong like Finland being totally defeated on Winter War and USSR annexing Finland.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't they all go to Sweden in that case? It's much closer than the US.
 

FillyofDelphi

Banned
Gabingston said:
Please don't kick me for using censored racial slurs in a post as an example to show how ridiculous not selling to someone because of race or ethnicity is.
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Like I said, it's the weirdest prejudice. Oddly enough, the family we did end up selling the house (but not the farmland) to where Hmong, so it really is pretty targeted. It has alot to do with lopsided local taxes that hit the farm-owners pretty hard to pay for a school system that's getting a surge of Finnish kids who's parents don't own local property. Apparently, their Church tells them to have alot of kids.
 

Nephi

Banned
There's not a lot of Finnish people on Earth.

But I suppose perhaps Russia is more heavy handed with them after taking it from Sweden. Maybe even they're expelled entirely. The Czar makes some agreement with the US that the US will take in all the "rebellious" Finns.

And there you have it, an empty of Finns Finland. Their entire population is American.
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

FillyofDelphi said:
Like I said, it's the weirdest prejudice. Oddly enough, the family we did end up selling the house (but not the farmland) to where Hmong, so it really is pretty targeted. It has alot to do with lopsided local taxes that hit the farm-owners pretty hard to pay for a school system that's getting a surge of Finnish kids who's parents don't own local property. Apparently, their Church tells them to have alot of kids.
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Well, go forth and multiply. I'm Catholic, and the church I go to has quite a few families with 5+ kids (not that I have a problem with it).
 

Hvalrossen

FillyofDelphi said:
Like I said, it's the weirdest prejudice. Oddly enough, the family we did end up selling the house (but not the farmland) to where Hmong, so it really is pretty targeted. It has alot to do with lopsided local taxes that hit the farm-owners pretty hard to pay for a school system that's getting a surge of Finnish kids who's parents don't own local property. Apparently, their Church tells them to have alot of kids.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about past or present?
 
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