Kurds in Finland

Kurds in Finland

Total population
more than 10,000
Regions with significant populations
Uusimaa	4,978
Southwest Finland	1,977
Languages
Kurdish
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Iranian people

Kurds in Finland refers to Kurds living in Finland. In 2013 there were 10,075 Kurdish speakers in Finland and the number of ethnic Kurds is probably higher.

History

Some of the Finnish Kurds originate from Turkey and Iran, but most of them have come from Iraq, where they started arriving from in the 1990s as UNHCR quota refugees. Kurds make up the majority of Iraqi immigrants to Finland. After ISIL gained ground against the Peshmerga in Iraqi Kurdistan the Finnish Kurds organized protests against ISIL. According to the chairman of Finnish-Kurdish friendship association several dozens of Finnish Kurds had left to Syria and Iraq inorder to fight against ISIL.

Culture

Finnish Kurds speak several different dialects of Kurdish, the largest of which are Sorani and Kurmanji Kurdish. Kurmanji has more speakers worldwide, but Sorani is the most spoken Kurdish dialect in Finland. It is likelly that there are more ethnic Kurds than there are those who speak it as a first language. For example, some of the Kurds who originate from Turkey speak Turkish rather than Kurdish. There are several different Kurdish organizations in Finland, many of which have direct or undirect connections to political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Almost all Finnish Kurds are Muslim and in the Iraqi Kurdistan, where the most Finnish Kurds hail from, most Kurds are Sunni Muslim. Kurds are not however usually very active in religious life, since many of them have leftist and secular political background.