Hämeenlinna, Finland
City participating to the joint project “Building an intercultural integration approach in Finland”
co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe
Hämeenlinna is a city and municipality of about 68,000 inhabitants in the province of Kanta-Häme in the south of Finland. Hämeenlinna is the oldest inland city of Finland and was one of the most important Finnish cities until the 19th century. It still remains as an important regional centre and is in close proximity to major cities such as Helsinki, Turku and Tampere, and to international airports.
Representation of different ethnic and linguistic groups are diverse in the city. People whose mother language is different than Finnish, Swedish or Saami consist of 5,4 % of the population (2021). The city has been part of the UNHCR refugee resettlement programme since 1990, giving the city its multicultural atmosphere. The city has been establishing multilingual service centres since 2008 as well as a multilingual web site since 2017, to support the integration of migrants.
