Report of the Government on the Application of Language Legislation 2013

Abstract

This report on the application of language legislation, which the Government submits to Parliament every fourth year, focuses on the changes that have occurred in recent years in the implementation of linguistic rights in bilingual authorities. The report assesses how the language provisions of the Language Act, the Act on the Knowledge of Languages Required of Personnel in Public Bodies and other specific legislation has been implemented from the viewpoint of citizens and the authorities with regard to Finnish, Swedish, the Sámi languages, Romani, sign languages and other language groups. Various authorities and other organisations were widely consulted for the report. The report aims to provide decision-makers with information for any measures and application of the provisions. In the earlier reports submitted to Parliament in 2006 and 2009, the Government proposed measures to ensure the implementation of linguistic rights in inter alia guidance of the authorities, choice of solutions, customer service, communications and personnel policy. Based on these reports, Parliament has repeatedly drawn attention to the authorities’ bilingual customer service and service chains, as well as to assessing the linguistic effects of administrative reforms.Concerning the national languages, this report mainly discusses Swedish because follow-up has primarily brought to light deficiencies in the implementation of the linguistic rights of Swedish speakers. Also international monitoring bodies have drawn attention to the position of Swedish,the Sámi languages and Romani. Therefore this report also discusses international treaties on linguistic rights. Recent years have seen more attention than earlier given to linguistic rights. Senior public officials and decision-makers especially have shown they consider it important to promote linguistic rights. More active efforts have been made to improve linguistic services by, inter alia,explicitly including linguistic rights in guiding documents such as guidelines, recommendations and language programmes. Also new regional and local bodies have been established and persons responsible have been appointed to coordinate and develop the linguistic services of the authorities.The effects on linguistic rights have been evaluated or raised across all administrative levels in conjunction with reforms and legislative work. Nowadays, the authorities provide much more information than earlier on their websites in both national languages and in other languages.Some fields of administration have paid more attention to recruitment by, for example, writing recruitment instructions which take into account language skills. Although the authorities have made progress with plans, they have not yet progressed to putting these plans into practice – good intentions have not reached the practical level. The authorities have not yet systematically ascertained how customer service or service chains function. They consider the lack of staff with language skills to still be the biggest stumbling block. It is hoped that language courses and, in the long-term, language immersion will increase the number of staff with language skills. The authorities have a duty to obtain, on their own initiative, information on a customer’s mother tongue and contact language from the Population Information System, where it is stored along with other information. Despite this, however, the authorities nowadays neither always ascertain nor use an individual’s language when providing their services. The result in recent years is that ensuring linguistic rights has increasingly relied on the individual’s own initiative. Each authority oversees compliance with the Language Act in its own field, although it is ultimately down to whether the customer’s own language is ascertained and used in practice. Linguistic rights are an inherent part of an individual’s fundamental rights. Social welfare and health care in a person’s mother tongue is an important part of an individual’s basic security at all stages of life. Despite this, some sectors within social welfare and health care have had difficulties in arranging services in both national languages. Forthcoming social welfare and health care reforms, and the procurement of social welfare and health care services are faced with major 7 challenges. It is important that they particularly address the right of an individual to receive nursing and care and related information in his or her own language. According to citizens, this especially applies to medical care and care of the elderly. In recent years, citizens have also been particularly concerned about the linguistic service at emergency response centres. The Government’s resolution on the national language strategy proposes, inter alia, greater visibility of both national languages and information on the opportunities to learn languages and to meet other language groups. In addition, linguistic effects must be evaluated in conjunction with administrative reforms and legislative drafting projects. The annex to the strategy provides the practical tools to deal with various language situations in administration. The Government proposes the authorities use the tools provided in the Strategy for the National Languages of Finland when they improve the application of language legislation in their activities on the basis of the needs for development revealed in this report. The Government reiterates its call to implement the measures suggested in its earlier reports in 2006 and 2009 and deems that to secure linguistic services language skills particularly need to be taken into account when recruiting and when evaluating linguistic effects in reforms. It is important that the authorities do not devolve to the individual their duty to serve an individual in his or her own language. Therefore, the Government proposes that the authorities decide how they will carry out in practice their duty to serve an individual in his or her registered language. This report examines the linguistic conditions of other language groups more extensively than earlier. The linguistic rights of the Sámi are secured increasingly more randomly and it is hard to obtain oral service particularly in the Sámi language. In recent years, language nest activity has promoted the position especially of Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi. One main problem is considered as being the large number of Sámi children living outside the Sámi homeland area who do not receive teaching in or of the Sámi language. Progress has been made in some areas in addressing the linguistic rights of sign language users, although Finland-Swedish sign language is more endangered than earlier. Concern about the right to their own language and culture has intensified with regard to children using sign language. Sign language users would also like more communication by the authorities to be in sign language. The start of university teaching and language immersion in Romani has supported the revitalisation of skills in the Romani language. The Romani population would like to see inter alia more programmes in Romani. Recent years have seen attention given to the Karelian language, which is now included in the scope of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The number of native Russian and Estonian speakers in particular has increased significantly in Finland and their need for information has grown. Attitudes to different language groups have hardened in recent years. The need for a debate on values has been highlighted with regard to the minorities in Finland and tolerance towards other language groups.