Talk:Imatra

Russian?

@LPfi, Ypsilon: On Finland#Talk, it says that Russian is spoken in Imatra, but this article doesn't say much on the use of Russian (русский) in Imatra. Is it worth mentioning it here or not? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 14:31, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

I have no personal experience and no friends living there, but my impression is there are lots of Russians tourists in any town this close to the border, business owners know being able to serve in Russian is important, and so is the youth, and have been for more than twenty years; I suppose Russian is a popular fourth language in the schools (after Finnish, English and Swedish; in my school here in Turku some 4/5 of pupils chose a fourth language in 8th grade) and thus known by a significant share of young adults. I know many shops (and probably hotels) are able to provide service in Russian, but I don't know at what level, and I don't know how well you can make yourself understood in Russian outside shops. –LPfi (talk) 15:09, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

Yes, many hospitality services and shops in southeastern Finland cater to Russian visitors (at least pre-pandemic) who come to shop for western goods and "to stay abroad".

In addition it's common for Finnish people from there to pop across the border, at least in part attracted by very cheap fuel, alcohol and tobacco (whereas going to Russia is a bit more of a "special thing" for other Finns, partly due to the visa requirement). I've understood it's quite common for people in that corner of Finland to hold one year visas to Russia allowing them to come and go as they like, and that Russian is studied notably more than elsewhere in Finland. --Ypsilon (talk) 15:38, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

In addition there is a significant Russian minority, 4% (much less in Finland overall). These are quite new immigrants, as immigration From Russia to Finland was near zero between the wave of refugees after the 1917 revolution and the beginning collapse of the Soviet Union around 1990. For Finland overall, about half the immigrants are from ethnic minorities, such as Ingrians, but I assume most Russophones in Imatra are ethnic Russians.

For some reason I cannot find any statistics on Russian proficiency by municipality (is there any?), nor statistics on language studies in Imatra. Most news about Russian or Russians in Finland is about Lappeenranta, very little about Imatra.

–LPfi (talk) 06:29, 9 September 2021 (UTC)