A Handbook for Asylum seekers in sweden - Tema asyl & integration

About Swedenwww.sweden.seSweden, Sverige in Swedish, is a long narrow country with an area of 450,000km 2 making it the fifth biggest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine, Franceand Spain.Sweden’s geography is characterised by its long coastline, immensely beautifulcountryside, dense forests, myriad lakes and extensive mountainous areas. Morethan half of Sweden’s surface area is covered by forest in addition to approximately100,000 inland lakes and tens of thousands of archipelago islands off thelong coasts on the Baltic to the east and the North Sea to the west adding to thebeauty of the country.By the 16th century Sweden had evolved into a strongly centralized nation,with Stockholm as its capital. The size of the country has changed over the centuries.Finland was part of Sweden until 1809. During certain periods Swedenalso had provinces on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and evencolonies in North America and the West Indies. In 1905, a nearly century-oldunion with Norway was dissolved, but since 1812 Sweden’s borders have beenunchanged and the country has been spared from war since 1814.Sweden belongs to the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Swedenand Finland), whose central portion is called Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway,Denmark). Average temperature in July is +18°C. The winter temperatures averageslightly below freezing and the snowfall is moderate. Northern Sweden haslong and cold winters and bright summers with moderate temperatures; in Juneand July, daylight lasts around the clock.Language and populationSwedish – svenska – is the official language of Sweden. The Swedish language belongsto the northern branch of the Germanic languages, along with Norwegian,Danish, Icelandic and Faroese and it is the largest of these Nordic languages.Swedish is spoken by the majority of the 9 million people who live in Sweden. InFinland, which belonged to Sweden until 1809, about 5.6% of the Finnish population(some 300 000) have Swedish as their mother tongue, making Swedish oneof the official languages in Finland. Swedish can be understood by Norwegians,Danes and a number of second-generation Swedes in North America.In addition to Swedish, five languages are protected as minority languages inSweden. These are: Finnish, Meän Kieli (Torne Valley Finnish), Yiddish, Samiand Romany Chib. English is taught in schools as the second language and mostA Handbook for Asylum Seekers in Sweden | 35