Aland-blog on language policy

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

Do they define 'Swedish speaking' as 'able to speak Swedish' (a language test), or 'habitual speaker of Swedish' (in practice an ethnic test)???
 
I'm not in favour of the establishment of reservations or ethnically limited zones (my family would never get anywhere to live!).
 
Anthea

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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr) 
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT <www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg> 
NB: Reply to a.f.gupta at leeds.ac.uk 
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Åland has one of the most interesting pieces of "language policy I 
know.  You cannot buy land there unless you are Swedish speaking.  I 
don't know what brilliant politician was responsible for that, but we 
all know that monolingual Anglophones buying property in the Gaeltaecht 
(for summer cabins and the like) was in some measure helping the Irish 
shift to English.  Won't happen on Åland.  Christina