Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt

Students studying the Swedish language on the island of Tjörn

The Royal Society for Swedish Culture Abroad (Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt) was founded in 1908 by Vilhelm Lundström, Professor at the University of Gothenburg.

At that time, Sweden had lost about 20 percent of its population since the mid-19th century due to the huge wave of emigration from poor rural areas in Sweden to mainly North America. There were those in Sweden who wanted to prevent a further drainage of Swedes to America and other regions, but the new Society wanted instead to offer emigrated Swedes the means to keep contact with the old country and its language and culture. The original name of the Society was therefore "Riksföreningen för svenskhetens bevarande i utlandet" or, in English, "The Society for the Preservation of Swedishness Abroad."

Later a new target group developed, thanks to international business and trade, which led to a large increase in the number of Swedes living and working abroad. Today, the Society's activities are focused on the Swedish language and culture, support to the teaching of Swedish at Swedish schools abroad and, increasingly, even for non-Swedes -- both children and adults.

The Society's accomplishments include:

• Organizing an annual, international course in the Swedish language on the island of Tjörn;
• Granting scholarships to children who study Swedish abroad to participate in summer camps on the Swedish coast;
• Arranging for young persons to study during one semester at an adult education college;
• Donating books to the student libraries of Swedish schools abroad and helping schools purchase educational books at the lowest available cost;
• Subsidizing many different types of activities promoting the Swedish language and culture;
• Providing lecturers to teachers' conferences;
• Informing our members and others about Swedish news in the linguistic and cultural areas through our periodical Sverigekontakt and website www.sverigekontakt.se

Submitted by Lars Björkman, Secretary General, 2006-2010
Edited by Kerstin Trowbridge

March 2010