Yle finds no evidence far-right families moved to Åland for homeschooling

Yle’s MOT programme and Svenska Yle found no evidence to support a claim that far-right Swedish families moved to Åland for homeschooling, although people with links to the far right have settled on the island for other reasons.

Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service warned this spring that several far-right families had moved from Sweden to Åland to educate their children at home. The warning prompted debate on the island, but journalists have not been able to verify the claim.

Homeschooling is banned in Sweden but permitted in Finland. More than 100 children are currently homeschooled in Åland, most of them from Sweden.

Linnea Alm and her family moved from Sweden so their children could be homeschooled. Alm said her daughter found school in Sweden frustratingly slow, and the family considered moving to the United States before discovering Åland, where people speak the same language and share a similar culture.

Both parents were involved in the Sweden Democrats, a nationalist and socially conservative party. Simon Alm was expelled after internal disagreements, while Linnea Alm left when the party softened its position on abortion. The couple say they have no links to the far right.

The Alms were surprised by the security service’s warning. They say they called members of Nordisk styrka, a Nazi organisation formed after a split in the Nordic Resistance Movement, and were told that their children were not homeschooled.

Linnea Alm said she found it illogical that neo-Nazis would favour homeschooling, pointing to compulsory schooling under Nazi Germany, which Adolf Hitler considered necessary to preserve the regime.

Ålands Radio political reporter Felicia Bredenberg said she had found several far-right families who had moved to Åland, but none who had chosen homeschooling. She said online forums describe the island as an “old Sweden”: a more homogeneous and white society where the ideals of the Swedish folkhem, or people’s home, remain alive.

Local police officer Tommy Thörnroos did not confirm the security service’s warning, but did not rule it out entirely. “At present, we do not see a concern related to homeschooling and the far right,” he said.