Haparanda-Tornio
Overview
Historical and geographical context
Tornio and Haparanda are two towns situated one on each side of the Finnish-Swedish border, which is marked by the Torne river. Following the Finnish War of 1808-1809 (and the victory of Russia over Sweden), Finland hitherto under Swedish rule passed into Russian administration. On the Swedish side, the town of Haparanda was established to compensate for the loss of Tornio. In 1917, Tornio became part of the independent Finland.
Due to their common geographic origin, the populations of Tornio and Haparanda switch freely between communicating in Finnish, Swedish and the Meänkieli regional dialects. Given the absence of a physical border, the inhabitants have become accustomed to crossing the border daily to go to work, to do their shopping or for recreation purposes.
The two towns share a rather similar economic profile, oriented towards the steel-making industry: a steelworks and its sub-contractors employ a significant proportion of the population. The two municipalities are however working to revitalise their economic and commercial sectors, notably with the “On the border” project (see 'Symbolic projects').
Moreover, as the Swedish and Finnish municipalities have mutualised a number of public services and facilities, Tornio-Haparanda functions as an integrated cross-border conurbation.
