This monograph provides an overview of the language situation in 19th and especially 20th century Finland, since 1922 an officially bilingual country in northern Europe. In the 1980s, the linguistic situation changed again as the former emigrant country became an immigrant country. In the 1990s, the status of linguistic minorities was improved through a number of legislative and educational reforms, and in 2001, proposals for the new Language Act and the Saami Language Act were written. Simultaneously, the status of Finnish/Swedish changed somewhat, given the growing importance of English since Finland joined the European Union in 1995.