Introduction: migration and ethnic challenges for the Circumpolar North

3The Circumpolar North is back in the spotlight. After the relative decline in the world’s public interest after the end of the Cold War confrontation, the big powers are back in the game for the Arctic’s natural resources and its strategic routes. ­People might perceive ideas such as Donald Trump’s proposal to purchase Greenland as not serious, but this idea is simply a manifestation of a new, serious trend: the rising interest of the United States, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway and also non-Arctic states such as China to exert greater control over these territories. With global warming and a simultaneous technological and transportation revolution, the accessibility of this formerly remote and unfriendly region is gradually increasing, which attracts potential new settlers from various parts of the world. At the same time, demographic pressures on other continents are staggering: in Africa alone, the population is expected to rise to 1.68 billion by 2030, an increase of 42 percent compared with 2015 (United Nations, 2015). Even if we assume that conservative (or even restrictive) migratory regimes would prevail in the northern hemisphere in the coming decades, it is reasonable to expect that many migrants from the densely populated areas of Asia, Latin America or Africa would look for new opportunities, also settling in the Circumpolar North. Therefore, the main aim of this volume is to focus on migration to, and ethnic challenges in, the Circumpolar North, and to analyse the social, economic, political and cultural changes induced by population movements in this region.