Immersion in accordance with the Canadian model was introduced in Finland as a result of Christer and Ulla Laurén of The University of Vaasa coming into contact with the programme in Canada at the end of the 1970s. After the initiative in starting immersion in Vasa had been taken by a group of politically active women, immersion has been initiated in several different places in Finland and often on the initiative of parents.
Immersion in Finland is intended for children from the majority group, but there is also immersion in international languages for various minority groups. Early total immersion is the most usual programme in Finland, but in southern Finland there is also early partial immersion. Immersion is usually begun at the age of 3-6 in Finland and continues from day nursery/preschool to grade 9 of the comprehensive school. Adaptations of immersion occur in several different places in Finland and may involve pupils/students of various ages, even adults, for instance at the University of Vaasa.
Research in immersion has been practically focused on at the University of Vaasa, but researchers at other institutes of higher education are also engaged in projects related to immersion and multilingualism.
In the autumn of 2009 there were 958 immersion children in day nurseries/preschools, 2184 immersion pupils in grades 1-6 of the comprehensive school and 838 immersion pupils in grades 7-9 of the comprehensive school.
