Creating informal European integration by travelling? Swedish and Finnish travel reminiscences of Interrail travel 1972–1993

Abstract

The Interrail rail ticket offer, created in 1972, established a new travel platform for young people to meet their peers in Europe. This article examines how Interrail youth travel enabled sociable transactions for Swedish and Finnish travellers and how this promoted informal European integration. The article is based on a qualitative analysis and comparison of 40 Finnish and Swedish Interrailers’ interviews about their trips between 1972 and 1993. The travellers recall the position of Sweden and Finland in relation to Europe as dualistic: being both outside and inside Europe. The Nordic countries in the 1970s and 80s were recalled as familiar and clearly distinct from Europe. Informal European integration was advanced; many travellers framed their Interrail trips as a positive, intrinsically European experience. Meeting new people among travellers and local residents was remembered as giving Europe faces and creating a sense of community. Thus, Interrail trips produced ‘lived Europeanness’. The findings also demonstrate that Swedish and Finnish travellers experienced the trip in a very similar fashion. However, the comparison served to reveal the regional differences in relation to the distance of the regions from continental Europe.