To correctly answer this question, it is necessary to recall historical fact: the citizens of Finland are not just one ethnic group, but several different ethnic groups: Finns, Swedes, Karelians, Savonians, Saami. Each ethnos has a specific look.

There is an ethnological map of Finland, which was published in the Russian Empire. Until the 19th century AD. the main ethnic group were:

• The Swedes (yellow). Most of them were in the west of Finland.
• In South-West Finland there were the real/original Finns (blue color). The Finns often lived together with the Swedes (bright green color).
• In the east of Finland - Karelians and Savonian (green color).
• In the north of Finland - the Saami (pink color).
• Orange color — Kven people.

Finnish men look about the same.

But there are exceptions. For example, a Tatars:

But the Finnish women have different appearance: in the south-west they are very similar to ordinary Scandinavian women, but in the east some women have a different appearance:

I think that this appearance is a bit like the Asian appearance.

Most Finnish men have the N haplogroup. The people of this haplogroup came from the territory of modern China, where they lived about 10,000 years ago.

Approximately 5000 years ago, the ancestors of modern Finns and the ancestors of modern Yakuts were relatives.

Yakutian woman:

Saami woman:

Well, that would have been a good question if they were known as the original dark Scandinavians, but they aren’t. In fact, I have never heard anyone but you call them that.

But since we’re here anyway, pull up a chair and let me tell you the story of the original dark Scandinavians, because the winter night up here are long and there are stories to be told.

12000 years ago, Scandinavia and nearby areas (well into modern-day Russia) was covered by an ice sheet so thick that only a few high mountaintops poked through. It must have been an amazing sight, similar to the majestic glaciers you see in Greenland today, only more so. But new and milder winds were blowing, and over the next thousand years, islands and the tips of the mainland became free from the ice. Almost intantly, grass and ferns and bushes sprouted, and wild animals thrived. And with the animals came the hunter-gatherers.

At the height of the Ice Age, much of Europe had been buried beneath the glacier, but in present-day Spain and Portugal a hardy people had survived. They looked unlike anyone you are likely to meet today, for their skin was dark, like you see in many south Indians today, but their eyes were blue. Today we call them Western Hunter-Gatherers, or WHG for short.

Most people would probably breathe a sigh of relief when the glaciers finally retreated and the climate became comfortably warm. But some weirdos decided to follow the retreating ice and snow, and they kept doing this until the came to Norway. (Their descendants in Norway still do this today: Each spring when the snow melts by the coast, they travel up in the mountains to go skiing in the spring. Many have built cabins up there and return year after year.)

These original dark Scandinavians would probably have continued all the way to the arctic ocean if they had not met that special someone who would change their future forever. The special someones were Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHG), fairly pale people with gray and brown eyes and brown to blondish hair who had arrived from the east. They probably came here from modern-day Ukraine or thereabout, and had for some reason thought it was a good idea to go up north along the east side of the Fennoscandic ice shelf. Now they came down the Norwegian coast from the north, and that’s where they met the darker people who had settled present-day Denmark, southern Sweden and the south coast of Norway.

There was probably some mutual murder and mayhem, as was the tradition back in the days when different tribes met. And then they had sex. This continued until the present day, with some breaks. The result was that the two branches of human were thoroughly mixed. And just in time, too!

Despite the mild Gulf Stream that was now gnawing away on the glacier, Scandinavia was still really far north, and the winters were long and dark. Unless you ate liver, you would run out of vitamin D well before spring. And there was only so much liver to go around. The children in particular were vulnerable: Without enough vitamin D, their bones got weak and deformed and they failed to thrive. Children are the future, you know, so this could have gone pretty badly. Luckily, the easterners had brought genes for light skin, which allowed us to soak up the sun’s rays and make vitamin D longer into fall and earlier in spring. Since the kids with pale skin grew up healthier, and there were no schools telling people about vitamins, white people became very popular partners. Over time, the new “mixed race” (now called Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers) became paler and paler. It seems that people even preferred partners with the lightest hair and eyes, perhaps just so be sure. (Again, no public schools, so they could not say for sure which part of the paleness made the vitamins.) But as far north as in present-day Denmark there were still dark people as late as 3700 BCE. Also, they had chewing gum?

So what does this have to do with the Sami?

Next to nothing, it turns out. The Sami also came to northern Scandinavia from the east, but some 9000 years later than the original Eastern Hunter-Gatherers. From around 500 BCE to around 500 CE they gradually spread from present-day Finland all the way to the mid-Norwegian mountains, replacing the last remaining hunter-gatherers. Well, by replacing I mean “killing the men and taking the women for themselves”, as one did before civilization. We can say this with some certainty because there is a lot more variation in the mitochondrial DNA (always inherited from mother) compared to the Y-chromosomal DNA (always inherited from the father). So unless a lot of guys died from natural reasons when these folks moved in, there was probably the usual murder and mayhem and then sex. The murder and mayhem came to an end - the Sami today are quite friendly - but the sex has continued to this day, and with it, the Sami themselves. They are not dark-skinned, but they had a higher proportion of dark hair, as one has further east. This has gradually been mixed with blond and brown hair from Scandinavian neighbors. (See above about “and then they had sex”. Before Netflix and chill, there was just the chill. So much chill, all through the winter.)

Anyway, there really were original dark Scandinavians, but they were gone long before the Sami arrived. There are still some genes left, though - most notably the bright blue eyes you often see in Scandinavian people… including some Sami.

I’m not sure which Nordic people you think of: there are people in Northern Eurasia who do look Asiatic, but they are not Nordic - if by Nordic we mean Germanic Scandinavians.

This is a Saami person:

The Saami are living on the top of Scandinavia, and have been living there for quite some time.

This is famous Finnish racecar driver, Mika Hakkinen:

Both of them come from a group of people called Uralic, with their dominant paternal DNA haplogroup being N, not I (Northern Germanic) or R (East and West European).

Other members of this group still live in Northern Russa, like the Samoyeds:

The Khanty:

The Komi:

And many other groups.

So people like the Finns or the Saami are not Scandinavian, but are living in the broader area often referred to as Scandinavia. The majority of them look more European, but they still have the genetic heritage, which shows up from time to time.

Heck, I’m Hungarian - also with some historic Uralic heritage -, and we are genetically near indistinguishable from the neighboring Slavic and Germanic people, yet my nephew has epicanthic folds in the corner of his eyes (and incredibly blonde hair, he looks really cute). Also dated women - as in more than one - with almond eyes, yet they were also Hungarian.

TL/DR: there is ancient admixture, just not with the group you think.

If you google "Finland mongoloid" of course you will get Finns who look like that. You are in essence googling something that supports your preconception. That's like googling images with "irish old man" and then wondering why do Irish people in the results look like old men.

The idea of Finns as east Asian looking comes from hundred year old racial theories, where Finns were seen as "non-white" and "mongoloid" as to prove they are inferior to "white" Europeans. This idea was then propagated by Western Europeans seeking to prove their supermacy. Thea idea of Finns as "mongoloid" partly originated from Finns having a language unrelated to Indo-European. The hundred year old incorrect racial stereotype still exists, and has moved on to be an internet meme joke, contributing to google searches you make.

When it comes to "Asian eyes", or eyes with epicanthic fold, skin from upper eyelid that covers the inner corner of eye, they are not restricted to Asians. They are a feature which pop up all over the world. For example several African populations have epicanthic folds without being Asian. It is common to children of any race to have varying degree of epicanthic folds as a child, and most lose it when they grow up. Frankly, the reason why some populations in the world have them and some do not is not known, but in Finland they are not common.

If you see what average Finns look like, like average woman (top row, second) here:

Or average Finnish man here:

They look like average Northern Europeans.

Now, Finns do commonly have N1-haplogroup which is common in Northern Eurasia, also with people who "look east Asian". But N1-haplogroup is so old (over 10 000 years) that we have no information what kind of people it originated from. The geographical origin does not tell us much. For example the haplogroup K2 likely originates from Southeast Asia. Descendant of that haplogroup is R-haplogroup, which is the dominant haplogroup in Europe. Still, Europeans are characterized by their lack of epicanthic folds, even though their dominant haplogroup ancestor likely originates from Southeast Asia.

Likewise language isn't that good indicator either. Mexicans, Indians, Iranians, Greek, Irish and Norwegians all speak related Indo-European languages, but their related language is not an indication of how related these people are. For Finns the most related people after Estonians are Swedes instead of Uralic speaking Sami people.

I'm not an expert, but I am assuming you are talking about epicanthic folds, which tend to make an eye look east Asian. from what I've gathered, generally only a very small percentage of people with European descent have an epicanthic fold, though Northern Europeans (Finland, Iceland, etc) have a slightly higher percentage. I know I French, Irish, British, and possibly native American descent and have an epicanthic fold, and i am really interested in where it comes from. My younger brother has it too, and some of my cousins from my dads side of the family have it as well. i included a picture of my eyes below so you could see.

Also this video was pretty interesting and might (probably) answer your question better than I did haha

Anyways hope that helped :D

EDIT: I added another picture of my eyes that was taken in better lighting with a real camera for those that are interested C:

Why do Europeans have Asian eyes?

Because you label some types of “eyes” as “Asian Eyes”, and then wonder why others have them too.

:D

Some people in Africa have the same eye shapes, and folds, etc.

Some migrated into Europe, so, some Europeans (Who used to be Africans until they moved to Europe), have those eyes that they inherited from their African ancestors.

Some Africans also migrated into Asia, and so forth.

:D

Because those people think that we look like East Asians? Which raises the question about what do they generally think that East Asians look like. As a Finn, I don’t know how people around the world see us. To me, we don’t look like East Asian, but if half of the world sees us as East Asian looking, I can’t help it.

In Quora threads dicussing the Finnish looks, people like to publish photos to prove how East Asian or Mongoloid we look, and the most popular Finnish person that I have seen in such answers/comments is the former F1 driver Mika Häkkinen. And the most common singular photo of him in such answers is the one where he narrows his eyes because sun is shining into his eyes; this one. We can see typical East Asian or Mongoloid eyes here. He has somewhat narrow eyes, but they really don’t look like East Asian to me.

Here’s a capture of such an answer:

(The same answer tells how also the Sami look like East Asians and proves it with a photo of a girl that is not a Sami. I can tell by her dress. She’s possibly a Nenets somewhere around the Ural mountains, but not a Sami in FInland. And she doesn’t look particularly East Asian to me either, even though she is narrowing her eyes, too:

)

The second popular image I have seen is this one of the artistic director of Marimekko, Minna Kemell-Kutvonen. She has special looking eyes, but not epichantic folds.

But I don’t actually hear about epichantic folds when these pictures are shown: they are described as slanted eyes that I hear to be typical to Mongoloid and East Asian people.

Of course, one could choose any of thousands of photos of different looking Finns to consider our looks, but these represent typical photos I see here on Quora (and I don’t follow these discussion anywhere else).

To me, neither Häkkinen nor Kemell-Kutvonen look like East Asian, but if that’s the common perception, then it is.

_________
Not to be shared behind a paywall.

First, this question is a perfect example of one that actually needs the sort of details that Quora in its questionable wisdom has chosen to dispense with.

So, epicanthic folds are those aspects of eye shape that we normally consider Asian, with the folds on the outsides of the eyes making the eyes seem to “slant,” As a person of Sami origins, I have heard this referred to for my whole life as “Finn” eyes. Several years ago, my Finnish cousin (from north of the Arctic Circle) and I realized that we had some resemblance to one another including our “Finn eyes:’

The problem with the whole line of thought is that is is part of a general feeling that the Sami are descended from some indistinct Mongolian horde. The recent Swedish Movie Sami Blood emphasized the physical differences between the slant-eyed, round faced, and thick bodied Sami and the southern Nordics with their blue eyes, blonde- hair and graceful bodies.

I’d prefer a description that doesn’t attempt to racialize people by some narrow definition of eye shape. I am the person on the left.

It is Norway, and the reason may surprise you.

One reason that may explain why it is relatively common for many Norwegians to have dark hair and dark eyes is feeding. Nordic peoples usually have lighter pigmentation due to the reduced incidence of sunlight at certain times of the year, and the low concentration of melanin makes easier the absorption of sunlight and therefore the sunlight-induced production of vitamin D.

As Norway is a country with few land for agriculture and livestock because of its mountainous terrain, Norwegians eat many fish and seafood, which are rich in vitamin D, causing the need to soak up the sunlight smaller and therefore does not require less melanin, which in turn makes their hair and eyes darker.

The Danes and Swedes, on the other hand, eat much less marine food, since unlike Norway their countries have more arable land, which makes farming and livestock far more common. Less sea food means less absorption of vitamin D from the feeding, which they need to compensate with a greater exposure to sunlight, so they usually have less melanin and therefore lighter hair and eyes.

The Lapp (or Sami) indigenous people who live north of Scandinavia also have darker hair and eyes for the same reason, seafood-based feeding. The Sami have basically fed on fish and seafood for many thousands of years, which could explain their darkest hair and eyes in the middle of the Arctic Circle, where in winter the sun is not born for days! This also can explain why other northern peoples in the world, such as the Inuit in North America have dark hair and dark eyes even if they live in far north areas of the planet.

So, a diet based on seafood and also a miscigenation of the Germanic tribes with the pre-Germanic peoples, such as the Sami, Corded Ware, Ertebølle and Funnelbeaker cultures contributed to many Scandinavians (especially Norwegians) having darker hair and eyes. Also industralisation, exportation and globalisation brought much more vitamin D-rich food or even vitamin D supplements, which reduce the need for exposure to sunlight and therefore the need for less melanin.

Anthropologically speaking a caucasiod skull has a prominent brow bone. Asian skulls lack brow bones. Hence often you see more protruding eyes on Asians, and more deep set eyes on caucasians but this isn’t exclusive as there will be variations of soft tissue. It’s only the bone structure that can give away if someone is “East Asian” or “Caucasian” and there will be variations.

I want to emphasize there is a myth that all Asians have slanted eyes, or that they all have dark eyes. As a humanities major, I was deeply interested in cross cultural studies and noticed these stereotypes often drive how people from other and within their own culture, perceive Or assume what is true about certain ethnic groups.

I like to use myself as a stereotype buster. I am ethnically from South East Asia but born in America. My genetic tests have shown I am approximately 97 percent of South East Asian percent. The rest is mostly unknown. So I like to say I am 100% south East Asian but if you wanted the technicality, some genetic testing have said I have some unknown. Still my family can be traced back to South East Asia for many generations on both sides. My grandma had monolids, pale complexion and a very small nose. My grandpa had large deep set eyes. The combination made my mom look not fully south East Asian (we are technically Chinese but my mom came from the most southern part of China (still below the equator where people were mostly tan). To go straight to point about stereotype busting. This is a photo of just my eyes.

I want to remain somewhat anonymous so no full photo. But I wanted to point out that my eyes still look ethnically Asian. But I have Caucasian like traits. Albeit rare, Asians can have light eye colors (I have heterochromia but this is still relevant because I family one family member with light eye color, so it’s inherited). So in sum, it’s the skull that makes someone Asian, not their soft tissue, eye shape, size, eyelid folds, skin color, hair color… it’s not really any of these. Yes Asians prevalently have black hair, and dark brown eyes, but not all.

sorry if this was a long rant! Thanks for reading

Because there are so many weeaboos in Finland, and being fanboys and fangirls to Japanese, Chinese and Korean culture are the thing in Finland. It’s a kind of cosplay.

And why not - we have only one country in-between us.

You see? Blonde hair, blue eyes, no epichantus - clearly the signs of East Asian origin!

It’s not unusual. However, a lot of people don’t seem to understand what epicanthic folds are. It is only a phenomenon in the corner of the eyes. With no image it’s hard to know if you have epicanthic folds or not. My grandmother did and you can see it here

Edit: I put in another image as the old disappeared!

White people are not as white as they think they are. A lot of white people are racially mixed and don't know it because the mixing took place centuries ago. These women may have gotten those Asian features due to when the Mongols invaded europe and conquered many parts of eastern europe including parts of russia in the 13th century. Or it can come from the Huns who invaded europe in the 4th and 5th century. Or it can come from the silk road, when europeans and Asian countries were doing business in selling all kinds of products. I'm sure some of those products where “human products” if you know what I mean.

Why do some Europeans have small eye opening or hooded eyes that look very similar to “Asian eyes”? Convergent evolution. That is what it is. Epicanthus protects eyes against strong UV glare and snow blindness.

European Hunter Gatherers were oldest inhabitants of Europe. They had pseudo Northeast Asian appearance like broad face and smaller nose bridge probably as a result of adaptation to cold and harsh environment. It is not surprising if they might have “Asian like eyes”.

However, they completely didn't have any shared ancestry with Northeast Asians. They were genetically 100% West Eurasian. It was completely a result of converagent evolution and adaptation to environment.

This may be the reason some North Europeans have smaller eyes or hooded eyes that look very Asian-like. They have higher percentage of Hunter ancestry… Modern day Northern Europeans also tend to have less narrow face than South European and Arabs.

Rita Maria Bargash's answer to How did Finno-Uralic groups like the Finns and the Hungarians become racially white?

Or it could be just a genetic drift and founder effect. All Humans originate from Africa. Africans have the most diverse phenotypes in the world. Big eyes that are associated with Europeans and small epicanthus eyes that are associated with Asians.

Sudanese people

Khoisan people

Seeing the Khoisans have “Asian” eyes, it is very outdated concept to associate these eyes only with Asian and Mongolians.

Some Northern Europeans carry Siberian DNA and look like this:

Y-DNA N originated in Siberia and is found in Northern Europe:

Yes

Kyrgyz (Central Asian)

Kazakh (Central Asian)

Uzbek (Central Asian)

Turkmen (Central Asian)

Tajik (Central Asian)

Hazara (Central Asian)

Uyghur (Central Asian)

Pashtun (Central/South Asian)

Turkish (West Asian)

Iranian (West Asian)

Syrian (West Asian)

Sakha (North Asian)

Shor (North Asian)

Khakas (North Asian)

Altaian (North Asian)

Indian (South Asian)

Pakistani (South Asian)

Korean (East Asian)

Japanese (East Asian)

Race is BS. Humans, depending on environment can adapt to just about any trait over time. Epicanthic folds protect the eyes from the sun, wind, snow, sand/dirt, ect. At least one of these conditions exist in Western Europe. You can find people with a epicanthic fold in just about every population.

Nelson Mandela's Grandson (South African):

Singer Björk (Icelandic):

I wrote a more detailed answer here:

Quora User's answer to What is the evolutionary significance of having the sort of eyes Asians do?

I am not a expert about Europeans, but there are historical migrations from Siberia towards Europe. The question is misleading, as they have admixture.

What we know is that there were multiple migrations from Siberia towards Northern and Eastern Europe, linked to the Uralic languages but also Turkic languages. Also the proto-Indo-Europeans (Yamnaya people) from the Pontic Steppe, had about 20% East Asian/Siberian ancestry. Hallast et al. 2020 found that there were multiple migrations from the East towards Europe.

As example, the Uralic expansion:

Uralic peoples from Siberia contributed quite noteworthy to the genetic heritage of Europeans. Represented by Nganasans, it was found that this Siberian population represents the ancient Uralic nomads, which migrated into parts of Europe, the best:

Scandinavians and Baltic people, especially Finns and Estonians, but also some other Europeans in Eastern and Central Europe, have quite noteworthy ancestry from these Uralic/Siberian nomads.

A genetic study in 2019 estimated that these Uralic/Siberians arrived between 8,000 to 3,000 years ago to the Baltic region and than diversified and mixed with the local population.

The lineage N-Tat, is quite high in Northeast Europe. N-Tat originated in the Baikal-Sayan region north of Mongolia and China.

This is the reason why some Europeans, especially Northern Europeans have “Asian eyes” and other features associated with East Asians. But in my opinion it is a minority, possibly 25%. The rest looks typically European to me.

Interestingly, Uralic is often suggested to be related with Eskimo-Aleut languages of North America as well as with various Siberian languages, such as Nivkh, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Yukaghir,… known as Uralo-Siberian family.

Because of ancestry from ANE (Ancient Northeast Eurasian) men. The female genetic component of most Europeans is Caucasian (Female haplogroup HV). As for the male side, there is a large number of Y-DNA haplogroup R carriers which is derived from the ANE men. Y-DNA haplogroup R is more closely related to East Asians and Southeast Asians (Haplogroup O) than to Caucasians (Haplogroup HIJK). Since their female side is very Caucasian but the male side is less Caucasian, their overall appearance is closer to Caucasians.

Examples of Europeans who look mixed with ANE :

Examples of the “purer” Caucasian looks :

There is no such thing as pure white people. They are mostly mix of Caucasians and ANE.

No - 8% of the people on earth today have blue eyes, around 600 million people, and Scandinavia only has 20 million people plus an equal amount of descendants abroad.

Blue eyes is a mutation which arose around the Black Sea, and was then spread to Asia and Europe, like Spain, 7.000 years ago.

Since blue eye colour is recessive it is quite rare. When Scandinavia was populated after the ice age, dark skinned humans with blue eyes came from the South, while more light skinned with mixed eyes came from Northeast, and they met and mixed from 8.000 years ago. Which could explain why blue eyes is more common there than in other places. The concentration is highest in Finland and Estonia, which are East Nordic countries but not Scandinavian, followed by Ireland and Scotland, and France, Spain and North Africa to the South also have many blue eyed people. Around half of North Europeans North of the Alps have blue eyes. In USA 40% had blue eyes 100 years ago and only 20% today.

50–80% of Nordic people have light hair, and over 50% of women still have blonde hair as grownups (and much less men), but that is a different story. Because fair skin and fair hair helped processing vitamin D in regions with little sunlight and became more dominant over time. I was blond as a child, but not as grownup.

Scandinavians as blue eyed and blonde is a nationalist stereotype created 140 years ago, and blond blue-eyed Swedish women is a Hollywood stereotype of the dumb and willing blonde from the 1950s, when the Swedish openness and sin was spread via cinema in films like The Summer with Monika by Ingmar Bergman (1953) and She danced one Summer (1951) where they bathed naked, and ”Swedish Girls” and the dyed blonde became popular, and later part of the XXX film industry.