In an interesting article published by Siirtolaisuus – Migration issue 2/1996, social psychologist Professor J. W. Berry asks what factors have to be in place to establish reasonable harmonious relationships between diverse groups. Ethnocentrism is a theory devised by Sumner in 1906 and means when “one’s group is the center of everything, and all others…
Month: November 2008
A disgraceful era we should never repeat in Finland
If there was a disgraceful period on how Finland treated foreigners, that period would be the cold war era. Even though Russian troops never took control of Finland such as countries like Poland, Hungary and others, the shadow of the for former Soviet Union hung deep in Finland. This period, 1945 to the early or mid-1990s, should never be allowed to happen again.
Foreigners in Finland: Integration or conversation?
I recently had a very interesting chat with a colleague of mine over how much foreigners should integrate or assimilate into Finnish society. He felt that it was definitely not a matter of assimilation and that integration should only apply to the workplace. “Integration is important if you want to take part in the Finnish…
The Anti-Finland League in Canada
This is a funny story I read in The Hammer, a Canadian satirical magazine that tells about how the Finns have taken over the maritime provinces.
The building of Finnish national identity within a multicultural society
One of the matters that some Finns who read the many comments in this blog should try to understand is that cultural diversity or multiculturalism should not be perceived as a threat but as an opportunity. For some Finns, who see foreigners as a threat to our culture, this fear can be best explained through…
What does Obama’s victory mean for Finland?
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King One of the surprising matters of the US presidential elections was not that a black American was…