Ever since I moved to Finland thirty years ago, I have watched how immigration officials and their planners have attempted to deal with foreigners. When I came to Finland in the late- 1970s, there were so few outsiders living in the country that some sociologists like Heikki Waris claimed that there was no racism as…
Author: Migrant Tales
Finland’s multicultural challenge in the 21st century
Just like when Finland won its independence from the former Soviet Union in the last century, the country will face new challenges to its cultural identity. In the 20th century, after December 6, 1917, when Finland gained its cherished independence, there was a lot of work done to exert Finnish culture and wipe out the…
Some good advice about Finnish culture
Some people who move to Finland for the first time may suffer from a generous dose of culture shock like in any country. In the thirty years that I have lived in Finland on and off, the best advice I can give you and the Finns is the following: What is normal in your culture…
Foreigners will help Finns see who they are
My father, who moved to Europe from Argentina at the age of 21in the early 1950s, told me that he never learned so much about himself except when he became a foreigner. In the same manner, and as more foreigners move to Finland, can they help us see the positive and negative aspects of our…
Some questions about immigration to Finland
Many thanks to all of you that have taken so actively part in the debate on immigration to Finland. There have been a wide spectrum of opinions over the issue. The most positive matter that these comments have shown is that we can debate them in a civil fashion. But there are some questions that…
Illegal immigration in Finland and the European Union
The approval on June 18 by the European Parliament (click on T6-0293) of a common EU policy on illegal immigration is going to fail for a very simple reason — there is a market for these types of immigrants and because they provide bad employers a chance to cheat the system and slash overheads. The…
Where will Finland get foreign workers?
I took part in a very interesting seminar in June on foreigners in Finland. Here are some conclusions from that seminar on what real challenges Finland faces with respect to its aging population and luring foreign workers to the country. 1) It will be VERY difficult for Finland to attract qualified labor from other countries….
Turning naivety on Finland into action
Like many second-generation Finns that lived abroad, I too hoped to move back to live in Finland one day. While the decision to move back was an easy one, I encountered my first setback when I applied for a residence permit. In the late-1970s, Finland had a pretty draconian view of who was and was…
Some reasons behind Finland’s strong anti-immigrant stance
Having lived in Finland on and off for 30 years, I have come to some explanations why some Finns feel so strongly about immigration. I could give you the usual explanations: Finland has had few immigrants, the climate, difficult language, the culture, lack of jobs etc… These are the most common explanations that make us…
When in Finland do as the Finns do…
I read an interesting post in Svenskfinland titled, “When in Rome, do as the Romans,” and it set me thinking. The post continues: “…in other words, that integration should mean that migrants to Finland so quickly as possibly forget their own background and take on entirely a Finnish lifestyle – essentially abandoning or replacing their…