Author: Migrant Tales

Is multiculturalism good for Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the surprising matters about the debate on multiculturalism is how little we understand the basic terms. Take for instance the term multicultural. Does it only mean a society comprised physically of many (multi) cultures, or is it  a policy that facilitates the participation of immigrants and  ethnic minorities in a society?

Finland is not officially a multicultural society like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, but our laws shows multicultural sensibility (Constitution, Citizenship and Non-Discrimination Act) towards minorities.

What do people mean in Finland when we speak of “multicultural society?” Are we referring to a society comprised physically of many cultures and/or official policy through laws such as the Non-Discrimination Act?

I suspect that it is a bit of the both.

If  we are still pretty much in the dark about what multiculturalism is and implies for Finland, how can we debate the issue effectively?

One of the reasons why some believe that multiculturalism is good for Finland is because there are so few immigrants in this country. It is a bit like being in favor of peace. Everyone will agree that peace is important but when the chips are down and war breaks out, some of us turn into Rambos.

Since multiculturalism (as a policy) has become a hypersensitive political issue during these difficult economic times, I believe that this moment is a better time than ever to discuss inequalities in our society: discrimination, exclusion and unemployment.

The recession in Finland has most likely hardened attitudes against the small immigrant community.

Is multiculturalism as a policy good for Finland?

Answering the question requires us to understand four phases:  immigrants, recognition, acceptance and incorporation into society. We are probably entering the second phase (recognition) in Finland.

Even though integration in global markets is vital to Finland’s survival and success as a country, over 20% immigrant unemployment nationally reveals a lot about the role of these people in this country. How can society benefit from newcomers  if exceptionally high unemployment continues to be an issue?  How are our “multicultural sensible” policies promoting greater incorporation of some minorities in society?

Is multiculturalism good for Finland?

Probably the question should be turned around: Is Finland ready for multiculturalism?

Jimmy Carter said Republican congressman’s outburst was based “on racism”

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Here is an interesting case: The biggest military and economic power in the world, the United States, continues to be hounded by one of its dubious legacies – racism. On the other side of the Atlantic, we too have a long way to go before we wipe the scourge of racism from our continent.

It is a positive matter, however, that in Finland the debate on racism and equality for all of its inhabitants has been taken up by parties on the traditional left and right of the political spectrum. Racism has no place in our society since it undermines our Western democratic values.

Former President Jimmy Carter, a civil and human rights champion, said this week that US Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst to President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress was based on racism.

“I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said in a story by AP at a town hall meeting held at his presidential center in Atlanta. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

Wilson shouted from the aisles “you lie!” during Obama’s speech.  He later apologized for the outbreak.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxUCYRrfnHw]

Carter, who is also a member of the Democratic Party, added: “Those kinds of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care. It’s deeper than that.”

Joutsen puolue in Finland – old suspicions die hard

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It is always a healthy matter when new parties emerge and take part in the debate on immigrants in Finland. One of these is the so-called Joutsen puolue (Swan Party) being spearheaded by Jussi Halla-aho, who is presently standing trial for incitement of hatred against an ethnic group and defamation of a religion.

In order to find out what a party really thinks, try to see what they deny. This becomes clear in a post by Juha Mäki-Ketelä, who is spearheading the creation of the new party. Mäki-Ketelä was also recently on a television program with lawyer Hussein Muhammed.

Below are two comments by Mäki-Ketelä in Vihreä Lanka that caught my eye about the new party: (1) ..[it is] direct democracy and not a criticism of immigration (…se on nimenomaa suora demokratia eikä maahanmuuton kritiikki); (2) We do not oppose all immigration. We are only opposed to immigration that is harmful to Finland and Finns…(Emme vastusta kaikkea maahanmuuttoa. Vastustamme ainoastaan Suomelle ja suomalaisille haitallista maahanmuuttoa…).

Before commenting on the above, the formation of the Joutsen puoluen party exposes, in my opinion, the rifts in the populist right. We have the Perussuomalaiset, who are a bit shy officially about their views on immigration because they don’t want to see themselves as a “far-right party,” while the new party in formation claims the same thing but will be more “critical” about the issue.

I am a bit offended by the first affirmation. Mäki-Ketelä suggests that most Finns are so stupid that they do not even know that they are being taken for a ride by the big established parties. Freedom of speech, in their opinion, means a one-way street to insult and bash other religions and cultures wholesale in the name of “liberty.” Like a frenzied lynch mob, they will decide what is good for us.

The second phrase is a gem: “We are only opposed to immigration that is harmful to Finland and Finns.” What does that mean? Does he mean refugees or immigrants? What is “harmful.” Why doesn’t he specify? If they are not against immigration, why do they bring this issue over and over again?

The irony, however, of all this is that the Joutsen puolue will do their best to give you a totally different image of itself by mixing double-talk into their politics.

Even though every group has valid arguments in the debate on immigrants and refugees in Finland, we have to go a bit further and ask how do their actions undermine our sense of society and exclude others?

If we look at parties in the far right in Europe and new ones being created in Finland, it is clear that their aim is to fuel a narrow-minded agenda flavored with messianic overtones which could be pictured in the following manner: A man holding a knife at a person’s throat and asking him why he hasn’t learned enough Finnish?!

We are all cultural plagiarists

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Those who are in university and write essays or are in the writing business know that there is one very big no-no: plagiarism, which means the close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author as one´s own.

Can plagiarism apply to culture; i.e. the incorporation of  a culture´s customs and thoughts and representing them as one´s own? This is how cultures work: they constantly incorporate new ideas and customs from other ones  without mentioning the source.

Why does cultural plagiarism occur? Probably because cultures want to give the impression to their countrymen and immigrants that their culture is unique. They are obliged to strengthen a myth called national identity.

How many things of our culture have we incorporated from other cultures? I think the answer lies in our physiology:  we have some different traits but  we can still reproduce and forge a new generation.

Even though culture is not music or artwork with a copyright label, it is misleading and outright wrong to steal a custom from another culture and claim it as your own — are simply avoid the topic altogether.

If we stated sourcing where our different cultural traits came from, would that be the first important step in building a world of greater understanding?

If we knew how closely we are actually linked possibly that would help destroy some of the walls we build thanks to cultural plagiarism.

Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes

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By JusticeDemon*

Dr Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki Department of Geography, had the following letter printed in the Opinions column of Finland’s leading national daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday 23 August 2009. The sub-editor chose to print this letter under the heading Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes. The following translation is submitted in good faith.

I used to find love-hate relationships between neighbours funny, but a two-year assignment in Stockholm has raised many quite difficult questions.

The Finnish language and Finnishness as a culture seem to be taboo to Stockholmers. I suspect that this phenomenon is particularly evident in the Stockholm region, as many people of Finnish descent live there.

The roots of the taboo are in the subordinate status of Finland, but also especially in Sweden’s rather efficient integration policy. This policy has been adopted so forcefully, however, that all newcomers to the country are nowadays lumped together in the same invandrare [immigrant] category.

One solid example of the persistence of this old way of thinking was our landlord’s question: “presumably you will be flying the Swedish flag on the flagpole?”, even though it was already clear that we would only spend a few years in Sweden.

Attitudes towards Finnish people came to a head in the 1970s when large numbers of Finnish industrial workers moved to Sweden. The broad caricature nowadays is that Stockholmers treat all Finns as second-class citizens, regardless of profession or education.

While I always got a good reception when I spoke English in shops, speaking Swedish with a Fenno-Swedish accent was mainly greeted with contempt.

In other words, the Finnish language and culture are not tolerated in Sweden. There have been numerous examples of workplaces where the employer has forbidden the speaking of Finnish. The same thing arises, for instance, at tourist attractions: the sign on the emergency exit at the city’s Junibacken children’s museum is in Swedish, English and Russian, but not in Finnish, even though a substantial proportion of visitors come from Finland.

Contempt for the Finnish character strongly pervades the whole of Swedish society. The attitudes of the mainstream population have made people of Finnish descent so ashamed of their roots that they no longer want to learn their native language. I also heard Swedes of Finnish descent come out with openly racist remarks about non-European immigrants, which I think is an indication of the socio-ethnic hierarchy in Swedish society. In other words Sweden’s subjugated Finnish population is perpetuating the cycle of abuse.

The attitude of Finns towards our Estonian cousins shares common features with attitudes towards Finnishness in Sweden: You never come across the Estonian language in Helsinki, even though there are plenty of Estonian tourists and workers in the city.

These attitudes are persistent and will not change overnight, but if they remain taboo, then there is no way for them to change.

The third paragraph from the end of this letter is perhaps the most compelling, as it describes the passive-aggressive mindset that arises in individuals and communities whose cultural identity has been crushed. This goes to the core of the difference between assimilation and integration, as the former requires immigrants to abandon their cultural identity, while the latter requires them to engage with society at large to find ways of expressing that identity in a new context.

One of the starkest descriptions of assimilation has passed into popular culture in the programme of the Borg alien collective as encountered in Star Trek: the Next Generation. The narrative runs as follows:

Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.

Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.

(Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode: “The Best of Both Worlds”, 1990)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/bOVEqPcG3SI&hl]

There is a delightful scene in the feature film Star Trek: First Contact (1996) in which a 21st century character comments that The Borg “sounds Swedish”, but after encountering the collective then decides “definitely not Swedish”. Perhaps Dr Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen has given us cause to consider this question once again.

*Migrant Tales will begin to publish posts by contributors. If you want to submit a contribution for publication, please send your inquiries/article to [email protected].

What kind of “integration” of immigrants do we want in Finland?

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Before answering the question, let’s take a look at how some scholars define the three important modes in which a minority adapts to a new society.  In Finland, there is a lot of confusion about what is meant by integration. When politicians speak of integration of immigrants are they referring to assimilation, which is one-way adaption?

So, in effect, when some accuse me of being disrespectful of Finnish society because I want to debate an issue like immigrants/refugees, they most likely favor the assimilation model. Here is a definition by Tariq Modood:

“This [assimilation]  is where the processes affecting the relationship between newly settled groups are seen as one-way, and where the desired outcome for society as a whole is seen as involving least changes in the way of doing things for the majority of the country and its institutional policies.”

The other mode is called integration:

“This is where processes of social interaction are seen as two-way, and where members of the majority community as well as immigrants and ethnic minorities are required to do something; so the latter cannot alone be blamed for failing (or not trying) to integrate.”

And finally multiculturalism:

“…multiculturalism assumes a two-way process of integration but, additionally, it is taken to work differently for different groups.”

Thus multiculturalism takes into account different templates of integration. There is no “fits-all-sizes” approach.

Even though Finland accepts diversity (ethnic, sexual, financial etc), which mode of integration takes place and is encouraged: assimilation, integration or multiculturalism – or none of the above?

Taking into account high unemployment among immigrants and our general ignorance of diversity, is it fair to even speak of integration and multiculturalism in this country?

The far right strikes at immigrants in Finland and elsewhere

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There is an interesting (long) article in a recent issue of Time that writes about the rise of the far-right in Europe. One of the favorite shooting grounds of these parties are immigrants in general and Muslims in particular.

Parties such as the BNP (British National Party) of Great Britain won two seats in the European Parliament in June as did in the Netherlands Geert Wilders´Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom, PVV) grab second place in the Euro poll.

The article continues: “Around Europe a ragbag of extremist parties, as varied as the countries that produced them yet united by a vehement nationalism that singles out minority groups as a growing threat, scored in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania and Slovakia. Confronted with sliding economies and disappearing jobs, voters kicked the mainstream parties they held most responsible.”

Even though the article only mentions Finland once, we know that the True Finns (Perussuomalaiset/9.79% of the votes, a +9.25% gain) were the biggest winners of the Euro Parliament elections, with the Center (19.03%/-4.34%) and Social Democrats (17.54%/-3.72%) taking a beating.

One of the interesting points in the article is that these far-right parties have remade themselves. Like in Finland, some do not admit openly that they are in the “extreme right” nor that they are racist as True Finn President Timo Soini has said repeatedly.

The article continues: “Now outfits such as the BNP are learning from past mistakes: they’re slicker, and combine old-fashioned grassroots activism with Internet campaign techniques borrowed from the Obama playbook. They’re also well placed to exploit the disillusionment with traditional politics that has seen voter turnouts in European and national elections plummet, and membership of big parties dwindle.”

Even though it is always easy and sexier to be in the opposition, I wonder what these parties would do if they held a majority in the legislature and government?

How much of our civil lberties would they shelve in order to promote their political agendas?

Would all hell break loose?

Should Finland have a Kalevan kisat for immigrants?

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A story in yesterday’s (July 31) Nelosuutiset about the “worrying amount” of immigrants taking part in the national athletics championships, Kalevan kisat, was a perfect example of the scaremongering journalism practiced by some members of the Finnish media. Here is a link to a story that appeared in YLE.

The message of the story was simple – to point out how black immigrant long-distant runners are becoming a growing threat to Finnish runners because more are taking part in the competition. In order to empahsize the message, a picture of a black runner and naturalized Finn, Lewis Korir, was used passing a Finnish runner with ease.

One of the persons interviewed in the story explained how matters have gotten so much out of hand since runners can today easily get citizenship and get paid money to run for some Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar.

The person who was interviewed suggested that since getting a residence permit in Finland was relatively easy, citizenship should be required of immigrants in order to take part in the competition. Even so, what is all the fuss if Korir is a Finnish citizen?

Even though I do not understand the connection between runners getting Qatari citizenship and immigrants taking part in the Kalevan kisat, the story that was aired on Nelosuutiset is a perfect example shoddy scaremongering journalism.

It was also an odd flashback to the Finlandization days when the country “defended” itself by excluding foreigners with the help of draconian foreign investment and immigration laws.

Why couldn’t the story have the following message: Through immigration Finland will gain many future Olympic-class athletes?

During my visits to Finland in the summer, when I stayed with my grandparents, I took part in an Eastern Finland athletics championship in the 1970s. I won the high jump competition but a controversy arose just before I was going to be awarded the medal.

One group said I had no right to the medal because I lived in the United States. After much talking and explaining that my mother was Finnish, they allowed me to have the medal becauase I had won the competition fair and square.

The small example shows that there are a lot of sensible Finns who believe in the spirit of competition not on ways to limit it through nationalism.

Racial profiling in Finland

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Here is an interesting story in the Washington Post on racial profiling, a practice whereby law enforcement uses race or a person background as a grounds for criminal suspicion.

It is only logical that if their is a greater tendency to suspect blacks versus whites in the United States, certainly more people of this group will be arrested and end up in the criminal statistics.

The article in the Washington Post is about the arrest of a prominent black professor and the treatment he received from the police due to racial profiling. The article reads:

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has spent much of his life studying the complex history of race and culture in America, but until last week he had never had the experience that has left so many black men questioning the criminal justice system.

We had a few weeks ago a lively debate about crimes committed in Finland by certain national group. While this is no attempt to defend such crimes, a question arises: are certain national and ethnic groups such as the Roma especially harrassed by the Finnish police?

Would you like to share your experiences with us?

A foreigner told me a hilarious story a long time ago about three dark-skinned foreigners driving in a Skoda when then Czechosolovakian President Vaslak Havel visited Finland. The police pulled the car over and asked the occupants where they were from.

One of these foreigners thought that the police had especially pulled them over because they drove in a Czech car when President Havel was visiting the country.

I wonder if professional assassins would act in such a conspicuous manner?

First demonstrations by foreigners in Finland

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Until lions have their historians, tales of  the hunt  shall always glorify the hunters.

African Proverb

When was the first time that immigrants demonstrated for greater rights in Finland? Two major demonstrations by non-Finns took place in 1974 and 1982. The first one was by some 50 Pakistanis who marched from Turku to Helsinki because they were going to be deported by the authorities after they came with expectations of finding work in Finland.

Eila Kännö (1921-2009), the cantankerous Aliens’ Office head during 1970-84,  was a state within a state. An interesting matter to investigate would be the relationship her office had with Pakistani honorary consul, Arne Roiha. In order for Pakistanis to get a residence and work permit in Finland, they had to get the green light from Roiha, who ran and employed Pakistanis at three restaurants in Helsinki: Kaisaniemi, Ässäpata and Klippan. Roiha fled to Florida from Finland due to problems with the Finnish tax authorities.

The second demonstration, which took place on October 19, 1982, was the largest march to ever take place in Finland. Some 300 foreigners and Finns marched from Helsinki University Porthania Hall to the Eduskunta (parliament).

The march, which was the top story on the 8:30 news, received wide attention by the Finnish media. A day before the demonstration, former Aliens’ Office head Eila Kännö had vowed to throw in jail the foreigners who had organized the march. The march was organized by the Helsinki Students’ Union (HYY). In Finland, foreigners did not have at the time rights to organize demonstrations.

foreignersmarching

The caption reads: Historic in Finland – foreigners dare to demand greater rights. This march took place on October 19, 1982. Published by Kansan Uutiset Viikolehti.