What constitutional conflicts would arise if Finnish parents got the school board to limit the amount of children of immigrants at a particular school? Is this legally possible if they live in the same area as the school? Or are they going to ship them to another school due to their background? This, in my opinion, would be a flagrant example of prejudice.
There is also a good column written in Finnish by Green Party MP hopeful Hussein Muhammed on Uusi Suomi.
Johanna Tikkanen
Helsingin Sanomat
Joka kolmas uusmaalainen rajoittaisi maahanmuuttajataustaisten oppilaiden määrää kouluissa.
HS:n Suomen Gallupilla teettämän kyselyn mukaan rajoituksia asettaisivat hanakimmin perussuomalaisten kannattajat. Heistä miltei joka toinen puuttuisi koulukohtaisiin oppilasmääriin. Helsinkiläisistä keskustapuolueen kannattajista yli 40 prosenttia on samoilla linjoilla. Kuitenkaan enemmistö seudun asukkaista ei asettaisi etnisiä kiintiöitä kouluihin.
Maahanmuuttajataustaisten oppilaiden keskittyminen tiettyihin kouluihin on yleistynyt etenkin Espoossa ja Helsingissä.
Joissakin kouluissa maahanmuuttajataustaisia lapsia on jo yli puolet oppilaista. Toisissa oppilaina ei ole lainkaan maahanmuuttajia.
“Suomen oppiminen ja kotoutuminen on vaikeampaa, kun enemmistö puhuu muuta kieltä kuin suomea”, toteaa rehtori Leila Lindqvist Helsingin Malmilla sijaitsevasta Soinisen koulusta. Siellä maahanmuuttajataustaisia oppilaita on 57 prosenttia.
Enrique, just look at what you are saying. This is not about exclusion but integration. Rather than having one school with 50% immigrants and another with 0%, you would have both schools with 25%.
“Not-on-my-neighbourhood” would be if they wanted immigrants to be concentrated in some schools, as it’s today BTW. So you would have some schools immigrant free.
It’s amazing how you criticize just about every single thing Finland try to do to immigrants. I’m sorry to say my friend but you should reflect about your opinions about Finland and Finnish officials.
lol@TonytheToby
As usual, your hasty response has nothing to do with the article referenced or the content of the blog entry.
The idea is to resolve segregation but for you everything is prejudice. It’s unbelievable how you love bash Finns. You should be ashamed…
But I noticed you have changed the article making it more “mild” on your accusations, removing the “not-in-my-neighbourhood” claim. Still, quite said…
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Poll+One+in+three+in+Uusimaa+region+would+set+maximum+quotas+for+immigrant+children+in+schools/1135262946651
”Leena Nissilä, an official at the board, calls on local authorities to seek ways of finding a solution, noting that it is up to local authorities to assign schools for pupils.
She notes that a lack of immigrant children in a school can also be a problem for education.
“The greatest concerns have been expressed by head teachers of schools which have no immigrant children at all. They say that the pupils are not learning multiculturalism in a natural way, and they do not get the skills that every Finn will certainly need in the future.”
I think that all this idea that people are from this group or that one is made up by people who don’t have a good idea of how cultures work. Imagine children and the need to be accepted and to fit in. There is more pressure there than among adults. Let kids be kids, allow them to realize themselves and accept them for whom they are. I think that is the best medicine I would prescribe.
Sorry but this is not the article was all about. You have changed it to make less accusative but you still keep that all this is based on prejudice. And it’s not, the opposite of it. If you are a racist the last thing you want is immigrants spread evenly. You want they as concentrated as possible so you can have immigrant free areas.
But you couldn’t see that, and this is what really pissed me off. So you are ok with one school having 50% immigrants and other 0%? No long ago you blamed the Finnish society for “failing” on solving immigrant school children drop outs. So now that people are trying to do something it’s still wrong. If they don’t do you bash, if they do you also bash.
Your rushing to call the idea racist just show that you have the same attitude towards Finn that you claim Finns have toward immigrants.
Have a look at this…
“… is made up by people who don’t have a good idea of how cultures work.”
What culture has got to do with this? The idea is immigrants having more contact with Finns and vice-verse. Now tell me, how racist is this?
Common, my friend, reflect on this and answer to yourself, are you been fair?
You go to the school that’s in your district. If you have money you can pay to go to a private school.
Culture has everything to do with it. Why? Because people stick to their culture through their identity. But the type of culture you see is not what is really going on. My point was that at least the children of immigrants, who may have been born here, don’t have to be categorized by people who look at culture as “us” and “them.” Why can’t kids live together be from diverse backgrounds but belong to the same community. That is my point.
“Why can’t kids live together be from diverse backgrounds but belong to the same community.”
Isn’t this what the idea is all about? Sorry my friend, we know you will never admit, but you know very well jumping to call this idea racist was wrong. But you don’t need to say anything, just reflect about it by yourself.
Ignoring the irrelevant nonsense from Tony the Toby.
The limitations of this news item and of the Gallup survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat are fairly obvious. In particular the term maahanmuuttajataustainen oppilas is hopelessly vague, and would most certainly not be understood in the same way by all respondents. The term maahanmuuttajat is then used in the presentation of survey findings with no evident appreciation that this is a different concept. The HS article refers to etniset kiintiöt, which is yet another concept. It then continues by discussing issues of language competence (entirely ignoring bilingualism), which is another subject area again. This is all hopelessly muddled.
It seems to have escaped everyone’s notice that a quota affecting one category of school student is correspondingly and equally a quota that affects school students who do not belong to that category. The knee-jerk reaction of Tony the Toby is especially amusing at this point, and I wonder whether he would similarly support an initiative for quotas governing the number of kids from the favela attending the schools of spoiled rich kids in Sao Paulo. In the most closely corresponding Finnish context, this would mean guaranteeing minority access to schools that are most highly favoured by middle class parents.
The principal reason for an unusually high concentration of colourful students at certain schools is location, which in turn is related to public housing policy and to the personal choices made by minorities in deciding where to live. The latter is largely a matter of income levels, but also partly about the extent to which peer support is important to newcomers and established communities are receptive towards and tolerant of diversity.