Comment: When looking at a social ill like racism, we have to ask a very simple question: Will we grow richer or poorer because of it? Green Party MP and presidential hopeful, Pekka Haavisto, answers that timely question. According to him, racism and its growth in Finland will not only ruin our image abroad but will scare off skilled people that we need to keep our country growing and prosperous.
Finland is competing for skilled labor with other European nations. Why would a newcomer want to set foot on this country if he or she knows that their children will not be accepted? Why would foreign investment come to Finland, a country with an adverse anti-foreign climate? The end-result is clear: our own racism will impoverish us economically, politically and socially.
Denmark is a perfect example of what can happen to Finland. There, the far-right populist Danish People’s Party (DPP) has played a key role in tightening the country’s immigration laws for the past decade while former right-wing governments have promoted a pro-business environment. Anti-immigrant and pro-business have not helped turn Denmark into a model of economic growth.
Writes Bloomberg: “The smallest Scandinavian economy is struggling after emerging from a recession in 2009 amid declining employment, a slump in real estate and widening deficits,”
The question we should as in Denmark today is if it is today a Nordic democratic model of social and economic prosperity or a society that has turned inward and spiteful of others?
The Perussuomalaiset party has hailed the DPP as a model for Finland. If we set on that path which Denmark is now leaving, the result will be the same: economic, political and social impoverishment.
Haavisto said in the HS.fi interview that having a negative image abroad will end up hurting businesses.
“The majority (of Finns) must fix this (racist) image in Finland as well as abroad,” he said.
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Vihreiden kansanedustaja ja presidenttiehdokas Pekka Haavisto on huolestunut suomalaisten arkuudesta rasismin ja syrjinnän edessä. Hänen mielestään Suomessa on tullut luvalliseksi sanoa mitä tahansa, kenelle tahansa, kenenkään siihen puuttumatta.