Some have heard of the expression of management by perkele, which means swift decision-making by management and where your opinion as an employee counts little. In Finland the goal is integration, or two-way adaption, but what happens on too many occasions is integration by perkele.
Integration by perkele has a clear message: This is our country, perkele, and don’t forget it! Since this is my country, you are going to adapt to me. In plain English integration by perkele means assimilation.
The cartoon below offers a good example of integration by perkele.
How do you recognize integration by perkele? Here are some good examples:
- They have to adapt to us;
- We’ve always done things this way;
- Read my lips: This is our country!
- Learn Finnish!
- Too bad you’re not white like me;
- If you don’t like our country, you can always move elsewhere;
- Maassa maan tavalla, or in Rome do as the Romans do;
- “Debating immigrant issues in this country doesn’t mean you’re racist”
- The Perussuomalaiset* aren’t against immigrants and they’re not racist.
Is integration by perkele an effective way to adapt migrants and minorities? If you want an answer to the that question, why not ask Amerindians, who were victims of systematic genocide, the Roma, Muslims and gays in Russia, Poles in the UK, Turks in Germany, Moroccans and Latin Americans in Spain, Africans in France, asylum-seekers in Greece as well as other migrants and minorities?
Certainly they’ll tell you about the hostility they face daily thanks to integration by perkele.
* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.