By Enrique Tessieri
I visited Tampere over the weekend and visited a popular beer tavern called Ravintola Plevna. One of the first matters that caught my eye was a sign on the upper-left-hand side of the entrance that read: “Finnish work.”* If you visit Plevna’s website you will, however, find links of the establishment in English, German and Russian.
The sign on the door, Suomalainen työ, is misleading for a number of reasons. First, it’s unclear if they are speaking of Finnish employees and/or products.
If we look at the Avainlippu logo means that a product has been produced in Finland. But what does this imply?
While Plevena does not openly advertised that it hires only Finns, placing such a sign on the wall sends a mixed signal especially during this tougher times for immigrants and minorities in Finland.
Unemployment is an issue that affects all of us irrespective of our background. It is like a bomb that does not ask you where you are from before it tears you to shreds.
Finns and Finnish unions should understand that immigrants are in the same, or worse boat, than Finnish workers. Usually immigrants are the last one’s hired and the first one to get laid off from their jobs.
Migrant Tales would be very happy to publish pictures of signs sent by bloggers on establishments that have a policy of hiring only Finns.
*Suomalainen työ.
– There isn’t a single Finn that is a visible minority working there. If such a person worked at Plevna, would it send the wrong message about their we-hire-only-Finns policy?
You know, most of the people think that if you are born in Finland, then you a Finn. If an African couple moves to Finland and they have a daughter who is raised in Finland, she is a Finn. Therefore also visible minority could work in a place such as Plevna. Just because there are no minorities working in the place doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be.
However, I do agree that “Only Finns work here.” sign is unnecessary and shouldn’t be in the bar.
Jaakko
I’m sorry, but you are plain wrong if you think that just because most people would accept that Finn covers all those born in Finland that this sign is somehow not using or implying a restricted sense of the word. You hit the nail on the head by saying it’s unnecessary. If it was being used in the wider sense, it is unnecessary; somebody clearly thought it was necessary, and that suggests it was being used in the narrower sense. Come on, we can at least agree that, otherwise, we really are making excuses here for people.
Mark
I do agree with you. And actually do think this sign excludes some of the people in Finland by denying their job opportunities. I’m not totally sure but it is probably also illegal to advertise the business like that. Wasn’t there a news about this kind of advertisement just a few weeks ago?
Jaakko
Not sure about the news. It would be great if you could find some link to that.
Jaakko, sadly the Citizenship Act disagrees with you; people born on Finnish soil are not automatically Finns by birth. Real-life attitudes of Finns towards those who LOOK or SOUND different also disagree with you.
Mark
You can search the topic from Migration Tales:
YLE: Yritykset mainostavat työntekijöidensä suomalaisuudella
October 1, 2011
The Google comments on that establishment from Finnish customers suggest that they might do well to hire a better chef of any nationality:
“people born on Finnish soil are not automatically Finns by birth. Real-life attitudes of Finns towards those who LOOK or SOUND different also disagree with you.”
You are right if you by being a Finn mean a person with Finnish citizenship. However, Finn-ness is not just a legal concept and I know many Finns who don’t have Finnish citizenship.
When it comes to the attitudes, that is a sad story, but I do believe that things are slowly changing as it is more and more common for Finns to have e.g. a darker skin color or a different religious or linguistic background.
Sometimes it’s had to distinguish an Estonian from a Finn.
But in California, if you look mestizo but are born in USA, you’re still a “Mexican” even if your mother is a Finn and your father is Columbian. It’s just a category, shorthand for “Mongolian dark features”.
Finland, Finland, wherefore art thou Finland?