Community Village blog: What makes us what we are

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: I was kind of shocked to hear last week the views on immigration of a prominent member of the community and a member of a large political party: “Finland must close its borders to immigrants,” he said. What surprised me most about his argument was that he considered Finns as some endangered human group in Europe that once hunted mammoths. The “colonizers” were modern-day immigrants who would wipe out the Finns as Christopher Columbus did with the Amerindians when he landed on the island of Hispanola in 1492.

One matter to keep in mind when hearing these types of arguments is that whenever a person speaks of Finns as a tribe he or she is flirting with racism. If there is one matter that awakens the racist spirit in Finns it is classifying ourselves as a tribe or, worse, as an endangered group of people.

Actor Edward James Olmos in the youtube clip below puts the whole perspective of race and/or ethnicity in perspective. In the US people like to use the term “race” whereas in Europe we use “ethnicity” to mean the same thing. Even so, the US used to classify blacks and Asians as a race but European immigrants as ethnic groups. 

According to Olmos, it is incredible that we use race as a cultural determinant. “To this date you should never invited me here,” he told a group at the UN. “Because I detest what we have done to ourselves. Out of a need to make ourselves different from one another we made the term race a way of expressing culture…There is only one race and that is the human race.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSFDrOxWCXY&feature=player_embedded]

Why are some Finns obsessed about ethnicity? Is it because it is an effective way of controlling and excluding others from society and its resources?

What do you think?

Thank you @getgln for the heads up!

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Ethnicity is amorphous, and only a small fraction of what makes us who we are. “There are no races, there are only clines,”  according to antrhopologist Frank Livingstone.

Helsinki Times: Finnish insurer to pay damages to Congolese families

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: It is a positive sign that more cases of racial discrimination are becoming public. One of these below was by Lähivakutus, an insurance company, which refused  to pay damages to a dozen Congolese families in Kajaani because they weren’t Finnish citizens. The insurer admitted its mistake and accepted to pay damages to the families only after the case was taken to the Ombudsman for Minorities. 

These cases, like the building superintendent in Salo who was fired because of his ethnic origin, are unfortunately the tip of the iceberg of a probably much widespread problem in Finland. Unfortunately, many immigrants who are victims of discrimination refuse to take action on their own. 

It is very important that when we are victims of discrimination we file a complaint. This is not only important for us but to our children and grandchildren so they may live one day in a country where these types of practices are the exception.

In the 1980s I applied for an oil company Esso credit card but was refused on the grounds that I wasn’t a Finnish citizen. When I got my Finnish citizenship I applied for a credit card from the same company again. They said they would grant me the credit card but I now refused to accept it. 

A good starting point to report discrimination is the Ombudsman for Minorities.

You can reach them from Monday to Friday 10-12 at 071 878 8666.

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Finnish property and casualty insurer Lähivakuutus is to pay damages to a dozen Congolese families for discrimination, the Finnish minority ombudsman’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

Read whole story.

Here is the statement (in Finnish)  by the Ombudsman for Minorities.

YLE: Poliisi yllättynyt rasistisista asenteista

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: I just love whenever I read that the police is “surprised” by the rise of racist attitudes in Finland. In an interview given to YLE, Etelä-Karjala region police chief Jyrki Wasastjernan said it was a surprise that such attitudes are rising even though the number of hate crimes reported to the authorities continue to be small.

Migrant Tales has assisted some immigrants in reporting hate crimes to the police. Reporting such a crime is easier said than done.

A serious journalist should do a bit more digging and find out why so few hate crimes are reported to the police and why racist attitudes towards Russians are gaining strength in cities like Imatra. Probably one answer is that the police and authorities don’t want to admit that hate crimes are a major problem facing our society and therefore rely too much on statistics for the truth.

I am certain that a hand-on-heart chat with some random Russian residents of Imatra could reveal a lot more than statistical information.

Just because hate crimes against immigrants in Etelä-Karjala is small could reveal just the opposite: racism, which undermines trust and credibility, is seen as such a big problem by some immigrants that they don’t bother to report it. It’s a bit like living in a dictatorship. You don’t report human rights violations because you fear you could become a victim.

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Poliisin näkökulmasta rasististen asenteiden kasvaminen Etelä-Karjalassa on yllätys. Rasistisia piirteitä sisältäneitä rikoksia on kuitenkin tullut esiin vain muutamia vuosittain.

Read whole story.

MTV3: Jari Tervo: Suomeen pitää saada lisää ulkomaalaisia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Writer Jari Tervo continues to make waves in Finland about racism and the ever-growing immigrant population. He hoped that Finns would become more tolerant of other groups since the immigrant population in Finland has grown significantly in the last decade.

Tervo makes a very good point and addresses a big issue in this country: the lack of cultural diversity.

Finland’s cultural diversity was crippled in the last century when our foreign population plummeted. In 1920 we had 3.5 times more foreigners living in this country than in 1970, when the immigrant population totalled about 7,000. The biggest national group back then were Finns who had become naturalized Swedes. 

The lack of cultural diversity reveals a lot about us as a nation and society. The ongoing immigration debate is one of many examples. It shows how ill-prepared we are in accepting cultural diversity and how aggressively some of us react to it.

The lack of cultural diversity hurts how we approach and resolve problems. One of the reasons why we can still agree about our history is because cultural diversity was on the defensive. What do, for example, Russian Finns think about our independence and the Continuation War?

As our society becomes more culturally diverse, we will not only begin to look at ourselves differently but accept certain matters that are still unacceptable or still taboo about ourselves today.

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Kirjailija Jari Tervo syyttää yhä suomalaisia rasisteiksi. Hänen mukaansa esimerkiksi useissa nettikeskusteluissa kirjoitetaan rasistisia kommentteja. Tervon mielestä suomalaiset joutuvat pohtimaan uudella lailla suhtautumistaan ulkomaalaisiin ja erilaisiin ihmisiin.

Read whole story.

Salon Seudun Sanomat: Salolaisen maahanmuuttajatalkkarin työsuhde lopetettiin ehkä laittomasti

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Comment: Salon Seudun Sanomat reports that the odd-job man who was laid off from his job apparently because of his ethnic background plans to sue his former employer, Salon Omakotiyhdistys ry. 

The step taken by the laid-off employee is important for a number of reasons. For one, he is not only challenging racial discrimination at his former job but exposing how possibly other Finnish companies hire and fire immigrants. Challenging discrimination at the workplace and elsewhere is important for the sake of our children and future generations.

This case is a good example of how the media can bring to light discrimination in Finland and how it can be addressed.

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Salon omakotiyhdistys rikkoi maahanmuuttajatalkkarin työsuhteen lopettamisessa mahdollisesti kahta lakia. Näin sanoo Lounais-Suomen aluehallintoviraston työsuojelun vastuualueen lakimies Vesa Ullakonoja.

Read whole story.

Salon Seudun Sanomat: Maahanmuuttajan talkkariksi palkannut Salon omakotiyhdistys joutui peräytymään

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a good example of how prejudice and racism work together in Finland. An odd-job man that worked for Salon Omakotiyhtistys was given the boot because clients complained that he was not only an immigrant but black as well. This happened in the city of Salo, located near Turku.

Imagine being hired to do a job and then your boss tells you that you have the wrong skin color and/or ethnic background.

I hope that victim gets hold of a good lawyer and sues the company for discrimination.

Do you agree?

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Salon omakotiyhdistyksen palkkaama maahanmuuttajataustainen talkkari ei kelvannut kaikille yhdistyksen jäsenille. He antoivat aiheesta palautetta myös puheenjohtajalleen Jaakko Korpelalle. Korpela sanoo suoraan, että asiakkaat eivät ottaneet talkkarin palveluja, kun kuulivat, että hän on maahanmuuttaja ja musta.

Read whole story.

guardian.co.uk: A world without borders makes economic sense

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Comment: Here is a good question: Why do we restrict immigration? Who does the present system benefit? These are some of the questions that Michael A Clemens looks at in the guardian.co.uk story below.

He writes:  “Large numbers of people wish to move permanently to another country – more than 40% of adults in the poorest quarter of nations. But most of them are either ineligible for any form of legal movement or face waiting lists of a decade or more. Those giant walls are a human creation, but cause more than just human harm: they hobble the global economy, costing the world roughly half its potential economic product.”

And continues: “Many people fear that even a minor increase in international migration will wreck their own economies and societies. Those fears deserve a hearing. They are old fears, of the kind that filled US newspapers a century ago. The US population subsequently quadrupled, largely through immigration to already-settled areas. Today, even in crisis, America is the richest country in the world. History, too, deserves a hearing.”

Do you agree?

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By Michael A Clemens

What is the biggest single drag on the beleaguered global economy? Opponents of globalisation might point to the current crisis, which shrank the world economy by about 5%. Proponents of globalisation might point to the remaining barriers to international flows of goods and capital, which also serve to shrink the world economy by approximately 5%. That sounds like a lot.

Read whole story.

Jari Tervo: “Finland is a totally racist country”

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By Enrique Tessieri

Jari Tervo, one of Finland’s most successful writers and personalities, said in tabloid Ilta-Sanomat that Finland is a totally racist country. Tervo’s statement comes after writer Sofi Oksanen made waves shortly after the April election by stating in Rome-based daily La Repubblica that the ideology of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party has its roots in Nazi Germany.

“Finns get offended when I said that this is a racist country,” Tervo was quoted as saying in Ilta-Sanomat. “Everyone who has visited at least one chat site knows that Finland is a totally racist country.”

I met Tervo in the late-1980s at the Helsinki Press Club. Back then I was a regular columnist for Apu magazine. Our first meeting didn’t hit it off quite on the right foot.

“How’s it going mutakuono (mud face)!” Tervo said to my amazement in front of other journalists. It really pissed me off and we never spoke to each other after that event.

Even though we were not on speaking terms after that incident, he may have thought that calling me mutakuono was the same as two blacks calling each other the n-word. Whatever the intention was, it was highly insulting to me.

Whatever the case, I am happy that Tervo has become outspoken against one of the greatest threats to our society: racism and prejudice.

Rosa Parks and Finland

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By Enrique Tessieri

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) is not only a symbol of the US civil rights movement but of countries like Finland as well. In order for history to change you don’t need a lot of firepower but people who lead by example. Rosa Parks is one of these we should not forget as Multicultural Finns and other minorities struggle for greater acceptance recognition in Finland.

                                                                                                             US civil rights activist  Rosa Parks.

One cannot change the world but one can with his or her example impact those that live around them. That is in a sense the story of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.  Contrary to other brave blacks who had refused to give up their seat to a white person, Parks’ arrest sparked a bus boycott in Montgomery.

What is even more important was that Parks’ civil disobedience turned into an important symbol of the civil rights movement and against racial segregation.

Blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses in Montgomery and if the bus was full they were required to give up their seat to a white.

Even if this type of racial segregation does not exist in countries like Finland, there are more ingenious ways of forcing people to sit in back of the bus of society.  Just like blacks were forced to give up their seats to whites on buses, immigrants and minorities in Finland are the last ones to get employed and the first ones to be laid off.

The ways racism is practiced may have changed but it is still the same ogre that segregated blacks in the United States but created one of its greatest symbols.

The magic word is acceptance, acceptance and mutual acceptance!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A crucial term like acceptance is still very little used in Finland when debating about our culturally diverse society. Another key term is equal opportunity.Politicians, public officials, the general public, including immigrants, should use these terms in everyday speech when speaking about our society.

Former President Martti Ahtisaari suggested on Thursday that those Finns should invite immigrants to a cup of coffee. This is a very nice gesture. Culturally it would be the Finnish way to accept another person.

The coffee-drinking ritual in Finland rarely if ever is done between people who dislike each other. When we drink coffee together we strengthen our friendship and knowledge of each other through casual talk.

Since integration and acceptance are a two-way process, all of us have to tame our prejudices and do our part in being more acceptant of others. This is important because it helps create a better-functioning society.

When we are acceptant of others we cease to be the problem arising from our own racism and prejudice.

Three important key words are needed to be heard more in Finnish society: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.