@PasiPennan huomauttaa, että oikeistolaisia kokevat rasisminvastaisen kampanjan kohdistuvan heihin.
Tämä ei yllättää.
Oletko huomannut, että rasisti useasti leimaa itsea seuraavalla tavalla: “Luuletko, että olen rasisti?”
You said it. I didn’t.
The ongoing discussion in Finland about our ever-growing cultural and ethnic diversity is grounded on two misleading assertions that hide the core problem: language is the magic bullet to become a part of society, and white Finnish society is innocent – if you don’t adapt it’s because of you.
Heikki Turkka of Children of the Station (Aseman lapsia ry) association was quoted as saying on MTV that youth gans in Helsinki may mostly comprise of so-called children of migrant backgrounds.
He adds offering an explanation to why non-white Finns may be a majority in such gangs:
“I’m not surprised at all when I am working with youths,” he said. “If you lack the right language skills, it’s not possible to have the same opportunities to succeed at school, academia, or in a hobby where you would be accepted. In such a case, your opportunities are limited.”
Few will deny that language plays an important role in one’s adaption in Finland and elsewhere. What is misleading, however, is that we spread this myth as a panacea to your final adaption to this country.
Most people know about how difficult it is for a member of the Roma community to get a job interview despite the fact that that person’s mother tongue is Finnish. There are also examples of how difficult it is for brown Finns and other minorities to get job interviews because of their ethnic and cultural background.
An interesting case in point is Spain, where there is a sizeable Latin American community. These people speak Spanish as their mother tongue, are mostly Catholics, and know about Spanish culture because their country of birth was once a Spanish colony.
Continue reading “Dismantle institutional racism and myths if you want people to adapt to Finland”Finland is in a bind, and we have heard these for a long time: Finland’s population is aging, and there is an ever-growing need for foreign labor. Our answer to these challenges is not only disappointing but leaving our future to chance.
Why is there such a negative and suspicious attitude towards foreigners in Finland? Is it because during the Cold War, geopolitical isolation waws the rule in Finland? Is it due to the myths that feed our exceptionalism at schools? Is it history and our conflicts with the former Soviet Union that left a bitter taste in our mouths?
How come Finland’s second-largest party in parliament is hostile towards immigrants and normally sounds like a rabid dog barging whenever it lashes out its racist views?
Is it xenophobia plain and simple?
It is a positive matter that some Finns have spoken about the anti-foreign atmosphere that robs the country and migrants of utilizing their potential.
A letter to the Helsingin Sanomat editor signed by two rectors of the University of Turku, Haaga-Helia, and a University of Jyväskylä development manager wrote:
“Effective cooperation is needed for the internationalization of higher education institutions generally, to benefit the labor market and society. It requires a change in national attitude [towards foreigners].”
Even if the letter to the editor is essential and shows leadership in an area abandoned to the jaws of populism and politicking, xenophobic sentiment in Finland continues to grow, keeping the whole nation’s moral compass hostage.
Does Finland have the will to change and live up to its highest values enshrined in the constitution?
Time guards the secret to that answer, but rest assure, we will know sooner or later.
Seuraava temppu on yksi vanhimmista jota poliitikot käyttävät kun sanovat jotain epäasiallista tai rasistista.
Otetaan keskustan kansanedustaja Juha Pylväs, joka kutsui turvapaikanhakijoihin sanoilla jonkin sortin “elintasosurffarit.”
Pylväksen temppu:
3. Hänen rasistinen ulostulo on onnistunut, koska se on levinnyt äänestäjien keskuudessa.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
William Blake (1757-1827)
Of all the seasons that pass over Finland, possibly fall is the most magical. But what makes it stand out from the others?
Is it the pitch-darkness? Is it the vast universe above and its peppered celestial inhabitants that appear to gaze down on us longer than usual?
Yet again it could be the sound of rustling leaves and rapid breezes that holds on for a moment to trees before losing steam. Are they the moonlight beams that light timid forest paths that lead to places that test your courage?
Or is it the bittersweet combination of homesickness dancing momentarily with merry anticipation before you part for distant lands?
For some Finns, autumn is the most mysterious season. If a ghost house comes alive in the evening, all the spirits – imagined and real – appear to awaken from deepest slumber and to the woods during this time of the year.
For me, fall is that time when I fight pitch battles against melancholy with a sword called hope. The battle is waged by visits to the forest, which teems with lingonberries, mushrooms, and other delights.
The journeys into the woods can be very spiritual. They can be like brief walks on the avenues of the soul.
If weddings are commonplace in Finland at midsummer, it’s in fall when souls make secret vows and marry other souls in secret weddings under tall shady spruces by rushing, chilly streams playing splashing sounds with stones.
One of the forests I enjoy visiting in fall is near Vanhala, a hamlet made up of a few farmhouses and an elementary school. The village, which is located 15 minutes from Mikkeli, is so small that I once biked through it without noticing it.
Continue reading “Migrant Tales Literary: Where happiness lives”
“Finland’s hardline and bureaucratic immigration policy based in great part on suspicion and fear of outsiders is partly to blame for the rise of a populist and hostile anti-immigration party in the last decade and even for high migrant unemployment. A systematic policy of exclusion suggests that our plans to bring foreign labor will fail. A good example of this never-never land thinking is the Perussuomalaiset* party, which wants to sell residence permits for 50,000 euros.”
It is surprising, even worrying, that outsiders are the ones that help burst the media’s many bubbles. One such OP-ED published Wednesday in Helsingin Sanomat by Antti Kivijärvi, and Martta Myllyä sheds light on the blind spot created by exceptionalism and ethnocentrism.
Should it be a surprise that this state of affairs happens whenever migrants (usually asylum seekers and Muslims) and minorities are the topic?
Recently we saw this ethnocentric monster appear with the Helsinki district court’s ruling that carrying Nazi Germany flags in public was not ethnic agitation.
The debate surrounding neo-Nazis and racism in Finland does not consider the victims themselves. When have you seen a black sociologist offer his views on an act of racism or of racism in general in this country?
Two days after the Helsinki court’s ruling, Kirkko ja kaupunki was the only media in Finland that interviewed the Jewish community.
Certainly, Jews, Roma, and other victims of Nazi terror have some opinions about Nazi flags.
“When a migrant embarks on a journey, he may not realize that the journey the migrant is on never ends and that he is part of another journey that a relative began generations ago. Thus a migrant’s journey may begin during our lifetime, but it rarely ends during our lifetime. Your relatives, those who are now talk of the future, may remember and admire your journey and courage long after you died.”
Migrant Tales insight: After publishing a regular column for Finland Bridge of Finland Society (Suomi-Seura), the column below written in 2015 was the last one. Apparently, the content of the column was too much for the editor of the magazine, who scolded me for being too critical of the Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party). I had to rewrite the column. Even so, I decided to end my long relationship with the magazine.
Over twenty years of contributions to the Finland Bridge did not even end with a thank you.
Finland is in quite a rut these days. In some ways, it resembles a cocktail with the following ingredients: lethargic economic growth since 2013, fiscal deficits, sizeable budget cuts, an ever-greying population that will put more strain on the welfare state mixed with a spoonful of nationalist populism and a record number of asylum seekers.
Nothing has been the same on the political front ever since the nationalist-populist Finns Party (PS) joined the government as a partner with the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP).
Matters haven’t been helped by government plans to make massive public spending cuts to the tune of billions of euros, which will impact negatively some of our proudest social accomplishments from the last century like social welfare, health, and education.
Matters have gotten so bad in Finland these days that even the police, in a campaign against tax dodgers, asked consumers in the fall to report to the authorities if pizzas are sold for under 6 euros.
The police state that it’s impossible to sell pizza in an expensive country like Finland for less than 6 euros unless you are evading taxes. Apart from the attention that the story got on social media, it was picked up by the BBC and Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.
Writes the BBC: “Finns commenting on social media have reacted to the campaign with a mixture of bemusement and disbelief. ‘This pizza-receipt hunting is ridiculous,’ writes one user on the [Finnish police service’s] Economic Crime Investigators’ Facebook page. ‘Shouldn’t they concentrate those limited police investigative resources where real problems are?’”
Nordic Nationalism
All Nordic countries have seen in recent years the rise of populist parties that are anti-EU, anti-cultural diversity, and especially anti-Islam. In Iceland and Norway, we have the Progressive Party, while in Denmark the Danish People’s Party (DPP) calls the shots. Both the DPP and PS are the second-biggest parties in parliament in their respective countries.
Sweden is the only Nordic country that has refused to play ball with such ultranationalist groups. While various polls place the Sweden Democrats (SD) in second or third place, all mainstream parties in that country have agreed not to cooperate with the SD.
There are many ways to skin a nationalist-populist cat. One of them, like in Finland, is to invite them to form part of the government. Only after a few months in government, the PS saw its support plummet by a record 7 percentage points to 10.7% from the April elections, according to a YLE poll.
Considering the massive cutbacks in spending planned by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, it’s understandable the those who voted for the PS are riling mad since such budget cuts will impact their living standards directly.
Another issue that PS voters feel betrayed by is immigration policy. Even if the party has promised to take a tough stand on immigration, Finland is seeing today a record number of asylum seekers coming to the country. Some estimates place the number of asylum seekers to rise to 35,000 this year and by as many as 50,000 in 2016.
Disappointing poll results, accusations of broken campaign promises, and angry PS supporters don’t make party chairman Timo Soini’s job any easier even if he is accustomed to running a tight ship with near-absolute powers.
PS third vice president, Sebastian Tynkkynen, who is also chairman of the party’s youth league, is one visible example of the growing dissension in the party. If Tynkkynen and his followers had their way, the PS would exit the government and take a much stiffer stance against asylum seekers and migrants, even if they breach international agreements and are unconstitutional.
Tynkkynen’s membership in the party was revoked in October and that caused quite a media and social media uproar. Some analysts believe that what happened to Tynkkynen is another example that there is very little room for criticism at the party.
While the Soini-Tynkkynen row may have receded into the background by December, it is ironic that the very people that the PS leader gave a political voice to like MEP Jussi Halla-aho, MP Olli Immonen, and others, are the ones who could threaten to destroy party unity.
Two examples
Contrary to the PS, the DPP of Denmark has a totally different strategy on how to maintain its popularity and power. The DPP’s recipe for political survival has been to stay out of minority governments but support them in exchange for tougher immigration and refugee policy.
Like the rest of the nationalist-populist parties in the Nordic region, the DPP uses as well anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam rhetoric to capture voters.
According to Politiken, one of Denmark’s leading dailies, some of the initiatives supported by the DPP in the past include: the removal of satellite dishes that receive Al Jazeera; deport immigrant families if one member is a criminal; end Muslim migration; 50% of the music played on ‘Denmarks Radio’ must be Danish; immigrants must speak Danish in their homes, among others.
The only Nordic country that is holding the fort until political sanity returns to this part of Europe is Sweden.
While there are split opinions about Sweden’s strategy to shun the SD, the Finnish and Danish examples suggest that if nationalist-populist parties are given power anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment will grow.
I hope that Sweden’s strategy to isolate the SD will bear fruit and that voters in the next elections will send the PS back to the political minor leagues.
Why?
Because xenophobia, racism, and bigotry are based on a huge lie that only aims to exclude and marginalize other groups at a high cost to our society.
By dividing society into “us” and “them” we end up undermining Nordic values such as social equality.
The new chairperson of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, Riikka Purra, will soon be calling out the knives. In her latest tweet, she reveals her radical cruelty against the vulnerable.
In the Tweet below, she feeds the Afghans to the dogs and shows the worst of Finland.
No experts, human rights activists, defenders of the rule of law, feminists, journalists. No Afghans to Finland.
No requests from the United States, Nato, the EU, or UNHCR.
No debt of honor, four-year residence permits, family reunifications, citizenship.
Will, we read any editorial on Sunday or any objection by politicians to Purra’s far-right battle cries?
I doubt it.
The far right and their xenophobic diatribes score another point for now.