Tag: Cultural diversity

Helsingin Sanomat article on refugees is an exercise in stereotyping

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One matter has always surprised me about Finnish journalists is how some of  them paint migrants with a single brush and allow their own prejudices get in the way of facts, especially when they write about migrants and minorities. A good example of the latter is a story by Jukka Harju, who not only mistakenly claims that the first refugees came to Finland over 40 years ago, but which national group adapted the best in Finland. 

Most of this type of writing is, unfortunately, an exercise in assimilation and the writers prejudices about certain national groups.

As mentioned in an earlier posting, the first large group of refugees numbering 6,500 came from Russia in 1921, not over 40 years ago as the Helsingin Sanomat article incorrectly claims.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

The journalist cites a teacher and school psychologist, Liisa Kosonen, to vouch that the Vietnamese who came in the late 1970s were well-adapted to Finland.

“It worked out well,” she is quoted as saying. “It had in part to do with the Far Eastern character. The Vietnamese adapted well to such a situation, they were cordial. They valued education and their children got a lot of support.”

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Why are racists in Finland racists?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that racism derives also from low self-esteem apart from being a sinister tool to exclude other groups from gaining access to political, social and economic capital. Ever thought why those who are vocal about their racist views are such an active group?

The answer is simple:

In order to climb up a few miserable notches up the ladder of acceptance, racism is a way of showing your distorted allegiance and a way to get (re)accepted as a member of society. Society is racist to begin with so some of your racist views will connect with society’s.

Being accepted and finding a way out of your social exclusion is one matter you strive for as a racist. The other could be a lucrative political career with power and media attention.

All of these matters were impossible to attain as an outsider, a recluse.

Politicians that come to mind are mostly from the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. They are former MPs like James Hirvisaari and present ones like Juho Eerola, Olli Immonen, MEP Jussi Halla-aho and a long list of others.

Racism gives them attention, meaning and importantly a career. They would never renounce their racism because that would mean killing your career.

What is sad is that our society offers racists such opportunities instead of naming and shaming them.

*The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

What President Sauli Niinstö forgets to state when he claims that migrants should “do as the Romans do”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What does President Sauli Niinitö mean by the controversial phrase, in Rome do as the Romans do, or maassa maan tavalla?

He is quoted as saying in YLE News:

“’When in Rome, do as the Romans do’, to use a rather worn-out and highly criticized phrase. There must be a respect for the principles of democracy, equality and human rights like the kind we share in Finland. Beyond these fundamentals, there remains a great deal of breathing room for multiculturalism to still thrive.”

Good. I’m glad that President Niinistö defines what this means and how it should be applied. There is, however, one very big flaw in the statement. It assumes that migrants that come here don’t understand “the principles of democracy, equality and human rights.”

Is this true?

Does anyone spot a pinch of ethnocentrism in Niinistö’s claim? What about the rise of a populist anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, suggest about how some Finns apply the “principle of democracy, equality and human rights?”

Bashy Quraishy, a friend and colleague of mine, recently stated in a Facebook post:

All western countries call themselves democracies – even if many would fail a real democracy test, namely provide equal rights for all its citizens and protect ethnic and religious minorities from injustices and discrimination.

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Read full story here.

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Finnish politicians: Leave your “we’re against racism comfort zone” catchphrases and take action!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I read National Coalition Party (NCP) Interior Minister Petteri Orpo’s speech in parliament Wednesday about racism. While we’re moving in some direction on this front there is one factor that takes us off the path: denial. 

Making a claim that the opinions of “a far right minority get too much attention” in the debate is a good example of how Orpo and other politicians play down the problem.  How many far right politicians are there in parliament? Does the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party promote racism, hate speech and enable this “far right minority” to get attention?

Taking into account the latest #pizzagate scandal, which could be a good example of ethnic profiling, structural racism and outright discrimination and prejudice, Wednesday’s debate in parliament on racism and hate speech didn’t mention once this latest scandal by the police.

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Read full story here.

As usual, the debate on racism and hate speech in our society normally vacillates with a positive statement against such a social ill but that is almost immediately followed by another affirmation that neutralizes the latter.

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A new low in Finnish journalism: Forcing asylum seekers to like our food

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One more time I’m going to show one of the low points of the A2 Pakolais-ilta debate on refugees. Yes, right, it’s the porridge scene where the host Wali Hashi offers porridge to a Syrian family. Not funny but it reveals a lot about the media’s attitude. 

If we are what we eat we do have to be careful when speaking about food. If you don’t like your host’s food it means you don’t like your host. Your host is what he eats.

The way that the Finnish media took the complaint of poor food by some asylum seekers is highly revealing. It shows, in my opinion, knee-jerk ethnocentrism.

If some asylum seekers are dissatisfied with the food don’t we have the know-how and resources to solve the problem? Why make such a fuss over it?

Why shove the issue in in their faces?

If the media gets offended at some asylum seekers because they don’t like the food it shows that we still have a lot to learn about cultural diversity.

Everyone should not forget as well that you are what you eat.

What the Finnish media leaves out in a story is an editorial line just like silence is a political decision

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Silence is a political decision. 

In journalism it works in the following manner: Silence is what you don’t report and intentionally leave out in the story. That is a policy decision, or an editorial line. 

As more asylum seekers come to Finland I try to remember what the media reported about the arrival of Somalis to Finland in the early 1990s. The reporting was disgraceful, unprofessional and outright racist.

No doubt about that.

The first time I ever got death threats in my life was in Finland, when I wrote about for Apu magazine a big story on a refugee center in Mikkeli.

When I reported this matter to the police in Helsinki, the matter that surprised me was how he played down what happened. He just wasn’t interested, He didn’t take what happened to me seriously.

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This 1994 billboard by tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reads: “Somalis got asylum by swindled the authorities.” Source: Migration Institute.

While the national media doesn’t show its racism like the billboard above, it’s reporting is below standard it is still “white” and opinionated. Too often it is a mouthpiece for racist comments by politicians and rarely does it ever challenge them.  

The most recent example of the above was YLE’s 8:30pm news Saturday. For some odd reason YLE reports the news about the demonstrations for and against asylum seekers as two extremes.

If we put that type of reporting into context and applied it to Britain you’d probably see the former Islamophobic English Defense League at one end and anarchists at the other.

In Finland the media incorrectly reports that those who are in favor or against asylum seekers are two extremes.

They’re not.

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What did Makwan Amirkhani forget to say on his video?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Violence is wrong and it’s commendable when people speak out against such anti-social behavior. Makwan Amirkhani, who speaks perfect Finnish on a video, claims that he’s disappointed at non-white Finnish youths that were in a video kicking and hitting a person on the street.

Amirkhani states that these youths should not forget that they are “guests” in this country.

Guests? That sounds like he’s echoing the code term “person with migrant or foreign background,” which labels you indefinitely a “guest” of this country and reminds you that you can never be a “Finn” because you “have foreign or migrant background.”

Instead of calling these people “guests” or any other label that reminds them that they are outsiders or marginalized from society, we should go to the core of the problem. The answer lies in inclusion and opportunities not in exclusion and labeling others as outsiders.

I would have said what Amirkhani stated in a totally different manner.

One important matter I’d tell these youths is that since they’re not white Finns, and since they are dumb enough to commit such an act of violence, video and post it on Instragram, they should remember that white Finnish privilege is maintained by structural racism and urban tales.

Their actions strengthen such social illnesses.

The tweet below by Sally Kohn should explain to them how things work.

The Finnish version of the tweet below would be: “Shooter with foreign or migrant background” = entire group guilty, and white Finnish shooter = mentally troubled lone wolf.

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Why do some dark-skinned children in Finland fear the sun?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There are many ways to measure how racism works on a day-by-day level and structurally in our society. Umayya Abu-Hanna wrote a while back how Finland’s middle class ensures that migrants and minorities can never compete economically, politically and culturally on an equal level with white Finns. 

Instead of prime ministers and government officials stating how much they are against racism, why don’t they actually challenge this social ill in earnest?

The reason why they don’t may surprise some: They don’t consider racism a serious enough problem.

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Source: www.beeanddaddoo.com

Racism in Finland starts from early childhood. Children are bullied at school because of their ethnic background, even some like Rebecka Holm are harassed in public by total strangers.

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Migrant Tales (March 22, 2012): Is Finland ready for cultural diversity?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: This opinion piece was published over three years ago. on an article published about 20 years ago.  Do you believe what J.W. Berry wrote still holds true for Finland? Are we closer or further away from building a successful culturally and ethnically diverse society? 

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In light of social ills like racism and social exclusion in Finland, J. W. Berry of Queen’s University of Canada offers us an opportunity to ask a very important question: Are we in Finland ready for cultural diversity? If we still aren’t quite there yet, how long will it take? 

Nationalism is a double-edged sword. It served to unite and mold a social construct like the national identity of the Finns but in the process it excluded other groups.

While great injustices were committed against us by Stalin, we have to learn to forgive and move on. This is necessary if we want to build a well-functioning culturally diverse society that reaps synergies and grows successfully. But taking into account the political situation in Russia, such a task can be challenging.

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