Tag: Cultural diversity

The day will come when cultural diversity will be accepted in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Native American Louie Gone asks an interesting question: Why isn’t a person’s “mixed” heritage acknowledged of all places in a country like the United States? How does Finland support identity development and what kind of exclusion or inclusion does it promote?

I visited this week an elementary school in Eastern Finland and saw a bunch of posters hanging on the walls with different names of countries, flags, and how to count up to three in languages such as Arabic, Denga and others.

While I am certain that the teachers’ intention at the school is to promote respect for diversity, one could ask if it actually doest that.

Why doesn’t the school promote the idea that the children can discover, put into practice and celebrate their new Finnish or hybrid identity on their terms?

What is interesting is that these so-called students with immigrant backgrounds have lived most of their lives in Finland.

It would be far-reaching and probably make some Finns uncomfortable if we’d empower children and people with culturally diverse backgrounds the right to belong and influence our culture as equals.  That would require a very strong dose of acceptance, a word that it rarely used by politicians in this country.

The last people to use terms like mutual acceptance and respect for diversity in Finland would be those that are pushing and placing people in different ethnic categories. They do so with the same intention as Gone mentioned: To conquer and rule.

If I were the principle of that elementary school in Eastern Finland, I would have asked the students to draw the flags of their former home countries together with the Finnish one and then mix them together and imagine how fortunate they are.

Thank you for the heads up @getgln!

Helsingin Sanomat’s mea culpa on immigration issues

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Is lack of knowledge about living in a society with a small foreign population an excuse for poor and deficient coverage of Finland’s ever-growing immigrant population? The editor of Finland’s leading daily, Helsingin Sanomat, told Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat that it has aimed to raise immigrant, racism and tolerance issues since society and the political atmosphere has changed in the country. 

Editor Riikka Venäläinen states that immigration is a relatively new phenomenon in Finland and therefore offered a sort of mea culpa. “…our job is to give background information, analysis and develop the story from a certain angle,” she said, “When that is done  on a tight schedule, it’s pretty certain that we are guilty of very short-sighted conclusions. I accept the criticism that has to do with reporting on immigration issues.”

I am surprised by Venäläinen’s comment. Don’t Helsingin Sanomat reporters ever travel abroad? Don’t they have foreign spouses? What about foreign correspondents?  Don’t they have any relatives who emigrated to countries like Sweden, Canada and the United States in the past 140-odd years? Haven’t they read our history?

Venäläinen’s admission sounds more like a poor excuse for doing a shoddy job. It reveals as well the lack of reporters with immigrant backgrounds covering such an important issue like cultural diversity in Finnish society. In a way it’s as if 99% men were reporters covering women’s rights issues.

But she does ask a good question at the end of the story whether the children of immigrants, who may speak perfect Finnish, should be called immigrants anymore.

Such a comment exposes, in my opinion, a bold statement by Helsingin Sanomat and how exclusive Finnish society is. How does Venäläinen think Finland could be a more inclusive society? Maybe that would be a good editorial that Helsingin Sanomat could write and show leadership.

Not all dailies in Finland appear to be as much in the dark about immigration and cultural diversity issues as Helsingin Sanomat. Some good examples are Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Aamulehti, Kansan Uutiset  as well as others.

Writing about immigration is like reporting on any social issue that takes place in our society. The benchmarks are the same: inclusion, social justice, equality, fairness and acceptance.

These are values we should already know at elementary school.

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.

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.

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.


Finland’s long-overdue issue with the cold war

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Every country has its silent minority or majority and Finland is no different in this respect. The victory of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in April raises a lot of questions: Have the ghosts of Finlandization and the Continuation War (1941-44) been resurrected? 

When future historians write about the post-April era in Finland, when the PS gained a historic victory in the election, they will uncover many things that have their roots in our history.

Seeing a country like Finland jump into the arms of populism and xenophobia is a tragedy indeed.  Seeing the country slide into social and economic poverty as a result is even sadder.

While some analysts may be scratching their heads why a significant part of Finland’s population wants to turn its back to the outside world, it should not come to any surprise because it was already written in the sand a long time ago. The isolation we suffered during the cold war for decades still dictates how we see ourselves in relation to the outside world.

One of the biggest casualties of the Winter War (1939-40), Continuation War and cold war era was the blow to our cultural diversity. We encouraged ethnic purity at the cost of cultural diversity.  By 1970, for example, there were only 7,000 foreigners living in the country. The biggest national group back then were Finns who were naturalized Swedes.

When diversity is almost blown off the face of the map and replaced by cultural myths like ethnic “purity,” it is clear that we lack the resources today to tackle many problems facing the country, especially those that address our cultural diversity. We speak and look so much alike that we all agree with each other. The immigration debate is a classic example. Debate is one-sided and poor because mostly Finns, not immigrants or Multicultural Finns, are taking part in the debate.

Our lack of cultural diversity has impoverished us as a nation in many ways. The rise of the PS in April is one of many examples of what our past geopolitical isolation has brought on our doorstep today.

Moreover, we never  even debated in earnest our geopolitical isolation from the world and how relations with the former Soviet Union changed our mindset.

We chose, instead, to live off myths about ourselves and put off and leave our future to chance.

Speaking up for Multicultural Finns

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Those who play down the impact and poison of racism and indifference in our society know nothing of the plight of Multicultural Finns. Who are they?

A Multicultural Finn is any person who may have grown up in Finland but one or both of his or her parents were born in another country. They can also be native Finns with Finnish parents who grew up in foreign countries.

Like any group that grew up in two or more cultures, prejudice and society’s indifference have been felt especially hard by them.

Groups that have declared war on Finland’s cultural diversity, like many MPs of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, associations like Suomen Sisu and others, impact Multicultural Finns especially hard with their message of indifference.

Whenever these groups point out that Finns should not marry foreigners, or that Finland should remain “white,” they are by the same token denying Multicultural Finns of their rightful and long-overdue acceptance by society.

Acceptance by them of Multicultural Finns would be a death-blow to their myopic view of Finnishness and who has the right to belong to it.

Multicultural Finns are one of the most disenfranchised groups in this country. In school some face constant ridicule and exclusion not only by some of their classmates but with the help of their teachers’ silence.

The damage hits their self-esteem because they are denied a part of their identity, or both in many cases.

They are eternal outsiders due to society’s indifference and denial of their history and identity.

Their acceptance, however, will grow in Finland during this century as our society becomes more culturally diverse.

Why do I write about them and why do I care?

Because I am one of them.  We are the future of Finland today.

Denying racism is rejecting Finland’s cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

When one looks at some topical issues being debated in Finland, like the role of cultural diversity and tries to understand them, it is essential to dig deeper behind words. What do the most anti-immigration voices of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) say when they are against multiculturalism?

Anyone who has attempted to understand what multiculturalism is knows that it isn’t an easy concept to grasp. If we are speaking of the Canadian social policy that came about in the 1980s, there are only three countries in the world (Canada, Britain and Australia) that are officially multicultural, according to researcher Peter Kivisto.

Multiculturalism as a social policy works differently in all three of the above-mentioned countries. There is no same-size-fits-all when it comes to multiculturalism as a social policy.

What do anti-immigration groups like the PS tell us when they express their loathing for multiculturalism? Is it a last-ditch attempt to keep Finland white and hinder the development or, worse, deny our cultural diversity as a society?

What do anti-immigration groups like Suomen Sisu and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho reveal to us when state that they are against multiculturalism and find some basis for their arguments in the writings of  Alfred Rosenberg, David Duke and Michael Levin?

All of these persons have one matter in common: they are against cultural diversity, or are the antithesis of multiculturalism. Rosenberg, a Nazi war criminal who went to the gallows after the Nuremberg trials, believed that the ”Aryan race” would find greatness after it kicked out the Jews from Germany.

David Duke is a former Klu Klux Klan leader who believes whites should live separated from blacks. Levin is another controversial figure who sees whites at the top and blacks at the bottom of the ethnic totem pole.

When anti-immigration representatives in Finland tell us that they are only against certain groups moving to this country, they are stating us the same thing: we loathe people who strengthen cultural diversity.

The present debate taking place in Finland goes much deeper than what meets the eye because it is about the inevitable future of our society. One group, like some in the PS, are denying it by living in a Finland of the past century, while others have already accepted it.

What, then, is a person telling us when he claims there is no racism in Finland?

It’s the same side of the sinister coin: denial that Finland is already culturally diverse.

Perussuomalaiset: The end of imaginary Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The Perussuomalaiset have a long way to go before the majority of Finns, never mind immigrants and minorities, begin to accept them as a “normal” political party. The racist outbursts of PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s pledge to tighten even more the screws on immigration policy, have got people rightfully concerned about the kind of Finland we’ll be living in a few years down the road.

Certainly you can look at the rise of the PS as the Soviet Union’s last months of 1991, when a group of Communist hardliners, the infamous Gang of Eight, usurped power to salvage a sinking system. They didn’t salvage the ship but speeded instead its final demise.

The April election could be seen as a final call to salvage a Finland that only existed in between some people’s ears.

Seeing what kind of MPs Finns have elected from the PS, it’s pretty certain that 19% that voted for them will end up so outraged by what they’ll see that the protest vote in the last election will turn against Timo Soini’s party.

Instead of building a nationalistic, xenophobic, racist, conservative and anti-outside world Finland, the PS will, like what happened after the Soviet Union’s fall from grace, give birth to a new country. That new Finland is multicultural and proud of its diversity.

After Finland comes to terms with itself, it will be ready to make amends with its adverse feelings for the Russians.

The PS is bringing out the fighting spirit in a lot of people who simply will not stand for their type of limited black-and-white view of the world.

Two different centuries: A new Finland awakens

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If we look very generally at the previous century, Finns worked hard at building a sense of national unity: surnames were Finnicized and personal histories about our “foreign” background were erased for the common national good.

Our Finnish identity got a further boost in the Winter War (1939-40), when the Soviet Union invaded our country. Through war, unfortunately, we were able to strengthen our identity as a nation.

Our short history as an independent nation and how we forged our national identity still dictates how some of us see the outside world: as a threat or an opportunity?

But we live today in a new century and totally different reality when compared with before. Our world is globalized and Finland needs skilled immigrants to plug the ever-growing labor shortage.

I personally believe that the biggest and most exciting challenges facing Finland today is building a new sense of national identity for this century. That new identity will be vastly different from the previous one because it will be much more inclusive to people who want to form part of this great family we call Finland.

If  in the previous century we were supposed to hide our foreign roots because we wanted to stress our Finnishness, in this century it will not only be acceptable but encouraged to show our diversity.

We are from different backgrounds but we are Finns.