Tag: Cultural diversity

Culturally diverse Finland has a history

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri*

Because migrants and minorities in Finland do not have power, we are taught to believe we are rootless and have no historicity. It is not true: migrant and anti-racism activism in Finland was already very alive in the 1980s.

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The demonstration in October 1982 demanded basic rights for foreigners in Finland.

“Our dominant classes have made sure that the worker has no history, doesn’t have a doctrine, any heroes or any martyrs. Every struggle has to start from scratch, separated from previous struggles; the collective history is lost, their lessons are forgotten. History appears as it if were private property, whose owners are the owners of everything.”** Rodolfo Walsh (1928-77)

The late Argentinean writer and social activist Rodolfo Walsh (1927-77) showed the power of investigative journalism in Argentina when he published Operation Massacre in 1957. The book exposed how supporters of president Juan Domingo Pero?n were captured and shot by the military junta’s secret firing squad, after Pero?n was deposed by a military coup. Walsh’s quote, that the worker has no history, offers a good description of the situation of migrants and minorities in Finland today. Even if we too aren’t supposed to have any history, the interesting question to ask is why we are taught to believe that we are rootless and living on the outer fringes of society.

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The fallacy of the “two extremes” argument in Finland on immigration, asylum seekers and our ever-growing culturally diverse society

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here’s a simple question: Why does the police, like President Sauli Niinistö, see the present debate on immigration, asylum seekers and our ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society as being conducted by two extremes? 

President Niinistö, who hasn’t shone as a defender of our culturally diverse society, spoke of the tolkun ihmiset, the silent majority that doesn’t identify with neither of these extremes.

Ville Rantanen offers in a cartoon below his view of the tolkun ihmiset.

There is one very noticeable flaw in Niinistö’s and online police Jarno Saarinen’s points of views of the “two extremes:” They are the views of white Finns with power who are the least affected by the ongoing hate speech and hostility against migrants and minorities.

Acknowledging this flaw in the debate is crucial to understand the issue.

People who say and do racist things, or politicians that want to relegate migrants and minorities to second- or third-class members of society, are the real threat to migrants and minorities – not to white people like Niinistö and Saarinen.

Add to the latter that we have an openly anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset* in government with mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party and Center Party and the issue takes an ever-worrying dimension.

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The police try to moderate the present debate on Finland’s ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society. Online police Jarno Saarinen writes: “There are two extremes in our society that are so far from each other that I, with mixed feelings, await what will come out of this. It’s difficult to define these two extremes because giving them a name is difficult. Some speak of racists and anti-racists while others speak of those that defend anti-immigration and pro-immigration standpoints. Whatever the definition,  I want to speak of those who see the other group as the plague; it’s unfortunate that the rhetoric of these two groups is similar.” Read original posting (in Finnish) here.

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YLE poll: Support for the PS of Finland nosedives to 8.5%

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A poll published by YLE News Wednesday shows and reinforces how support for the anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* continues to nosedive. Compared with the 17.7% they got in the April 2015 parliamentary election, support has plummeted to a new low of 8.5%. 

Good news for Finland’s culturally diverse community, migrants, and minorities.

Why?

The BBC describes the party in the following terms below. We couldn’t agree more with them.

“The party advocates strict immigration controls and argues that Finns, not migrants, take priority for social and healthcare spending. Its roots lie in rural Finland and it has championed welfare policies that give it a populist dimension.”

If the PS ever got over 50% of the vote and had a majority in parliament, they would pass laws that would make migrants and minorities into third-class citizens. Their immigration policy is hostile to migrants and would encourage human rights violations.

How would this happen?

They would overturn Section 6 of the Finnish constitution that guarantees that everybody, irrespective of his or her background, is equal before the law.

The PS in a nutshell: A party that is openly hostile to visible migrants and cultural diversity.

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Read full story here.

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Ethnic profiling reveals a lot about how the Finnish police service and non-discrimination ombudsman see cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

While it is a fact that the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman looks into complaints about alleged ethnic profiling by the police service and National Boarder Guard, more questions surround this issue than answers.

Migrant Tales has repeatedly pointed out that one of the main problems concerning ethnic profiling in Finland by the police service, and its monitoring by the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, is the lack of visible minority representation.

No minorities are working for the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and only a minute amount for the police service and National Border Guard.

This fact is a problem that should be addressed in Finland, which abides by Nordic welfare value and upholds Section 6 of the Constitution and guarantees that we’re all equal before the law. Equality means as well equal representation.

Now here’s the question: How can the police service, National Border Guard and the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman assure migrants and minorities that they take seriously ethnic profiling if it doesn’t affect their staff directly?

Having no minorities on their staff is the same as having only males defending women’s right or people with no physical disabilities representing people with such challenges.

 

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Read full story here.

Underwhelming representation of minorities is tantamount as well to playing down a problem like ethnic profiling and discrimination.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #28: Are you an ethnic Finn? (Part 2)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In a recent Defining white Finnish privilege post, we asked about how the term ethnic Finn, or kantasuomalainen, is used. While there’s nothing wrong with being an ethnic or white Finn it is a problem if such a term is used to reinforce the exclusive privileges of a group.

When you label yourself ethnic Finn do you exclude migrants and minorities, or so-called people with foreign backgrounds, from being seen and treated as equal members of society?

If there is a problem with the term ethnic Finn, it is how it labels Others. Ethnic Finns can call themselves such a name but Others don’t have such privilege. Being labeled “a person with foreign background” or “immigrant,” even if you were born and raised in this country, indicates a wider more serious problem within our society.

A recent shadow report on Afrophobia by NGO European Network Against Racism (ENAR) cited, at least, four European countries that use a particular classification to label their “foreign” population. The countries mentioned in the shadow report are Finland, Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands.

It states how such terms are used in Holland (page 17):

The Dutch government makes an official distinction between “autochtonen”, meaning that both parents are born in the Netherlands and “allochtonen” defined as people who have at least one parent born outside of the Netherlands. Furthermore, a distinction is made between “western allochtonen” (European countries excluding Turkey, North America, Oceania, Indonesia and Japan) and “non-western allochtonen” (includes people with at least one parent born in Africa, Latin America, and Asia excluding Indonesia, Japan and Turkey).

If such labels are so important that the government makes an official distinction, why aren’t players on the Dutch national football team classified  as “autochtonen” and “allochtonen?”

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Listen whole program (in Finnish) here. The talk show gives us a good idea of how white Finnish privilege is the standard narrative when speaking of minorities.

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Case Downtown Helsinki: How the police ethnically profile people

Posted on by Migrant Tales

During the weekend, the police service together with the Finnish Border Guard wilfully targetted foreigners for spot identity checks in Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa. Migrant Tales heard of a case in Kamppi where four young men were walking. The police allegedly stopped two young Finns, one who was black- and brown-skinned. 

The police did not stop their two friends, who were white Finns.

Both the black and brown-skinned young men showed their passports and told the police they are Finns. One at the officers turned his attention to the brown-skinned man and suggested that the passport didn’t make him a Finn.

 

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Read full story here.

“What’s your mother tongue?” the police asked.

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Naapuriäidit: I am a refugee, but I also have another story

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Michelle Kaila

 

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Friba Majeed

Friba Majeed was born in Balkh, Afghanistan. She came to Finland in 2014 as a refugee. She is presently doing a work practice at Nicehearts in Vantaa, mainly to practice her Finnish language skills.

These are the kinds of details we, as migrants, might often exchange with others upon meeting.

However, as it is with each of us, there is more to her story.

In Afghanistan, Friba graduated from University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Literature. She worked as a highschool teacher, and then as Director in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for 9 years.

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Seminar in South Korea, 2008.

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A brave boy that reminds us in Finland to not take our eye off the racist ball

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After Valtteri Saarinen went on Finnish national television Monday and said that racist harassment at school was something “normal” even President Sauli Niinstö was shocked. Valtteri said that he’s been named the “n-word,” and called “feces” and “a feces-colored” person for such a long time that he doesn’t react to such racism any longer. 

President Niinistö, who has given mixed statements about racism and asylum seekers in Finland, tweeted:

This type of injustice shouldn’t happen in Finland.

Sometimes you’re shocked first thing in the morning. That’s what happened today when an 11-year-old boy told about his experiences on television. He’s discriminated and called names because of his skin color. Even bus drivers don’t pick him up. This type of injustice cannot happen in Finland. Valtteri gave a brave example to the [European] Week Against Racism.

Even if it’s a good matter that President Nninstö speaks out against racism in Finnish society, I am, however, a bit surprised that he’s surprised by what happened.

Racism in Finland is played down and some of the culprits for this are politicians and the media.

Finland does need to do much more to challenge racism and hate speech.

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See full video clip here. One of the surprising matters about what the boy said was the TV commentator, who didn’t call Valtteri Saarinen a Finn but stated that “migrants and adopted children” face racism. Finns face racism too!

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