Tag: Finland

Finland’s and Japan’s demographic and economic decline

Posted on by Migrant Tales

You don’t have to be an expert to understand that Europe and especially Finland are speeding towards a demographic and economic decline of untold proportions. The calamity we face will not come from outside our borders per se but will have the “Made in Finland” label on it.  

There’s an interesting story on the Guardian about how cultural traits  fueled the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan. The panel’s findings on the disaster could be eerily similar to a future report that studied the causes behind our own demographic and economic decline.

Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, states: “Its fundamental causes are to be found in the ingrained conventions of Japanese culture: our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to ‘sticking with the programme’; our groupism; and our insularity.”

As the euro financial crisis deepens, which fuels our ever-growing skepticism and fear of the outside world, our response to the challenges facing our country and region has been ever-bigger doses of nationalism.

Source: Northern Denim Co. 

Our reaction to the euro and various political corruption scandals was the election of April 2011, which paved the way for an anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam party. How is it possible that a right-wing populist party like the Perussuomalaiset can attract 19.1% (39 seats) of the votes compared with 4.05% (5 seats) in 2007?

Part of the answer to that question must be in our insularity, scapegoating and ever-growing skepticism of the outside world.

Even if some used to call Finland the Japan of Europe in the 1980s, our country resembles today a nation that is inching towards permanent demographic and economic decline.

Foreign workers are moving to Japan these days to fill jobs and to compensate for the extremely low birth rate. Like in Finland, the ramifications of an ever-growing influx of immigrants into a society that has based its identity on ethnic purity are enormous to say the least.

Despite the difficulties we face, there’s still time to save Finland and Europe.

Europe’s future lies in its ability to deal with the challenges posed by its ever-growing cultural diversity and globalization.

That is why we need to learn from countries like Canada, the United States and Australia that have reaped synergies from their diversity more effectively than us.

 

 

The absurdity of the reverse-racism argument in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Every now and then you’ll hear a visitor on Migrant Tales claim: What about [reverse] racism against [white] Finns!? Racism is a complex problem but one matter singles it out: It is an effective tool to socially exclude, control and exploit other groups in society from vital resources such as jobs and economic wealth. 

The fact that white Finns are the standard of everything in Finland is enough proof that they wield real power. White Finns don’t have to understand racism because they simply don’t have to. It’s not an issue because they are the standard of this society, the norm. Everyone else has a prefix attached to them like immigrant, immigrant descendant, black, Roma etc.

In May 2011, the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party renounced all forms of racism, even positive discrimination, or affirmative action. 

It is surprising that when the PS made their preposterous statement, few if any media in this country understood how racist and grotesque it was and how it revealed a serious case of  colorblind racism (let’s pretend we’re equal because ethnic background does not matter, when in fact it does).   

Colorblind racism works in Finland in an implicit and explicit manner. Its aim is the same:  ethnic background is not the issue. If it is an issue, it’s your  ethnic background. 

  • ·         We have such a wonderful society that we are way past racism so get over it (explicit colorblind racism);
  • ·         It’s your culture, your parents or you that is hindering adaption to our society. In this case I recognize your ethnic background but only to shift blame and wash my hands of the problem (implicit colorblind racism). 

 This graffiti that reads “White Power” in Finnish was on a special elementary school’s wall in Mikkeli, Finland, for months before it was removed. 

Accusing a visible minority, or immigrant of being racist against white Finns, is a good example of implicit colorblind racism.  Since racism isn’t a problem in our society, it can’t be my problem. It’s your problem. 

Some successful immigrants or visible minorities who have succeeded in Finland may reinforce the same colorblind racist argument as white Finns. They may claim:  “I’m not white but I adapted to the white Finns’ world. That is why I am successful. You too can be.” 

Those immigrants who have racism issues usually come from countries where such a social ill is the standard. It’s easy for them to accept the white Finn as a standard because they too were the norm in their former home country.  As a result, some embrace the idea of becoming a Tuomo-setä, or Uncle Tom, because they are encouraged to and rewarded by white Finnish society for such behavior.

If you are ever confronted by a person who uses the reverse-racism argument, ask him or her how is the prejudice of a minority as devastating as that of the majority? 

White Finns should stop whining about reverse racism because it isn’t an issue. It’s only one of many loaded arguments used by them to justify their racism.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go for the values and weaknesses of a group if you aim to destroy their self-esteem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

How would you go about destroying the self-esteem of a group? If you were an anti-immigration politician, certainly you’d target the group’s values (religion) and exploit your racist arguments by pointing the finger at their most vulnerable weaknesses, like high unemployment. 

Prejudice and racism are diehard social ills because they take generations to wear off.  It may have taken a few months to label a small group of Somali refugees that came to Finland in the early 1990s, but it will be a very long time before they wash off their stigma.

The Romany minority of Finland are a good example of how negative labels can follow a group like a shadow for centuries.

 The Ilta-Sanomat tabloid claims that Somalis swindled authorities in granting them political asylum in Finland.

If it wasn’t a tabloid billboard that spread and reinforced racism and suspicion of groups like the Somalis in the 1990s, the icing on the cake was provided by the tacit silence of the politicians and society in general.  Even if one group was being singled out, it was an attack on all immigrants living in this country at the time.

As the old saying claims, there is no evil that lasts 100 years. In the United States, it took centuries to end slavery before we saw the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The Arab Spring movements last year are good recent examples of how “no evil can last 100 years.”

There is a problem with the saying, however, since it implies that evil cannot exist over 100 years because a person cannot live past that age. History reveals that evil is more like Methuselah, the Biblical figure that lived to be 969 years old.

The findings of a study in Britain published exclusively by the Guardian claim that unchecked corporate power, unrepresentative politicians and apathetic voters are fueling today the decline of British democracy.  The same illness has spread to other parts of Europe, like Finland.

The Guardian writes: “A study into the state of democracy in Britain over the last decade warns that it is in ‘long-term terminal decline’ as the power of corporations keeps growing, politicians become less representative of their constituencies and disillusioned citizens stop voting or even discussing current affairs.”

Finnish society, which used to be perceived as the least corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International, has had its image seriously tarnished by greedy politicians and corporate leaders.

In the same way that corruption undermines a society’s values and sends it into decline, similarly prejudice and racism constitute serious threat to it as well.

If people are excluded socially and their only aim in life it to live off welfare, certainly they have every right to challenge their situation.

The only way you can avoid violence in society is by empowering people to change their situation through our democratic institutions. Two matters can happen if people lose faith in them: indefinite (very costly) social exclusion and/or violence.

In Europe not thinking today about how to tackle social exclusion and racism is thinking little or erroneously.

Thus the roots of the problem are not the marginalized groups, far-right parties or opportunistic anti-immigration politicians, but our apathy, greed and the fact that some of us have forgotten that we are social animals.

 

 

 

Dear Finland, as the heat of summer draws…

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Dear Finland,

As the heat of summer draws attention to your ever-changing sub-arctic beauty, you may have wondered why Migrant Tales has become a voice of the immigrant and visible minority community in Finland. We are always humbled by your presence on our blog. In truth, we are nothing more than a new confident image of a culturally and ethnically diverse Finland.     

We are not the enemy because we speak out for more acceptance and respect between different groups living in this country. Your real enemies are those who claim with poker faces the contrary and tell you that prejudice and racism are good weapons to exclude others socially.

This cart resting in the heart of the rural Lakelands region of eastern Finland reads in Spanish: “To the woman of my life.”  For some, that woman could be Finland. 

Finland never belonged to anyone, especially to the racists and white Finnish supremacists, those very people who mock and make fun of your diversity. History proves as well that Finland didn’t even belong to the Swedes, the Russians, or even those that call themselves Finns today.

Our identity is a great awakening, ever-changing,  powerful:

Awaken me from eternal sleep

The shadow of those that hate me 

Carry me from these unacceptant lands

 past the midnight summer sun

where rain is so deadly 

that it punctures through skin.

Turning into a guitar

a daring escape occurred to me:

Thrum! Another thrum!

A great leap forward

falling down as a loud thud.

In scattered bits and pieces of me

I will find the way to blast through those nets

that society maliciously weaves.  

There are many examples of those “malicious nets” standing right under our noses today.  Take for example Eino Jutikkala’s and Kauko Pirinen’s “A History of Finland” published in 1974, which claims we Finns belonged to two “races.” Yes, such a preposterous claim was made in this country only 38 years ago!

Jutikkala and Pirinen state: “The Finns and the Hungarians are not blood relatives not to any appreciable degree, at least – whereas the Finns and the Estonians are quite closely related. Both of the later belong to the so-called East Baltic race, which is relatively short-skulled and of medium height. However, among the Finns, especially among the inhabitants of western Finland there are many representatives of the ‘Nordic’ racial type, which is characterized by a long skull and tall stature.” [1]

Another school textbook published in 1942, adds that a person who belonged to the Nordic race was “tall, slim, blue-eyed, had blond hair and red cheeks.” [2]

Apart from teaching racist myths about ourselves, how can our school textbooks  forget to mention that over 1.2 million Finns emigrated and mixed ethnically and culturally with other people in faraway lands?

In many respects, the tens of thousands of visible minorities in Finland today are like Rachel, the main character of Heidi Durrow’s novel, “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.” Rachel is society’s idea of race, class, and beauty.

Durrow’s father is a black USAmerican and her mother is Danish.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ2__1b15gY&feature=related

Durrow describes Rachel to be the following person: I think her greatest wish was to be one thing. She wanted to be understood and she wanted to be as complex as she was, and so she goes around trying to do and be one thing, which is a good student. And she becomes a big reader and the world kind of opens up to her in this way. And she thinks that if I am excellent, then definitely I will be understood and this whole race thing won’t matter. 

I think that’s still true today that if you strive for excellence then ultimately, maybe, you can maybe get beyond the shadow of race, maybe you can transcend the ways in which people may limit you because of your background, whether it be your racial background or your educational background or your economic background in many ways.

[1] Eino Jutikkala and Kauko Pirinen: A History of Finland. Praeger Publishers, New York, 1974. p. 7.

[2] J.E. Aro, J.E. Rosberg and L. Arvi P. Poijärvi; Koulun maantieto. Otava, Helsinki 1942. pp. 31-32.

Migrant Tales Literary:?? ?? ?? ?? We was without i

Posted on by Dana

By Dana

???? ???? ??? ?????? ??       ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ??
The river of my tears oh GOD was seared
All my nights oh GOD were rotten

?? ????? ??? ??? ?????          ?? ???? ????? ?????? ??

That brave holy friend of my memories
Unkempt in my lover’s look
??? ? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??????       ?? ??? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???

Give me wings and feathers oh kind GOD
Grant me that, for me, dear moon family

?? ???? ?? ? ?? ?? ???? ???      ???? ?? ?? ?? ? ?? ???? ???

i without me and we without home
My house is complete with i and we

???? ??? ? ????? ? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ????  ?? ?? ???? ????
?? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ? ?? ?? ?? ???
?? ?? ???? ???? ???? ? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ? ?? ?? ??
?? ????  ?? ?? ?? ????? ? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ?  ???????
?? ???? ???? ? ? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??? ??????
?? ??? ????? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?? ??????????
???? ?? ???? ?? ?????  ??? ??? ?? ???? ? ???? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ????
??? ??? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ???
????? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ??? ? ???? ????? ????? ? ?? ??? ? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ?????

 ? ?? ?? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ?? ????   ?? ??? ??? ??? ????? .?????? ???

There was a father, mother and filial whose name was i.
i was not alone, i was with we but one day i left me and we was without i.
So we slowly failed, breaking sound and I heard we fragment to pieces as i wilted.
i left me and we and went to a place where death was alive, luck had struck death and it’s name was Finland – you’re not welcome.
i said i love u, but it said that it does not know i, cos  i am not similar to it.
But GOD said to a mirror and the mirror said to i that it is similar to u so u must love it.
I grapple to shout, a shout escapes me, larynx weeps and i am suffocating in grief.
My voice decomposes, my voice is silenced, my eyes cry out loud with blood and my mother’s look was after me and my father’s moaning, his mourning of our separation.
I said to i: now what should i do without we???
More tolerance

waiting for me.

 

How many types of racists are there in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I read an interesting blog entry by Julian Abagond that highlights three types of racists in the United States: white bigots, white implicit racists and whites with integrity. How many types of racists are there in Finland? 

When studying racism in this country or in other parts of Europe, denial is the most incriminating evidence that a racist leaves behind. The culprit is usually exposed by denying that a problem exists or by affirming that “I am not racist but…”

Writes Abagond:  “Racism is something you have to unlearn on purpose. Not by trying to not see color but, as a first step, by understanding how racism works and how it has affected you.”

Racism has impacted Finland in many negative ways. It has been costly and brought great hardships on us. Even today it continues to affect us adversely.

Consider the following predicament: We need to attract skilled labor and foreign investment but the third-largest party in Finland is anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam.

Abagond speaks of three types of racists in the United States. I’d claim that there are four in Finland (if Abagond’s criteria were used, they would be divided in the following manner):

  1. The so-called working-class bigots (5%) are your typical skinheads. Their behavior and racism shocks most Finns. Some politicians like James Hirvisaari fall into this category.
  2. Bigots with education and steady jobs (45%) are people who would never act like working-class bigots but agree in principle with their views. Their knowledge of other groups like Africans is strongly entrenched in nineteenth-century racism and social constructs like Finnish nationalism.  Jussi Halla-aho, Wille Rydman, Paavo Väyrynen, Päivi Räsänen are some examples.
  3. White implicit racists (45%) are those who don’t fall in the latter two categories. They may claim they are against racism but their actions suggest the contrary. They strongly believe in religious freedom but would be the first ones – in private – to oppose the building of a Mosque in their neighborhood or city.  Many John Does are typical white implicit racists.
  4. Finns with integrity (5%) are those who have started to study their own racism and taken the first step to put it under control.

 

 

Migrant Tales Literary: Summer blooms in Finland*

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Growing up and being a Finn in the last century was especially tough. If wars and conflicts didn’t do you in, it was the option of being an immigrant and living with that near-constant yearning and separation in faraway lands. Between 1860 and1999, over 1.2 million Finns emigrated mainly to North America and Sweden.

I was more fortunate than my grandparents, Harald and Aino, who were born in Finland in the early 1890s. Before they turned twenty they had already witnessed enough strife and bloodshed to last them a lifetime: Russification and the struggle that led to Finland’s independence in 1917, the assassination of Governor General Nikolai Bobrikov in 1904, and the terrible Civil War of 1918 between the Whites and Reds, which tore the country in two.

The Finland I knew before I turned twenty was very different from the one my grandparents witnessed. The Cold War and the Vietnam War raged on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Every day I’d on the news about how the U.S. was bombing North Vietnam back to the stone age, when, in fact, the war was severely weakening us as a nation.

Even my grandparents’ early adulthood was characterized by extremes: the New York Stock Market Crash of October 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression, which in turn ignited a new Great War that would end up claiming an estimated 60 million lives.

So many rivers of blood flowed by them during their lifetime that it is quite remarkable that they survived to tell about those days. However, Harald and Aino never spoke about them, and their anguish. They chose silence to reviving with their tales those phantoms that once brought so much terror and death to Europe.

I have read a lot about World War 2. I think it is important to know about that period in order not to go down that slippery slope ever again. Understanding what happened back then isn’t easy, however, and may take more than one lifetime to understand. How are you supposed to grasp the systematic murder of six million Jews or that of 20 million people that died in Russia?

I have so many questions I’d ask my grandparents. Do they remember the day when Finland became an independent nation? What about when the Winter War broke out on a Thursday? What was a typical day of their lives like? No matter how much I try and wish, it’s too late to ask them any questions. Only silence answers back.

***

Contrary to my grandparents, I will share some of my anecdotes with the dear reader like when I spent the most beautiful moment of my life. I was eleven years at the time and it happened at our summerhouse near Mikkeli. Like magic, I was awoken by the sound of my grandfather sawing wood while the warm sunlight entered my room and mixed with the cool semi-darkness.

How beautiful the forest is in summer with its towering spruces, clean-white birches and sparkling lakes. These images raced through my mind and heart during that special morning pleading with the day and moment to never end.

Finnish summer blooms between June and August. 

What was it that made that morning so memorable? Was it summer that was blooming inside of me as sheer beauty? Or was it because I had by chance learned to capture the full moment without the past and future pulling me in opposite directions?

After so much war and suffering during the first twenty-five years of Finland’s independence, our country needed a similar magic moment to rebuild and heal itself from the devastation of war.

Many times I wonder what would be needed for people to turn their backs on war and their destructive social behavior. Would the answer be in more social equality, or tasa-arvo as they call it in Finnish?

Another important characteristic about our successful society today in Finland is that we enjoy a strong sense of community and belonging. Not everyone, however, is part of such an important family. Some of these are visible minorities like the Roma, Saami, non-white Finns, gays as well as other groups.

As we race deeper into the depths of the new century, we need more than ever those very models that turned us after 1945 into a successful nation at peace with itself and its neighbors. Inclusion is one of those very important values.

A lot more work is still needed on this front but we are getting there little by little. I am confident that social equality for all based on mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities will take us to a bright future in Finland.

*This column was originally published in the summer 2012 issue of New World Finn.

 

 

How to challenge a social ill like racism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The rise of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in last year’s elections is not the most incriminating proof that racism is an issue in this country, but official denials that such a problem exists at all in Finland. What must we do as a society to effectively challenge such a social ill?

Denials by groups like the police that ethnic profiling ever takes place in Finland are highly revealing. The icing on the cake of ethnic profiling was given in April by Christian Democrat (KD)  Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who approved spot checks of foreigners by the police since they are an effective way to clamp down on undocumented immigrants.

Finnish children were taught at schools that “n”stands for the n-word and that such people like to eat bananas. Schools have been an important breeding ground for racism in Finland. Source: Ydinjate.org.

No matter how much we want to deny that racism isn’t an issue in our society and  sweep the problem under the rug, knowing who is denying it reveals a lot about the extent of the issue. Why would a white Finn see racism as an immediate threat? Why would a black person differ in opinion?

While justifying spot checks of foreigners, Räsänen gives us a glimpse of  her colorblind racism:  “The vast majority of foreigners look just like the natives, so it’s not even a very sensible way to supervise aliens.”

The question we should ask her after such a statement is what about those that don’t look like white Finns.

The views of an important public figure like Räsänen reveal how seriously the authorities treat, or how their prejudices fuel, an issue like racism. True, they may see it as a problem but they won’t invest a lot of resources to tackle it.

In many respects, anti-racism legislation should be seen in the same light as the role that anti-trust regulation plays in the business community. The lack of competition in Finland is one factor that fuels inefficiency and abuse by certain businesses.  It explains, in part, why Finland is the most expensive country in the eurozone.

In the same way, racism is abuse by a stronger group over weaker ones.

What should we do about tackling racism in Finland?

The best thing we can do is acknowledge the problem and challenge it. The first crucial step must come from the immigrant and visible minority community, which will not accept living in a society where racism and abuse are the rule. Their motive for raising their voices will be to make Finland a better place to live for their children and future generations.

Taking into account that we need skilled labor in this country to replace our ever-growing army of pensioners, accepting the status quo and being hostile to certain immigrant groups is like shooting ourselves in the leg.

The most important matter to keep in mind is that our reaction to racism must be first and foremost a reaction.

 

 

 

Far-right violence spreads across Europe – what about Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As the euro financial crisis deepens so does the rise of far-right violence across Europe, according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations. Finland stands out as one of the 100 cases documented by the report. It states that academics studying immigration in this country are forced to withdraw from public discussion rather than face intimidation and threats to their families.

Migrant Tales has been as well the focus of attacks, death threats and intimidation.

The report, Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the European far Right, documents the cold-blooded shooting of a Moroccan during Black February as a clear warning sign for Finland.

The far right has found a good platform in the PS. 

The report states on page 8: “The Satakunta Police Department is investigating  whether Facebook comments made by a [former] True Finns [Perussuomalaiset] elected councillor in Köyliö constitute incitement to racial hatred. After a 21-year-old Moroccan man was  shot dead in Oulu in March [see page 15], Tommi Rautio posted that the murderer should be given a medal because there is ‘a war going on and in every war decorations are handed out.'”

While there are some encouraging signs that politicians and the media see PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu followers as extremists, it’s still not too late to defeat the far-right menace that has attacked Finland.

How much of a threat is the far right in Finland? Are matters going to get far worse before they improve?

Migrant Tales March 15, 2012: Finland’s darkest period 2011-15

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In the future, when Finnish historians of different ethnic backgrounds look at the present parliamentary term 2011-15,  they will most likely conclude that it was the darkest period for Finland and immigrants in the new century.  A prelude to this sombre period were  the municipal election of 2008 and how it reflected a shift in the national mood. 

It would be naive, even an exercise in self-deceit, to claim that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party isn’t one  obvious culprit. The municipal elections of 2008 and 2003, when PS MP Tony Halme was elected to parliament,  speak volumes about how racism and xenophobia started to lift their heads in this country.

Despite being one of the worst periods in our recent history, where some groups and politicians aim to make racism and xenophobia as normal and acceptable as karjalanpiirakka, it has brought out the best in some of us. For some, like Migrant Tales, it has been a clarion call.

If this period has brought out the best in some of us, it has brought out the worst as well.

Finland’s anti-immigration groups like to feed the public red herrings.

Some regretful examples come form of silence and lack of leadership by the Finnish media and some politicians. The success of the PS in the April elections is proof of the inarticulateness, complacency and even the flirting of these two groups with anti-immigration parties and groups.

The PS has provided us with monthly scandals beginning with MP Teuvo Hakkarainen’s first day in parliament to the recent suggestion by councilman Tommi Rautio  to give a medal to a cold-blooded killer.

A word of advice to anti-immigration extremists: Everything you write will come under scrutiny by future generations. Those future generations, which will be made up of Finnish researchers from different ethnic backgrounds, will highlight the racism and xenophobia that inflicted part of our society today.

When they give their lectures at our universities on ethnic studies or history, they will show to their students the shameful evidence left in the writings of numerous anti-immigration politicians like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu crowd, for example.

Time will increase the shamefulness of these racist writings. What is written today by some of these racists will look eerily similar to what some groups wrote about blacks during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Recognizing this will be the first important step in liberating our society from the illness that has afflicted it.