Tag: Finland

Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By JusticeDemon*

Dr Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki Department of Geography, had the following letter printed in the Opinions column of Finland’s leading national daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday 23 August 2009. The sub-editor chose to print this letter under the heading Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes. The following translation is submitted in good faith.

I used to find love-hate relationships between neighbours funny, but a two-year assignment in Stockholm has raised many quite difficult questions.

The Finnish language and Finnishness as a culture seem to be taboo to Stockholmers. I suspect that this phenomenon is particularly evident in the Stockholm region, as many people of Finnish descent live there.

The roots of the taboo are in the subordinate status of Finland, but also especially in Sweden’s rather efficient integration policy. This policy has been adopted so forcefully, however, that all newcomers to the country are nowadays lumped together in the same invandrare [immigrant] category.

One solid example of the persistence of this old way of thinking was our landlord’s question: “presumably you will be flying the Swedish flag on the flagpole?”, even though it was already clear that we would only spend a few years in Sweden.

Attitudes towards Finnish people came to a head in the 1970s when large numbers of Finnish industrial workers moved to Sweden. The broad caricature nowadays is that Stockholmers treat all Finns as second-class citizens, regardless of profession or education.

While I always got a good reception when I spoke English in shops, speaking Swedish with a Fenno-Swedish accent was mainly greeted with contempt.

In other words, the Finnish language and culture are not tolerated in Sweden. There have been numerous examples of workplaces where the employer has forbidden the speaking of Finnish. The same thing arises, for instance, at tourist attractions: the sign on the emergency exit at the city’s Junibacken children’s museum is in Swedish, English and Russian, but not in Finnish, even though a substantial proportion of visitors come from Finland.

Contempt for the Finnish character strongly pervades the whole of Swedish society. The attitudes of the mainstream population have made people of Finnish descent so ashamed of their roots that they no longer want to learn their native language. I also heard Swedes of Finnish descent come out with openly racist remarks about non-European immigrants, which I think is an indication of the socio-ethnic hierarchy in Swedish society. In other words Sweden’s subjugated Finnish population is perpetuating the cycle of abuse.

The attitude of Finns towards our Estonian cousins shares common features with attitudes towards Finnishness in Sweden: You never come across the Estonian language in Helsinki, even though there are plenty of Estonian tourists and workers in the city.

These attitudes are persistent and will not change overnight, but if they remain taboo, then there is no way for them to change.

The third paragraph from the end of this letter is perhaps the most compelling, as it describes the passive-aggressive mindset that arises in individuals and communities whose cultural identity has been crushed. This goes to the core of the difference between assimilation and integration, as the former requires immigrants to abandon their cultural identity, while the latter requires them to engage with society at large to find ways of expressing that identity in a new context.

One of the starkest descriptions of assimilation has passed into popular culture in the programme of the Borg alien collective as encountered in Star Trek: the Next Generation. The narrative runs as follows:

Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.

Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.

(Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode: “The Best of Both Worlds”, 1990)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/bOVEqPcG3SI&hl]

There is a delightful scene in the feature film Star Trek: First Contact (1996) in which a 21st century character comments that The Borg “sounds Swedish”, but after encountering the collective then decides “definitely not Swedish”. Perhaps Dr Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen has given us cause to consider this question once again.

*Migrant Tales will begin to publish posts by contributors. If you want to submit a contribution for publication, please send your inquiries/article to [email protected].

Kauhajoki, Finland, killer — the darker side of a man

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The fatal shooting of 10 classmates by Matti J. Saari, 22, in Kauhajoki in western Finland came as a shock. It was only in November that another young Finnish man went on the rampage in Jokela and killed and injured a number of his classmates.

Certainly a lot of questions clamor for an answer: Why? Where did we go wrong? What does this tell us about Finnish society?

One matter is for certain:  Saari was a pretty sick individual and should not represent any national group except for himself. But let’s say if the shooter would have been a foreigner. What kind of an outcry would it have unleashed?

Kick out the foreigners! Close Finland’s borders! could have been some of the cries. And consider the stigma that national group would have to carry if the murderer were an African or Russian?

However, we should not confuse the facts. The killer was the mind of a deranged person that carried out this  outlandish act — he only represented himself, nobody else.

It is the way we should look at things — the person not the country, stupid!

PS We should watch how we threaten others in this blog. One blogger said he wanted to kill me but would not because he is a law-abiding citizen. The comment was posted on the same day as the Kauhajoki shootings.

Finland’s difficult quest for foreign laborers

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In a recent article in the London Financial Times. there is an article about how Finland is aiming to become a magnet for foreign laborers. While this is understandable, taking into account Finland’s aging population and the shortage of workers in some sectors of the economy, the country’s policy makers still have a lot of work to do before the country becomes an attractive magnet.

Facts such as 20% jobless claims by foreigners, high taxation and housing prices, harsh climate, language and, very importantly, the lack of foreign communities and outright opposition to foreigners by some Finns, undermine its attractiveness to outsiders. Laborers would have an easier time in places such as Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Another thumbs down to Finland’s quest is that it still continues to place hiring restrictions on foreign workers despite being a member of the European Union. If a Finnish company employs a foreigner, it has to prove that a Finnish worker could not do the job.

In my opinion it is a paradox that Finland, which had fought in past decades to assert a sense of strong national identity, is seeing itself a victim of such a rigid stance. It creates a narrow view of the world and scares away people from making Finland their home.

Why would I want to move to a country and bring up my children where they will always be reminded by some that they are foreigners? All you have to do is look at the myriad of comments in this blog to understand that some Finns are not ready to handle more foreigners in this country, especially if they are black.

Finland has a long way to go before it becomes a magnet for foreign laborers. First it will have to convince the labor unions that they should hire foreigners in the face of unemployed Finns. Second, the rigid perceptions of how Finns see outsiders will have to change. Some continue to see foreigners as a threat to the culture.

A complete about-turn will have to take place and this will not happen overnight, but take decades, probably generations to set in. I do not see it any other way, unless you want to maintain the present untenable status quo of keeping 20% of foreigners outside of the economy and their children aloof from Finnish society.

What is scary is that it appears that not even our policy makers seem to know what they are doing and what  bringing more foreigners to the country imply. It looks more like a program left to chance than anything else.

Being an immigrant in Finland: A letter from Ida

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I do not usually do this. But I thought it was such a candid comment that I had to bring it to all of your attention. It reveals, in my opinion, what some foreigners feel about Finnish society but do not dare to say too loudly in public.

Thank you Ida, I hope others follow your example. The first important step in taking part in any society is debating openly about the issues that affect our lives. It shows that we are active citizens who care about Finland. It is that first important step in integrating.

I am an immigrant. Sometimes I feel so frustrated in Finland that I just wanted to ‘give it back to the society’. Hence the crime. People like me (hypothetically) acting out of frustration. If the mentality here is that no foreigners are good and only a tiny fraction of people like Juha, the social worker, understands and/or appreciates diversity it doesn’t help much because the general society isn’t open=minded. I would even call racist.

If a person like Juha comes to ask me how do I like it in Finland, I wouldn’t want to hurt his feelings. A guy who works so hard for us. What do you expect me to say? that I am so frustrated that I can leave this second to another place where I feel more comfortable?

I would reverse those numbers. 95% prejudiced and 4% nonchalant, 0.5% don’t care, 0.001% welcoming (and the rest 0.499% lost in statistics).

Good welfare system is like a double-edged sword for immigrants. We are taken care of but we are also blamed for using them. And so you have to be ever-thankful that you are here, Finland. Because you are given shelter and food, now you can take this mental abuse in the form of institutionalized racism.

Any CONSTRUCTIVE comments?

Is there racism in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the most successful posts of this blog is, Are you a target of racism in Finland? In my opinion the reason why so many have read it is because there is a racism problem in Finland. A Niko wrote a recent comment, where he states, “there are some real problems in Finnish society but racism is not in the top 5.”

If unemployment is about 7% among Finns and about 20% among foreigners, certainly that shows that there is a problem. Is this due to racism, discrimination or because Finns are suspicious of outsiders?

Some Finns argue that one reason why foreigners don’t have jobs is because they don’t speak the language nor understand the culture. This sounds like an excuse to justify the present situation, whereby some foreigners continue to be marginalized from Finnish society. It is, however, a good point, but it is not a valid one. In Spain, where there are many Latin Americans who speak Spanish as their mother tongue and even have the same religion as many Spaniards. one would guess that integration into Spanish society would be easy. Wrong. Most of the Latin Americans, especially those from Ecuador, Dominicans, Bolivia and others, who are racially different-looking from Spaniards, suffer racist attacks and are at the lower end of the societal totem pole.

This suggests that that a big part of the problem resides in Spanish attitudes towards outsiders.

Why do Africans from former French colonies, where they speak French, are a target of constant racism in France? Shouldn’t a common language unite them? Or is it racism?

A so-called “civilized” country like Finland is measured by its ability to accept – not reject and exclude – and facilitate the integration of “outsiders” into society. Up to now, it has done a pretty poor job at this.

When unemployment of foreigners and Finns is at about the same level, then that will be one indication that we have slain, or at least contained, the ogre of racism that is still alive and kicking in Finland.

Are you a target of racism in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This blog entry broke on June 25, 2019, the 12,000-visits barrier. Since it was first published in June 2007, it has got 1,557 comments. Even though it is a simple test that aims to shed light on a social ill in this country, it asks, like the one by Alcoholic Anonymous, some hard and unpleasant questions.

Thanks to your support, the Are You a Target of Racism in Finland post has turned into a very big thumbs down against racism in this country.

Are you a target of racism can be now read in Spanish.

Racism manifests itself in various ways. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Ku Klux Clan are some of its most terrible manifestations. Today, in Europe, some political parties are capitalizing on xenophobia in order to lure votes for their opportunistic and undemocratic political aims. Racism may happen in different ways in different cultures but one matter is for certain: its primary aim is to exclude, destroy lives and become underachievers.

In a country like Finland, racism happens through exclusion. Unemployment among foreigners in Finland is a good example. Immigrant unemployment is three times higher than the national average. The unemployment figure for foreigners in Finland is one of the highest in the EU.

When you are a victim of racism in Finland it’s clear that social exclusion is your temporary home. How long you stay in such a place depends on you. If you stay in such a place and marginalize yourself you’ll do exactly what the racists want you to do: be a nonperson.

The fact that you have to spend time figuring our your new home and learning your way around means that everything may take longer to attain like job opportunities and a career. Racism slows your progress because that’s what its aim is.

In order to challenge such dangers, it’s important that you adapt to your new homeland as soon as possible. Learn the language, the culture and society – educate yourself if you need to get a profession. Do these things because that’s what the racists don’t want you to do. Mingle with people and society.

A reader made an insightful comment about racism in Finland:

Finnish society, as I am sure you know, gives perhaps a rather misleading ‘public’ image at times. You probably know that Finns aren’t so great at being confrontational or saying what they think openly, thus I think sometimes things like racism are actually more prevalent than you would imagine – but fortunately mainly behind closed doors. People know it is wrong and don’t say it in public, but they still think it in private. The problem is, that in recent years the internet has let the ‘cat out of the bag.’ People can write often what they like without being traced. It’s definitely being used especially by the extremists.

Here is a short Migrant Tales “racism meter” for foreigners and minorities that can help you know if you are a target of discrimination in Finland:

1) I am self-employed (for some it is the only way of getting work)
2) I’m unemployed (generally jobless claims among foreigners totals about 26%)
3) Finns often give me strange looks
4) Public officials, like the police, drag their heels with me
5) The police consider me guilty before proving my innocence
6) A Finn treats me too nicely. (I don’t want special treatment, I want to be treated equally)
7) Finns distrust me
8 Finns are usually watching over me at work (I have to be twice as good as a Finn)
9) If I make a mistake, it’s a bigger deal than normal
10) In a debate, I always know less than a Finn

Here is a new one, number 11: I get attacked by comments on my blog for speaking out against racism.

If you answered YES to any two, the chances are that you are a target of racism in Finland. If you answered YES to three or more, you are definitely a target of racism in Finland.

Note: This was based on an Alcoholics Anonymous questionnaire.