Having taught many students about Finnish society for many years, two matters surprise me about this teaching line: Are the people giving these courses qualified and simple, 1 + 1 = 2, explanations to a complex matter as adaption.
If the integration model is overly simplistic, treat it with tweezers because its conclusions are suspect. Integration, adaption, or properly inclusion is a complex matter.
During my years as a teacher of these courses, I have requested material taught by other teachers. Not one white Finnish teacher has, however, has shared with me the material they teach newcomers about Finland.
I get the impression that the only requirement to teach newcomers about Finnish society is that you are a white Finn with some teaching background. Every white Finn knows what our culture is, right?
Telling newcomers about our society riddled with exceptionalism, ethnocentricm and even racism partly explain why, I suspect, that the majority of these people have no idea what kotoutuminen means or implies.
If you want an example of a 1 + 1 = 2 integration model, check out Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Kristian Sheikki Laakso’s tweet below, who affirms this is how you become a part of Finnish society.
Joy Aalto, who is a candidate for the upcoming municipal election in April for a party known for its hostile Islamophobic rants, gives us her recipe for integration:
Language and how people are labeled are some of the reasons why racism and anti-immigration politicians have exerted power on the national debate on our ever-growing cultural diversity. If we did away with these toxic terms, which label people as eternal outsiders, matters would change radically.
First and foremost in the debate, we should dispense with words that label and group people as outsiders. By labeling people as outsiders, like the term person with a foreign or migrant background,”
For this reason, we need a bold and innovative approach to how we perceive ourselves as a society and what Finnish identity is. That discussion must happen now.
With all the hate and hidden messages that portray and frame Others in our society, the debate would clean up pretty fast since we would change from referring to people as Finns or as one of us.
If our society is open and encourages equity, the langauge we use to label Others should reflect it.
So, what terms could we use when referring to non-white Finns? The labels they want us to use like AfroFinn, brown Finn, Somali Finn, etc. White Finns should stop placing unilateral ethnic categories on people of different backgrounds.
One way of changing the way we debate difference and cultural diversity is by not using terms that group people as outsiders.
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth deputy chairperson Toni Jalonen and Johannes Sipola, the former chairperson Johannes Sipola were sentenced by a Pirkanmaa District Court fines for ethnic agitation, according to YLE News.
Jalonen, who announced in February that he is “an ethnonationalist, traditionalist, and a fascist,” was slapped with a 50-day fine (300 euros) for ethnic agitation. Likewise, Sipola, who blamed the Christchurch, New Zealand killings of Muslims in March 2019 on multiculturalism, was given a 40-day fine (240 euros) for ethnic agitation.
The convictions came after images were published on social media. One of them had a picture of a black couple looking at their baby lovingly, with the text: “Vote for the Perussuomalaiset so that Finland’s future won’t look like this.”
The other racist ad was a picture of two women wearing niqabs with a warning: “Do you want our country to look like this? Don’t stay sleeping. Vote.”
If we want to give a massive blow to racism in Finland and parties that promote this social ill, we need to change the language we use when speaking of all those that live here. One label that I have always disliked is “person with migrant or foreign background.”
In many respects, it is a hostile term whose main purpose is to exclude and distinguish people who are so-called “real” Finns and those who are not. How can a person with a foreign background, even if he or she was born here, compete if you are from nowhere?
It’s encouraging that Green League politicians like Maria Ohisalo, the minister of the interior, brought this up in a session of parliament. In an interview, she reiterated her message: “Many youths have asked me how long them must be a person of migrant origin before they can be Finnish citizens.”
Placing people in such categories offers racist amunition. Racist and Islamophobic politicians from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have a narrative to protect.
Fortunately, there are people who are challenging these racist categories. AfroFinns, brown Finns and any other types of Finns come to mind.
FINNISH WHITE PRIVILEGE #75
If we want to give racism a blow, we need to change the language we use when speaking of Other cultural and ethnic groups in Finland.
The labels and langauge we use must inspire inclusion, not exclusion.
Even if Finland is a highly racialized country with some circles obsessed by its whiteness, I am confident that this will change in time and that classifictions used by Statistics Finland will become history.
Statistics Finland has some doozies for ethnic classification like (a) person of Finnish origin born in Finland; (b) person of Finnis origin born abroad; (c) person of foreign background born abroad; (d) person of foreign background born in Finland; (e) unknown.
What does Lari Malmgerg’s column on youth crime remind us of? In 2014, Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Tom Packalén wrote a similar story about how brown Finns were terrorizing white Finns in East Helsinki.
At the end of the day, Packalén could not prove his claims, and the whole issue was forgotten even if he succeeded at labeling and reinforcing prejudices about brown Finns.
Wrote Packalén in Uusi Suomi: “The youngest member of the gang is 10 years old. Publically about 70 have been abused [by these gangs]. After twenty years as a police officer, I believe that the real number of attacks and robberies are many times bigger [than officially cited].”
THE COLUMN BELOW IS UNSUBSTANTIATED AND MISLEADING
Read the original story (in Finnish) here. WARNING: THE COLUMN IS UNSUBSTANTIATEDAND MISLEADING.
Six years later, Kuokkanen’s headline in Helsingin Sanomissa reads: “Over one hundred possibly dangerous youths with migrant backgrounds roam about downtown Helsinki – according to experts, this is a new migrant phenomenon.”
What do these two stories have in common? They are both incomplete and based on personal opinion.
Even if Packalén and lately Kuokkanen labeled in a hostile manner so-called “youths of migrant background,” Police Commissioner Jari Taponen shot down what the reporter claimed.
Writes Yle: “According to Taponen, suspects apprehended by the police come from broken homes. The media have labeled them as persons of migrant origin. Even so, the police emphasize that all of them were born in Finland. Part of them have parents who are of foreign origin.”
While it is a positive sign that the police refuted with facts the careless and even judgemental writing of some reporters, the damage caused by Kuokkanen was done. Prejudices have been reinforced, and the story is still out there, even if it has been proven false and misleading.
Helsingin Sanomat’s Lari Malmberg claims that the fuss the article raised was that we have problems debating a difficult topic like cultural diversity. He also states that the media must bring these topics to the public light.
True, but I would not want Malmberg to lead the discussion.
The column he wrote sounds more like a flimsy excuse for publishing an opinionated and poorly researched story by Katja Kuokkanen.
Malmberg revealed in the same column two days later how the original story should have been read.
He stated that the original story did not imply that all youths with migrant backgrounds, or brown Finns, are criminals;
Such youths are not in special danger of becoming criminals;
Even if some youths break the law, it does not mean that the absolute number of crimes has grown;
Youth crime in Helsinki has gone down;
Finland is not in danger of having the same problems as Sweden with migrants;
A very small number of these groups appear to act aggressively.
Which groups did Helsingin Sanomat’s story serve?
The answer is clear: It gave ammunition to populists, their xenophobic narrative, and reinforced our prejudices.
Katja Kuokkanen, the reporter who wrote a provocative story about youth crime committed by non-white youths with the following headline: “Over one hundred possibly dangerous youths with migrant backgrounds roam about downtown Helsinki – according to experts, this is a new migrant phenomenon.”
The headline in Finland’s biggest daily could not be more disturbing since it automatically ends up labeling all youths with migrant backgrounds as criminals.
The claim made by the Helsingin Sanomat headline, which was later retracted with new stories and a Helsingin Sanomatcolumn, is very similar to how sexual assaults are treated in the media and especially by Islamophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).*
After the commotion had hit the fan, Malmberg points out in a column two days later that the story did not mean to label all brown Finns as criminals and that youth crime had gone down in Helsinki.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with Malmberg. He claims that the strong reaction to his opinionated and poorly researched story showed that we still don’t know how to debate these types of topics in Finland.
Finland’s biggest dailywith the main headlines of the day: “Brown youths are dangerous. Source: a hunch.”Source: Twitter.
The problem isn’t that Finns don’t know how to debate sensibly about migrant topics, but we still live in deep denial about society’s and our own racism and prejudices of people of color.
One rule of thumb is to avoid simple answers to complex social questions.
The headline of a Helsingin Sanomatarticle sparked fear on Tuesday: “Over one hundred dangerous youths wander in downtown Helsinki – according to experts, this is a new phenomenon caused by migration.”
When the Helsingin Sanomat story was published, it spread fear and with it xenophobia.
Is the newspaper article true?
In the first place, the police reported that after the article was published, crimes committed by minors have decreased between January and September, according to Superintendent Katja Nissinen.
Writes Yle News: “The paper reported that the young people had a tendency to settle conflicts with violence and to get into scuffles with kids their own age. They also used the Snapchat app to network. Later on Tuesday Helsinki police said that a small proportion of city youths got themselves into trouble committing criminal offenses. These groups included both ethnic Finnish and foreign background youngsters.”
One of the matters that the Helsingin Sanomat story reinforces is not only poorly researched journalism, but that xenophobia is alive and kicking in Finland.
The story by Finland’s largest daily was also a present to the Islamophobic PS and their spiteful politicians, which spread the narrative that Finland’s “harmful migration” is turning our country into a Sweden, where migrants riot and burn cars.
We saw this with the Oulu sexual assault cases last year. The reaction that the suspected crimes caused and the media’s reaction caused hysteria. Yle alone reported 77 stories on the topic, 13 on one day, about the sexual assault cases during November 27-February 13. During that period under review, the Oulu police published 13 statements on the topic.
Thus, if the spark “migrant” is linked to a crime, that is enough to ignite hysteria among the population and media.
Finland’s media should learn that you do not need a bazooka to kill an ant. In this case, the bazooka is the media and the ant “migrant” youths.
This type of journalism does nothing more than eat away at credibility and gives populist Islamophobic ammunition to parties like the PS.
I’m not surprised that Riikka Purra, a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP obsessed with slandering Muslims, gives misleading statements about female genital cutting (FGC), also referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM).
The term FGC is in my opinion less judgemental and value-laden than FGM.
Without offering advice and assistance to women who have undergone FGC and protecting others from this practice, it is clear that the PS has a clear agenda. They would care less about these women because their hatred for Muslims blinds them.
Finland’s hostile environment against Muslims, especially spearheaded by the PS, is further proof of the latter. Once again as well we are seeing how the PS paints Muslims with a single brush.
A tweet below by Purra proves my point. She mentions that a separate law on “mutilation” has been in force in Sweden for a long time. “Convictions are a couple, and all the problems of honor culture [honor killings], forced marriages, and mutilation is present.”
She puts the icing on her racist tweet: “The problem only revolves around migrants who come from certain countries.”
What does Purra mean? Being an Islamophobe, she means Muslims.
A sixteen-year-old Muslim teenager was approached by her teacher and asked her why do Muslims kill people as we saw in France?
I am certain that the question must have surprised and shocked the teenager. Why did the teacher ask her such a question about such an outlandish incident?
Certainly, irrespective of his or her cultural, ethnic, or religious background, any sensible person would not support the killing of other people.
The incident with the teenager also exposes anti-Muslim racism and the misperception that all Muslims are one solid block. If a Muslim kills a white European in an act of terrorism, somehow all Muslims are responsible for what happened and should give an explanation.
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
James Baldwin (1924-87)
Ir, there is one matter that the killings in France have reinforced, it is the disenfranchisement of the Muslim community of France. How is it possible that two deranged persons that caused tragic deaths to end up with the Franch state placing a gun at the Muslim community’s head?
The short leash that Prime Minister Emanuel Macron wants to place on France’s 5.7-million-strong Muslim community speaks volumes about the racism in that country.
Not only is the French state aiming to educate its own Muslims under the new anti-separatist law, but it plans a crackdown on more than 50 Muslim organizations. One of these includes anti-racist organizations such as the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF).
In these troubled times for Muslims, there is a good matter to remember:
