Migrant Tales insight: Even if the op-ed was published about 10 years ago, too many politicians and officials continue to falsely believe that “super immigrants” will save the country from its low birth rates, aging population, and ever-present racism.
See also: The world’s happiest country faces a labor and talent crunch
THIS OP-ED PIECE WAS UPDATED.
Is it possible that in 2012 we have politicians who are totally against immigration? We actually have quite a few of them in Finland. While all political parties have these types of politicians, none of them have so many as the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.
Certainly, these types of politicians won’t tell you directly that they are against immigration to Finland. That would sound too radical and make them vulnerable and force them to lose votes.
What they will tell you, however, is totally a different story. With poker faces, they will state that they are not against immigration but against immigration they consider harmful to Finland.
These politicians sound like they are reading to you the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, when Prince Charming wakes the beautiful princess with a kiss from her deep sleep. Anti-immigration politicians and parties don’t speak of Sleeping Beauty per se, but about super immigrants.
Sleeping Beauty (anti-immigration view of Finland) , Prince Charming (super immigrant) and other pro- and anti-immigration forces. In this famous Walt Disney fairy tale, everyone is white except for the evil witch, who is almost white.
Who are these super immigrants?
- They function perfectly as a group even if humans are far from perfect
- They are white northern Europeans, some Far East Asia groups like the Chinese (white Russians are excluded)
- They commonly belong to the Christian faith
- They are heterosexuals
- They are skilled professionals and well-behaved
- They adapt quickly and without problems to our way of life
- They are never unemployed (they are against social welfare and handouts)
- They are paid less than Finnish employees
- They don’t mind wearing sleeve badges to help police ethnically profile more effectively
- They never practice their culture in public spaces
- Their children only speak their parents’ language at home
- Their parents speak near-perfect Finnish
- Cultural difference and slight Finnish accents are fine because they allow us to distinguish who is “us” and “them”
Let’s stop kidding ourselves about these so-called super immigrants. They may exist but not in the numbers that a party like the PS or other anti-immigrant groups would like to see moving to Finland.
If you are waiting for these types of people to inhabit Finland in the near future, you might as well turn into Sleeping Beauty.
A column about super immigrants will appear next week in Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat and Karjalainen.
