Comment: Researcher Anna-Maria Soudo of the University of Eastern Finland believes that racist attacks and harassment of second-generation adolescent Finns is more commonplace today than before. She sees the elections of April, where the Perussuomaliset (PS) party won 19.1% of the votes, as an important watershed that has made anti-immigration sentiment more acceptable.
Soudo says that while in Finland we speak a lot about multiculturalism and how people should value different cultures, we see a different reality in the street.
Do you think racism has become more acceptable in Finland after April 17?
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Lasten ja nuorten arjessaan kohtaama rasismi on yhä näkyvämpää. Tutkija arvelee, että viime kevään vaaleissa esille nousseet maahanmuuttokriittiset puheenvuorot ovat tehneet kärjekkäästä ja näkyvästä maahanmuuttokriittisyydestä aiempaa hyväksytympää.
There is no racism in Finland.
These foreign kids are all liars, just like their parents. Any intelligent researcher would make allowances for this.
Statistically in Finland quite marginally exisisting xenophobia has decreased for decades despite of increased immigration. Probably we will get more precise information before end of this year.
Anna-Maria Souto just feels what she feels. Statistical information is not backing her opinion.
Hi Mike and welcome to our blog. If we look at hate crimes statistically, these have increased not decreased. You have to remember that many of these types of crimes go unreported so their real number may be much higher than what statistics show. Whether hate crimes have gone up or down is not the issue. The issue is that they exist. If you listened to the multicultural Finn they interviewed at the beginning in the YLE clip, the young man said he could not understand why total strangers could insult him in public. “What have I done to them?”
Like any social ill, racism must be challenged. If you don’t you lose: polarization, brain drain, lower investment and decay.
By standing up to racism you are doing your country a favor.
Ricky
The rise in racially motivated offences may simply reflect a more diverse society in the same way that the rise in car theft reflects the rate of automobile ownership. Mike was talking about xenophobia, which certainly does tend to decrease as society becomes more diversified. The decrease is not in direct proportion to rising diversity, as the social psychology of prejudice is complex. Nor does the level of xenophobia give much guidance in predicting the rate of racially motivated offences.
Personally I now think we have reached and passed a tipping point in Finland where even the racists are ashamed of their racism and try to deny it. Something similar happened in Britain in the mid 1970s.
If we look at hate crimes statistically, these have increased not decreased.
So show me statistics.