A report commissioned by the Finnish ministry of the interior revealed that migrants are 2.5 times more likely than white Finns to be assaulted, reports YLE News.
Another study published in 2014 by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), showed that first-generation immigrants at school are more likely to experience bullying, physical threats and sexual harassment than white Finns.
Even if violence and harassment of migrants are too common in Finland, the report published by the ministry of the interior claims that “very little is known about the relative security of different groups in society.” In its survey, THL admitted in their study that there has been up to know very little information about this groups of minors who have foreign-born parents.
While it is a good matter that Finland wakes up to the ogre of racism and the violence it sows in society, that the results of these studies “surprise” officials reveal, in my opinion, a heavy dose of denial and the unwillingness to do anything effective to challenge the problem. White privilege must numb and discourage them to act effectively.
Read the full story here.
White Finnish privilege #52
While Finnish privilege not only permits you to keep your social entitlements, it guards you better from violence unless you are a woman.
Finland places much emphasis on gender equality but still women in Finland, after Denmark and Latvia, experience the highest violence in the EU. While the study by the ministry of interior cites immigrants, it is pretty clear that the ones that experience the greater violence are migrant women.
The study states that migrants from Africa and the Middle East are the most likely to face assault in Finland.
The first step we must take to eradicate violence towards migrants and women is to deal with society’s denial and exceptionalism, which are supported by white Finnish privilege.
See also:
- Defining white Finnish privilege #1: I have it and you don’t
- Defining white Finnish privilege #2: Third culture children versus “pupil with immigrant background”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #3 No history, no doctrine, no heroes and no martyrs
- Defining white Finnish privilege #4 Holding the short end of the stick
- Defining white Finnish privilege #5 It’s ok to be a racist
- Defining white Finnish privilege #6 Not having a voice and the media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #7 A definitive guide
- Defining white Finnish privilege #8 Underrated and less intelligent
- Defining white Finnish privilege #9 Mohammad Ali’s insight
- Defining white Finnish privilege #10 I can victimize and make up any story I like about migrants because I’m white
- Defining white Finnish privilege #11: Case Teuvo Hakkarainen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén
- Defining white Finnish privilege #13: Case Matti Putkonen
- Defining white Finnish privilege #14: Losing sight of the real issue
- Defining white Finnish privilege #15: Case Halla-ago on the PS
- Defining white Finnish privilege #16: Rosa Emilia Clay and my history versus yours
- Defining white Finnish privilege #17: The Perussuomalaiset and our civil rights
- Defining white Finnish privilege #18: Labeling others according to your prejudice
- Defining white Finnish privilege #19: My rape statistics about your group
- Defining white Finnish privilege #20: Labeling Others to strengthen “us” and “them.”
- Defining white Finnish privilege #21: Who can be a Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #22: From racist, fascist to politician without memory
- Defining white Finnish privilege #23: Greater police powers to monitor migrants and minorities
- Defining white Finnish privilege #24: Becoming a heartless accomplice in wars and people’s suffering
- Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this isn’t your land
- Defining white Finnish privilege #26: Are you an ethnic Finn?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #27: White versus Other media
- Defining white Finnish privilege #28: Are you an ethnic Finn (Part 2)?
- Defining white Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine
- White Finnish privilege #30: Whitewashing and racializing the news
- White Finnish privilege #31: The Soldiers of Odin and the Finnish media
- White Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police and “them”
- White Finnish privilege #33: Appropriating our narrative to maintain the status quo, amass more power and privilege
- White Finnish privilege #34: Building a political career on privilege and nativist nationalism
- White Finnish privilege #35: Case Sampo Terho and the ministry of (dis)culture
- White Finnish privilege #36: Hate speech and censorship
- White Finnish privilege #37: The master of near-everything
- Defining white Finnish privilege #38: Cultural appropriation and racism are quaint discussion topics between white Finns
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #39: The Hollywood ending of racism that will never happen in Finland
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #40: To whitewash or to disenfranchise
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #41: An Islamophobic politician and gender equality
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #42: Labeling and shaming
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #43: White versus dark skin
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #44: Defending Nazis’ rights to march is ok as long we agree on the common enemy
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #45: Do blondes have more fun?
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #46: Teuvo Hakkarainen = white racism and sexism
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #47: President Sauli Niinistö’s “culture inside four walls”
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #48: Allow me to smear your religion so mine can shine
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #49: When white privilege backfires
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #50: Caving in to white narratives
- Exposing white Finnish privilege #51: The police are the defenders of white power and privilege
So when migrants assault migrants is somehow white priviledge?
” Huomioitaessa uhrien ikä- ja sukupuolijakaumat, maahanmuuttajien
osuus kantaväestön uhreista vastasi väestöosuutta. Kantaväestön tekemät
pahoinpitelyt eivät siten olleet kohdistuneet maahanmuuttajiin useammin
kuin väestöosuuden pohjalta voitiin ennustaa.”
@Internetnetsi
You have a point. But you also ignore others.
If we are talking about victims, then immigrant women are a vulnerable group and should be supported. Immigrant women are an especially vulnerable group, and compared to native women, are more at risk.
When it comes to the domestic violence perpetrators, Finland has twice the average EU rage of domestic violence and is the second most violent country for women. Do you think it is wise to draw attention ONLY to violence committed by immigrant men?
White privilege implies to a different level of treatment and status for those who are not part of the white majority, and this discrepancy is either actively ignored or dismissed by that white majority.
Are you actively working to dismiss the specific problems faced by immigrant women? It certainly seems that way. If you are, then you are defending ‘white privilege’.
The first step to giving up that privilege is to recognise the vulnerabilities of that migrant group, rather than getting sidetracked trying to blame that situation on migrant men.
There are two parts to this, supporting women, including immigrant women, and tackling the problem of male violence. The first is the most important. When it comes to the second, it is a disingenuous argument and position if you focus exclusively on immigrant men and then ignore the problems already endemic in Finnish society of men’s violence against women. Yes, work can be done to educate immigrant men and to prosecute them when they break the law.
One final point – if we find that levels of violence committed by immigrant men is high, it is not necessarily a sign of cultural differences or cultural superiority of Finnish culture. And I’m not talking about high levels of existing violence by Finnish men against women, but rather the simple fact that some migrants have experienced violence and suffer post traumatic stress disorder, a symptom of which is itself violent behaviour.
When it comes to finding answers to these problems, it’s clear that racism doesn’t help, because it tries to make it a cultural superiority issue, that Finns are just better, when evidence shows that Finnish men on average are themselves more violence to women. Second, if you blame the ‘inferior culture’, you are not taking steps to address the PTSD, which would go some way to reducing violent behaviour in vulnerable groups. And yes, strange as it may sound, some perpetrators are ‘vulnerable’ themselves, even if they are breaking the law and hurting others. This doesn’t excuse their behaviour, but it certainly changes how you go about trying to change that behaviour, which in the end, must be important.