Tag: Immigration to Finland

EDITORIAL: Are Finns ignorant about immigration?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Some claim that one should forgive some Finns for their outrageous statements on immigrants and refugees since they are fuelled by ignorance. If there are serious shortcomings in our immigration and integration policy, it can be blamed on our lack of experience.

If we were to give Finland the benefit of the doubt, it could offer us an effective solution to brush all the problems related to immigrants under the rug and blame it on inexperience.

Can, however, an issue that affects tens of thousands of people’s lives, their children and grandchildren, be conveniently blamed on ignorance?

A recent editorial by Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen, which was against Finland taking the multicultural road, incredulously suggested that refugees should be helped in their home countries and brought to Finland as a last resort.

Helsingin Sanomat, the countries largest daily, continues to use the demeaning term “mamu” in headlines to refer to immigrants.

What about politicians such as Jutta Urpilainen, Timo Soini of the True Finns and others, who knowingly or unknowingly vilify all immigrants in this country by suggesting that they must follow the law because in this country we do things the Finnish way?

What about the Finnish Border Guard, Finnish Immigration Service and others that create and maintain a climate of fear and suspicion of certain immigrant groups through their statements that Finland is in danger of being “invaded” by these people? They even play at being social scientists by suggesting that these groups can never adapt to our culture.

One could correctly turn the question around: Are these examples of misinformation intentional and what role does ignorance play?

Or is this the shape and way racism manifests itself  in Finland?

Keskisuomalainen’s incredulous editorial on immigration

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here is a good example of an editorial (in Finnish) in Jyäskylä-based Keskisuomalainen that shows how little the top editors of a Finnish newspaper understand immigration. If the editorial were written in the Washington Post, Financial Times or El País of Madrid, the editor would probably get the boot from the readers for making negligent statements and for practicing lazy opinionated journalism.

The editorial enlightens us by stating that there are three types of immigration: Finland’s humanitarian role in accepting refugees, labor immigrants and multicultural marriages between immigrants and Finns (they favor this).

Incredulously, the editors say that while a rich country like Finland should offer humanitarian help to people fleeing countries as refugees, the most effective way (now get ready for this!) is to help these people in their home countries! Moreover, the editors claim without showing us any credible studies that cultural differences are so great, that it is good not to bring refugees to the county because it would take two to three generations for them to adapt to our society.

Do the editors know what a refugee is? A refugee cannot live in his home country because there is political strife. They are fleeing their country because it is not safe to live there. And then the icing on the cake: “Laws against accepting refugees in Finland are the strictest (in Europe). That is why we don’t suffer from the problems that multiculturalism has brought to other European countries.”

Who says that immigration hasn’t brought problems like any other social phenomenon? But take a look at all the things it has brought in the way of economic growth, dynamism and innovation. The editors believe that a society made up of different cultures and immigrants is essentially a bad matter. They haven’t even taken the time to study Finnish history to understand that we were, are and will be a multicultural country.

With respect to labor immigrants, the editorial states point black that Finland should not be too enthusiastic about taking this road. It writes: “Highly educated people are certainly welcome to Finland but we should not do this too enthusiastically because it isn’t morally right. Highly educated people who are lured from developing nations impoverish their countries’ opportunities.”

In my opinion, the last affirmation is a diplomatic way of saying that we don’t even want highly educated immigrants to come here.

At the end the editorial it affirms that even if Finland should not take the multicultural road, it does not mean that we should close ourselves from the outside world.

Do you want any further explanations why the debate on immigration in Finland is lopsided and totally off the wal?

Racism is a silent ogre

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I have been an exchange student living in Finland from Belgium since February. One of the matters that caught my eye in Mikkeli is racism. I have met many immigrants and foreign students who have told me about their experiences. 

Racism isn’t inherited but learned. This means that people can change. In some of us prejudice is such a problem that it bursts out as a destructive force. There are too many sad examples in Mikkeli of how this silent ogre has harassed its victims.

A young man asks a bus to stop but the driver ignores him. A woman who is sitting inside the bus speaks out and the driver responds: “I don’t take black people on my bus.”  

Another incident involves two foreign students who live in an apartment flat. A gang of alleged skinheads attacked their home in March and started knocking at their door at around midnight in a hostile fashion.  Since the two did not open the door, the attackers broke the kitchen window with a wooden club.

The police were called and they are still investigating the matter.

Why does this happen? The answer remains a mystery.

Racist violence takes place in Mikkeli and Finland too often. Society should not even tolerate one such act.

Fortunately, there are strong laws against this type of violence. The Finnish Constitution grants all people the following right: “Everyone is equal before the law. No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

There is hope despite these crimes in Mikkeli. People can change and given the right information matters can improve. Meeting people from other cultures could be an important first step in this direction.

Meanwhile, society should not tolerate but  take action and openly condemn this type of violence.

Uschi Neefs

EDITORIAL: Has racism inflicted Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Taking into account the underwhelming size of the immigrant and refugee community, what have we done wrong and why are we the target of daily insults, racism and abuse by opportunistic politicians and their parties? Even the Social Democrats, the party that has championed for the rights of the working man, appears to have aligned itself close to the True Finns on immigration.

I recently asked in a Kokoomus blog two questions: Is Finland a multicultural society and if Kokoomus had an official immigration policy? I never got a response for the first question. For the second one, Kokoomus gave me a link to a report published in November. When I asked them the second question again, if the party had an official immigration policy, I got no response.

The truth is that no political party in Finland has an official policy on immigration. Without such an official stance, it leaves the political playing field inside a party to a wide range of contradicting views: from xenophobic to pro-immigration.

In this sense, the immigration policy, “in Rome do as the Romans do,” suggested by Social Democratic Party chairwoman Jutta Urpilainen, is novel since the SDP will become the first party in Finland with an official immigration policy.  Whether the party’s stance on immigration is the right one or if it will be successful is another question, however. Many countries have suggested this nationalistic approach by forcing immigrants to sign contracts that they will follow the laws of their new homeland.

SDP’s immigration policy will fail not only because it is ethnocentric, but because it is unconstitutional. How can you force people to comply to a narrow view of Finnishness (whatever that is) if the Constitution and Non-Discrimination Act permit diversity and other matters such as freedom of worship?

The one-sided ongoing immigration debate has turned into a farce and an insult to all immigrants and refugees living in Finland.

It would not be a bad idea if immigrants went on strike like thousands did in Italy and France to drive home the point that we are not anyone’s pet political fodder.

EDITORIAL: Finnish immigration debate

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Is the present one-sided and passionate debate on immigration in Finland going to turn ugly? Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb poured some needed cold water on the debate by stating that it “reeks of racism, nationalism, populism, and xenophobia.”

The wayward and reckless route has even frightened some of its main perpetrators. Probably fearing a backlash to all immigrants, Jussi Halla-aho of the True Finns said that the majority of Finns are not against immigration as a Helsingin Sanomat poll showed. He said that the poll should have asked whether Finns want more refugees from countries such as Somalia and Iraq.

The statement by Halla-aho and the poll by Helsingin Sanomat do not tell us anything new. How many countries can you name where its inhabitants favor more immigration? How many believe their country has too few immigrants?

Opinion polls and attitude studies of immigrants in Finland reflect the same patronizing stances as the one-sided debate on immigration. They explain why our near-non-existent immigration policy has failed and why too many immigrants live marginalized from Finnish society.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) chairman, Jutta Urpilainen, stoked the immigrant-debate fires on Saturday when she blamed the government and immigrants for the problem.

Taking into account the lack of jobs in Finland and high immigrant unemployment, Urpilainen said that the SDP’s new immigration program would not only force people to learn the Finnish or Swedish language, but they would have to get off unemployment as well. She did not elaborate if unemployed immigrants were on the dole because they were taking advantage of the system or that they did not learn Finnish or Swedish because they did not want to.

At the present rate those who don’t want immigrants to come to Finland are sitting pretty. The present one-sided debate is not only forcing immigrants to reconsider their residences in Finland but scaring off potential newcomers.

Why would anyone want to move to such a hostile country where the immigration debate is one-sided and  “reeks of racism, nationalism, populism, and xenophobia?”

HS Suomen Gallup: 60% feel that Finland should not take more immigrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulation daily, and conducted by Suomen Gallup showed that close to 60% of Finns now feel that the country should not increase the number of immigrants. The corresponding percentage three years ago was 36%.

These types of polls, in my opinion,are very one-sided and help keep alive negative attitudes and scapegoats to blame the recession. They are also carte blanches to insult more vociferously other groups since “it is ok to be racist during a recession” rather than in an economic boom cycle.

Heikki Evarsti, a social policy professor at the University of Turku, believes: “As immigration is not yet any major phenomenon in Finland, relatively few Finns have personal contacts with immigrants, which is why individual citizens’ views have hardly had any significant impact on the public opinion.”

Certainly these types of surveys are welcomed by anti-immigration groups such as the True Finns and serve as a warning for other parties. The Helsingin Sanomat article says that other political parties are finding it highly tempting to follow the True Finns’ anti-immigration charge for fear of losing votes as parliamentary elections near.

I personally believe that in this decade as more immigrants come to the country and show with their work and determination their importance to Finland, attitudes will change very rapidly.

Those that jump on the  populist anti-immigration bandwagon today are the ones that will, at the end of the day, lose the most.  Keep a close watch on the parties and the politicians who vacillate opportunistically from one side of the fence to the other.

Finns are an intelligent lot. The last thing they will do is be spoon fed hatred and incomprehension by anti-immigrant groups and figures on personal messianic power-ego trips.

An immigrant call to change and Finnish society

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some wrongfully accuse those of speaking up for cultural diversity in Finland of “whining” and being “ungrateful.” Apart from exercising one’s democratic right of free speech, bigger steps have to be taken by minorities in this country to drive home their message of greater equality and fair treatment.

If we wait for change it will never happen in our lifetimes.

In my opinion, the situation of immigrants in Finland is tragic and shameful. On the one hand, you have people who want to eagerly take part in this society but cannot due to a number of imagined and real factors such as language, while Finnish authorities simultaneously spend a lot of funds and good will on integrating these persons to our society.

The integration program, although well-intentioned, lacks one very important component in order for it to be successful: Immigrants’ input. The program is the majority’s view on how newcomers should integrate into our society.

On many occasions I have mentioned that we do not need any magic trick to integrate immigrants and refugees. Those very values that makeup our society would be enough. However, the problem is that these legal benchmarks enshrined in the Constitution and Non-Discrimination Act do not apply to minorities who don’t speak Finnish or Swedish as natives.

Real integration does not only mean job opportunities but, most importantly, a willingness by society to accept these people. Today unemployment among immigrants is officially 2-3 higher than the national level and by looking at the silence and lack of leadership of Finnish politicians, the closed view of institutions such as the police and the constant attacks by hardline “Finland for Finns” proponents, it is clear what a significant part of the population thinks.

We are still at such a diaper stage in the immigrant debate that some of our politicians and policy-makers do not even grasp why immigration is important for this country but prefer instead to stick their heads in the sand and hide behind nationalism.

Change will not come from the majority because there is a definite lack of leadership in this area. If this is so, we must spearhead change and make our voices heard and take part more vociferously than ever in the ongoing one-sided debate on immigrants in Finland. We must lobby politicians and use all the opportunities and channels offered by democratic society to make our voices heard.

That time has come now.

The Sello Mall killings in Finland reveal a lot about our views of outsiders

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The tragic events that occurred at the Sello Mall on December 31 in the suburb of Leppavaara located next door to Helsinki do not only shed light on a deranged man but continue to feed some of our highly polarized feelings on immigration and refugee policy.

An article by Kristiina Markkanen in the English-language Helsingin Sanomat highlights some of these questions. In my opinion, the knee-jerk reaction of some Finns and the complacent silence of some politicians on the killings show that we still have a very long way to go before our society can relate to immigrants/refugees in a near-normal fashion.

Even though such a harrowing event must be condemned vociferously by all members of society, it should not serve as a platform to ostracize immigrants and refugees living in Finland.

If we go deeper into the context of the tragic killings, what questions do they bring about how Finnish society views immigrants and refugees?

(1) Immigrants/refugees are still such a new phenomenon in Finland that we have trouble relating to these people in a normal societal fashion;

(2) Immigrants/refugees have little to no say in Finland and politicians/policy-makers treat them as charity. They hold minuscule political, economic and demographic weight in society.

What is most incredulous in the one-sided immigrant debate after the Sello Mall killings is that some Finns, with the tacit wanted or unwanted silent approval of some politicians, can generalize freely without almost any opposition to include all immigrants and refugees.

The truth is that the shock that the Sello Mall killings caused on Finns was equally felt by all members of our society.

Finland’s challenge in the new decade

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The new decade will either make or break Finland. If we are not successful at attracting labor immigrants to our country to plug the ever-growing number of pensioners leaving the labor market during the 2010s, the first one to feel the impact will be the economy.

Due to the recession and age-old taboos of Finnish nationalism, some Finns would rather stick their heads in the sand than face the demographic challenges ahead. According to Statistics Finland,Finland´s population is graying rapidly. As more people retire from the workforce the more strains it will place on public finances and our society.

How many? The number of pensioners will rise from the present 17% (905,000 persons who are older than 65 years) to 27% by 2040 and 29% (1.79 million) by 2060. Better medicare will fuel this trend. Persons over 85 years in Finland will rise from 2% (108,000) to 7% (463,000).

Any sensible person understands that for a country to have a successful and dynamic immigration policy a general acceptance by society is paramount. Does Finland have a favorable attitude towards immigrants?  The jury is still out on this question since Finland’s foreign population is still too small to make any clear assessment. However, if we look at immigrant unemployment figures, which are about two times higher than the national average, Finland does not appear very immigrant-friendly.

One of the matters that we will have overcome as a nation if we want to attract new inhabitants is offer opportunities to attain the Finnish dream.The same matters that makes us want to live here must rub off on those who may choose to move here.

Despite our successful welfare society founded on liberal democratic values, the weight of our history continues to muddy our view of the outside world and of outsiders. It has made us liberal in our perceptions of society but also extremely conservative because we have always felt that we are in danger of being devoured by a foreign power.

Knowledge of our history is vital but more important is how we see the future.

Finland’s New Identity in the New Century

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here is the Finnish-language version of the article below that appeared in the 4/2009 isuue of Monitori-lehti.

What will our new identity be like in the present century as our society becomes more ethnically and culturally diverse? Will immigrants be clumped into one group and called New Finns, or will they prefer a hyphenated identity such as Iraqi-Finn?

A middle-school geography book published in 1941 claims that the Finns comprised of two main racial groups: Nordic and East Baltic. The characteristics of the former group was, ”tall, thin, blue-eyed, fair-haired and have red cheeks,” while the latter one was ”stockier, blonde-haired and have no redness on the cheeks.”

Even though there is no scientific basis for such classifications and they appear odd from our information-age perspective, some history books continued to classify Finns in such a manner up the 1970s. One of the matters that these type of racial classifications did was keep the definition of the Finn on very narrow terms.

In my opinion, our identity as Finns took a radical break from the past with the passage of the new Constitution (1999), Naturalisation (2003) and Non-Discrimination Act (2004). Even though there is no mention of the term multicultural society in these laws, they do show great sensibility to minorities and acceptance of cultural diversity.

Everyone knows that laws cannot change attitudes in an instant. They can, however, be important watersheds of our values and aspirations as a society.

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has called immigrants uusia suomalaisia, or New Finns. In principle there is nothing wrong with this classification since it implies permanency as well as a readiness by society to accept newcomers. Others such as maahanmuuttaja, immigrant, have been met with mixed feelings since it implies non-permanency.

Even though these identity labels are imposed by the outside, it is important to keep in mind that what different groups call themselves depends on them. For some minorities this may be more important than for others.

Whatever identity a group prefers to use – New Finn, Finn, hyphenated, hybrid or none – isn’t the underlying case. The key factor is that we are capable as a society of drawing strength from our diversity, and that Finland can become a new home for those who may choose to live with us.