If there is one matter that the sexual assault cases of Oulu have exposed in the raw is a false expectation about migrants. If we listen to the media, police and politicians, migrants cannot commit crimes because Finns rarely do if ever break the law. White Finns are model humans, asylum seekers are not.
Read on »Posts Tagged: assimilation
White Finnish privilege #55: It is that time of the year – Christmas!
Far-right poliicians and Islamophobes of varying hues commonly blame Muslims for banning traditional Christmas parties at school. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Those wanting to remove Christmas parties are Finns who believe that religion should not play a role in our schools since we are officially a secular state. What happens when most
Read on »Adaption of migrants in Finland is a one-way (assimilation) process
What do politicians and public officials in Finland mean when they claim that integration is a two-way process? Is it only political correctness that motivates them to make up such claims or is it code that means one-way adaption, or assimilation?
Read on »Helsingin Sanomat survey on migrants reveals expectations that adaption in Finland is and will be a one-way process
Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, published a survey Friday about the minimum requirements that foreigners should adapt to if living here. Seventy-seven percent fully agreed that white Finns should be able to shake hands with both sexes. The survey showed as well that 52% were against women’s-only swimming hours and that 37% felt that one should bathe naked in the sauna.
Read on »Ongoing debate on asylum seekers in Finland: Lawmakers who play or are ignorant of our laws and basic human rights
As I watched the A-studio: T debate about the record number of asylum seekers in Finland, I thought about Kadar Gelle, a Somali anti-racism activist who watched Monday’s A-studio debate, where Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Tom Packalén, who has tried to build a political career on anti-immigration rhetoric, debates with Somali Finn Mukhtar Abib about the tightening of immigration policy.
Read on »Defining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this land isn’t your land
It’s disturbing to watch in Finland journalists who maintain and promote urban tales and racism. One of these is Tuomas Enbuske who invited Lenita Aristo to his television talk show to speak about Muslims. When Aristo opens her mouth and gives her opinions about cultural diversity, it’s evident that she still lives is a provincial and stuffy time warp of pre-1990s Finland.
Read on »Camilla Edström Ödemark (March 29, 2015): Exposing White Voids
Camilla Edström Ödemark is an artist from Åland who moved from her native Mariehamn to Sweden after she graduated from high school. Her artwork hits a sensitive spot especially if you’re in that sometimes challenging situation of adapting to a new country. Ödemark says that her work focuses on what or who is “abnormal” or
Read on »Integration by perkele
Some have heard of the expression of management by perkele, which means swift decision-making by management and where your opinion as an employee counts little. In Finland the goal is integration, or two-way adaption, but what happens on too many occasions is integration by perkele. Integration by perkele has a clear message: This is our country, perkele,
Read on »Language plays an important role in migrant adaption but so do acceptance, respect and equal opportunities
With the help of migrants, YLE Uutiset Suoralinja television program Monday at 7.20 pm wants to find out how much do Finnish and Swedish language skills help you integrate and find employment. When teaching migrants one of Finland’s two official languages, what works and what doesn’t? One interesting question that we could ask is why are
Read on »Red Sociology: ASSIMILATION AS ASSASSINATION
MT comment: Even if the blog entry below speaks of assimilation, or one-way integration of blacks in the United States, it’s pretty certain that these types of discussions will pick up in Finland as we become a more culturally diverse society. Who is being assimilated into Finnish society? Are blacks and visible minorities expected to
Read on »Does Finland promote two-way or one-way adaption of immigrants?
Our integration law promotes two-way adaption as opposed to assimilation, which is a one-way process. Section 17 of the Finnish Constitution states that each person living in this country has the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. What do these two important laws mean in practice and how are they applied? Sensible Finns
Read on »Buenos Aires Herald (February 12, 1987): The old-new frontier*
Comment: It’s sad to point out 25 years after writing this opinion piece that Argentina has become a poorer country. Emigration continues to be the rule, not the exception. The opening up of the economy to foreign investment during the 1990s was a disaster. Too many foreign companies did not invest in Argentina to make
Read on »We speak of two-way integration but too many still believe in assimilation
Finland’s integration law is exemplary in many respects because it aims to integrate newcomers as equals in our society. No law is, however, written in stone and is only as good as the institutions and people that enforce it. One of the matters that some have a difficult time grasping is what two-way adaption, or integration,
Read on »Migrant Tales (November 28, 2011): Who is Finland’s Uncle Tom?
Comment: This blog entry was first published on November 28, 2011. For some reason, it’s impossible to access this posting from the old Migrant Tales site. I have reposted it on www.migranttales.net. _____________________ Is there such a concept as Uncle Tom in Finland? @HelsinkiObs helped me out with this question: “It’s Setä Tuomo (older style)
Read on »Scot Nakagawa: The Other Side of Anti-Black Racism
Give me a place to stand on and I will move the earth Archimedes By Scot Nakagawa I’ve argued in the past that the fulcrum of white supremacy is anti-black racism. A fulcrum, you probably already know, is what one rests a lever on to give it, well, leverage. Without it, a lever is just
Read on »A cartoon that reveals a truth about integration and diversity in Europe
Sometimes when I read about how immigrants, their children and grandchildren are treated in some European countries, this cartoon comes to mind. After the first warning and after you understand fully the but after the ” we’re a very tolerant society…” line, many will encounter the wall of institutional racism, the final icing of your integration cake
Read on »Full assimilation in Bread and Chocolate
This is one of my favorite movies called Bread and Chocolate/Pane e cioccolata (1973) starring Nino Manfredi, who is an Italian immigrant that is trying to integrate at all costs into Swiss society. He even dies his hair in order to fit in as a Swiss. Then there is a football match in a bar between England and Italy. The Swiss clients are watching the game as is Manfredi. Everything seems to be going well until Italy scores a goal…
Read on »Alberdi and the role of immigration to Finland
Juan Bautista Alberdi was one of the greatest social thinkers that Latin America produced in the nineteenth century. If we look at the Argentinean and South America right after these countries gained independence from Spain up to the 1820s, they faced a daunting task: How to build new nations from scratch.
Read on »Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes
By JusticeDemon* Dr Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki Department of Geography, had the following letter printed in the Opinions column of Finland’s leading national daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday 23 August 2009. The sub-editor chose to print this letter under the heading Finnishness is taboo to the Swedes. The
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
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- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
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