THIS STORY WAS UPDATED When some Finns and parties talk about returning to the “good old days,” they are saying that they’d like to return to the days when foreigners had practically no rights and where racism was king. It was also a time of appeasement to the former Soviet Union, media self-censorship, impunity, and
Read on »Posts Tagged: cold war
It’s high time for Finland to yank those roots of racism from the ground
This blog entry is dedicated to the late Donald Fields, Helsinki correspondent of the BBC, The Guardian, and Politiken to 1988. As a journalist writing from Finland for some of Europe’s biggest dailies in the 1980s like the Financial Times, there is one matter that stands out from those days: censorship. The censorship that Finland imposed
Read on »Ahti Tolvanen: Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö’s announces legislative initiative to cleanse the ministry of foreign dual citizens
This brought me back to the days of my reckless youth when I arrived in Finland in the early 70s to study at university. At that time a foreign citizen was not allowed by law to hold any kind of “virka” i.e. permanent public job. A foreign citizen was also not even allowed to marry a Finn. There were also a host of private sector and community jobs a foreigner could not hold like newspaper editor, city counselor, shop steward and board member in a company or association.
Read on »Mike Hofman: Media censorship in Finland during the Cold War
The thesis below published in 2014 by Mike Hofman. It is a comprehensive report on how censorship and self-censorship happened in Finland during the Cold War. It is surprising how Finland has sidestepped this issue and thrown it in the dustbin of history. As the old saying states, if we don’t know or deny our
Read on »QUOTE OF THE DAY: Päävo Väyrynen is Finland’s cold war foreign minister
If there is one politician in Finland that gives some heartburn, that politician is without a doubt Paavo Väyrynen. It is unfortunate that the Finnish media doesn’t return to the cold war era and look into Väyrynen’s record when he was the foreign minister most of the time from 1977 to 1993. During that period there were
Read on »Finland rolls back the clock and flirts with the cold war when every foreigner was seen as a potential threat
In another move to punish former migrants who are naturalized Finns, the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, which shares power with the National Coalition Party and anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset,* plans to introduce a new law to parliament within weeks that will prohibit dual citizens from holding certain jobs that involve national security, according to Seijnäjoki-based daily Ilkka, which cites Finnish News Agency (STT).
Read on »Is Finland on the path of becoming an isolationist, nationalistic and xenophobic country?
Finland hasn’t been itself for a number of years, especially after a populist Euro-skeptic and anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, rose to the political major leagues in the 2011 elections.
Read on »The violent and hostile language of Finnish populists against Others
For those that sighed with momentary relief and claimed that the new government’s immigration policy won’t be as bad as they expected haven’t seen anything yet. Behind the populist and nationalistic rhetoric coming from people like Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini, there’s nothing but suspicion and hostility against Finland’s migrant and ever-culturally diverse community. What
Read on »Finlandization was very bad for refugees, especially Soviet asylum seekers
A story in Thursday’s Helsingin Sanomat shows that the shadow of Finlandization continues to hang deep on Finland even if the demise of the former Soviet Union ocurred in 1991. Even if the Helsingin Sanomat story writes about Finland’s first-ever airplane hijacking case in 1977 involving two Soviet citizens on an Aeroflot flight, it sheds an
Read on »Foreign Student editorial (February 1981): On immigrants living in Finland
The Foreign Student was a short-lived but courageous newsletter of the Foreign Student Club of Helsinki. The humble publication appeared from January 1981 to January 1982 and lasted 11 issues. Much of the things the newsletter wrote about 35 years ago are still valid today. Surprisingly those that opposed what we wrote weren’t officials or Finns, but
Read on »The shadow of the former USSR and its spell on Finland and source of xenophobia
In the spring 1989 I was planning to travel to the Western African countries of Mali and Niger. Mali was cut out of my journey thanks to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), which revealed to the honorary consul of Mali in Helsinki, Karl Jalkanen, what was written on my secret Interpol file. Here’s an
Read on »Edward Snowden would help to put to rest Finland’s Cold War legacy
Wikileaks said in a statement that whistleblower Edward Snowden had asked for political asylum in twenty-one countries, one of which included Finland. Understanding Finland’s history and its historic suspicion of foreigners, granting a high-profile asylum seeker like Snowden asylum in Finland would not only help to put to rest for good our poor record but have
Read on »Max Jakobson dies but his legacy and the cold war linger on
This blog entry is dedicated to the late Donald Fields, Helsinki correspondent of the BBC, The Guardian and Politiken to 1988. I read with mixed thoughts about the death of Max Jakobson (1923-2013), a diplomat who shaped Finland’s policy of neutrality during the cold war. While I am certain that he was an able
Read on »My naïvity and the Finns
When I moved to Finland in December 1978, I wasn’t naïve about Finland, but super naïve. I was so confiding that I actually believed all Finns were honest. If happiness were a spider, it would spin a web to catch our good thoughts. Apart from a strong admiration for the forests and people who inhabited
Read on »Finland’s cold war era: media censorship and suspicion of the outside world
How much did censorship and self-censorship affect Finland during the cold war? The answer to that question lies in the dusty archives of Finland’s media. What kinds of editorials did Helsingin Sanomat write about the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and what did our major dailies say about what happened in Czechoslovakia in 1968? What kind of press freedom was there in a country were discussing, never mind questioning, the official foreign policy line was forbidden?
Read on »Foreign Student front cover from April 1981
Migrant Tales publishes on and off stuff from the past like magazine stories and Finnish tabloid ads* (lööppi in Finnish). The Foreign Student was a short-lived but courageous newsletter of the Foreign Student Club of Helsinki. The humble publication existed from January 1981 to January 1982 and lasted 11 issues. It was probably the first-ever publication in Finland that spoke out critically against Finland’s then non-existent and arbitrary immigration policy.
Read on »Cold war winds still chill Finland’s ongoing debate on racism and social exclusion
The anger and surprise that Gerry Brownlee has stirred up in this country sheds light why debating an issue like discriminaiton is so diffeicult to accept by some Finns. The New Zealand minister sharply criticised Finland last week in an address in parliament. Is our anger due to our low self-esteem or to the cold war, when censorship and self-censorship were pretty much the rule?
Read on »Cold war winds still chill Finland's ongoing debate on racism and social exclusion
The anger and surprise that Gerry Brownlee has stirred up in this country sheds light why debating an issue like discriminaiton is so diffeicult to accept by some Finns. The New Zealand minister sharply criticised Finland last week in an address in parliament. Is our anger due to our low self-esteem or to the cold war, when censorship and self-censorship were pretty much the rule?
Read on »Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity is an opportunity to overcome past fears
One of the matters that Finnish academics, politicians, policy makers never mind the general public missed out completely about our ever-growing cultural diversity is that our history and myths are hindering us to see the big picture. The official and unofficial response to our culturally diverse society appears to be a subtle “no.”
Read on »Finland's ever-growing cultural diversity is an opportunity to overcome past fears
One of the matters that Finnish academics, politicians, policy makers never mind the general public missed out completely about our ever-growing cultural diversity is that our history and myths are hindering us to see the big picture. The official and unofficial response to our culturally diverse society appears to be a subtle “no.”
Read on »Finland: To isolate or not to isolate ourselves from the world
If there is a post-Finlandization period in this country it manifests itself today through fear and suspicion of the outside world. As the April election result showed, a large minority of Finns don’t have a problem about returning to the days when Finland was near-isolated geopolitically from the outside world thanks to its special relationship with the former Soviet Union.
Read on »What opinion polls tell us about Finland and anti-immigration
A lot of people are scratching their heads at the rise of the rue Finns in the polls. Even though we have to wait for the ballot boxes to speak in April, certainly the polls tall us something about where Finland is at and heading at this moment.
Read on »BLAST FROM THE PAST 1984 (Part 2): Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland
Even though Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland was published in 1984, many of the excerpts in the book could apply to Finland today.
Read on »BLAST FROM THE PAST 1984 (Part I): Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland
Twenty-six years ago in 1984 Strange days, the experience of foreign students in Finland, was published by Gaudeamus. The book was the first-ever published by foreigners in Finland over the arbitrary treatment they received by the then Alien’s Office, the police and by the country in general. See part two as well.
Read on »Immigration to Finland and the cold war
While history provides a good answer why Finland as a nation has shown a clear manifest unease of foreigners and outside investment, it still does not provide us with an all-encompassing answer as to why. Are we still resentful of newcomers because our language rights were granted in 1862? Is it due to the Russification period, when the Russian Empire attempted to impose the Russian language and culture on us at the cost of our precious autonomy?
Read on »A shameful view of Finland’s refugee policy during the cold war
In this week’s Apu magazine (issue 6/2010) there is a feature authored by me on a former Soviet citizen who was caught in 1974 by Finnish border guards and whisked back to the USSR without granting him the right to political asylum. You can read about it in Apu magazine or get some background information in this blog on how Finland’s special relationship with the USSR would not tolerate Soviet refugees.
Read on »Banishing the racial myths of Finland
One of the challenges that cultural diversity will bring on Finland is challenge its myths and views of itself especially on the ethnic front.
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
-
- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
Recent Comments