We don’t see thins as they are, we see things as we are. Anaïs Niin The date and year are not important, but it is a weekday, not too long ago. Spring has arrived and spreads its magic to these sub-arctic latitudes after a long slumber. Leaves are budding everywhere; trees are stretching out their
Read on »Posts Tagged: identity
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Finnish identity isn’t a monolithic slab held together by power, privilege, prejudice, and bigotry
The biggest challenge facing our culturally and ethnically (non-white) community this century is the narrow definition of who we are. As long as our definition excludes others, all efforts at “integrating” newcomers and ensuring that they become members of society will fail. The aims of our schools to teach children of foreign parents to become
Read on »Who determines who we are?
Here’s a simple question: By law, a person is a Finn if he or she is a Finnish citizen. Why, then, are some of these Finnish citizens spoken of and near-constantly reminded by society that they are so-called “people with foreign backgrounds?”
Read on »Migrant Tales (April 14, 2015): My identity is mine, not yours, so stop labeling me according to your prejudices
Why do some public services like the police even some migrants believe they have the right to define who are? The police do it constantly. Every time they label a person or group as a person with “foreign” or “migrant” background they are effectively relegating that person publicly to second- or third-class status in society.
Read on »Migration Pulse: What the refugee crisis says about race in Europe
While many Europeans have felt growing humanitarian concern on being confronted with images of desperation among refugees seeking entry, across the continent a large minority have suggested any sympathy is misplaced.
Read on »Children of immigrants: “Only Finnish spoken here and you’re a mamu”
We claim that Finland has one of the best educational systems in the world. We claim that we teach our children social equality and that they have equal rights to advance in life. Why then are children of immigrants called at some schools mamus and why do we force them to speak only Finnish? The term mamu
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Unleashed hope (Part I)
By Anonymous Migrant Tales…Migrant Tales…Migrant Tales! you gave others and myself hope when there was nope for East and West I probe South and North nope I drop for there was no one nope unheard around the globe nor nothing to hang the rope for there was a steep slope of a
Read on »Ariela Patterson: The right to be me on my terms
One of the biggest challenges facing Finland in the new century is to come to terms with its ever-growing cultural diversity. While some Finns have no problems with this, others oppose it. Finland’s cultural diversity is, however, something that nobody can stop. There are today tens of thousands of Finns with multicultural backgrounds. Ariela Patterson,
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary with Le monde n’est pas: Around Europe by Miguel Velayos
Comment: I came across this neat website on Twitter called Le monde n’est pas rond (The world is not round). The website describes itself as “an international artistic newspaper, based in Luxembourg, that explores the contemporary realities of migration, borders, and human rights through the publication of articles, art and illustration, photography, prose and poetry.” Why not
Read on »Save the Children: Too little attention is given to racist harassment of minors in Finland
The racist harassment that children are exposed to in Finland is either played down or sidelined completely, according to a statement by Save the Children (Pelastakaa Lapset), an association founded in 1922 that aims to improve the lives of children in Finland and abroad. You can read the Save the Children statement (in Finnish) here.
Read on »Sandhu Bhamra: If you are not White, you are not-Canadian-enough
By Sandhu Bhamra* Are you Canadian? I am not talking legality on right to vote and accessing free healthcare, but the sense of being, being Canadian. Let me walk you through a mini questionnaire to help you understand where I am going with this: When you think of Canadian identity, what do you think of?
Read on »RACE FILES: Blinkered By Race
By Race Files No, I don’t mean car blinkers. I’m referring to the kind of blinkers that are used to keep race horses looking straight ahead at the jockey’s goal while blinding them to the distractions on either side. Racism blinkers us. It imposes a kind of tunnel vision, causing social problems to appear to
Read on »Kun Suomi ei ole oikea vastaus
Olin mennyt viettämään koulujen päättäjäisiä yhteen puistoon. Kun olin jo jonkin aikaa jutellut yhden lukiolaisen kanssa, hän alkoi kysyä mistä vanhempani ovat tulleet. Vastasin Suomesta. Se on teknisesti totta koska olen adoptoitu. Sitten hän kysyi missä heidän vanhempansa tulevat. Vastasin Suomesta tietty. Sitten hän jatkoi juttelua muista asioista. Itselleni jäi ikävä tunne suuhun siitä.
Read on »Our Finnish national identity in the new century
For some anti-immigration groups, my background as a Finn must be a nightmare. The bad dream these groups dread to see is nothing more than the present and future staring back at them. It is the new Finland of the twenty-first century looking, together with others from our ever-culturally diverse society, confidently at the future.
Read on »Milloin minusta tulee suomalainen?
”Olenko suomalainen?” on niitä kysymyksiä, jotka yhdistävät kaikkia toisen polven maahanmuuttajia. Mutta kaikista kipeimmin se koskettaa värillisiä. Kantasuomalaisten keskuudessa kuuluu välillä lausahdus maassa maan tavalla mutta mitä tämä sanonta oikeasti tarkoittaa.
Read on »Migrant Tales 2009: Being an immigrant in Finland – a letter from Ida
The Migrant Tales blog gets emails from people who speak with hand on heart about the challenges they face as immigrants or Finnish with international backgrounds in our society. Here is one of these published in November 2009. The real name of the person has been changed. Here is a letter from Ida:
Read on »Are you in favor of “mamu” or “maahanmuuttaja” – or none of the above?
What type of feelings does the term mamu, the shortened form of maahanmuuttaja, or immigrant, awaken in you? Fortunately mamu is less commonly used today than before but you can still see it peppered in the media. A fresh example is the Green Party’s Vihreä Lanka.
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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