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…
Tag: integration
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…
Government announces Future of Migration 2020 Strategy
The government published Thursday its Future of Migration 2020 Strategy. While these types of official strategy reports are important and offer a general view, the big question is if they gives us a bigger picture of the direction our society is heading in this century. Read the white paper (in Finnish) here. An English-language version will be…
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…
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,…
Sport is one of your best passports to acceptance in a new country
Since sports can be your passport to acceptance in a new country, its role should never be underetimated never mind undermined. It’s clear that we need to do more work in Finland to promote sports in order to include more immigrants and their children in this activity. In the United States I played basketball, track…
Labels that fuel discrimination and racism in Finland
When will Finns drop this discriminatory term: Finns with immigrant backgrounds? Many, I suspect, are and should be proud of their background. I am but what happens if these labels and terms ensure that you will continue to be treated as something less equal? What do you do if being labeled in such a way…
What are immigrants supposed to adapt to?
One of the biggest questions when speaking of the integration of immigrants and visible minorities in Europe and Finland is what are they supposed to adapt to. In theory everything sounds perfect in our law books. What happens on the ground, however, is a totally different story. This abandoned Cadillac reveals the crude face of…
Language is not always your passport to inclusion and acceptance
Some politicians and social workers in this country believe that integration is only possible when an immigrant learns the Finnish or Swedish language. This may be true but there are other factors that play equally important roles in the integration process of an immigrant.
Is Finland ready for cultural diversity?
In light of social ills like racism and social exclusion in Finland, J. W. Berry of Queen’s University of Canada offers us an opportunity to ask a very important question: Are we in Finland ready for cultural diversity? If we still aren’t quite there yet, how long will it take?