Who needs integration: immigrants or natives?
We must ask hard questions if we want our new integration program, which came into force in September, to do what it sets out to: effectively integrate new immigrants as equal members of society. But...
View ArticleIs 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 ready for cultural...
View ArticleLanguage 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...
View ArticleWhat 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...
View ArticleLabels 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...
View ArticleSport 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...
View ArticleWe 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...
View ArticleBuenos 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...
View ArticleGovernment 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...
View ArticleDoes 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...
View ArticleLanguage plays an important role in migrant adaption but so do acceptance,...
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...
View ArticleFinnish-language courses reveal part of the challenges that migrants face in...
Migrant Tales was happy to see one of our readers and contributors, Stephen Penny, on YLE Suora Linja Monday and Tuesday talking about the challenges some migrants face in learning the Finnish...
View ArticleMigrants’ Rights Network: Living in an Age of Migration
Don Flynn* Immigration studies has emerged as an important discipline in colleges and universities across the world, with scores of research centres being established in the UK alone over the...
View ArticleIntegration 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...
View ArticleIncluded – not integrated
Inclusion is when everyone is along per se. In Finland we are still struggling with integration issues. We need programmes and policies so that developmentally disabled people can live where other...
View ArticleUPDATE (October 6): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism
Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link. October 6...
View ArticleMigrants’ Rights Network: Frontier anxiety: Living with the stress of the...
What happens when we bring the anxieties of life at the border into the heart of our all our communities? How can we contend with life in a space where identity is constantly checked and people...
View ArticleDefining white Finnish privilege #25: This land is my land, this land isn’t...
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...
View ArticleMigrants’ Right Network: Saving the gains of the Schengen agreement requires...
Much of the news commentary on Europe seems to assume that the Schengen open borders arrangement will vanish in the next few months. That would be a disaster. Saving it will require a reversal of the...
View ArticleHelsingin Sanomat survey on migrants reveals expectations that adaption in...
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...
View Article
