From: junikka@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Jari Junikka)
Subject: Re: Ancient prejudices
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin Dept. of Mathematics
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 03:04:02 GMT

f33012l@puukko.hut.fi (Janne Kivel{) writes:

>Just like the Swedish newspapers used to have these headlines, when Swedes
>had been beaten in Finnkampen: "Day of the Mongols at the Stadium"
>(This might be an urban legend though, allegedly happened sometimes in 
>the 60's)

I think the above is typical of this and the other recent threads about 
the discrimination of Finns in Sweden, the rights of Finns in Sweden vs.
the  rights of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland:  
few Finns shouting discrimination based on anecdotes they themselves admit 
of being dubious at best. I wish you'd read your posting a couple of times before you
post and consider whether you posting actually has any factual content
or something new to contribute instead of another "I heard that they did
this to Finns in 19nn in the city X in Sweden, but it might not be true".

As a Finn, I'd be ashamed to criticize the refugee policies of the other 
Nordic countries as long as majority of the Finns is behind the governments
dubious arguments like "those poor souls couldn't last the hard winter in
Finland anyway, we'll help them by giving money to the UN etc".
If I remember correctly the largest groups of foreigners living in Finland
are (not in any particular order) the Swedes, Americans, Germans, and Brittish.

Finland might be treating better its Lappish minority than other Nordic countries,
but what about the gypsies? What type of prejudice do they face in Finland?
Or the small number of refugees, we have taken over the years?

Also, there has been several incidents which demonstrate the racism among
the public officials. Some years ago, a black American solder wasn't allowed
to enter Finland with a military passport. He was stationed in Germany and
the Finnish Consulate had told him he could enter Finland with the passport
to visit his Finnish friends of his. The border officials gave misinformation 
telling him that the American Consulate in Helsinki wouldn't be able to help him, 
they didn't allow him to make a local call to the embassy. The embassy later
refuted the statement saying that they DO give temporary passports in cases like this.

Or the case of two Finnish-American couples trying to enter the country:
they were both told by the Finnish consulate in USA that they could 
file in Finland for a work permit for the American spouse.
Ooops, the all white couple had no problems, but the racially mixed couple
ended up having one of them flying back to the USA to file for the papers.

Or the case of a refugee who had gotten an asylum in Spain (if I remember correctly),
and met a Finnish woman and got married. Originally the Finnish autorities
(ulkomaalaistoimisto) wanted him to return to his country of origin where 
he would have been subject to persecution and possible long prison sentence or death.
The authorities finally gave in, and thought it enough for him to apply for his
recendecy permit (oleskelulupa) in Spain. He has to do that that yearly.

The cases actually did raise enough concern so that the laws related to foreigners
were supposed to be rewritten and ulkomaalaistoimisto (the "office of foreigners",
kind of like the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the USA) was supposed
to go through restructuring. It didn't used to be answerable to any authority
and invidual official had pretty free hand in determining who stays and who goes.
[By the way, what came of that restructuring? Did it take place?]
Ulkomaalaistoimisto used to routinely misinform or fail to inform foreigners 
about their rights in Finland and access to legal help.

The above incidents span probably 5 to 10 years are the most recent one is three
years old, so I make no claims that this reflect the current situation. I do claim
that they reflect the national attitude to some degree. It takes a long time for
that to change.

On the other hand, Finland isn't alone in this boat. The USA has one of the most
dismissal records with respect to accepting refugees. Who gets in and who doesn't
depends on the political ties between the country of origin and the White House/
the State Deparment. But with respect to foreigners rights and treatment in the
Nordic countries, I'd say Finland ranks behind Denmark and Sweden. [I don't know
enogh about Iceland (except it is the only Nordic country which has accepted less
refugees than Finland) and Norway to say anything.]

jari




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