The municipal elections are approaching, and the trolls are emerging from their caves. My own campaign has been left in peace, but almost all foreign-born Green candidates have major problems. Because the problems have been anticipated, they have been largely prevented. Most candidates have friends who help clean up their social media accounts. (Finnish version: click here).
There is a lot of harassment: generally hostile comments, long explanations about how only white Finns are real Finns and the rest should get out, and death-threats-that-are-not-quite-death-threats. (In Turku, a popular suggestion seems to be that the candidates should take a swim in the Aura river. A threat? Yes. Provable? No). Even though these comments get cleaned up, this is total shit.
So who is a real Finn? My own answer: Absolutely anyone who
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- Lives in Finland
- Wants to live in Finland in the future, and to participate in our society
- Wants to learn Finnish well enough to manage life here
- Accepts the most important Finnish values: equality, lack of discrimination, respect for those who disagree.
That is all. Skin color is not an issue, mother tongue is not an issue, religion is not an issue. The only issue is what the person wants to do. (Comment: instead of Finnish, the language to be learned could be Swedish, or for example sign language).
In the municipal elections, the criteria are even looser than mine. (You can read the criteria in English here and in multiple other languages here). In principle, every EU citizen who lives here is eligible to vote. Non-EU citizens must have lived here for at least two years to be eligible. The idea is that in the municipal elections everyone should have a vote if the participate in the local life. This is a good idea.
There are at least two ways to look at immigration: as a humanitarian issue, and as a practical one. The humanitarian approach is important. We need to help those whose world has collapsed. In general, I would prefer to help people where they live. In an ideal world, we would help people rebuild their lives in their own countries. However, this is not possible if there is no country there. Places like Syria, Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan simply do not seem to be stabilizing anytime soon.
The practical approach is equally important. Turku, and Finland in general, is not going to function for very long without immigration. We are facing rising pension costs but too few people to pay for them. The number of native-born Finns is starting to decrease. I do not see this as any kind of a tragedy, as long as we can get enough non-native-born Finns.
We can definitely expect immigrants to work hard and to adapt, just like we expect everyone else to do. It is necessary to learn the language to function in society. Some cultures have traditional elements that are simply not acceptable in Finland — homophobia and oppression of women simply have no place here, for example. But everyone who makes the effort to adapt is definitely welcome here as a Finn among Finns.
For more information: the Turku Greens international page has information in 18 languages. I am a Green candidate in the Turku municipal electrions, with number 424. My introduction in English is here. You can find information and blog posts in English here.