Dear Finns, why is it that all African immigrants have to endure the same treatment which I experienced in South Africa from birth till Nelson Mandela was released?

Why is it that African immigrant's higher education is frowned upon and treated with scepticism. How come is the professional immigrant's work experience disregarded in Finland? Do we always have to proof our abilities because we come from a "Third World" countries.

I ask you, it is fair and acceptable for the Europeans to come to Africa and help themselves with Africa's resources but we are not welcome to Europe?http://www.migrationpolicy.org/transatlantic/docs/Hochschild-FINAL.pdf

Ihmettelen, miksi sivusto on englanniksi, koska
Suomen pääkielihän on suomi.

Ilmeisesti se johtuu Suomen omituisesta kielilainsäädännöstä,
jonka mukaan valtion ylläpitämät systeemit pitää olla myös ruotsiksi, jos ne on suomeksi..
Siksi on valittu englanti..

Suurpää ja muut, Suomen pääkieli on suomi.

Maahanmuuttajat ovat fiksumpia kuin te byrokraatit..

Esim. Abdirahim Hussein on asian aivan oikein ymmärtänyt.

"Meidän yksi päätavoite on integroitua Suomeen ja yksi askel Suomeen integroitumisessa on suomen kielen oppiminen, sanoo Helsingin seudun maahanmuuttajayhdistys Monihelin hallituksen jäsen Abdirahim Hussein. "

– Näin se on!!

Liittykää facebookin "puhu minulle suomea"- ryhmään!

Here's a collection of links for everyone who wants to learn Finnish!

I have been living in Finland almost 4 years now and have experienced 'Culture Shock'.  Have you?  If so, where would you place yourself in the following steps.  Please write how long you have been here also :_

For me :-   Step 4 – Lived in Finland 4 years

I would be really interested to hear your replies

I want to focus in question in terms that we use in finnish. The term "maahanmuuttaja" is the word used in media and in politics. MAAHANMUUTTAJA is a problematic word. I once talked about this with a romanian-born lady, whose opinions was as following; maahanmuuttaja is a wrong term, because its not including the process of BEING AND LIVING here, muuttaja means literally "one who is moving from one place to another". , so it would mean one who is moving to the country.

 people are moving only ONCE and for short time, but after that they are not "moving" any more, they settle down, they make their home here. So in her opinion "maahanmuuttaja" is creating more conflicts in finland and terms should be re-evaluated. Even she pointed out that these kind of terms are creating dicotomies from where an actual "war" would begin.

what do u think of this? there is also different words used but less, in public, like KANTASUOMALAINEN which would mean originally finn person, and UUSSUOMALAINEN describing the person, who has lived here for many years.

Because when using only the word maahanmuuttaja, for people is coming an image of people outside, who move here and its only rising a question in what grounds they move here, and they will have always the "stigma" of being maahanmuuttaja. Lets take excample of my husband who has been finnish citizen for 4 years now. He is still guided to go "maahanmuuttajakurssi" from employment office, he is still regarded as "maahanmuuttaja". Actually it should not be anymore possible to call him maahanmuuttaja, because he is officially a Finn and also having a kind of "double-nationality". Still he is regarded as maahanmuuttaja and the only question that is arising is "where have u come from" or "oletko sopeutunut suomeen?" . he has been here now almost 11 years and the question would already be, would he cope with living in his home country for longer time…So people are living here for decades but they always have to answer these questions. The more here is immigrants, the less there is those questions arising , i suppose, in time the change will appear…

also they use "maahanmuuttaja" very wildly and with not understanding, that i learnt when i had to teach my sons teacher that she cannot put my child to "mamuryhmä" at school (that was actually finnish as second language-group but the school called it "mamuryhmä".) She had already put him to group where was children whose both parents were from some other country and language at home was other than finnish. citys co-ordinator was surprised when i told about this. my son has born here and is finnish citizen and his mother-language is finnish- and thats the thing for sure was in teachers knowledge, but is the diffferent look enough to determine him as "maahanmuuttaja!?!"  Of course the main thing was the teacher did not know what is "maahanmuuttaja" and they dont have proper education, still, to multicultural issues and even they called this particular group with wrong name…etc.

and same thing happened in day-care with my daughter, they asked me when its a proper time for me to come to "kotoutumissuunnitelma"  discussions for my daughter….AMAZING, person is having immigration plan in her homecountry! !! have u heard about that before? of course they apologized after i had complained about that but REALLY they did now know what that thing means and for whom they have to offer it! so they did not have bad motivations to categorize, just people who dont have links with these things in their personal lives, they dont have to understand them because surrounding society is putting things only in these dicotomies "SUOMALAINEN" or "MAAHANMUUTTAJA."

And, if a child is BORN HERE,  even if parents are somowhere else, should we call him or her maahanmuuttajà?! only on the grounds that his or her parents have moved here some 15 years ago? DO you get the point that i mean here? this way we capture people to very artificial categories!

so this "maahanmuuttaja" is very damaging word and they use this word only in all the public services we have in Finland….and even people dont know what that word means, and who you mean by it, everybody, ? =who is "nobody."…

Also in maahanmuuttaja-term in Finland they link very closely only to pakolaiset, refugees, what u may hear in general discussions -AND THE DIVERSITY OF PEOPLE CANNOT BE SEEN OR ACKNOWLEDGED. so in language its not the same which terms we use. In english and in America you can see media to use terms  Mexican-American, African-American and so on. What about same in finnish? UUSSUOMALAINEN is quite a nice word for excample. anything else?

Give your comments and IDEAS of these new terms! and tell of your EXPERIENCE concerning the subject. and when creating new terms, lets start to use those as well!!!!

Saru.

As a foreign degree student in social sciences and particularly in immigration and integration issues in the Finnish context, the new terminology of "uussuomalainen" caused me headaches more than once. The concept of "uussuomalainen", to my understanding, is fairly new, and for now it has only gained audience within the Finnish society and the Finnish media in Finnish language. That's a paradox, when may of the first concerned are not native Finnish speakers!

My studies focus in particular on the use of language in politics. There is SO much at stake in political language, something that the people who have promoted the use of the word "uussuomalainen" rather than "maahanmuuttaja" or "ulkomaalainen" are clearly aware of. But what would be a suitable translation to discuss about these issues in English?

"New Finns"? "New Finnish citizens"? "Neofinns"? What is the word about? What does "uussuomalainen" exactly represents for you? How has it been used in the media so far?

And how about its opposite, "kantasuomalainen"? Should it be translated as "true Finn"? "Original Finn"? "Ethnic Finn"? France has for example the term "Francais de souche" ("French from the roots"), which does not have any exact definition and therefore only serves the cause of xenophobic and racist politicians and people by drawing an impossible line between ethnic French people (which do NOT exist, as France is an immigration country) and despicable and unwanted "others". Here is a discussion about the translation and meaning of the term "Francais de souche".

Defining the word used to represent many of us is a major act of empowering ourselves. It's a way to have control on one's image, rather than letting the control in the hands of others. It is the responsibility of the "uussuomalaiset" to do what is needed, just so that "uussuomalainen" does not end up as a derogatory word, much like the word "maahanmuuttaja" is often considered today.

So I'm calling for your assistance. Have you noticed in English-speaking media a suitable translation for "uussuomalainen"? Have you read articles in Finnish where "uussuomalainen" would be given a definition, more or less directly? What would be an exact definition for the term? What does "uussuomalainen" means for you as a long-term resident, new Finnish citizen, immigrant, or "old Finn" concerned by these issues?

I gladly welcome your opinion about that, in any language!

Anyone who is eager to learn finnish and speaks english is welcomed to have some training lessons with me.

I am planning to move out of the country some day so i would then be in same situation as foreigners who are here now.
Except that i wouldnt need to learn as rare and perhaps difficult language as finnish.

English is just enough challenging..

I do not like very much to discuss with pseudonyms. In the beginning of Monimos when we were a small group trying it out it was easy to know who was behind every pseudonym. In the beginning I was using my real name but felt me a little bit lost among pseudonyms so I took also one. Now when it is possible to use also the Facebook profile to sign in I believed it would automatically change the name also. When it did not happened I decided now to change my public name to my real name.

In Facebook the situation is however a little bit different because there you can choose which of your writings will be displayed to whom. So we will see which will be realistic here in Monimos. In any case I am trying it now.

Actually I do not know what happens if I don't check the box "Allow this post to be listed in public archives…."

I have already been wondering what meaning have the friends in Monimos. Now I suppose that if these blog writings are not "allowed into public archives", they will be seen only by my friends. So it is possible to in that extent to select who can read your posts.

Same in Finnish 

En pidä kovin paljon keskustelusta nimimerkkien kanssa. Monimosin alussa, kun meitä oli vain pieni ryhmä kokeilemassa sitä, oli helppo tietää kuka oli minkäkin nimimerkin takana. Aivan alussa käytin itse koko nimeäni, mutta tunsin itseni orvoksi nimimerkkien joukossa, ja otin itsekin sellaisen käyttöön. Nyt kun on mahdollista käyttää kirjautumiseen myös Facebook-profiilia, luulin että se automaattisesti vaihtaa myös nimen ym. Monimosissa. Koska niin ei tapahtunut, päätin vaihtaa julkisen nimeni oikeaksi nimekseni.

Facebookissa tilanne on kuitenkin hiukan erilainen, koska siinä voi itse valita jokaisesta kirjoituksestaan kenelle se on näkyvissä. Joten nähtäväksi jää miten realistista on käyttää omaa nimeään Monimosissa. Joka tapauksessa aion tehdä niin nyt.

Oikeastaan en ole aikaisemmin ajatellut, mitä tapahtuu jos en ruksaa "salli postin näkyä julkisessa arkistossa /Allow this post to be listed…"

Tähän saakka olen ihmetellyt, mikä merkitys oikeastaan ystävillä Monimosissa. Nyt arvelen, että jos näiden blogikirjoitusten ei salli tulla näkyviin julkisissa arkistoissa eli ei ruksaa tuota sallimis-ruutua, niin kirjoitukset näkyvät vain ystäville. Joten sen verran ainakin voi säädellä näkyvyyttä.

No matter whether u will learn finnish or not but its sure coming to finland u will definately learn to drink.