Anti Immigration sentiments on the rise? Findland’s watershed Elections

by Enrique Tessieri, first posted in Dunia Magazine print – Issue 4 (May 2011)


Finland’s watershed election on April 17 ushered in a small right-wing populist party to the national spotlight. Reinforcing a trend in Europe where anti-EU, anti-immigrant and above all anti-Islam parties have been gaining strength; the True Finns won a historic 39 seats compared with five in the 2007 election.

One of the biggest questions that some analysts asked after the election results came in was what factors had boosted the True Finns to become the country’s third-largest party? What kind of Finland will emerge after the dust settles over the political landscape?

Some fuzzy images can already be made out, like greater anti-EU sentiment, tighter immigration policies and above all the ever-growing polarization of Finnish society.

Taking into account that Finns have ruled by consensus during most of the post-war period, the True Finns’ victory is a sign that matters may be changing on this front as well. It could mean a shift on how the country sees itself with respect to Brussels and the outside world.

Bank of Finland Governor Erkki Liikanen said in a recent interview with YLE that when Finland joined the EU in 1995, its aim was not to bring its domestic problems to Europe but to take part in the decision-making process. As with the decision on whether to back Portugal’s controversial bailout demonstrated, domestic politics did play a heavy role.
“We remember who our (EU) partners are,” Liikanen said. “We remember those we can trust and those which take responsibility. We have a long memory… Trust is capital that we accumulate through time but can be lost rapidly.”

Another big question mark that the True Finns have left is what kind of a country do they want to return to or build with their conservative and populist values? Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which led two years later to the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland rarely made the front-page headlines of the international media. Even though the number of immigrants is small today at 2.9% of the population, the country before the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t anything like today: Its tough laws discouraged foreign investments and immigrants from moving to the country.

Apart from passing its first Aliens Act in 1983, or 65 years after it gained independence in 1917, Finland kept foreign investments on a short leash with the help of the Restricting Act of 1939, which limited equity ownership by foreigners to 20% and, with special permission, up to 40%. Foreigners could not own land and weren’t allowed to establish companies in the following sectors: forestry, mining, shipping, refining and securities trading.

It’s pretty clear to some that the Finland that some True Finns are romanticizing about not only didn’t exist but would have a negative impact on the country. In order to grasp the effect of such a relapse we’d have to understand the long and difficult road Finland traveled to become an EU member.

After the signing of the armistice with Moscow in 1944, Finland was not only in ruins after the war but left to fend for itself geopolitically in a hostile world divided by two superpowers. During the following five decades, Helsinki’s economic, and later political integration with Western Europe, was secured through membership in organizations such as the United Nations, EFTA, Council of Europe and finally the EU.

Wherever Finland may be heading politically in the next four years is anyone’s guess. What will unfold hinges on what will happen in Europe on the economic front. But one matter is for certain during these uncertain times: nothing will be the same in Finland after April 17.

 

Who are the True Finns & what do they stand for?

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Enrique Tessieri is a journalist and anthropologist who has worked for the Financial Times, Bridge News, Buenos Aires Herald, El País and others. He is a researcher at the Migration Institute of Turku. Tessieri publishes a blog (Migrant Tales) that debates immigration issues in Finland and elsewhere.

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