This whole narrative is kind of weird, considering that it's US-media spinning what Marin actually said into something a lot more confrontative and hyperbolic than it actually was IMO.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is a big believer in the "American Dream," and she thinks it's a lot easier to achieve now in her country than in the United States.
"I feel that the American Dream can be achieved best in the Nordic countries, where every child, no matter their background or the background of their families, can become anything," Marin told The Washington Post in an interview on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month.
"We feel that the Nordic model is a success story," said Marin, who became prime minister in December at age 34, making her briefly the youngest world leader (she lost that title in January when 33-year-old Sebastian Kurz returned to power as Austrian chancellor).
This is what the Post originally reported, and I have an issue with it, in that they say that Marin "thinks it's a lot easier to achieve..." than in the US, when in fact she did no such thing. Marin said that she feels that the nordics are the best place to do that, without going into how feasible (or not) it is in the US or anywhere else.
She represents her country, what the fuck is she supposed to do? "We think that we are alright in this but probably there's some better places as well..."?
The title of the second article (which references the first) is "Finland's millennial prime minister said Nordic countries do a better job of embodying the American dream than the US" is IMO again misleading in the sense that it tries to make it seem like Marin
explicitly compares Finland to the US, which she of course did not do.
Now, all that does not make Finland dream come true for anyone or anything, but I would like to point out that it is often the sensationalist US media stirring shit up to make headlines instead of the nordic countries preaching their virtues as the be-all-end-all.
That said, a few thoughts RE: Finland, racism, opportunities etc. coming from a white finn born here.
- Finland does have a far-right problem like many other EU (and other European) countries. However, that is not the only thing behind the "True Finns Party"-phenomenom - I would argue that a lot of it is also similar to what Trump stirred up in the midwest - people feeling displaced / unimportant bunching up with candidates who at least claim to be doing stuff for them, without necessary being racist (also not saying that it's not a part of the equation.) Also, in many cases the highest approval ratings for the party coincide with some of the areas with lower percentages of immigrants (in relation to the population) so go figure. I wonder if it is overt racism or just ignorance stemming from a lack of exposure? A whole lot of people are racist as all fuck, of course - no arguments there.
- Immigration from countries with ethnicities other than "white" began en masse just in the late 70's / early 80's, which in part explains the lack of diversity. Unsurprisingly, this also began in the bigger cities, so many areas of Finland are in that sense also largely "untouched" by immigration
- Employment: this can be divided into two eras: 1.) pre-refugee crisis and 2.) post-refugee crisis
Employment numbers from
1.) -era show that people of nationalities other than finnish were roughly 15% less likely to be employed (figures from 2015) - however the same group of people in general had a birthrate of 0.5 (or 25%) higher than finnish nationals. Considering the high amount of paid parental leave offered, that explains some of the gap - though not all.
2.) now this is of course all fucked up. In integrating the people who fled Syria, Iraq et al the society has failed, leaving people to their own devices and thus the unemployment rate skyrocketed among immigrants at this time. There still are no great solutions to be seen, and much of what little employment these groups of people got was from founding their own barbershops and restaurants. Anecdotally I do know a few developers/designers who came into Finland during this time, but that of course is not representative of the general situation.
So what about the stuff Marin DID say? I do think that if you take the quote verbatim, then yes, the country offers a good starting point for people who are born here, regardless of their ethnic or other background. Is it the best? I don't know. Neither does she. Or you, for that matter. A lot of it is subjective and and depends on a multitude of things, but in general I do think that Finland does an okay job at it.
I do get the criticism about the lack of ethnic diversity having an effect on how all of this plays out, but them's the breaks, I guess? Anything else than what currently can be observed is dealing with hypotheticals and IMO are perhaps not sufficient to form an accurate vision of what Finland would be in different circumstances.
Anyway, my key takeaway is that what is important is the
ideal of what these nordic countries offer for their citizens, not whether or not a given country is the nth best place to live or whatever. In general there should be a healthy middle ground between balls-out capitalism and balls-out socialism, and I do think we are kind of fitting somewhere in the sweet spot.
