I think many of us has faced lots of threatening news about immigration lately. At the moment seems that media is full of bad news about refugees. At the same time media modifies peoples views about refugees and many might experience them as a threat. In Finland there has been lots of conversation about refugees particularly in social media. It seems like people have didived into two different sides. There are the ones who are against immigration and then the ones who defends it. In 2015 in Finland there was a lot of conversation about asylum seekers in social media. The conversation was mainly negative and full of hate speech.
In the middle of this negative atmosphere I want to tell you a story about something different, which drew my attention two years ago. There was something happening in the small village in the western Finland. The village community was organising a demonstration against racism, then they converted neo-nazis from one event and after that the community helped asylum seekers. So why did they stand up as a positive example?
This chain of events started when one Finnish politician posted a racist Facebook status update. People got angry because of that and people started to organize demonstration against racism. Biggest demonstration was organised in Helsinki and there was about 15 000 participants. (Malmberg, Lari) In addition to this there was also demonstrations in other cities of Finland. So one of the cities where demonstration was organised was this small village called Reposaari. There is less than a thousand inhabitants, so Reposaari differs from another places where demonstrations took place because of it`s small size.
A foto from demonstration which was organized in Reposaari. (foto: Tauno Östervik)
I researched this case in my thesis and particularly that topic how community can prevent racism. I interviewed two local persons to have information why this all happened. Other interviewee was organising the demonstration and the other one has been part of the community his whole life. They told me that everything started because they felt like the atmosphere about multiculturalism and immigration was too negative. They wanted to stand up as community and make a change.
My interviewees told me also about what happened after the asylum seekers had arrived to the village and how local people reacted to them. Community started to help them and wanted to take care of them. (Merisalo/Holm)
Many sees asylum seekers as a threat and as a scary thing. Seems like people forgets that they are also humans. For me this story is important because it tells that people can change things. Let`s hope that there are more communities like this in the future!
References:
Malmberg, Lari: Näin Facebook-viesti muuttui kahdessa päivässä 15 000 ihmisen mielenosoitukseksi. Helsingin Sanomat 29.7.2015.
Interview/Merisalo/Holm
Foto: http://reposaaressatapahtuu.blogspot.de/2015/07/meilla-on-unelma-tapahtuma.html
No comments:
Post a Comment