An increasingly influential minority

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By Mika Parkkonen
     
      I ask 53-year-old Irma Iho, a member of the City Council of Salo what is obviously an impertinent question: Does Russian President Vladimir Putin use Russian immigrants in Finland as a tool of his power politics?
      The question makes the eyes of the Ingrian-born woman well up. She is all too familiar with suspicious attitudes that many Finns have toward Russians, and what is even worse is the habit that Finns have of confusing Ingrians with Russians.
      Iho is sitting in her favourite café, Kultainen tuoksu ("Golden Fragrance"), on Inkerinkatu in Salo. She has lived in Finland for years already, but her habit of sitting up with her back straight resembles that of an upstanding committee member - as if there were still some traces of the chubbiness that the Soviet Union inflicted on its citizens.
      "This paradise often feels like a hell, but things would hardly be any better in Russia", Iho answers.
     
At the end of last year there were 41,758 people in Finland, who said that Russian was their mother tongue. In 20 years their numbers have increased nearly 20-fold.
      The largest group among them are the Ingrian returning migrants such as Iho. The Ingrians are the descendants of Finns who moved onto the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, in the area between modern St. Petersburg and the Estonian border at a time when the entire area, and Finland, were part of the Russian empire. Currently about 25,000 of these ethnic Finns from Russia live in Finland.
      The second-largest group are Ingrians and Russians who have married Finns. At the end of last year there were 8,194 such people in Finland. There are seven times more women than men in this group.
      The third-largest group are Russian managers with work permits in Finland, as well as experts and other professionals. Last year 3031 work permits were granted to people from this group.
     
Russian-speakers living in Finland have set up dozens of associations, and are taking part in municipal politics. Promoting their interests is the League of Finnish Associations of Russian-Speakers (FARO), which hopes to get Russian the status of an official minority language in Finland.
      Meanwhile, Russia's is adopting a more hard-line foreign and security policy than before. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly insisted that he will do all he can to improve the lot of Russian-speakers living in Europe. One example of this is a Russian-language newspaper financed by Moscow, which began to appear in Finland. The name of it is Russkaya Mysl, or "Russian Thought".
     
The purpose of the paper is to help unite expatriate Russians and to inform them about the policies pursued by the Kremlin. This is one reason why the Russian-speakers of Finland are often asked if Putin uses them as a tool of his policies.
      In spite of their large numbers, Russian speakers remain a fairly unknown minority for Finns. The image that Finns have of the Russian minority is influenced by news of crime, prostitution, and tough speeches by Russian leaders. Although decades have passed since the wars, many continue to see the Russians as a threat.
     
Irma Iho knows how life in Finland can feel hellish for a Russian immigrant.
      Iho is a Finnish teacher and interpreter by profession. She moved to Finland from Petrozavodsk eight and a half years ago along with her 23-year-old daughter Sofia Martyugova. The daughter has completed school and served in the Finnish Defence Forces. Iho herself has gone into municipal politics. Both are dual citizens of Finland and Russia.
      However, settling into their new home country was not without difficulties.
      "An immigrant is not always treated equally", Iho says.
      "It is hard to think of one's self as a second-class citizen."
      Iho feels that Russian-speaking immigrants continues to suffer from discriminatory hiring practices. More than one in three Russians living in Finland are unemployed.
      Even highly-trained immigrants easily find themselves working at menial jobs, as agricultural hands, or cleaners. Of all Russian-speakers in Finland, the Ingrians are in the most difficult position, because Finland was unprepared for the flood of thousands of returning migrants. Those who came to Finland as spouses of a Finn, or who came here to work usually had either a family or a job waiting for them.
     
Iho herself had 30 years' experience as a teacher in a Russian comprehensive school. In Finland she tried to get into primary education. However, those responsible for hiring did not feel that a Soviet university degree or lengthy working experience were applicable to Finland. Now Iho teaches Finnish to immigrants on a fixed term and part-time basis in Salo.
      "You can always find some little accent in the language. Employers do not want to hire a person even on a trial basis, or look to see how they do. The old prejudice against us wins out too easily", Iho sighs.
      Sofia, who works as a teaching assistant, has found things easier than her mother. "She came to Finland at the age of 15, and has lost her Russian identity. She dresses, behaves, and thinks like a Finn, but does not feel ashamed about the surname of her Russian father."
     
Attitudes toward Russian leaders vary considerably among immigrants. Those like Irma Iho, who have lived in Finland for a longer time, are usually more critical toward their country of origin, because they have learned the rules of the game of Western democracy. Critical attitudes are also common among immigrants who speak foreign languages, because they have access to what is said about Russia in other countries.
      When Iho herself lived in Russia, she was not interested in politics. She was not a member of the Communist Party, and did not even vote in the final years of Soviet power.
      In Finland, she became interested in politics. She noticed that contrary to what was the case in her home country, it is possible to influence events in Finland. Iho went into local politics in Salo, hoping to improve the lot of immigrants. The Social Democratic Party was her group of choice.
     
Iho admires the Finnish welfare society: "When you go to the office of the Social Insurance Institution or the tax office in Salo, you can be confident that you will get service there. Here officials are there for the customer. In Russia you always need to be afraid of what kinds of problems the official can cause the customer."
      Iho feels that the Ingrians and the Russians have not split into different camps in Salo. However, Iho still does not want to be confused with Russians, because she feels that it is time that the Ingrians would become known as their own nation: "In Russia we have been labelled Tshuhna (Finns), and in Finland we have been labelled Russians."
     
She is nevertheless annoyed by the Russian nouveau riche who spend holidays in Finland. "It is not possible to become filthy rich in just a couple of years without resorting to dishonest means. I believe that they have stolen property that belongs to the people", she huffs. Although a poll showed that Finns see Russians as being among the least desirable immigrants, alongside Arabs and Somalis, the prejudices have eased in areas in which there are many Russian-speakers, as is the case in Salo. Iho also believes that Finnish attitudes will change gradually.
      "Immigrant is no longer a dirty word, and not everyone who comes from the east is seen as a hooker or a drug dealer. Finns understand that we have come to stay", she says.
      Iho also points out that discrimination against Russian and Ingrian immigrants in Finland is milder than the open racism that exists in Russia. "People there are being killed simply for coming from somewhere else", she says.
     
Iho herself was shocked by the killing of a 9-year-old Tajik girl by skinheads in St. Petersburg a couple of years ago. The news of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya last autumn also upset her very much.
      "There are not many people left in Russia who are capable of thinking for themselves, and then they are treated like this! Politkovskaya's fate made me feel ashamed that I am from Russia", she says, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.
      "And then you come and ask if I, as an immigrant, am bringing the politics of Putin to Finland!"
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.4.2007

More on this subject:
 Four waves of Russian immigration

MIKA PARKKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mika.parkkonen@hs.fi