Kolumni

What should we call immigrants?

22.6.2010 0:01 Mary Nurminen

There's a lot of talk about immigrants to Finland lately, and since I am one and I am also a linguist, I pay a lot of attention to the discussion on terminology.

First of all, there's the question of what to call us. I just read somewhere that some people think the word maahanmuuttaja is derogatory. Gosh, really? Maybe those people haven't been around as long as I have, because I am very happy with the term (and even its abbreviation 'mamu'). I joked with a friend that the term wasn't invented until the early 90s and he said actually, he'd just read somewhere that that is exactly the case.

Before that there was only the word pakolainen and no general word at all for us who have moved here from somewhere else for whatever reason. Siirtolainen must have existed but that was for Finns going somewhere else, no one (and I mean NO ONE) ever thought to use the term for people moving into Finland.

Nowadays I suppose siirtolainen is an OK term, though somehow it sounds like a massive movement when actually I was just 1 little person who happened to move here.

Someone has suggested uussuomalaiset. To me that sounds like you want to forget your home country and go totally Finnish. Well I don't want to do that and I don't know many other immigrants who do either.

I also don't follow the claim that the immigration phase is short-lived and after awhile people shouldn't be called by any special term at all. I've been here 22 years and still speak Finnish with a funny accent and don't always act like people would expect me to. Believe me, I am never going to stop being an immigrant, nor would I want to.

Most of all I get uncomfortable when people think I am somehow not the same kind of immigrant as, say, someone from Africa. Like there are different classes of immigrants or something. I don't understand that. So for me personally, I think maahanmuuttaja is the best term.

The next question comes in what to call our children. Many (most?) of them are not immigrants, they were born here. Yet my children are named differently and once in awhile do things differently than you would expect Finnish kids to do them, and there is a reason.

I think the most traditional term for these is the one used for Swedish-speaking Finns: suomenruotsalaiset. Not to put down the Finnish language or anything, but what the HECK is that? Everyone wonders why they separate themselves from the rest of Finland, yet for hundreds of years the rest of Finland has classified them as Swedes!

I try it out anyway to see how it sounds…suomenjenkki…nah, I think not!

I don't think uussuomalaiset would fit my kids either. They're only half uus, after all, and half just-your-basic-old-fashioned-kind-of-suomalaiset.

Though often I think Finnish is more logical than English, in this case I'd vote for the English way of doing things - combine both nationalities: amerikkalais-suomalainen or afgaani-suomalainen or venäläis-suomalainen.

You get to keep the identity from the 'old country' and add the Finnish one, so instead of being marginally Finnish, you get to be all Finn and more. Plus it's a clear explanation of your background.

And for those people who argue that then people will cling to their 'old country' culture, well I guess there is a danger of that identity lasting a long time. I'm a good example: 160 years after my ancestors immigrated to the US, we still call ourselves Irish-Americans.

VOCABULARY: Derogatory: loukkaava, halventava; Put down: loukata; Cling: takertua

Mary Nurminen pähkäilee suomen kielen ja suomalaispsyykkeen kiemuroita.

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