At a friend's wedding (he's Argentine, but lived in Canada and is now married to a Finn) we were discussing that we're from everywhere and nowhere. We're at home in all three places, but always missing something (or most usually someone) else who may or may not be there.
That's the immigrant's life. Something that is probably becoming more common given current international mobility patters (yes, part of that thing they call globalisation).
So, after a year in Belgium, I came back to Finland. I started noticing certain things about the place that I had already gotten used to and don't really like, such as the amount of drunken teenagers on weekends, the fact that public transportatio, although good, is rather sparse (which is fine in summer, but in winter is no laughing matter) or the relative scepticism of most public officials. This all reminded me of when I arrived in Brussels, as I was not used to the dirt and the beggars in the streets. Don't get me talking about Mexico City, which is sadly renowned for its insecurity and pollution.
However, I remembered that it all depends on how much you make out of things yourself, and whether the pros outweigh the cons. There's always two sides of a story, and there is always something good that can be found. In Brussels it's multiculturality, in Helsinki it is nature and safety, in Mexico City its vibrance and cultural life, to give just a few strong points.
It's all a matter of making do with what is there, what you have and be determined to have a good time wherever you are.
Algunos de ustedes probablemente leyeron que estaba un poco preocupado. No había porqué. Ya tengo mis papeles, y ya sólo me falta defender mi tesis para graduarme de la maestría y regresar a mi chamba a Finlandia.
Estaba tan, pero tan estresado, que se me aflojó todo el cuerpo cuando me dijeron que ya no había bronca. Total, que sólo se trata de tener sus papeles en orden y mucha, mucha paciencia de por medio.
Un amigo me comentó que ahora que se muda de regreso a España, los requisitos de visita se han puesto mucho más estrictos, incluso para nosotros que no necesitamos visa. Uno está totalmente de acuerdo en que los países libres y soberanos tienen derecho a proteger sus fronteras de la manera que mejor le parezca, pero los requisitos me parecen francamente excesivos (especialmente la parte sobre necesitar una carta certificada por la policía española en caso de alojarse con algún conocido durante su estancia)
Entre eso y lo tardado que se está convirtiendo renovar mi permiso de residencia en Finlandia (aunque he vivido 6 años en el país, no tengo antecedentes penales, tengo trabajo en el cual ya me están esperando, pago mis impuestos puntualmente, hablo el idioma y me voy a casar con una local) no me cabe la menor duda que en cuanto me sea posible voy a conseguirme la nacionalidad, porque realmente es un dolor de cabeza. Los que son ciudadanos de la Unión Europea no saben la suerte que tienen.
Lo que más me preocupa es que antes de mejorar, la situación se ponga peor. Según he escuchado, en Francia ya van a empezar con lo mismo que está haciendo España. Ya le tienen mucho miedo a los inmigrantes y están agarrando parejo…
Cómo me gustaría que Tlatelolco se pusiera las pilas y aplicara el principio de reciprocidad así como lo hace Itamaraty: si los estadounidenses se ponen tan difíciles con las visas para mexicanos que se les pidiera lo mismo, y que si los españoles empiezan a pedir cartas y demás que se les haga lo mismo cuando intenten entrar al país.
Por desgracia, la SRE prefiere quejarse sobre estupideces como Big Brother Australia (que sí, tal vez ofende, pero no es ni para darle importancia). Para eso me gustaban…
As readers of this blog know, I spent the last 3 nights in Paris. Even though I really like the city, this time around I was slightly disappointed by the state is seems to be in. Of course, in all the tourist areas everything is as pristine and glorious as only Paris can be, but just walking a little bit away from that you find out that the city is dirtier than I remembered.
The contrast is even starker given that 5 months ago I spent a week in London. Even though both are very beautiful cities with monumental architecture, the British capital is much better preserved. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the British economy is doing much better than the French one. Maybe it is related to the British having embraced globalisation, whereas large swathes of French society don’t know what to do with it/about it.
Furthermore, another detail that caught my attention is not really the amount of foreigners in the city, but the fact that they don’t seem to be economically integrated. Even though of course this is purely anecdotical, and it was a long weekend, I didn’t see a lot of middle-class Frenchmen of non-European descent around their city.
Finland is in general a very egalitarian society, where mobility is common and opportunities available, which is something I think other countries should learn from. However, I have noticed certain, if not polarization, at least divisions in society regarding how they see the outside world.
There are those that understand that Finland’s economic success is dependent on globalization and those who only see the Chinese threat; those who have travelled and seen the world and those who haven’t; the young who are used to having people with foreign backgrounds in their classroom and the old who first saw a black man in their street in the 90’s; those that welcome foreign labour and those that feel threatened by it (especially if they are already unemployed); those that speak foreign languages with confidence and those who feel they threaten the status of the Finnish language; those that want a more generous welfare state and those who want to pay less taxes; those who think racism is stupid and those who are unabashedly racist; those who have taken advantage of EU farm subsidies, Erasmus exchange programmes and the like and those who strongly dislike the EU…
Difference of opinion is of course what democracy is made of. Finnish society, however, needs to be aware that these differences exist, and that not everything is smooth and perfect.
I found this old article about Brett Young (whom I know personally and can vouch for his Finnish language fluency), and it got me thinking. I lived in pääkaupunkiseutu (Helsinki & Espoo) for six years, will marry a Finn this summer, have plenty of Finnish friends and speak Finnish fluently at home (with the odd partitive instead of accusative mistake, heh). I also studied engineering in Finland and pretty much became an adult there, having adapted to and adopted parts of the culture, for which I’m grateful.
However, compared with my current stay in Brussels, I noticed that the society in general hadn’t truly accepted me. Whereas those closest to me treat me like “one of them”, as soon as I was on my own people would be suspicious, or even downright hostile. Why? I guess because I look different. I have brown skin and dark eyes and hair, and my features are very non-descript (people usually can’t guess that I was born in Mexico, at times I’ve been told I’m Spanish, Portuguese, Arab, Turkish and even half-Finnish half-Thai).
Even though I’m currently abroad, I plan to eventually come back to Finland to raise our children there, and in time I would like to apply for citizenship out of gratitude. However, I sometimes have my doubts about whether all the effort to integrate is worth it, since I’m afraid I’ll always find somebody shouting at me “Vitun turkkilainen, mene kotiin!”
Me confieso chilango. Llevo casi 7 años fuera de México (prácticamente me volví adulto fuera), y he sabido adaptarme muy bien a la vida fuera de mi país, lejos de mi familia y mi gente, aunque el messenger, el skype, las visitas y las largas distancias son una maravilla. Tan bien, que no sé cuándo regrese. Le comentaba a una amiga alemana de mi clase anterior de francés (ya me cambié otra vez) que tengo tres pulseras en la mano izquierda. Una me la compré en Greenwich, en el meridiano cero. Otra es un regalo de graduación de ingeniería de mi abuelo. La última es una pulsera tricolor, en verde, blanco y rojo (o más bien, verde, gris y rojo, porque ya está muy sucia) que me compré en el Zócalo del D.F. justo antes de partir en el 2000. Mi idea entonces era (muy romántico yo) que me quitaría esa pulsera cuando regresara a México a vivir. Cuando le dije la historia a mi amiga me quedé pensando que aún no sé ni le veo para cuándo me la voy a quitar.
Aunque Europa creo que ya la conozco relativamente bien (aunque me falta buena parte de esa área entre Alemania y Rusia que ya no sé si llamar Europa Oriental o Europa Central), del Lejano Oriente sólo conozco un país, de Medio Oriente dos, de Sudamérica tres, de África ninguno y de Oceanía tampoco. Quisiera ver más mundo antes de regresarme a mi tierra, porque sé que cuando regrese para establecerme va a ser muy difícil para mí volver a salir. O quién sabe.
Funnily enough, I read that Kotka in southeastern Finland wants more Russian immigrants. After the well-known animosities between both nations, and the prejudices Russians face there, it’s quite a surprising turn.
Finland is a very homogeneous country, but there are foreigners there as well (this poster was one of them for quite a while, and is open to becoming one again). Mostly they are people from Russian, Estonian, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Swedish or American extraction. They tend to stick to certain specific cities and areas of the country, and there are certain stereotypes to each. MTV3, one of the local TV channels (not related to MTV, Music Television) started airing a drama/comic series about an area of Helsinki with many immigrants, and how the different inhabitants adapt to each other.
Even though I only share with the foreigner characters in the series the fact that I was also a foreigner living in Hesa, I have to admit that reading about one of them who according to the plot is an African man that tries to become more Finnish than the Finns, taking a local surname from his wife, hanging pictures of Mannerheim in his house and making his son try to win the tango king contest to become the first black tango king, well, brought a smile to my face and a little bit of moisture to my eyes. =) And I haven’t even seen the series yet. Is it any good?
