Finland - MYPLACE

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Finland - MYPLACE

MYPLACE
31st January 2014
____________________________________
MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement)
Grant agreement no: FP7-266831
WP7: Interpreting Activism (Ethnographies)
Deliverable 7.1: Ethnographic Case Studies of Youth Activism
Homma internet forum
University of Eastern Finland
Author(s)
Vesa Puuronen (assisted by Jarmila Rajas)
Field researcher(s)
Data analysts
Date
Work Package
Deliverable
Dissemination level
WP Leaders
Deliverable Date
Document history
Version Date
1
26.01.2014
2
27.01.2014
3
28.01.2014
4
30.01.2014
Vesa Puuronen
Vesa Puuronen
26.1. 2014
7 Interpreting Activism (Ethnographies)
7.1 Ethnographic Case Studies of Youth Activism
PU [Public]
Hilary Pilkington, Phil Mizen
31 January 2014
Comments
First version
Comments and suggested edits
Revised version
Final version
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Deliverable D7.1: Ethnographic Case Studies of Youth Activism
Page 1 of 28
Created/Modified by
Vesa Puuronen
Hilary Pilkington
Vesa Puuronen
Hilary Pilkington
MYPLACE
31st January 2014
Contents
1.
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
2.
Methods ......................................................................................................................... 10
3.
Key Findings .................................................................................................................... 12
3.1. Cultural discordance and multiculturalism ..................................................................... 13
3.2 Catastrophic integration policies ..................................................................................... 16
3.3 Confusing definitions of left and right ............................................................................. 20
4.
Conclusions..................................................................................................................... 23
5.
Future analysis .............................................................................................................. 25
6.
References...................................................................................................................... 26
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1. Introduction
Politically influential populist right actors (movements and parties) have been developing in
Finland since the beginning of the 1990s. One of the major factors related to the emergence of
the populist right is immigration.1 Until the 1980s the number of people belonging to visible
ethnic minorities in Finland was so low that the country was regarded as ethnically
homogeneous. Traditional minorities (Roma, Jews, Russians, Tatars and the indigenous people
Sami) were small, culturally and linguistically assimilated and/or geographically isolated. During
the 1980s and especially since the beginning of the 1990s the number of new immigrant
minority groups began to grow mainly due to international and internal crisis in different parts
of the world, which forced people to leave their home countries. The largest new immigrant
groups came from Vietnam, Somalia, Russia (former Soviet Union), former Yugoslavia and
Estonia. At the beginning of the 1990s a group of Finnish peoples, called Ingrian Finns
(inkeriläiset), who lived in the former Soviet Union, were given specific permission to move to
Finland as repatriates. The number of the immigrant population (as in the number of foreign
citizens) increased from approximately 25,000 (0.5 per cent of the population) in 1990 to
195,000 (3.6 per cent) in 2012 (see Figure 1 below).
The number of people, whose mother tongue is none of the national languages of Finland
(Finnish, Swedish or Saami) was 266,949 (4.9 per cent of the population) at the end of 2012.
Simultaneously with the growth of the number of non-native residents the political
movements, which oppose immigration, became more active and visible. First anti-immigrant
groups were quite small skinhead groups, which fought immigrants in the streets and
distributed racist, anti-immigrant leaflets and so forth (Puuronen 2001: 17-31). During the
1990s only one or two Members of Parliament (MP) or a few members of local, municipal
councils openly opposed immigration and refugee policies. The situation changed during the
first years of the 21st century. In the general elections of 2004 the first openly anti-immigrant
candidate, who represented the True Finns Party, were elected to parliament.
Figure 1. The number of foreign citizens in Finland 1990-2012
1
Internationally right-wing and anti-immigration parties have been founded or emerged after a mass-immigration
era, which has begun at different points of time in different countries (see van Spanje 2011: 302).
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This development reached its peak in the national elections in 2011. The right-wing populist
party The Finns Party (Perussuomalaiset, formerly the True Finns, and before that The Finnish
Rural Party, Suomen Maaseudun Puolue) made a breakthrough on the political scene. In these
national elections The Finns Party grew from a minor, relatively insignificant protest party (5
MPs) to the third largest party (39 MPs, 19.05 per cent of the votes). The growth of the party
began already in the local elections in 2007 and EU elections in 2009 (Arter 2010: 484). The
shattering victory of The Finns Party in 2011 was labelled the Jytky2 by the colourful populist
chairman of The Finns Party Timo Soini.
Photo: Martti Kainulainen / AFP / Getty Images.
Plate 1. Chairman of The Finns Party, Timo Soini celebrating the election victory on 17.4.2011.
An important factor behind the Jytky, i.e. the popularity of the right-wing populist party, is the
conscious efforts of mainly young men, who have developed, established and maintained
certain, very popular, internet blog-pages and social media forums since the beginning of the
21st century. These blogs and www-sites are dedicated to the criticism of and discussion and
disputes about immigration and multiculturalism. Thousands of predominantly young men
participated in the discussions in the internet forums and/or read the texts produced by active
bloggers.
The most important individual anti-immigration politician, who became a member of
parliament in 2011, is Jussi Halla-aho,3 who established his Scripta (Writings from the Sinking
West, Kirjoituksia uppoavasta lännestä) blog in 2003 (http://www.halla-aho.com/scripta/).
2
Jytky cannot be directly translated into English, but it means an extraordinary, enormous achievement or a ‘big
bang’ .
3
Jussi Halla-aho is a 42-year-old with a PhD in Linguistics. He has studied and worked as a teacher and researcher
in the University of Helsinki specializing in Slavonic languages, especially Ukrainian.
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Halla-aho’s blog quite quickly became very popular amongst people who supported antiimmigration or anti-immigrant views (which Halla-aho and his followers called ‘immigration
criticism’). Before starting the blog Hallo-aho belonged to a quite small group of mainly young
men, who established a youth association Suomen Sisu (Finnish Perseverance) under the
auspices of a nationalist organisation, the Finnish Alliance, in 1998. At the moment the
chairman of Suomen Sisu is another relatively young (27 years of age) MP of The Finns Party Olli
Immonen. Suomen Sisu celebrated its 15th anniversary at the beginning of December 2013 in
Helsinki.
In his speech during the 15th anniversary celebrations of Suomen Sisu the chairman of the
organisation MP Olli Immonen said that Suomen Sisu is a nationalist organisation, which
strongly defends Finnishness and binds nationalist Finns together. According to Immonen the
association has about one thousand members. Immonen stated that the ‘‘consensus media’’
have been forced to admit that the demonization of Suomen Sisu has been counterproductive.
He concluded his speech by saying that:
… the Finnish identity, which has gone through the mill, needs a defender like
Suomen Sisu, which offers future generations a possibility to be proud of their
Finnish identity. Our organisation wants to defend Finnish people, language,
cultural heritage and nature and to build a democratic, free and equal nation
state.(http://suomensisu.fi/suomen-sisu-juhli-paakaupunkiseudulla-10-12-2013/,
last accessed 2.1. 2014)
Homma-forum is an internet forum, which was established in December 2008 by active
followers of Jussi Halla-aho’s blog page and adherents of Suomen Sisu. The establishment of
Homma-forum was regarded as necessary because the guest book of Halla-aho’s blog Scripta
became inoperable due to the huge number of visitors and commentators (http://www.hallaaho.com/scripta/vieraskirja.html, last accessed 2.1. 2014). As of the beginning of 2014 Hommaforum has 8 707 members. It contains 1,415,825 messages about 37,678 topics
(http://Hommaforum.org/index.php?action=stats, last accessed 2.1. 2014).
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Plate 2. Chairman of Suomen Sisu MP Olli Immonen at the 15th Anniversary party of the association 10.12. 2013.
(http://suomensisu.fi/suomen-sisu-juhli-paakaupunkiseudulla-10-12-2013/ accessed 2.1. 2014)
Homma-forum is divided into 5 main sections: Discussion; The Political wing of Homma:
parties; Newsroom: news and media; Library: standard arguments, recommended readings,
statistics, research, opinion polls and economic indicators; The Maintenance of Homma: the
development of the forum. The subcategories of the discussion section of the forum are Hut
(tupa), Parlour (salonki), Smithy (paja), Mill (mylly), Street (kylänraitti) and Backroom
(peräkammari). The House contains discussions about topical issues of immigration and
multiculturalism. Parlour is devoted to ‘politically correct’ discussion about multiculturalism
and immigration.
Smithy includes discussions about concrete activities connected to Homma-forum, for instance
activities of Homma-clubs, which have been established in 13 cities in Finland. Some of these
clubs have not been very active, but at least 7 local clubs and two other clubs have organised
activities (meetings of the members of Homma-forum and public events like rallies) recently. In
the Mill the discussions deal with the economy and the EU. The Street contains discussions
about general political and actual issues and the Room is a place for humor and other not so
serious discussions.
The section ‘Political wing of Homma’ contains information about the National Coalition Party
(Kokoomus), Change 2011 party (Muutos 2011) and The Finns Party. The National Coalition
Party is a traditional conservative party, which was the most popular party in the national
elections in 2011. The head of the Finnish government, prime minister Jyrki Katainen, is from
this party. The Finns is the right-wing populist party, which was the third most popular party in
the elections and Change 2011 is the most radical right-wing party in Finland. The Change 2011
party has only one MP, who is a former MP of The Finns Party. He was expelled from the
parliamentary group of The Finns Party due to his extreme racist public statements.
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Homma-forum is regarded as one of the most influential political Internet-forums in Finland,
even though it is very difficult to measure or even to estimate its real influence.4 The number of
its members is comparable to medium size political parties, but since it is an open discussion
forum the number of its users is significantly greater than the number of members. For
instance at 18:49 on the 2 January 2014, out of 320 people who used the forum 216 were
guests while 104 were members.
Homma-forum carried out a survey amongst its members in 2010 (n=1015)
(http://cms.hommaforum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=240:hommaf
orumin-kaeyttaejien-taustatieto-ja-asennekysely-huhtikuu-2010, last accessed 20.12. 2013).
According to the survey, the majority of members are male (91 per cent), relatively young (the
proportion of those younger than 34 is 54 per cent), and have predominantly middle class
social background (occupational status: workers, lower clerical workers (alempi toimihenkilö)
and farmers 25 per cent, experts (asiantuntija) and upper clerical workers (ylempi toimihenkilö)
32 per cent, entrepreneurs and heads of companies 12 per cent, pensioners 2 per cent,
housewives, house fathers and the unemployed altogether 29 per cent).
Homma-forum, even though it is certainly one of the most important discussion forums about
immigration and multiculturalism in Finland, has been studied only sporadically (see e.g.
Puuronen 2011: 225-6; Hannula 2011: 145-61; Koivulaakso et al. 2012: 117-9). An in-depth
analysis of Homma-forum is lacking. General research on social media in Finland is also quite
rare. Some studies have been made on, for instance, school shootings and social media, the
use of social media in political campaigning and civic activities and the role of social media in
local democracy (Sassi 2000; Khaldarova et al. 2012; Muschert and Sumiala eds. 2012;
Matikainen and Villi 2013).
In this study the main focus is on the ideology of Homma-forum. The study of ideology is
crucial if and when we try to understand the growing popularity of right-wing populism in
Finland. The starting point of this study is that many of the activist of Homma-forum,
supporters of The Finns Party and the activists of Suomen Sisu and also of the Change 2011
party share some basic ideological views. Ideology gives them a reasonable description of the
situation of Finnish society and explains the reasons for its actual problems.
According to one of the first members of the Homma-forum, it is an internet community, which
was established in order to facilitate reasoned discussion about the texts of Jussi Halla-aho and
about those topics that are raised in public debate on immigration politics. The central idea
that binds the members of Homma together is criticism of multiculturalism. ‘Homma is needed
because the mainstream media does not understand that multiculturalism is a religion, and
that immigration policy has failed and leads to the destruction of society (see Puuronen 2011:
226).
4
Some attempts have been made to measure the influence of certain social media sites, blogs or discussion
forums, but researchers have found it very difficult to design reliable measures. The measurement of the influence
of individual users has been more successful. The influence of individual users is measured, for instance, by
counting the number of responses their messages or tweets inspired. (See Berger and Strathearn 2013: 3-4).
Measuring the influence of individual members of Homma-forum could be an interesting topic orf further analysis.
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Ideology has been defined in several ways. Its classic definition by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels starts from stating that social consciousness of people living in capitalist society is
determined by the ruling class. This false consciousness is based on beliefs, which conceal
social reality from social agents. Ideology is used by the ruling class to mislead the potentially
revolutionary working class so that it willingly submits to the rule of capitalists. After Marx and
Engels ideology has been a central concept of the theories of Karl Mannheim, Antonio Gramsci,
Louis Althusser and many others.
According to Hamilton (1987: 20-1) ideology consists of ideas, beliefs, understandings and
attitudes that underlie cognitive assumptions and beliefs and the total structure of the mind
and that are more or less coherent. Ideology is associated with a social group, class or
community or whole society, and it often gives this social group supreme significance. Ideology
can contain statements of facts or statements that are held to be factual, and it also contains
normative statements, which express morals and values, and it seeks to explain reality. In this
study the concept of ideology refers to a set of ideas that gives the members of a certain
community (in this case Homma-forum) a certain point of view on reality. It gives its adherents
support, arguments and future prospects (see e.g. Karlsson 2005: 79-80). Hannah Arendt
(2013: 539) points out that the central feature of ideology (or ism) is that it can explain
everything in a way that satisfies its supporters, because the explanations are based on one or
a few basic assumptions.
The focus of this study has been derived from previous studies on ideology of right-wing
populism in Finland and Europe (Mudde 2007; Berezin 2009; Arter 2010; Puuronen 2011; van
Spanje 2011; Wiberg 2011; Koivulaakso et al. 2012). These studies suggest that basic principles
of the ideology of right-wing populists are related to populism, nationalism and
authoritarianism, and, in addition, welfare chauvinism and ethnopluralism are regarded as
important dimensions of right-wing ideology.
Mudde (2000, 2007) has written extensively about the definition of right-wing parties. Even
though Homma-forum is not a party it is a political actor that resembles a party. The ideology
of Homma-forum can be studied by using the concepts and definitions developed by
researchers of populist and other types of right-wing parties. Populism means, according to
Mudde, an ‘…ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous
and antagonistic groups “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite”, and which argues that
politics should be an expression of “volonté general” (general will) of the people’ (Mudde 2004:
543). Nationalism refers to a belief that ‘the political unit (state) and the cultural unit (the
nation or ethnic community) should be congruent. Nativism is a dimension of nationalism and it
means that only people, who belong to a certain nation and/or ethnic community, have a right
to live in the particular state. The non-natives are seen as a threat to an ethnically and
culturally homogeneous nation-state (Mudde 2000: 187, 2007: 19). Also welfare chauvinism
can be seen as an extension of nationalism and nativism in a sense that it suggests the
restriction of welfare benefits to the native population (Mudde 2007: 23, 130-2).
Ethnopluralism refers to a belief ‘in permanent (natural or hereditary) differences between
groups of people’. Ethnopluralism also includes an aim to keep different cultural and ethnic
groups separated, as people are considered to have a right and also a duty to live in their
natural environment. Authoritarianism refers, on the one hand, to criticism towards democracy
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and multiparty system and it is related to an adherence to the Führerprinzip, but, on the other
hand, it includes requirements of stricter obedience to law and maintenance of order in
society.
The subsequent analytic section attempts to discern whether the above mentioned ideas and
beliefs are cornerstones of Homma-ideology as well. Before that, however, it is worth noting
Joost van Spanje’s attempt to develop empirically more useful criteria for the definition of
parties, which have often defined the right wing by referring to ideology. Van Spanje tries to
develop new classifications and criteria in order make it possible to compare political parties.
According to van Spanje, ideology is not the only useful starting point when defining the nature
of a party; policies of the parties should be taken into account also. He proposes that policies
towards immigration are particularly important since most of the parties that are often
regarded as right-wing have been founded or gained popularity after mass-immigration began
and because they have had anti-immigration political programmes from their foundation or
have adopted such programmes in some phase of their development. For instance, Austrian
FPÖ and the Finnish Finns Party were established already in the 1950s as protest parties, but
became popular and influential after they adopted an anti-immigration programme (van Spanje
2011: 293-4, 302, footnote 32). Inspired by van Spanje, the policies or policy recommendations
presented in Homma-forum will be used also to study the political nature of the forum.5
5
While it is useful to take into consideration the policies supported by political agents, when trying to define their
position on the left-right continuum, any absolute separation of policy and ideology is not feasible given that
policies are based on values, which are related to ideologies. Quite often the policies are legitimized by referring
to practical issues, for instance economic restrictions, but even in these cases it is possible to reveal the ideological
underpinnings of the policies.
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2. Methods
The main data used in this study consist of messages (texts) of one of the discussions of
Homma-forum. The discussion began on 31.1.2013 and the last message that is included in this
analysis was published on 9.3.2013. The data include 394 messages from 114 discussants. The
total length of the discussion, after it was transformed into a text file (Times New Roman, 12
ppt, single spaced) is 268 pages. The discussion was originally titled ‘The life and activities of
Vesa Puuronen’, later it was retitled ‘Vesa Puuronen – discussion’. In the beginning of year
2014 the discussion contained 441 messages, which have been read 29,711 times. The latest
message was been published on 27.12. 2013.
(http://hommaforum.org/index.php/topic,79095.0.html, last accessed 4.1. 2014).
The initiator of this discussion uses the pseudonym hakare6, who explained in his first message
that he opened the discussion because Vesa Puuronen has had several times the possibility to
express his views about racism, multiculturalism, immigration and related topics in TV news
and TV magazine programmes. Consequently according to hakare it was time to discuss this
‘expert’ (quotation marks in original text) in Homma-forum.
The researcher’s original intention was not to use this discussion as research material but the
preparatory reading of the messages showed that the discussion opens up a possibility to gain
comprehensive understanding of the ideological starting points and arguments of a number of
members and activists of Homma. Since the topic of discussion was the researcher himself, as
a social scientist and a public commentator, and his views, it was easy to justify his own
participation in the discussion. The field itself invited the researcher into the field.
As soon as it became clear that the discussion could be used as research material, the
researcher informed the participants about his intention to do this. In the second message (9.2.
2013; http://hommaforum.org/index.php/topic,79095.30.html, last accessed 9.12. 2013), he
wrote that Homma-forum would be the object of his research and that he intended to use the
messages of the discussion as research material. He also wrote that he was interested in
radical anti-immigrant attitudes amongst the members of Homma-forum. In another message
(26.2. 2013, http://hommaforum.org/index.php/topic,79095.270.html, last accessed 9.12.
2013) he repeated that the discussion would be used as data for this research. He also
promised that he would publish the results of the research on Homma-forum (if possible) in
order to get comments from the participants in the discussion and other members of the
forum. In order to fulfill this promise this research report will be translated into Finnish.
Participation in this discussion offered a possibility to study the functioning of a discussion
forum and, especially in this study, the ideological starting points of the participants of Hommaforum from the inside. The position of the researcher in this instance is similar to that of
ethnographers studying the activities of some communities, groups or subcultures as
participant observers. In this case, however, the texts produced by the participants of the
6
In this study the pseudonyms used are those used by the discussants themselves.
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discussion will be used as sources for the study of ideology rather than of the interaction of the
members of this internet community.7
The researcher participated in the discussion of the forum for two months. This participation
consisted of reading the contributions of discussants and sending eight contributions to the
forum. In the contributions the researcher tried to approach the messages of other discussants
critically, which naturally resulted in a number of responses. Through his own contributions the
researcher was able to introduce certain topics to the discussion, which might otherwise not
have been addressed, and to deepen the discussion about some other issues raised. From this
point of view participation in the on-line discussion is comparable to an interview in which a
researcher gives feedback to interviewees and tries to encourage them to validate their views
and arguments comprehensively. Even though the researcher participated in the discussion and
tried to direct it towards certain topics that he regarded important, the discussants
nevertheless selected the topics and formulated their contributions freely.
The mode of discussion in the Homma-forum is as follows: an initiator of the discussion or a
topic sends a relatively short message to which other discussants respond immediately or quite
quickly by sending equally short messages. This form of discussion allows for a quick exchange
of ideas, thus the virtual on-line discussion imitates face-to-face discussion and transforms
writing into ‘speech’ (see Sade-Beck 2004: 45). Because shortness and speed are the norms of
virtual conversation, on-line discussions tend to be quite superficial. The same or almost the
same arguments are presented repeatedly. Deeper analyses of phenomena are rarely possible.
Consequently, messages may strengthen the misunderstandings and stereotypes shared by the
members of the group.
The researcher’s own participation in the discussion did not strictly follow the unwritten rules
of on-line discussions in Homma-forum. Instead of short immediate responses to the messages
of individual discussants the researcher gathered and analysed several messages during a few
days and responded to them simultaneously in one longer message. This way of participation
was necessary because otherwise a lot of time would have been spent responding to individual
messages. The number of responses was 26 in 24 hours after the researcher’s first message,
after the second message the number of responses was 56 in 24 hours. The researcher’s mode
of participation was generally appreciated and understood by other participants. However,
because the researcher tried to answer the messages at length, the nature of the discussion, in
which he participated, was not necessarily exactly the same as most of the discussions in
Homma-forum. Messages were longer and more thorough.
Since Homma-forum contains moderated discussions, all the people who want to participate
must register themselves, after which they are given a password and they can choose a
username. A person can participate in the discussion either by using a pseudonym or their own
name as a username. If this is the case the moderators check their identity. The researcher
wrote his messages and logged into the discussion forum using his own name.
Since most of the members of the Homma-forum use pseudonyms and the forum does not
gather socio-demographic information from the members (it is voluntary to give ones age and
7
This could also be a topic of future research.
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gender when registering in the forum, but only a few people do it), it is impossible to give a
socio-demographic profile of participants8. However, in the introduction of this report results
of the survey, which Homma-forum itself had carried out amongst its members, are provided
and give a general socio-demographic picture of forum users. The survey showed that
members are predominantly young men. The results of the survey are in line with other studies
in which the supporters of political parties (including right-wing populist parties) have been
studied. These studies show that right-wing populism is most popular among young men. Thus,
even though it is obvious that not all members of Homma-forum are young people, the
ideology that is represented in the discussion is supported by a significant proportion of young
people, especially males.
The analysis, which will be presented in the following chapter, is based on the coding of the
messages of all individuals who participated in the discussion. The codes were formed to cover
the topics that are mentioned in the messages. All the messages of for example pseudonym
hakare (the initiator of the discussion) were compiled in one file, which was then coded as if it
was an interview. The length of text files (compiled messages) varied quite a lot. The shortest
files contained only one message with a few words or sentences, while the longest contained
several messages and were more than ten pages long. NVivo qualitative data analysis software
was used to code the files.
3. Key Findings
In this section the key findings of the research are presented. The section is organised
thematically in accordance with the findings of the study. It includes empirical substantiation in
the form of citations from the messages send to the discussion. In the course of the discussion
several interesting topics and themes surfaced. The analysis that follows addresses three of
these: multiculturalism and relations between cultures; policies related to foreign citizens
(aliens), especially integration policy; and ideological classifications.
Multiculturalism is an important theme in the studied discussion. The subtopics of the
discussion were the general nature of cultures, the role of cultures in the explanation of human
behavior, cultural adaptation and cultural conflicts. Criticism of immigration and integration
policy included subtopics such as positive discrimination, double standards and the relationship
between social benefits and the immigrant employment. Classification of right-wing and leftwing political groups is an important topic of political discussion in Finland and in many other
European countries, as it is also in the research on political parties and movements. It has also
been important in the Finnish political debate. The Finns Party and its supporters in Hommaforum try to show that they can be classified under neither traditional wing of the political
scene.
8
This is why the appendix containing the socio-demographic data of respondents is missing from this report.
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3.1. Cultural discordance and multiculturalism
Soon after the creation of Homma-forum in December 2008 documents that described its basic
principles and founding ideas were published. In the documents the general aim of Homma
was defined as publishing the flaws of the political and social development of Finland and
encouraging discussion about these flaws and the future of the country. The document warned
that the reader of the forum would encounter opinions deemed unethical and not politically
correct by mainstream media. (http://hommaforum.org/index.php/topic,101.0.html,
published originally 14.12.2008, last accessed 7.1. 2013). In another document (Codex
Hommaforum) the forum defines itself as an internet discussion forum, which is focused on
immigration and multiculturalism. In addition, Homma-forum promises to offer peer support to
people who have been stigmatized because of their political views.
(http://hommaforum.org/index.php/topic,99.msg486/topicseen.html#msg486, published
originally 14.12. 2008, last accessed 14.1. 2013). In the ‘Codex Hommaforum’ Homma defined
itself as politically independent, but the views expressed in the discussions of the forum are
most often near to those of The Finns (as in supporters of the Finns Party). The close relation
between The Finns and Homma-forum is demonstrated also by the fact that one of the
founders of Homma-forum, Matias Turkkila, is now the editor-in-chief of the chief publication
of The Finns (Perussuomalainen) (http://uutiset.perussuomalaiset.fi/, last accessed 5.1. 2014).
Immigration and multiculturalism are definitively amongst the most important topics in
Homma-forum. Most lively discussions are related to them. In the subsequent analysis, the
most important thoughts about immigration and multiculturalism expressed in the Vesa
Puuronen discussion are outlined. An overwhelming majority of the messages in the discussion
were against immigration and multiculturalism. One of the main arguments against
immigration was related to claims that immigrants are underqualified and culturally unable to
live in the Finnish society. One of the discussants states that:
the real problems (of the immigrants) are of course a lack of language and professional
skills and the way of living, customs and culture acquired in the home country. (These
are the very factors, which have caused the problems in the home country). These are,
in many respects, totally unsuitable for the restrained, Lutheran, western and
secularized Finnish way of living, which emphasizes hard work. (Cassius Ali).
Cassius Ali expresses a very common conviction amongst the discussants in Homma-forum that
immigrants are unable to live in modern society. This conviction is sometimes related to an
implicit or explicit assumption that western cultures are superior to cultures of the home
countries of immigrants. More often this conviction is based on the observed difficulties of
people from many economically less developed countries to compete in the labour market with
Finns.
Religion is regarded as one of the factors influencing the integration of immigrants into the
Finnish labour market. One discussant claims that ‘If due to religion a person is unable to act in
a different environment, s/he is unadaptable. This maybe does not make the person lazy, but
worthless in another environment.’ (Marko Parkkola). Parkkola thinks that in principle religion
can be an obstacle to a person getting work in Finland, but, which is remarkable, he does not
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assume that people who have a different religion are lazy. Thus, he does not think that other
religions than Christianity have different and worse work ethics.
JJohannes sees that Islam has a secondary influence on work ethics. According to him the most
important factor is the influence of a salary on the living standard of immigrants. Immigrants
compare their living standard in the home country to their living standard in the host country. If
the living standard in the host country is better than in the home country without working,
they are not interested in work. He also claims that this attitude is handed down from older
generations to younger generations. Also Lucius Vorenius notes the socialization of immigrant
children and youth into harmful cultural habits and thinking patterns of their parents. Even
though these discussants seem to have doubts concerning the cultural adaptability of
immigrants to Finnish society, they do not claim that the culture of immigrants is lower than
Finnish culture; they only say that it is different and they think that this difference creates
problems.
Pseudonym Mursu (Walrus) wrote that there is a mismatch between Somali immigrants and
Finnish society. Consequently s/he recommends that the immigration of Somali people should
be restricted. Mursu underlines that s/he has a practical approach: if immigration results in
problems, it must be stopped. Mursu also writes that immigrants should adapt to the society
into which they move, not vice versa. Immigrants must learn the language, local customs and
they have to be humble.
These opinions reflect ethnopluralist ideological starting points: cultures should live separately
and if representatives of a foreign culture enter a country it causes problems.
One way to justify the assumption that cultures should be kept apart is to regard culture as the
most important explanatory factor of human conduct. For example, Kauhea ihmismäinen otus
(Awful manlike creature) writes that even though an individual has a free will, he or she is to a
certain extent a product of his/her culture. The culture and values of home are posited as basic
starting points. Thus, the core values and beliefs of immigrants’ cultures, which differ from the
values of Finnish culture, are the most difficult problem. These values concern, for example, the
roles of men and women, different taboos, the role of religion, attitudes towards difference,
individual freedom versus community, conceptions of time, conservatism versus liberalism, the
pursuit of individual interests or the interests of community and so on. Finally Kauhea
ihmismäinen otus asks, what will be the outcome if a group of people from culture A is
imported to enrich the culture B and if cultures A and B are contradictory: will the future of
Finnish society be like it is presented in a multicultural utopia or will it be characterised by
ethnic conflict? The thoughts of Kauhea ihmismäinen otus are also based on ethnopluralist
principles.
Multiculturalism is a basic political evil for many contributors to the discussion, which is
understandable if the basic supposition is that cultures cannot live together. For instance,
AuggieWren writes that multiculturalism leads to a total contempt for rules of conduct, to
violence and wanton anarchism. In addition he states that multiculturalism is used to sell
people the idea that the basic principles of the western constitutional state, which are based
on the declaration of human rights and other international human rights agreements, can be,
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and have to be, thrown aside if the interaction of people from different backgrounds is to be
promoted. Those who defend the constitutional state (i.e. those who oppose immigration) are
schizophrenically accused of disapproving the constitutional state and human rights and also
accused of racism. AuggieWren also states that multicultural ideology forgets that the
disintegration of human rights and basic liberties leads to a situation in which a model of
interaction ceases to exist. This leads the society into violent anarchy or alternatively to
arbitrary dictatorship. Both Kauhea ihmismäinen otus and AuggieWren warn that immigrants
can become a threat to the stability and peace of Finnish society.
According to Lucius Vorenius multiculturalism in Finland means that the existence of Finnish
national culture is denied, that the positive sides of the Finnish culture are undermined and
that at the same time the cultures of immigrants are openly and loudly admired. He also claims
that the proponents of multiculturalism think that the external features of cultures (for
instance clothing, food, drinks and ceremonies) are especially important, while internally
cultures are similar, which obviously makes them believe that cultures can be merged. Through
these thoughts he wants to criticise the alleged cultural relativist assumptions of
multiculturalists.
Multicultural society has been defined normatively as a society in which ‘the importance of
ethnic communities and cultural identities to people are recognised and which considers it
necessary to recognise cultural diversity and to protect the autonomous development of
cultures’ (Lepola 2000: 383). Maastamuuttaja (Emigrant) writes that most of the participants of
Homma-forum probably do not agree or consider it self-evident that minority languages and
cultures are worth preserving. He asks why Finland as a state should help the preservation of
these cultures. According to him these cultures can be preserved inside immigrant homes and
can be expressed in towns, but if they are in contradiction with, for instance, Finnish working
culture, they should be altered. Maastamuuttaja also presents an example of an immigrant,
who has a respected position in the Finnish labour market because he has not permitted his
culture to destroy his chances in Finland. Based on this example he asks why society should
support cultural segregation, which leads to marginalization in the labour market. He adds that
the concern over extinction of minority cultures is groundless, because cultures are preserved
in the home countries of immigrants.
One important demonstration of cultural discordance and of the impossibility of immigrant
adaption, especially of Muslim male immigrants, is, according to many members of Hommaforum, immigrants’ criminality. Especially rapes are often mentioned as an example of
incongruity between western Finnish society and its values and habits and the values and
habits of Muslim male immigrants and their cultures. For instance, pseudonym Histon is
convinced that Muslim males are overrepresented in the statistics concerning rapes in Finland.
According to him this reflects the oppressed status of women in certain cultures.
Some discussants argue against multiculturalism by referring to historical and present
examples, which according to them show that multiculturalism has failed. For instance
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Yugoslavia, Russia and Western European countries are mentioned (Captain Nuiva9). For
example, pseudonym Pöllämystynyt (Extremely Surprised) wrote that:
I don’t oppose different cultures, but I oppose the destruction and superficial
refinement of cultures by different measures of state, like population transfers,
campaigns that incite self-hatred and, by discrimination, and merging of native
people and cultural features.
Also Pöllämystynyt represents an ethnopluralist viewpoint by stating that for instance
population transfers, by which s/he refers to immigration, have negative consequences.
Discussant elven archer (lower case in the original) writes that the cultural adaptation of
immigrants is not an end in itself, which should override the development of Finnish society in
pursuit of the respect of human rights, success, tolerance and security. He underlines that
Finnish culture can change, if it changes for the better. Especially he warns that the increase of
Muslim immigrants can lead to an extremely patriarchal and religiously intolerant macho
culture. Gloaming writes that Islam and especially Islamism are disgusting and backward
cultural phenomena, which western countries should not echo because of alleged oppression,
or constructed guilt or victimization. Gloaming states that we owe nothing to Islamic countries
or any other developing country.
In the following subsection the attitudes of the members of Homma-forum towards Finnish
integration policies - including social benefits, education and housing policies in relation to
immigrants - and its consequences are described.
3.2 Catastrophic integration policies
Discussant Cassius Ali claims that immigrants who arrive in Finland most often have falsified
documents and have no legitimate reasons for immigrating, in addition they are smuggled or
otherwise enter the country illegally. He uses the concept ‘economic refugee’
(elintasopakolainen)10 when referring to immigrants. He claims that social workers and other
social authorities educate refugees to use and claim all possible social benefits, the existence of
which the native population normally does not know. He also claims that newcomers are
prioritized over the natives by social authorities. He writes that the generous upkeep of
9
Nuiva is one of the key concepts of anti-immigrant argot that has been developed by Jussi Halla-aho and his
adherents. Nuiva means literally ‘passive’, ‘reluctant’ or ‘hard-to-please’. The word became publicly known when
Halla-aho and a group of like-minded MP candidates of The Finns published Nuiva Vaalimanifesti
(Passive/reluctant Election manifesto) before the general elections in 2011. After that the critics of immigration
have used the word nuiva to refer to opposition to immigration policy and multiculturalism. Nuiva and different
versions of it are quite popular pseudonyms also amongst the members of Homma-forum. 23 members have a
reference to nuiva as a part of their pseudonym.
10
In the Finnish immigration debate elintasopakolainen refers to a person, who has emigrated from his or her
home country in order to enhance his or her standard of living. This is often not regarded as a legitimate reason
for immigration, while political refugees (asylum seekers) are more accepted. Quite often in practice, e.g. at local
municipal level, members of The Finns oppose all immigrants regardless of their status.
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newcomers, who get all the benefits without having done anything for the society, brings about
bitterness amongst the native population.
The thoughts of Cassius Ali represent clear-cut welfare chauvinism, which is a part of nativism
and thus also of nationalism. According to Cassius Ali social workers conspire (even though they
are natives) to educate immigrants in getting as ample benefits as possible. Even though social
workers in Finland are quite low-paid it seems that Cassius Ali thinks that they are one of the
elite groups, who are allied to weaken the position and even the social benefits of native
people. Opposition to elites is an important dimension of populism.
Also Jaakko P., who writes that in Finland immigration is a branch of business (some others call
it immigration cluster11), tries to construct an image of a (elite) group of people who is
benefiting from immigration. He claims that this ‘sick’ immigration business is paid for by
taxpayers, who are deprived of human rights and ‘bashed as racists’. Arvoton (Worthless)
writes that in Finland different authorities and political movements need immigrants for their
livelihoods and Jouko writes that the immigration cluster already employs so many people that
it is very difficult to dismantle.
Many members of Homma-forum (and The Finns Party) support a reduction of integration
resources, because they think that the resources are used for useless or even harmful
purposes. JJohannes writes that the existence of integration resources does not guarantee that
integration really takes place. In addition he notes that the amount of integration resources
should be compared to the benefits of integration.
Affirmative action is one of the means developed to lower the threshold of entering
employment and education for immigrants. The concept is attacked by the members of
Homma-forum. According to AuggieWren the cases in which affirmative action (or positive
discrimination) has been used should be investigated and condemned. Marko Parkkola writes
that affirmative action shows that immigrants are given more than natives, which according to
him, means reversed discrimination against native Finns. AuggieWren and Marko Parkkola try
to construct an opposition between native people and immigrants by stating that affirmative
action oppresses natives and results in inequality.
Racism is often regarded as a major obstacle to the integration of immigrants, but the
members of Homma think either that racism does not exist or that it is only of minor
importance to the integration processes. Immigrants themselves are often thought to be a
reason for racism. Racism is viewed as a stigmatizing label that is used to silence those people
who are critical of immigration and integration policies. For instance, AuggieWren and Mika H
ask whether it is racism, if a person says that Somali people on average adjust to western
societies extremely badly. Mika H continues by asking: ‘is it racism to express a truth?’
The definition of racism is one of the issues that are discussed. Most often members of
Homma-forum seem to share a narrow conception of racism. They define racism as
11
Immigration cluster here refers to institutions and organizations, which organize training, housing and other
social services for immigrants. Immigration critics claim that people and organizations, who have been employed
by immigration cluster support immigration, because they are economically dependent on it.
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institutionalized racial discrimination (Cassius Ali) or an espousal of racist ideology. Cassius Ali
writes that even though he thinks that racial differences exist and that other cultures are
disgusting, he is not a racist but only an observer who tries to find out what is best for Finland.
Malla writes that s/he prefers to use the concept ‘discrimination’ instead of racism and
continues that s/he cannot understand why the meaning of the concept of racism is constantly
widened.
Pseudonym elven archer asks why well-founded criticism of immigration or all forms of
discrimination are labelled racism. He answers that the concept ‘racism’ is used because it is a
powerful term, which is useful in furthering the interests of certain groups (like the proponents
of multiculturalism or researchers of racism). Herra 4x (Mister 4x) writes that if all criticism of
immigrants is labelled racism, then also the presentation of facts can be racism. Mursu
remarks that for a tolerant person racism has the same meaning as original sin has to a
Christian. All are sinners but some are more sinful than others. Those who are more sinful (i.e.
racist) must be punished.
Histon takes as his/her starting point the thought that racism exists everywhere and asks why it
cannot be defined as natural. AuggieWren thinks that racism is more prevalent in Muslim
countries than in western countries. He thinks that, for instance, the application of sharia leads
to the acceptance of racism as a foundation of society, when it does not accept any other
religion or atheism and that sharia in the extreme form is as destructive as racism, because it
requires the killing of infidels.
The concept of structural racism has been used in racism studies to explain, for instance, the
high unemployment and low educational achievement of immigrants. The members of
Homma-forum do not accept this explanation. Some of them categorically deny the usefulness
of the concept because according to them it is impossible to prove empirically how structural
racism produces inequalities.
AuggieWren asks if is it possible in principle to imagine that immigrants from a country such as
Somalia, where the society is totally shaken, are not in a worse position than the native
population. If it is not possible, then the use of concept ‘structural racism’ is not justified when
describing or explaining their social status. He also points out that in Nazi Germany there was
structural racism, which was included in the legislation. S/he claims that structural racism
existed also in the Soviet Union, even though in a more unofficial form. At the moment
institutional oppression, by which he means genuine racism, is most common in Africa and
Middle East. The discussion about structural racism is based, according to AuggieWren, on the
premise that if there was no racism at all, the ethnic groups would be equally successful in
society. This premise does not take into account, for instance, the different meaning of
education in different cultures. He also says that the researchers who use structural racism as
an explanatory factor are not able to show how it produces inequality.
Captain Nuiva wonders why it is so hard to understand that if an immigrant cannot read or
write or speak the language of his/her new home country, it is very difficult to get work. He
asks if a Finn, who does not read or write or communicate, was excluded from the labour
market, would s/he also be regarded as a victim of structural racism. Also C-Nive wants to find
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the reason for the high unemployment and other social disadvantages of immigrants in the
immigrants themselves. S/he claims that immigrants are comparable to disabled people, who
are also less successful than the so called ordinary people. He asks if structural racism is a
reason for the underperformance of disabled people as a group.
Homma-member elven archer criticizes the use of structural racism as an explanatory factor
claiming that it results in a circular argument. He argues that the examples from the USA,
where both the best and the worst performing groups are minorities, show that the reason for
better or worse success is performance. IKE60 also asks how we can be certain that the reason
for worse success is structural racism and not the differences in the competences and
motivations of people. He also points out that according to some researchers the low results of
African people in IQ tests are due to worse nutrition and low level of stimuli in their home
societies compared to western countries. He concludes that lower performance of Somali
people in the labour market is caused by their lower intellectual capacity, which in turn is due
to worse nutrition. Inwell draws attention to a tendency that the use of the concept structural
racism makes ordinary Finns feel guilty.
Mursu claims that integration policy, especially social benefits given to immigrants, is an
important reason for the unemployment of immigrants. S/he refers to the better employment
situation of Somali immigrants in the USA, where there are no social benefits or the benefits
are remarkably lower than in Finland. Especially s/he criticizes child benefits, which, according
to him/her, are so high that, for instance, Somali people, who tend to have big families, do not
need to work at all in order to achieve a better living standard in Finland than in their home
country. S/he refers to the misuse of social benefits by, for example, registering the mother of
a big family as a single parent, who is entitled to higher benefits. S/he also accuses the trade
unions and their equal wage policies of having caused immigrant unemployment, because
employers are reluctant to pay equal pay to immigrant workers, who are not able to speak the
language. S/he proposes that in the future social benefits should be paid only to those
immigrants who have a refugee status recognised by the UNCHR (United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees).
Pseudonym Professor points out that the Finnish integration system, which offers the
immigrants remarkable benefits, marginalises them before they get enough qualifications to
acquire competitiveness in the labour market. He proposes that benefits should be tied more
directly to progress on integration. He also thinks that the resources of teaching Finnish
language and culture have been underestimated. The participation of immigrants in language
teaching should be a condition for receiving benefits. Debater Roope agrees with Professor and
adds that there are enough resources for integration and sufficient integration measures, but
wrong things are done in wrong ways. For instance, he mentions that the lowering of language
requirements in certain professions has been a mistake; instead immigrants should be
encouraged to study Finnish language more actively. He claims that generally language
teaching is inefficient and integration education can be characterised as day care for adults.
Mursu thinks that immigrants calculate their costs and benefits when considering working and
that they are imprudent anyhow. They consider only their immediate benefit, while other,
cleverer people take the long view. This can be seen, according to Mursu, for instance, when
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immigrants do not participate in education because education benefits them only in the future.
Mursu claims that Finnish immigration policy is totally wrong; it creates social problems,
increases criminality and, for instance, racism. S/he only accepts labour immigration, if it is
restricted to those people, who are really needed in Finland.
One of the most basic criticisms of integration policies is that they have created a situation in
which immigrants and native people are treated differently. The rules that are applied are not
the same, AuggieWren claims. Mika H. writes that the sentence that was passed to MP Jussi
Halla-aho, for incitement against a minority in his blog, shows that Halla-aho cannot enjoy the
right of freedom of speech in a similar way as others in Finland. Double standards are applied in
the courts, critics of immigration and multiculturalism are treated more harshly than
proponents of multiculturalism. Double standards are also applied in terms of social benefits;
immigrants are given more benefits than native people and the criteria for getting benefits are
looser for immigrants than for the native population (Finns).
Contributor Cassius Ali is convinced that observing the situation in Sweden, Denmark and many
other European countries, proves that unsuccessful immigration policies and especially refugee
policy has caused social disorder. He recommends that politicians in Finland study the
experiences of European countries and learn that lenient immigration policy is the best means
of destroying the Finnish welfare state.
Most discussants cited above oppose immigration. Many of them also are in favour of nativist
and welfare chauvinist ideas. But some of them exposed real problems of immigration policies.
For instance, the lack of integration resources has delayed the participation of many
immigrants in language learning, occupational training and so forth resulting in a situation in
which immigrants have become marginalised and dependent on welfare benefits. Criticism
towards immigration policy is, thus, not only biased and unjustified, but it also sometimes
uncovers real problems. This combination of biased statements, which are based on certain
welfare chauvinist principles and populist suspicions and some well-grounded observations,
makes then quite attractive to people, who do not actively question the ideological starting
points of these statements. Consequently these partly ideological and partly factual statements
explain reality to a degree, which makes them plausible and increases the support for Hommaforum and The Finns.
3.3 Confusing definitions of left and right
In international and Finnish research on populist radical right one of the most difficult
questions is how to classify different movements and political parties. For instance, the Finns
Party has usually been labelled as a representative of right-wing populism or as a far-right antiimmigrant party (Helsingin Sanomat 2008, Cochrane and Nevitte 2007). Some Finnish political
commentators (politicians) have expressed a fear that The Finns Party is developing into a
racist party (Arter 2010). Since many of the members of Homma-forum are supporters of The
Finns Party, the ideological categorization of the party is an important issue for them. In this
context the categories of left and right are of utmost importance: what do these categories
refer to and what is the relation of Homma-forum or The Finns to these political camps.
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The issues raised regarding the classification problem in the Vesa Puuronen discussion are
related, for instance, to the support for stricter immigration policy (i.e. reduction in the number
of immigrants). Discussants tend to think that the support of more restrictive policies does not
mean that a party (or a person) belongs to the right wing. Also the opinion that Islam is a
violent and medieval religion or opposing the immigration of Muslim people should not justify
the classification of a person as right-wing (e.g. Arto Luukkainen, Alkuasukas (Aboriginal)).
Some discussants state also that their support for restrictive social policy or prohibition of
public begging in the streets does not mean necessarily a right-wing orientation. Restrictive
social policy in this context means that only native inhabitants are entitled to social benefits.
Also the expression of opposition to the stoning of women, toIslam or some other religion, to
suppression of women and to sharia are not considered criteria for being classified as extreme
right (Captain Nuiva, Gloaming).
Herra 4x writes that MP Jussi Halla-aho does not belong to the extreme right, because in the
Scripta blog he has only criticized Finnish immigration policies and commented sharply on the
issues that are often silenced in the mainstream media. He also points out that for instance in
the TV discussions the attempts to classify The Finns or especially Halla-aho and like-minded
MPs have taken precedence over the discussion about subject matters, such as immigration
policy.
Discussantr Ant. presents a list of criteria, which he proposes as a definition of the extreme
right. The criteria are: persecution of minorities or at least a clear differentiation of ‘us’ (the
majority) from ‘others’ (minorities), nationalism, which means that the interests of one’s own
country are more important than the interests of other countries, misogyny, anti-Semitism,
violence towards people who do not support the same ideology, anti-democracy and
hierarchization of people. Contributor sr remarks that extreme movements should include
anarchists and extreme Islamist movements. He also writes that some sectarian religious
movements in Finland can be classified as extreme, because they violate the human rights of
their members, even though they are not revolutionary movements.
Siili (Hedgehog) points out that nationalism is often used as a classification criterion for rightwing (or extreme right-wing) orientation. He elegantly states that many national liberation
movements in the developing countries are also nationalist, but most often they are not
classified as right-wing but as left-wing movements.
IDA points out that the concept of extreme right is used by researchers to refer to something
that is backward and that has stayed at the level of rudimentary ideas and is then contrasted
with a correct, superior worldview. Real life political movements or actors cannot be so black
and white. Emperor claims that The Finns Party is not a right-wing but centre-leftist party. In
addition, he writes that populism is not a monopoly of The Finns but characterises other
Finnish parties as well, for instance the Left Alliance. Emperor also questions the legitimacy of
the definitions made by researchers, because most members of The Finns Party disapprove of
them.
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Kummastelija (Wonderer) mentions that on EU issues The Finns have the same definition of
policy as the Left Alliance and that the party members include former communists,
entrepreneurs, farmers and so on. Because of this social versatility it is useless to try to assign
The Finns Party either to the right or to the left. He proposes that the classification criterion for
the parties should be their attitudes towards Finnishness and Europeanness. According to him
The Finns are the most oriented towards Finnishness in Finland. All the other parties have more
or less a European orientation or are divided and equivocal. He claims that the Left Alliance and
The Greens even hate all things Finnish or even European; these parties admire African
countries and religions.
Pöllämystynyt explains that if The Finns Party is defined as a right-wing party it should support
capitalism, plutocracy and other ideas of economic policy advocated by traditional right-wing
parties. If The Finns are defined as an extreme right-wing party, then it should be a supporter
of unrestricted domination of the market forces and capitalist exploitation. He also writes that
it is unrealistic to believe in a conspiracy theory, which assumes that The Finns and for instance
MP Jussi Hallo-aho are secretly financed or directed by high finances.12 He asks: ‘how can leftwing definitions of economic and social policy become right-wing?´
Zoroaster proposes that the dividing line between the left and right wing should be the attitude
towards equality. Right-wing neo-liberal politicians support economic inequality, nationalsocialists supported radical racial inequality.
Discussants of Homma-forum use also historical examples when discussing the classification of
the left wing and right wing. Ajattelija2008 (Thinker2008), Arto Luukkainen and Captain Nuiva
claim that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi party, NSDAP) was
predominantly socialist, even though the party fiercely attacked socialists, communists and
trade unions. The persecution of Jews does not make the NSDAP an extreme right-wing party
either—or then also the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) should be defined as an
extreme right-wing party, because during the Stalin era communists, social democrats and Jews
were persecuted. Captain Nuiva claims that the programme of the NSDAP includes the
nationalization of industrial enterprises as an aim.
JJohannes points out that both in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union the economy was
based on planning. He claims that even though the means of production were privately owned
in Nazi Germany the use of these means was centrally planned and governed by state
bureaucracy. Racial discrimination, which is based on a worldview that explains human history
as a fight between races, is according to JJohannes neither a left-wing nor right-wing idea. He
concludes that the economic policy of both the CPSU and the NSDAP were left-oriented. Mursu
writes that, even though race theories were not officially a part of the programme and ideology
of the CPSU, the practical policies were based on racial differentiation. He notes that both antiSemitism and nationalism existed in the Soviet Union. He also states that nationalism does not
necessarily result in racism. Only if a nation defines itself in racial terms, as in Nazi Germany,
the outcome of nationalism is racism.
12
In Finland there have been important scandals related to the funding of politicians in elections. Politicians from
all traditional parties have been involved more or less in such scandalsParty .
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Conceptual clarity is a condition of reasonable research. The thoughts presented above
concerning the definition of the left and the right do not solve the problem of definition, but
especially historical examples are worth considering. Parties that in their programmes and
statements seem to be far from each other (the CPSU and the NSDAP) might be surprisingly
near each other in their practical policies. It is also possible that, when the ideological surface
of the extreme right and the extreme left are scratched deeper, the contents of these
ideologies are not so far from each other. Searching for common denominators between
extremist organisations, right and left, is important in order to be able to make national and
international comparisons. If the research units are not similar in certain fundamental respects,
comparison is not possible.
4. Conclusions
The opinions, statements and attitudes presented above indicate that the definition and
especially the classification of ideological starting points and the principles of members of
Homma-forum is not a straightforward task. The main reason for the difficulties is that the
attitudes and opinions of the members and the views expressed by them are not very
consistent regarding many topical issues in the Finnish political discussion.
For instance, in regard to immigration some of the members think that all immigration should
be stopped and others think, at least between the lines, that qualified immigrants could be
accepted. This dispute differentiates between those discussants who are more or less firm
believers of the nativist and ethnopluralist assumption, which state that only Finns should live
in Finland and that Finnish culture is threatened if immigration is permitted, and those
contributors who have a more practical approach to the employment situation in Finland.
With regard to integration policies some members thought that it is totally useless to spend
any money on the integration of immigrants, while others thought that the use of the
integration money should be more restricted, regulated and efficient. This dispute also divides
the participants of the studied discussion into two main groups. The first group is more
ideologically oriented; they base their opinions on the ethnopluralist belief that cultures can,
and should, live separately and cannot prosper if removed from their natural environment and
transferred to some remote place. The second group thinks again more pragmatically that
immigrants might be needed but that integration resources are used inefficiently. Some of
them think, in addition, that the present integration policies might be counterproductive, as
they might result in constant linguistic and cultural marginalisation of immigrants, which
probably leads to trans-generational poverty and social problems.
According to many discussants social benefits could be used as a means to encourage
immigrants to participate in different integration activities, e.g. in integration programmes,
language learning and labour market training. Participation should be a condition of social
benefits. If participation is not encouraged and social benefits conditioned, immigration policies
result in a formation of minorities, who cannot enter the labour market and whose unhealthy
attitudes towards work and responsibilities are transmitted from generation to generation.
These opinions reflect the rightist warnings and claims that unemployed people are not willing
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to work because of abundant welfare benefits. This reasoning does not take into consideration
the fact that the unemployment level in Finland is high and that in the labour market there are
obstacles, like racism, which prevent immigrants from getting work.
Concerning multiculturalism the members of Homma-forum were almost able to reach a
consensus, which is understandable because multiculturalism is the major enemy for those
people, who believe that one people, one ethnicity or one culture should inhabit one country
and that merging or mixing cultures is disastrous. According to the majority of the participants
in the discussion, multiculturalism is the most important problem in Finnish society as well as in
other western societies. They seem to share the opinion that multiculturalism is an ideology or
a religion, which is based on false assumptions and distorted visions of cultures and cultural
interaction. According to many discussants Islam is the most serious threat to western
civilization, because it represents values and includes cultural practices that are in strong
discordance with both western secular and religious values and practices. Anti-Islamic or
islamophobic sentiments have become more prominent in anti-immigrant movements and
parties during previous years, for instance including in the most radical neo-Nazi movement in
Finland, National Resistance. The opinions presented in Homma-forum reflect this
development but they reflect also the ideological statements of Jussi Halla-aho, who has
devoted a good deal of attention to anti-Islamic views. Halla-aho has, for instance, published
texts from, and included a link to, a major European anti-Islamic website the Gates of Vienna.
(http://gatesofvienna.net/, last accessed 9.1. 2014; http://www.halla-aho.com/scripta/, last
accessed 9.1.2014).
Also the views concerning the classification of left-wing and right-wing political approaches are
quite unanimous. Common opinion seems to be that The Finns and, consequently, most
members of Homma-forum have been defined incorrectly as right-wing, even though their
views on economic and social policy are very near to those of left-wing parties or in any case
are not in line with the traditional right-wing parties. The Finns are not, according to
discussants, a party that supports the rule of market forces and capitalist exploitation. Even
though this might be true, it does not mean that members of Homma-forum can be defined as
right-wing, since in the studies on right-wing parties it has been regularly shown that right-wing
parties can have leftist ideas in economic terms. They might, for instance, support state
regulation of market forces, they might oppose the European Union and regard it as an
organisation that promotes the interests of high finances and elite groups and they even might
claim that they are true workers’ parties.
When political parties, groups or movements are classified as either ‘left’ or ‘right’, therefore,
economic and social policy can be used as one criterion, but not alone. Very often right-wing
collective political actors support leftist economic and social policies and even more often
individual right-wing politicians support these principles. It is difficult to say if this is done
tactically to get support and votes in elections in order to gain political power to further, for
instance, anti-immigration policies. Regardless of the final intentions, however, it is necessary
to take into consideration these seemingly contradictory views when constructing
classifications.
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What are then the criteria for defining an extreme right-wing political actor? Does Hommaforum meet these criteria? It is obvious that the majority of messages published in the Vesa
Puuronen discussion contain thoughts that refer to, or are based on, populist, nationalist
(nativist, welfare chauvinist) and ethnopluralist principles, as they are defined by Cas Mudde
and other scholars. Authoritarian ideas were not found in the messages. In addition, it must be
taken into account that the opinions, attitudes and statements of the members of Hommaforum are not consistent and implicit. Some quite active members were blunt in their support
for extreme ethnopluralist and welfare chauvinist ideas, although some other activists were
more pragmatic. Thus either Homma-forum is a more diverse political scene than many other
such forums, or the method used in this study produces a more nuanced image of this political
agent than the methods or research materials that are used by most political scientists. Mudde
(2000, 2007), for instance, uses programmes of the parties as research material and Spanje
(2011) relies on the quantitative results of expert surveys (scores) when placing the parties into
categories. It is obvious that the methodological approach that has been applied in this
research produces ethnographic data that reveal the real life of a collective political actor
better than programmes and other official documents.
5. Future analysis
In this study the texts (messages) produced by the participants of the discussion were used as
the data of the study of ideology. This study includes only sporadic notions of the interaction of
the members of this internet community. A wider study of the internet community is obviously
one of the possible topics of future analysis. For instance, counting the amount of interaction
between members of the forum could reveal the most influential individuals and ideas, which
could help to clarify the ideological nature of the forum. In the analysis presented above all the
ideas, regardless of their influence, receive similar weight, which is justified when trying to
study the whole ideological spectrum of the forum, but it does not allow for determining the
importance of the ideas amongst the participants. In addition, the study of interaction of the
participants in the forum could reveal the power relations between the participants. In a
previous study on an extremist online community the results showed that one per cent of the
users of Twitter ‘seed’ accounts were very influential. These influential people were most
engaged in ideology. The connection between ideological engagement, activism and influence
is worth studying in the future. Homma-forum gives an impression of a free space, where
equals discuss, but occasional observations, made during this study, justify a suspicion
concerning this assumed equality. It seems to be that a few participants dominate the
discussion, while others only listen to it.
The results of this study reveal the ideological foundations of right-wing populist movements in
Finland. It could be very interesting to make a similar analysis of ideologies of some other
movements in several European countries. These types of analysis could contribute to the
discussion about the definition of right-wing political agents regardless of their extreme, radical
and/or populist inclination. The hypothesis could be that a definition is very difficult to achieve
and depends on the level of analysis and available data. For example the ideology of EDL in UK
and Golden Dawn in Greece could be compared with ideology of Homma-forum.
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The aim of this study was not to explain why Homma-forum and The Finns are so popular in
Finland. It is obvious that Homma-ideology can answer some questions that other parties
cannot answer and have not even asked. The activists of Homma-forum have said that they
support these ideas and The Finns as a party. MYPLACE data were gathered on the values of
young people by survey (WP4) and in-depth interviews (WP5); these findings could be used to
determine the political questions young people ask in present day Finland and chart them
against the answers that Homma-ideology offers. Also, these questions could be asked in a
comparative research setting.
One additional important topic of future research could be the epistemological starting points
of right-wing movements. The epistemology of right-wing populism is very seldom discussed or
studied, even though the understanding of it could provide a new prospect for a novel criticism
of right-wing ideologies. An analysis of epistemology should include questions about the
epistemological foundations of the ideologists: what do right-wing ideologists mean by
knowledge, how knowledge is acquired, how is truthfulness of the ideological statements
tested and so forth. During the coding of the messages it became apparent that discussants
quite often invoked scientific research and official statistics, for instance when discussing
criminality and especially rape. Homma-forum even regularly publishes official statistics
concerning rape in order to validate the claims of overrepresentation of immigrants amongst
rapists and consequently their innate or hereditary propensity for raping and other types of
criminality. A firm belief in these statistics can be a sign of more profound epistemological
standpoint, which could and should be studied and compared across nations.
Ideology must not only be trustworthy but it must also be presented convincingly. The analysis
of argumentation and rhetoric of right-wing ideologists and texts could and should also be one
of the topics of future comparative studies.
6. References
Arendt, H. (2013). Totalitarismin synty (Eng. The Origins of Totalitarianism), Vastapaino:
Tampere.
Arter, D. (2010) ‘The Breakthrough of Another West European Populist Radical Right Party?
The Case of the True Finns’, Government and Opposition, 45(4): 484–504.
Berezin, M. (2009). Illiberal politics in neoliberl times: culture, security and populism in the new
Europe. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Berger, J.M. and Strathearn, B. (2013) Who Matters Online: Measuring influence, evaluating
content and countering violent extremism in online social networks, The International Centre
for Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence: London. (http://www.icsr.info).
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Cochrane, C and Nevitte, N. (2007) Support for Far-Right Anti-Immigration Political
Parties in Advanced Industrial States: 1980–2005, paper presented at the 4th General
Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research, Pisa, Italy, 6–8 September
2007.
Hamilton, M.B. (1987) ‘The Elements of the Concept of ideology’, Political Studies, 35(1): 1838.
Hannula, M. (2011) Maassa maan tavalla. Maahanmuuttokritiikin lyhyt historia. (Eng. In Rome
Do as the Romans Do: A Short History of Immigration Critique.), Otava: Helsinki.
Helsingin Sanomat (2008) ’Professori Martikainen: Oikeistopopulismi teki läpimurron
Suomeen’, (Eng. ’Professor Martikainen: Right-wing populism made a break-through in
Finland’), Helsingin Sanomat, 27 October 2008.
Karlsson, K-G. (2005) Vaino ja vaikeneminen(Eng. Terror and Silence), Like: Helsinki.
Khaldarova, I., Laaksonen, S-M. and Matikainen, J. (2012) The use of social media in the Finnish
Parliament Elections 2011, Media and Communication Studies Research Reports 3/2012.
University of Helsinki: Helsinki.
Koivulaakso, D., Brunila, M. and Andersson, L. (2012) Äärioikeisto Suomessa. (The Far-right in
Finland.) Into: Helsinki.
Lepola, O. (2000). Ulkomaalaisesta suomenmaalaiseksi. Monikulttuurisuus, kansalaisuus ja
suomalaisuus maahanmuuttopoliittisessa keskustelussa (Eng. From a Foreigner to a Finlander:
Multiculturalism, Citizenship and Finnishness in the Discussion on Immigration Policy in the
1990s), Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura: Helsinki.
Matikainen, J. and Villi, M. (2013) Mobiilit mediasisällöt (Eng. Mobile Media Contents),
Viestinnän tutkimusraportteja 3/2013, Viestinnän tutkimuskeskus. Communication Research
Centre CRC, Sosiaalitieteiden laitos, University of Helsinki: Helsinki.
Mudde, C. (2000) The Ideology of Extreme Right, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Mudde, C. (2004) ‘The Populist Zeitgeist’, Government and Opposition 39(4): 542-63.
Mudde, C. (2007) Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK.
Muschert, G. W. and Sumiala, J. (eds) (2012) School Shootings. Mediatized Violence in a Global
Age, Emerald Group: Bingley.
Puuronen, V. (2001) Skinit maailmalla ja Joensuussa. (Eng. Skinheads across the world and in
Joensuu.) In Vesa Puuronen (ed.). Valkoisen vallan lähettiläät. Rasismin arki ja arjen rasismi.
(Eng. The Missionaries of White Power: The Everyday of Racism and Everyday Racism.)
Tampere: Vastapaino, pp. 11-33.
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Puuronen, V. (2011) Rasistinen Suomi. (Eng. Racist Finland.) Vastapaino:Tampere.
Sade-Beck, L. (2004). ’Internet Ethnography: Online and Offline’, International Journal of
Qualitative Methods, 3(2):45-51.
Sassi, S. (2000) Verkko kansalaisyhteiskunnan käytössä. Tutkimus Internetistä ja uusista
politiikan muodoista (Eng. The Web Used by Civic Society: A Study into the Internet and New
Forms of Politics.), Viestinnän julkaisuja 3. Yliopistopaino: Helsinki.
van Spanje, J. (2011) ‘The Wrong and the Right: A Comparative Analysis of ‘Anti-Immigration’
and ‘Far-Right’ Parties’, Goverment and Opposition, 46(3): 293-320.
Wiberg, M. (2011) Mitä populismi on? (Eng. What is Populism?) in Matti Wiberg (ed.) Populismi
- Kriittinen arvio (Eng. Populism – A Critical Evaluation), Helsinki: Edita.pp. 11-21.
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Finland - MYPLACE

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