Fifty Shades of Tolerance
A Case Study of Finnish General Election Candidates’ Multiculturalist Attitudes
Master’s Thesis in Human Geography University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies Department of Historical and Geographical Studies Mr. Topias Tamminen, 242518
Supervisor: Lecturer Mr. Ilkka Pyy April 2017
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
Department
Department of Historical and Geographical Studies
Author
Mr. Topias Tamminen
Supervisor Mr. Ilkka Pyy Title
Fifty Shades of Tolerance – A Case Study of Finnish General Election Candidates’
Multiculturalist Attitudes Main subject
Human Geography
Level
Master’s Thesis
Date
14th April, 2017
Number of pages 104
Abstract
The attitude atmosphere towards immigration, and towards multiculturalism in general, has polarised in the 2010s in Western countries. The aim of the study is to analyse how these attitudes emerge in the case of Finnish general election candidates, and how the attitudes differ at the regional level. The research problem is approached first by analysing the theoretical concepts of multiculturalism, values and attitudes, and political divisions and representation systems. Thereafter, I will examine how these multi-dimensional concepts emerge in social constructs.
The dialogue between phenomenology and post-positivism is central to the thesis. The theoretical themes are analysed by the phenomenological approach, whereas, the empirical case study follows the post-positivist discipline. The empirical case study is a quantitative study and the primary methods are cluster analysis and binary logistic regression analysis. The data samples from the voting advice applications of the national broadcasting company YLE and from the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat comprise the research material.
The results showed that the polarisation of the attitudes is not fabricated, and the candidates formed two clear segments: the pro-multiculturalists and the anti-multiculturalists.
Additionally, the results showed that district of living, gender, age, and one’s political conviction, have an influence on candidates’ multiculturalist attitudes. The results were in line with earlier research, and in certain circumstances are able to be extrapolated to concern larger populations. The politicians’ hidden interests may colour their answers in voting advice applications. The second limitation is that a use of a third party dataset restricts the researcher’s freedom to design. In future, a qualitative approach could provide new perceptions of multiculturalist attitudes as well as a quantitative time series analysis, for instance.
Key words
Multiculturalism, multiculturalist attitudes, cultural diversity, immigration, polarisation, dis- communication
ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO TUTKIMUSTIEDOTE
Tiedekunta
Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta
Yksikkö
Historia- ja maantieteiden laitos Tekijä
Topias Tamminen
Ohjaaja Ilkka Pyy Työn nimi
Fifty Shades of Tolerance – A Case Study of Finnish General Election Candidates’
Multiculturalist Attitudes
(Viisikymmentä suvaitsevaisuuden sävyä – Tapaustutkimus eduskuntavaaliehdokkaiden monikulturalistisista asenteista Suomessa)
Pääaine
yhteiskuntamaantiede
Työn laji
Pro gradu -tutkielma
Aika 14.4.2017.
Sivuja 104 Tiivistelmä
Asenneilmasto maahanmuuttoa ja yleisesti monikulturalismia kohtaan on polarisoitunut 2010- luvulla länsimaissa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia miten nämä asenteet ilmenevät eduskuntavaaliehdokkaiden kohdalla, ja miten ne eroavat alueellisesti. Lähestyn aihetta jäsentämällä monikulturalismin, arvojen ja asenteiden, sekä poliittisten ulottuvuuksien abstrakteja käsitteitä. Tämän jälkeen tarkastelen tapaustutkimuksen avulla, miten nämä abstraktit käsitteet ilmentyvät sosiaalisina konstruktioina.
Fenomenologian ja jälki-positivismin tieteenfilosofisten lähtökohtien vuoropuhelu on keskeistä tutkimukselle. Siinä missä teoreettinen käsitteistön jäsentäminen noudattaa fenomenologista perinnettä, empiirinen tapaustutkimus noudattaa jälki-positivistisia maneereja. Kvantitatiivisen tapaustutkimuksen tutkimusmenetelmät ovat klusterianalyysi ja logistinen regressio, ja tutkimusaineistona on YLE:n ja Helsingin Sanomien vaalikoneaineistot.
Tulokset osoittivat, että eduskuntavaaliehdokkaat muodostavat kaksi selkeää segmenttiä: pro- monikulturalistit ja anti-monikulturalistit. Tarkempi analyysi osoitti, että asuinseutu, sukupuoli, ikä ja poliittinen vakaumus vaikuttavat ehdokkaan monikulturalistisiin asenteisiin.
Tutkimuksen tulokset ovat linjassa aikaisemman tutkimuksen kanssa, ja tietyissä olosuhteissa tulokset on yleistettävissä koskemaan laajempaa populaatioita.
Tutkimuksen heikkouksina on muun muassa se, että valmiin aineiston käyttäminen rajoittaa jossain määrin tutkijan vapauksia. Tulosten luotettavuutta voi heikentää myös poliitikkojen vastausten mahdolliset henkilökohtaiset intressit. Tutkimus herätti useita jatkotutkimusaiheita.
Monikulturalististen asenteiden tarkasteleminen laadullisen tutkimuksen keinoin voisi olla hedelmällistä, kuin myös määrällinen tutkimus toisella aineistolla, tai esimerkiksi aikasarja- analyysinä.
Avainsanat
Monikulturalismi, monikulturistiset asenteet, kulttuurinen monimuotoisuus, maahanmuutto, polarisaatio, dis-kommunikaatio
CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION ... 7
1.1 Personal Interests ... 10
1.2 Orwell’s Prognostication ... 12
2.0 MULTICULTURALISM ... 14
2.1 Multiculturalism versus Cultural Diversity ... 14
2.2 The Origins of Multiculturalism ... 16
2.3 The Misunderstandings of Multiculturalism ... 19
2.4 Multiculturalism – Capitalists’ Trick? ... 20
2.5 Multiculturalism and the Diversity of Migrants ... 23
2.6 The Finnish ‘Immigrant-Critics’ and Other Shades of Anti-Multiculturalism ... 25
2.7 The Unsolved Ethical Questions of Multiculturalism ... 29
3.0 VALUES – ATTITUDES’ BEDROCK ... 32
3.1 Multiculturalist Attitudes as Reflection of Values ... 36
3.2 Multiculturalist Attitudes in Earlier Research ... 36
3.3 The Two Fringes of Multiculturalist Attitudes in Finland ... 38
4.0 REPRESENTATION SYSTEMS AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS ... 41
4.1 Forms of Representation Systems ... 41
4.2 The New Apportionment of the Political Divisions ... 42
5.0 RESEARCH BACKGROUND ... 45
5.1 Philosophical Foundations: Phenomenology and Post-Positivism ... 46
5.2 Moderate Essentialism is Necessary ... 50
5.3 Causation Descends from Correlations ... 51
5.4 Big Data in Social Sciences ... 53
5.5 Voting Advice Applications as Databanks ... 54
6.0 PROPOSED EMPIRICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 56
6.1 Statistical Significance Measures Impressiveness ... 58
6.2 Grouping Cases Together – The Cluster Analysis ... 59
6.3 The Binary Logistic Regression – A Method behind the Betting ... 62
6.4 Reliability and Validity – The ABC of Convincing Science ... 64
7.0 CASE STUDY AND EMPIRICAL RESULTS ... 66
7.1 The Cluster Analysis ... 67
7.2 The Binary Logistic Regression ... 71
7.3 Research Hypotheses’ Tests with a Secondary Data Set ... 78
8.0 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ... 85
8.1 Research Contributions ... 85
8.2 Reliability and Validity of the Thesis ... 90
8.3 Limitations and Future Directions ... 92
9.0 CONCLUSIONS ... 95
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... 97
REFERENCES ... 98
List of Figures
Figure 1. The Structure of Relations among 10 Motivational Types of Values ... 33
Figure 2. Frequencies of the Cluster Variables ... 69
Figure 3. Scatter Figure of the Residuals ... 78
Figure 4. Frequencies of the Cluster Variables ... 80
List of Tables Table 1. Definitions of Value Types in Terms of Their Goals and the Single Value That Represent Them. ... 34
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics ... 67
Table 3. Frequencies of the Cluster Variables ... 68
Table 4. Iteration History ... 71
Table 5. Frequencies of Cases in each Cluster ... 71
Table 6. Final Cluster Centres ... 71
Table 7. ANOVA ... 71
Table 8. Statistics of the Predictor Variables ... 73
Table 9. Case Processing Summary ... 73
Table 10. Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients ... 74
Table 11. Hosmer and Lemeshow Test ... 74
Table 12. Model Summary ... 74
Table 13. Classification Table ... 74
Table 14. Variables in the Equation ... 75
Table 15. The Final Model ... 76
Table 16. Descriptive Statistics ... 79
Table 17. Frequencies of the Cluster Variables ... 80
Table 18. Final Cluster Centres Table. ... 80
Table 19. Number of Cases in each Cluster ... 80
Table 20. ANOVA ... 81
Table 21. Statistics of the Predictor Variables ... 82
Table 22. Case Processing Summary ... 82
Table 23. Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients ... 82
Table 24. Model Summary. ... 82
Table 25. Hosmer and Lemeshow Test ... 82
Table 26. Classification Table ... 83
Table 27. Variables in the Equation ... 83
Table 28. The Final Model ... 84
1.0 INTRODUCTION
If my master’s thesis were a tweet, it could be as follows:
‘A case study showed up divergences between general election candidates’ multiculturalist attitudes. #FIN #multiculturalism #50shadesoftolerance #immigration’
The tweet-example above distills incisively what my master's thesis is all about.
Multiculturalism, attitudes and quantitative empirical research approach compose the elements of my thesis. I approach the topic by first introducing the different angles of multiculturalism, the key term of the research, then moving on towards the empirical part by introducing the other essential elements: values and attitudes, political representation systems, and the role of big data, such as voting advice applications in social sciences. Although multiculturalism is an umbrella-like term, which represents a large variety of different kind of political ideologies and concrete political-tools, it is also a phenomenon that has a deep ethical background. The nature of multiculturalism requests that I will also look at the concepts of values and attitudes.
The perception of science and its role in explaining the reality is hardly dependent on the philosophical point of view. I will discuss the philosophical aspects later, but what connect them all together is the aim to seek answers to a certain problem. My research problem has several dimensions, but all dimensions are related to the core concept, multiculturalism. The ultimate problem where my thesis is seeking the answer is the differences in multiculturalist attitudes and is there clear divergences between them. I will now present the research hypotheses and the research questions, and then prove how the theoretical chapters support the empirical part of the study.
My study approaches the problem with a case study. The case study will conceptualise the multiculturalist attitudes of the Finnish general election candidates, by using the data set of two voting advice applications. The primary empirical research is made with the voting advice application produced by YLE, a public Finnish broadcasting company. I will also use a voting advice application by a newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, (later HS), to verify the results of the primary data set. Helsingin Sanomat is the biggest newspaper of Scandinavia and part
of the Sanoma Corporations. As the supposition is that there are notable differences in the multiculturalist attitudes among the candidates, the first research hypothesis is as follow:
H1: Multiculturalist attitudes are clearly divergent in the case of Finnish general elections candidates.
As a geographer, I am also naturally interested in the regional differences of the multiculturalist attitudes – if there are any. According to my own expertise, I have the courage to argue that in Finland the attitudes tend to be more liberal in capital regions than in peripheral regions. There might be tens of reasons for that, but by my knowledge, the most important factors are, the heterogeneity of cultures and higher education level of cities. By cultural heterogeneity, I mean the fact that immigrants and other minorities such as sexual minorities are often centralised to cities. This lead to the perception, that the citizens in the cities have adjusted themselves to disparity. A Higher level of education in capital regions is a factor that depends from at least to different factors. Firstly, the employment demand for higher-level educated citizens focuses to capitals, while blue-collar workers' demand is more even throughout the country. Secondly, universities and other educational institutions are naturally located in capitals. As a conclusion, the other research hypothesis of my study is as follow:
H2: Multiculturalist attitudes are more prevalent in capital regions than in peripheries.
The research hypotheses presented above comprise my research questions:
1. How do multiculturalist attitudes emerge in the case study?
2. How do multiculturalist attitudes differ at the regional level?
3. How does the phenomenological approach to multiculturalism fit with the post- positivist empirical experimental design?
In addition to my hypotheses, I will observe which kind of demographical factors explain the different attitudes. The existing variables in the data set the limits to what kind of demographical factors I can observe, and thus I have chosen to take a look on gender, age, and candidates’ political background.
I have now introduced the research hypotheses and research questions. To get the most out of this thesis, I recommend to keep them in the mind when making acquaintance with the theoretical parts. As the number of pages is limited, I have written the theoretical chapters to give thoughts on each topic, especially what are linked to the case study, rather than offering comprehensive answers to all questions. A bit novel-like text-style is made to carry the reader smoothly from topics to another and to soften the methodology chapters, which otherwise could be cold to read for non-professional.
To get the most of the topic, I threw myself naked as possible to multiculturalism. With the phenomenological point of view, I wanted to disrobe myself from all prejudices and start to conceptualise the multiculturalism piece by piece. The phenomenological tradition is able to sense from the names of the headings to quotations I will introduce, to the statements I raise to shake up existing perceptions. The multiculturalism chapter is followed with a deeper look to values and attitudes. Values are the bedrock of attitudes, and it is essential for the later study to understand how the values shape our attitudes. One of the reasons I thought the general elections candidates are especially an interesting research subject, was the idea that the parliament is like a nation in a miniature size. I will discuss that, and from the viewpoint that the historic right-left apportionment is outdated due the complexity of nowadays' societies, in a chapter called Representation Systems and Political Divisions. It turns us a bit closer to the empirical case study, where the candidates itself are the stars.
As I have brought out, the phenomenology is a philosophical tradition I follow at first.
However, the phenomenology is at its best to conceptualising complex phenomena, I was looking something more exact way of thinking to bind best my empirical case study to reality.
The positivistic tradition supports my thoughts of that clear, quantitative approach to the topic can indicate such complex phenomena as multiculturalist attitudes. The positivistic discipline supports the idea, that even from the most complex phenomena, we are able to find seeds of truth by clear research frame.
While the majority of the studies of immigration attitudes ascend from social psychology, the multiculturalism research is dominated by sociology. Social psychologists that undoubtedly have the best understanding of values and attitudes itself may lack the knowledge of societal factors (sociology) and regional perspective (geographers). That is why I believe that as a human geographer, I can bring added value to the topic that is dominated by social
psychologists and sociologists. In the next chapter, I will summarise my personal interest to the topic, which enlightens how I ended up with this interesting puzzle that gathers together multiculturalist attitudes, quantitative research and human geography. However, before that, I will summarise to three aspects, why my study calls for a wider audience.
Firstly, my study represents international regime, which is a rising field in social sciences as the accelerating globalisation and its derivatives as migration and cultural diversity will touch larger parts of populations and societies. Secondly, multiculturalism, migration, Muslims and tolerance have become topics of daily news and hence the multiculturalist attitudes are a hot potato. Lastly, the way I am moving between two very different philosophical disciplines and mixing up different kind of ways of approaching to subjects is admittedly interesting, audacious and fresh.
1.1 Personal Interests
Tobler’s (1970) First Law of Geography proposes that ‘everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things’ (see eg. Markaki & Longhi 2013: 2).
Thus, the multiculturalism and migration have become a remarkable topic of news recently when Europe in the frontline, but also other western democracies have faced the biggest migration flows since WWII. Yet, there is not anything new with the migration itself, since the majority of the world's approximately 65 million's total forced migrants, including internally displaced peoples (IDPs) and refugees, are in the low- and middle-income countries close to conflict, for example in Sahel’s and Maghreb’s regions in Africa and in the Middle East (HS 2016a &UNHCR 2016a). Nonetheless, also my own interest towards migration has raised to new levels when it seems to be one of the top topics in national and international Medias, a real hot potato.
In addition to migration, I am specifically interested in the attitudes towards immigration and to multiculturalism. As a relatively cosmopolitan and liberal person, and as a person that has friends all over the world from different cultural regimes, I have had difficulties while trying to understand the rise of anti-immigration attitudes and the critics towards multiculturalism.
Most of my acquaintances content themselves with the general thoughts that most racists or by lighter name, "immigrant-critics", are lonely youth, often men and low educated in blue-
collar works. However, I think that it is only the half of the truth, and besides, neither education nor high incomes make anyone pro-immigrant either. Therefore, even though there is scientific evidence that the factors mentioned above do affect to attitudes, the case is not that simple. Thesee big question marks over the multiculturalist attitudes were another driving force that increased my interest to the topic of my thesis.
From Tobler’s viewpoint, and according to my own experiences from different sides of the world, the universe, earth, and all life in its very different forms from animals to cultures, comprise a unique ensemble that binds everything together. However, at the same, the hate speech, intolerance and even economic inequality in its hardest forms as poverty and famine, represents the very different world. The world of non-communication, the world of built and imagined dissonances. This results to a conclusion, that even though, the increased migration and globalisation could have been the forces that unite the globe, it seems it has, at least partly, done the opposite: increased non-communication and majorities power over minorities causing hate speech, demise and misery. So to say, the above-mentioned non-communication marks this study as well. I will demonstrate the power of non-communication at next chapter even more with a fantasy-world example, but shortly, the different multiculturalist attitudes represent not just the absence of cross-cultural discussion, but also the absence of discussion within a nation.
Consequently, as mentioned in paragraphs above, the topicality of the subject and the intricateness of multiculturalist attitudes have played the major role while choosing this topic for my thesis. I have lived around the globe, being privileged to meet so many different beautiful cultures and to meet hundreds of fantastic persons, that at the same I wanted to have a look at multiculturalist attitudes in general, but I also felt that it is somehow my responsibility to share my thoughts with a wider audience. As the empirical study will show, the multiculturalist attitudes compose two clear segments. Yet, behind those segments are real human beings with their unique personal values and shades of attitudes. Real 50 shades of tolerance, so to say.
My interest in phenomenology raises from the thoughts that I have seen by my own eyes how much misery prejudices may do and I have become a bit worried about the phenomenon of the millennium, where science is partly harnessed to confirm the wanted outcome of politicians or other interest groups. The personal interest to positivism instead has raised from
real life experiences. As a salesperson, I made a note how much it is possible to influence customers behaviour by marketing mix. This, and other notes from people's behaviour what it comes to fashion and politics, for example, have confirmed my thoughts that human nature is not as complex as we often think, or even would like to think. All this has resulted to a thought, that a positivistic approach with its law-like hypotheses may give us some valuable information, seeds of truth. Following this, I have been a fan of statistics for a long time, and I love the nature of quantitative methods, the temptation of numbers. I believe that even though quantitative research neither can be totally value-free and objective, the art of calculations offers an interesting possibility to throw oneself to lures of numbers and a possibility to examine the research subject from a distance. The greatest pros of quantitative research are its rationality and straightforwardness.
When I made the very first proposal of my thesis, I found three values I decided to follow.
These values are something that has kept a study in a certain path all the time, but also values that were my personal goals of self-development.
something new something different something explorative
1.2 Orwell’s Prognostication
‘The key-word here is blackwhite. --- Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.
Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.'
From George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949: 242)
Multiculturalism is the new black. As mentioned in the previous chapter, multiculturalism has become a popular topic in news. As we will find out in this thesis, multiculturalism is really an emotion-related term. Multiculturalism, as cultural liberalism in general, nurtures from the
really bottom of our values. Therefore − and because non-tangible phenomena are hard to measure – the public discussion around multiculturalism has been anything but scientific. The discussion has been as an example of the phenomenon ‘Ignorance is strength', which Orwell describes in his famous, world-changing novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The latest researches in social sciences have revealed that part of the Brexit- and Trump- phenomena is the high-level segregation of the two opponents. In the case of Brexit, for example, the study showed that the supporters and opponents had a different kind of media behaviour. They read different newspapers, the used different news-forum on Internet and attended to different social media networks. All this proves that people started to believe as the people around them. It is not arrogant to give a thought, that this phenomenon may be even stronger among the blue-collar workers than among high-educated people. Nonetheless, these cases reveal, that the fantasy of Orwell's novel is more truth than we may like to admit.
In the case of multiculturalism, the phenomena may accelerate quickly. Already, the alt-right nationalists spread their racist ideologies publicly on the streets, yet the majority has not abandoned Universalist values. However, the general multiculturalist attitude-environment has tightened and the value-segregation has increased. Hate speech and hardened attitudes are an example of non-communication, increased dissonances. In my opinion, we are only a few steps from where the black becomes white and vice versa. Moreover, I am not only talking about the anti-immigrant supporters but also about the other extremity. This chapter works as an introduction to the thesis and at the same, I wanted to show with using Orwell's fantasy, how nebulous the theme is. As in religion, also what it comes to multiculturalist attitudes, the truth does not matter. What matter is, what people see as the truth. If we believe oneness of human being, we need scientific research that is interesting to study the reasons and causes of today's dissonances. I believe that at some level we are all the same dust of universe and increased non-communication is just one kind of manifestation, not a built-in part of humanity.
2.0 MULTICULTURALISM
I thought I knew what multiculturalism is when I chose the topic of my thesis, but soon I realised how wrong I had been. Multiculturalism is an umbrella-like term that comprises a large variety of policies and ideologies. This chapter will introduce multiculturalism from different angles and forms the vital part of my thesis. I do not lie by saying that making myself acquaintance with the literature and writing this chapter changed my life. Afterwards, I was able to conceptualise my own thoughts, values and attitudes more coherently.
I have divided this chapter to subchapters that each will bring one more angle to the discussion. First, I will start by stating the difference between multiculturalism and cultural difference, which are often mismatched. Secondly, I will introduce how multiculturalism is seen as part of certain political and economic eras. The later parts of the chapter focus to represent how migration has become the embodiment of multiculturalism in the millennium, and how it has been the fuel to increased non-communication. The last subchapter takes and introduction to ethical questions of multiculturalism and works hence as a bridge to the next chapter 3.0 Values – Attitudes’ Bedrock.
As Bhikhu Parekh states, to understand multiculturalism it is essential to understand the relation between a man and its culture. At the best, cultures are a way to communicate in the world and bespeak one’s humanity. Hence, all cultures deserve at least some level of respect due to their meanings to individual persons, and the creative energy they display.
Multiculturalism does not mean that all cultures are equally rich, nor that all characters of cultures shall maintain. It does not either mean that one cannot lead a good life without one’s cultural legacy. Multiculturalism means that all cultures have some kind of value, and people should be equally treated by the public domain regardless one’s cultural background.
(Guibernau & Rex 2010: 238)
2.1 Multiculturalism versus Cultural Diversity
Multiculturalism is often misunderstood as a synonym to cultural diversity. The risk of mismatch those terms is high in the Finnish language, where multiculturalism is translated to monikulturalismi, and cultural diversity as monikulttuurisuus. Even though the words remind
each other, they have a very different meaning. As I have already brought out, multiculturalism is an ideology that composes a large variety of policy elements, when cultural diversity is a word to describe cultural monism, a natural phenomenon, which gives no place for an opinion about it. Cultural diversity is a diversity of fauna: the earth consists thousands of different cultures and subcultures. One should also be careful not to understand cultures only as ethnic diversity. Cultures are a way of exhibit humanity: pop-culture, sexual minorities, indigenous people, they all are unique examples of the diversity of life. Although multiculturalism is a term with multi-dimensions, shortly its aim is to build a society where immigrants and other minorities should be granted equal rights in all spheres of society, with a right to maintain their cultural diversity at the same accepting the key values of the host society (Guibernau & Rex 2010: 213).
John Berry (1997; 2001) has studied different ways of how immigrants can adapt themselves to new host countries. He is the father of famous acculturation strategies. As stated, the acculturation strategies focus on how the immigrant fits new environment, but what we are now interested in it, is that Berry has found that there are categorically four different ways of how a state, i. e. the nation, can regard to immigrants. The idea is that the level of tolerance among the citizens and the capacity for multiculturalist politics of the government forms a level of total acceptance. The four different types are Multiculturalism, Melting, Pot, Segregation, and Exclusion. Politics of Sweden pictures the best image of the Multiculturalism type. Clear, goal-oriented, politics towards culturally heterogeneous society, where the communication between cultures creates value to the society. The most used example of a Melting Pot-type is the United States, where, mostly due to the historian legacy, the cultures merge with each other creating new subcultures and innovations. The two last types of integration are models, where the dominant group at the host country rejects immigrants' cultural heritage. This may lead to segregation, ghettoization in its most brutal mode, or exclusion, where the immigrant loses their bounds to the country of origin but does neither feel as a full member of a new country.
The represented John Berry's acculturation strategies-model above burnished what the multiculturalism is all about. In addition to John Berry's studies, there are two other famous theories in social sciences that have had notable influence how multiculturalism has been conceptualised in social sciences. A Contact theory is a thought that a greater amount of real- life contacts is a key to greater tolerance in societies. The theory has driven vital part when
researchers have been trying to explain why the pro-multiculturalist attitudes are so much more popular in central regions compared to cities. Another theory that is essential while discussing multiculturalism is a Conflict Theory. The Conflict Theory states that increased competition between groups is like a fuel that grows tense between groups. For example, increased unemployment may result to intolerance from majorities towards minorities. Both the Contact Theory and the Conflict Theory are as essential concepts in this field of science that I will discuss them more in chapter 3.3 The Two Fringes of Multiculturalist Attitudes in Finland. (Markaki & Longhi 2013: 5; Jaakkola 2009: 28–37, 78; Neuman 2006: 75)
2.2 The Origins of Multiculturalism
‘If philosophy is simply understood as a search for truth and politics as the pursuit of power, the two appear to have very little in common. In reality, however, both are concerned with the production, use, and control of truth, with generating channelling, and manipulating streams of power – though in admittedly very different ways – and from this comes their closeness and their conflict. Philosophy and politics are, in fact, inextricably tied together, but their relationship is also precarious and unstable.’ (Sluga 1993: vii)
Multiculturalism aroused from the recognition of cultural diversity, that human population consists of different cultural regions, and that these regions follow neither the borders of nation states nor the composition of the global markets. In other words, to be a multiculturalist, one needs to recognise that cultural differences exist in first place. In this chapter, I will absorb into the origins of the multiculturalism by introducing the central thoughts and perceptions that have aroused in the scientific discussion. Throughout the history, dominant groups have solely decided the rights of ethnic minorities. Since the exploratory expeditions and Columbus' found of the America, all the way to the Second World War, the dominant groups have first segregated themselves from the others, and then solely decided the rights and even the life value of the others. (Pile & Keith 1997: 10)
By using the Latin and gay minorities as an example, researcher Manuel Castells (1983: 123) brings out that the nowadays' multiculturalism was born endogenously from the minorities itself when they first proclaimed their disparity to the dominant majority and then presumed
recognition and rights from the state and its citizens. That is to say, that it was the Latins who segregated themselves from the majority as Latins to be able to push for rights. The thought behind Castells' writings is maybe easier to understand via the gay context. It demanded gays to come out of the closet in the first hand that the gay-rights began to formulate. It is the gays whom to praise for gay rights and even human rights in some circumstances. A white heterosexual man is still in the 21st century a rare sight in gay pride. As a conclusion, the multiculturalism requires a dichotomy to us and them and is often driven forward by the minorities itself. (Castells 1983: 123, Pile & Keith 1997: 10)
The term multiculturalism has often been used in headlines in Finland for the past few years (see e. g. HS 2015a; HS 2015b). It has been used disorderly with different meanings, between both parties: pro-immigrants and nationalists. Therefore, the term has as many shades of grey as speakers – and no wonder, because it surely does have different uses and definitions in global use as well. Will Kymlicka (2007a) argues that the term multiculturalism is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of policies that provide public recognition, accommodation or protecting to non-dominant ethnocultural groups. In other words, Kymlicka states that the term is used to promote an additional right to minorities, beyond the protection of civics and human rights guarantee. However, he reminds us that the term is seldom used by the International Organizations (later IOs) itself. Kymlicka finds that one of the reasons is that the term has disorderly connotations globally. In Europe, it is often seen as a New World term that does not include the European historic ideas of minority protection, while in Latin America instead, the term is widely used referenced to claims of indigenous people rather than immigrants. Examples from Canada and New Zeeland have shown that the term is not unproblematic in New World either and has two-sided connotations. Nevertheless, by keeping mind the umbrella meaning of the term multiculturalism, I will seed it in my text actively later on, because it describes well the actions and policies Western world has emerged to enhance minority rights. Moreover, I will sometimes speak about the Western liberal multiculturalism, which underlines the term to the right context: the multiculturalism term should be used only to describe the actions and phenomena in Western liberal democracies. (Kymlicka 2007a: 16–17)
In the 21st century in parts of Europe, the Western multiculturalism has lost its power, at least with the respect to immigrant groups. The perception that multiculturalism went too far in the context of predominantly Muslim immigrants has spread its roots around Western Europe.
Yet, by contrast, the minority rights provisions for the indigenous peoples and to the sub-state national groups have not suffered any backlash in any Western democracies. However, the change in the atmosphere and growing doubts whether the Western multiculturalism is feasible in other regions of the world has led to lesser confidence in the international community about the power of daily policies. The doubts to multiculturalist policies arise from the sensitivity of the partialists (supporters of moral particularism) that are afraid that immigrants and refugees might change the socio-cultural environment of a society, even if they are not a threat to the community per se (Gibney 2004: 28). (Kymlicka 2007: 52–53) The suspicious-atmosphere noted in the paragraph above has resulted in that integration has developed one of the foremost premises in Western countries domestic policies. European countries of substantial immigration have rolled out new policy platforms for the immigrants’
integration. The integration policy platforms vary from implementing citizenship courses to mandatory tests for immigrants surrounding dominant cultural norms and values and knowledge of national civics. Even the requirements of language skills have been called to immigrants increasingly too. One might say that even though the integration policies have a pure aim, mainly to appease the increased doubts of partialists, the tools and the idea that one must declare their willing to the integration is questionable. (Vertovec & Wessendorf 2010:
17)
The following chapters will discuss the multiculturalism from the different perspectives. The focus is to provide a coherent understanding that what the multiculturalism is in the first place, why it is more topical than ever, and how it is linked to such fundamental values as universalism and nationalism, that unquestionably are also the key factors, why multiculturalism is so polarising phenomenon. Yet, the core idea of multiculturalism is successfully condensed to the following citation:
‘Multiculturalism doesn’t simply mean numerical plurality of different cultures, but rather a community which is creating, guaranteeing, encouraging spaces within which different communities area able to grow at their own pace. At the same time it means creating a public space in which these communities are able to interact, enrich the existing culture and create a new consensual culture in which they recognize reflections of their own identity.’
(Bhabha & Parekh 1989: 4)
The advantages of multiculturalism are well summed by John Rex (1996: 91) to three bullet points. Firstly, the cultural diversity in a society may be vital in their own right and may enrich the whole society. Secondly, the cultural base may enhance solidarity, respect and tolerance towards uncommon factors and towards other cultures, through so-called organic solidarity, which lays in the core of cultural habits. Lastly, the ethnicity can create that kind of solidarity, which empowers the minorities to fight more efficiently to protect their rights. In total, the recognition of cultural diversity actually improves and braces democracy.
2.3 The Misunderstandings of Multiculturalism
There are several misunderstandings with the term multiculturalism and in this paragraph, I will introduce two of them. First, economic distribution is not needed for all multiculturalist claims. There are several economically privileged but culturally stigmatised groups of people, such as the Arab-Americans who enjoy higher-than-average levels of education and income but are culturally marginalised. A non-ethnic example is gay people that enjoy similar levels of education and income than their heterosexual counterparts but are vulnerable to homophobia. Alternatively, consider perhaps Sami people, indigenous people who are marginalised by their central governments. The outcome is that although the wealth is often, even in undesirable ways, a key to the higher level of democracy, it is not always the case.
Another potential misunderstanding is a link between liberal multiculturalism and nation building. As Kymlicka (2007a: 83) states, the point of view that there is a zero-sum relationship with nation building and multiculturalism is wrong. Instead, it is controversial:
when there are a large group of newcomers, the citizens tend to tighten their perceptions about the nation-identity, and additionally the will to teach these ‘sacraments' to immigrants often increases. Thus, the mandatory studies of nation's history and language to immigrants or national museums and theatres are tools of the nation building. (Kymlica 2007a: 83)
The claim that one must respect one's cultural tradition to be able to respect one's identity is an issue that rejects citizens to openly discuss how different factors should arrange in society and what could we develop. In other words, in Finland for example, the used political tools are often coloured with our Christian heredity, which rejects Muslims, Jews and others to take a part in the discussion as full members. Additionally, the cultural tradition is unquestionably attached to nation-identity. This is the reason why for instance the discussion around
Suvivirsi, a traditional song sang in the schools at the celebrations of the end of spring semester has been so irrational in Finland. Another example is the event that was arranged to celebrate the end of Muslims’ Ramada at Itis-mall in Helsinki and caused unforeseen debate and intolerant criticism (HS 2016b). (HS 2014; Kymlicka 2007a: 102)
In fact, at this moment, it is needed to say, that already Gandhi emphasised that people need to know enough about their own cultures to be able to understand what can be added and absorbed easily, and what will take a time to acquire and reform. In other words, people should be willing to learn about their own cultures, but also feel secure enough to discuss and welcome what they can learn from the other cultures. This can be realised only if the citizens' conceptions of a polity have altered, but so-called multicultural education in schools aids this too. (Uberoi 2015: 10, 15)
After the 9/11 attacks in the USA and the years' 2004 and 2005 subsequent bombings in London and in Madrid, the multiculturalism has faced remarkable blackwash in all Western Democracies (Marston et al. 2011: 73). Factors that normally are seen as part of everyday life are now seen as security issues such as schools and hospitals, and additionally, the plans to open schools only to Muslim-minorities in many countries have been frozen. In many European countries, such as in German, in France and in Britain, over 80 percent of non- European immigrants are Muslim, when in contrast only ten percent of immigrants to the USA are Muslims. Thus, it is not surprising that in these countries the term immigrant connotes a Muslim. Therefore, as presented above, the attitudes toward immigration has declined strongly and that has offered fertile atmosphere to irrational attitudes to rise, such as Islamophobia. Hence, the experience up to date suggests that multiculturalism will face a backwash when both, basic individual and collective security are threatened. (Kymlicka 2007a: 124, 128; Helkama 2015: 211)
2.4 Multiculturalism – Capitalists’ Trick?
One big and unsolved question that has been a target of researchers is how the Western multiculturalism is related to global capitalism and to the rise of the Neo-liberal economics.
This chapter will enlighten that question. It is obvious that they are linked to each other more or less, and the era of intense economic globalisation corresponds in time with the emergence
of multiculturalism. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižeg even stated that ‘the ideal form of ideology of this global capitalism is multiculturalism' (1997: 44). However, the idea that multiculturalism is seen as a tool of capitalism is not borne out by the facts. Instead, the multiculturalism was first presented by the left-liberal and socio-democratic parties as a social movements multiculturalism in response to popular mobilisation by non-dominant groups.
Additionally, yet liberal political theories of multicultural societies are hospitable to cultural diversity, they are morally flawed because they have a tendency or a commitment towards liberal monism, which abstracts away cultural differences (Pantham 2015: 69). (Kymlicka 2007a: 128–129)
In fact, the Thatcheries and Reaganites opposed multiculturalism, because it was seen as a classic example how the states are using their resources ineffectively by subsidising special interests. In other words, the Neo-liberal economic orthodoxy urged that states would not intervene the cultural marketplace by supporting ethnic minorities or cultural heritage. In the end, as we have seen today, the corporate world has made its peace with multiculturalism though. Actually, in nowadays it seems that the composition has changed and the loudest advocates, the pro-multiculturalists, are in addition to the traditional left-liberals, the liberals in general, including the libertarians for instance too. As Heikki Pursiainen, the executive director of the Libera think-tank argues, the liberals (often also spoken as the neoliberalists to make the difference to the traditional left-liberals) are pro-immigrants and universalists, because no human-made borders should indicate or reject one's opportunities (Libera 2016).
(Kymlica 2007a: 128–129)
Another methodologically different, but similar by its demand to far more open borders is a Utilitarian point of view, where the entry of an immigrant should be able always when the benefits for the individual are greater than the costs to the state. Global liberals justify that restrictions to entries should be put into operation only if additional entrants would jeopardise national security, public order, or threat the maintenance of liberal institutions. In other words, the interests of an economy, a culture or a theory of a nation should not advance against that right (Dummet 1992: 177). For both of these philosophical and ideological approaches, the requirements of morality are mutual. The requirements ‘are universal, owed to human beings qua human beings’, as Matthew Gibney (2004: 63) composes. (Gibney 2004: 62–63)
The history has shown that the corporate multiculturalism and the social movement multiculturalism have sometimes drowned on each other. For example, the decentralisation became more popular when it was linked to the multiculturalism instead of the economic efficiency. That is to say that even though decentralisation and economic specialisation may be an asset, and even though the federalists were not in first hand to promote cultural diversity, a strong aim of federalist policies is to back up the regional self-governance, which at the same protects indigenous peoples and cultural diversity. However, as I have presented above, the multiculturalism is fragile to backlashes and retreat as it is rather tolerated than actively supported by the dominant groups. The question of the relationship between Western multiculturalism and global neo-liberalism leads us to even more interesting question about the political left-right composition in the case of the multiculturalism. The newest studies discuss the new division of politics (see chapter 4.2 The New Apportionment of Political Divisions), where the ideologies are divided by the openness of the society, where the multiculturalism plays an important role. (Kymlicka 2007a: 128–129)
The emerging multinational federalism in the West is a promising ideology that adapts ethnocultural diversity by reducing inter-group hierarchies while defending freedom and by deepening relations of the liberal-democratic citizenship (Kymlica 2007: 146). However, the nation-building, creating us always requires its counterpart them. This is inevitable implication of a welfare state that raises tensions. The citizens are provided equal rights and services as being members of the community, while the others are excluded as aliens. In other words, the non-citizens – asylum seekers, refugees, and irregular migrants for instance – are kept to be apart from the part. That is to say, the irregular migrants are non-citizens. Our world is built on the nation-states and on the structures such statecraft that embraces the nation-state and hence, as the non-citizens do not fit that image they are not accepted as political agents (Johnson 2014: 184). In other words, the citizen-state relationship is maintained by the practices of statecraft, by which the state produces specific images, meanings and exclusions and inclusions to stabilise its territorial identities, institutions and relations, including well-managed borders (Johnson 2014: 42). (Nielsen 2013: 66)
In this chapter, I have presented the relationship between the neo-liberal economics and the multiculturalism, which helplessly drove us towards the discussion about the nation-state and its members. I hope this chapter opened the idea of the multiculturalism as an ideology, which is undoubtedly depended on moralistic perspectives, but on which our perceptions about trade
and globalisation have an effect as well. I will end this chapter by quoting Will Kymlicka (2010: 37) who merged the above-mentioned ideas to a single sentence unambiguously:
‘--multiculturalism is first and foremost about developing new models of democratic citizenship, grounded in human rights ideals, to replace earlier uncivil and undemocratic relations of hierarchy and exclusion.’
2.5 Multiculturalism and the Diversity of Migrants
‘We have the goal to stand up for the right of asylum. We shall have an open door for all people who are persecuted. At the same time, we have the goal that we shall have a regulated migration. There is a tension between these goals (Nielsen 2013: 73).’
A Swedish politician used the quotation above in parliamentary session, but due to the strong homogeneity of our societies, it could have heard from a Finnish politician. The thread of the comment is to bring out that the tensions between the populist nationalist movements and the multiculturalists escalate to different perceptions about regular and irregular migration and as well irregular migrants relation to the asylum regime. The discussion whether they are real refugees rather than economic refugees has been endless. (Nielsen 2013: 74)
Being persecuted or facing a life-threating danger is a refugee's claims to enter, whereas an economic migrant seeks entrance by less pressing considerations. Refugees' origin from certain locations, from the world's most difficult conflict regions, but instead, economic migrants come around the globe. There are certain types of economic migrants from Africa and Asia, who has an appallingly low quality of life marked by serious economic deprivation, while economic migrants between first world countries are looking for more lucrative employment opportunities, such as the business people and the academics. (Gibney 2004: 11–
12)
The traditional way to make segmentation between the refugees and the economic migrants is to compare so-called push and pull factors that motivate one to international (or national) migration. Push factors are such that ‘push' people to the emigrant. A low standard of living, a
civil war or for example political instability. Pull factors, on the other hand, are factors that attract migrants to enter, such as a high standard of living, excess demand for labour or democratic political institutions. Another way to make the segmentation is to lean against the idea that a refugee does not have a choice but migrant, while the economic migrant does have a choice. It is difficult if not even impossible sometimes to define, whether one is an economic migrant or a refugee. That is exactly what the ‘immigration-criticizers' take the advantage of, by claiming that the asylum seekers are economic migrants and thus not in need of asylum. (Gibney 2004: 11–12)
Asylum first appeared to the European Union’s agenda in the mid-1980s, but before the decision of the Dublin Convention in 1990, it was limited to informal discussions about the increase of new arrivals beyond external borders. The formal intergovernmental cooperation with the aim to harmonise the asylum claims in the EU began exactly in 1992. Yet, there is no consensus about how moralistically sustainable the intentions of the European policies are and how much they are just a facelift. The following quotation by a researcher Matthew Gibney captures that critic well. (Johnson 2014: 81)
‘Unlike Europeans governments that pretend their preventative policies impact only upon economic migrants, Australian officials have been ready to admit that all unauthorised entrants are unwelcome, regardless of whether or not they are refugees. This is honesty, albeit at its most brutal.’ (Gibney 2004: 193)
Illegal migration is one of the aspects we should not dismiss, at the risk to that some of the pro-multiculturalists have argued that no one should be called as an illegal migrant. Though I know the magnitude of the term illegal, I will use it here either way because this thesis is about offering perceptions not opinions, and it is also used similarly in the scientific literature that I have made myself acquaintance. If the main beneficiaries are individuals who entered the state illegally it is hard to reward public support for immigrant multiculturalism. There are several implications of the presence of the large group of illegal migrants. First, in most Western democracies the citizens see that rewarding the migrants who have entered illegally or by under false pretences have a strong moralistic objection. Secondly, a large number of illegal immigrants implies that the country is unable to control its borders, which may quickly generate a threat to be ‘swamped' by unwanted migrants. By contrast, a low rate of illegal migration creates a feel to the citizens that they are secured and that they are in control of
their own destiny. This tends to decrease the temperature of the public debates. (Kymlicka 2007b: 53)
One of the most fundamental ethical questions in a migration context is a perception, that whether the people should be helped in their home country through humanitarian assistance and development programs for instance, or whether we should put the weight on helping those who has legally or illegally entered to our side of the border. There are supporters on both side, and most of the majority argues that we need both of the tools. The international community, for example, seeks that the highest aim is to help people in their country of residence, but it is also on the basis of Human Rights that a person can apply a refugee status or asylum. Moreover, as the Middle-Eastern crises have shown, the crises nowadays are so complex that there are no single resolutions in sight. Thus, we need both, the powerful humanitarian assistance and explicit and righteous international conventions for refugees and asylum seekers. The anti-immigrant supporters often argue that people should help in their host countries, but at the same, they often oppose to fund such programs (TS 2015). In the end, one should bear in mind that refugees by definition cannot be helped, at least in the short term, within their state of normal residence. Nonetheless, to the same degree, I must give a note that the facilities that make a certain country a welfare state are neither exportable. These goods and services, public institutions and other elements that are peculiar to a welfare state can be shared only within a secured space of a certain state. (Gibney 2004: 10, 76; Walzer 1983: 43)
2.6 The Finnish ‘Immigrant-Critics’ and Other Shades of Anti-Multiculturalism
In Finland, many of the opponents of the pro-immigrant supporters have often clarified that they are not racists but ‘immigrant-critics' – people who by their own words react with healthy criticism to migration. That is undoubtedly true in a sense that as known, almost everything in our universe follows the normal distribution. Most of the people could be settled in the middle of the axis when the racists illustrate the other end and the pro-immigrant supporters, often in public discussion called as 'suvakit' in Finnish, the other. So to say, those who presents everything from the median to the racist end of the axis illustrates the 50 shades of anti-multiculturalism including a large group of immigrant-critics. A new flavour in the immigrant discussion is aroused populism. The populism arises, when for example asylum
seekers are only seen as a cost. Populists often appeal to their followers that for instance taking care of asylums or funding humanitarian crisis in a state-level is away from taking of the elders or creating new jobs to citizens, and so on. That kind of discussion is absolute without a truth, but it easily appeals to people's feelings. (Keskinen, Rastas & Tuori 2009: 12–
14)
Part of the immigrant-criticism is the criticism of multiculturalism itself, and to how the cultural differences are ‘Disneyficated' in public discussion. Multiculturalism and pro- immigrant supporters tend to overemphasise cultures' authentic and unique sides, which is unquestionably a bit misleading. First, not all cultural traditions, such as forced marriage, are worth to protect. Secondly, there is a tendency to support inoffensive and safe traditions as music or cuisine that are enjoyably consumable for members of larger society. It is even said that instead of being ‘cultural liberator’, multiculturalism has become a ‘cultural straightjacket', despite its noble intentions (Kymlicka 2015: 210). (Vertovec & Wessendorf 2010: 34)
Additionally, the pessimists claim that certain lifestyles and values are simply incompatible to usher into Western liberal democracies. One important example is, that despite the separation of Church and state through bitter religious wars in Europe and the acceptance of secularism, the difference between private and public domain is challenged fundamentally by theocratic ideas that deny any domain differences between governance of the state, provision of the education and private worship. The public domain is formed by the elements such as the institutions of law, the politics and the economy (Guibernau & Rex 2010: 221). Today, behind this new wave of theocratic ideas are notably – but not only – Muslims. It is acid to possible integration to the new host society, that most of the Muslims reject in the first place the whole idea of these two domains. They would possibly argue that unquestionably Islam is the whole way of life for them. (Cohen 1997: 195, Rex 1996: 237)
Multiculturalism has also been criticised by feminists, who are afraid that supporting cultural diversity has a potential to increase gender inequality. A particular concern has aroused towards the discrimination of girls and women in the private domain of life. However, the feminist criticism has raised at least as loud counter criticism, where the criticizers have argued that by the feminist point of view, women are seen as co-opted, if not downright
‘brainwashed’ individuals. (Shachar 2007: 118–119)
I understand the concerns of feminists that without challenging our and others’ cultural traditions, norms and values, there is a risk that we merge unwanted and unequal patterns to our society. It could be described as ‘anti-Disneyfication' of cultures, where we, in the name of multiculturalism close our eyes from cultural traditions, norms and values that are unsupportable and even inhumane. It is not racism or anti-multiculturalism to say that there are parts of cultures that are unwelcome and cannot be practised in Western democracies.
However, we need to be careful not to treat an either-your-culture-or-your-rights-dilemma, where either the state or the group must gain an absolute power to resolve all phases of family law dispute. That kind of action would only roll back girls’ and women’s possibilities.
Instead, we need to encourage different parties to public dialogue. (Shachar 2007: 140, 142) Additional vibes to the issues presented above bring the Essentialist point of view that lifestyles, and therefore cultures are never homogenous and should not be treated like that. In the hands of humans, the borders of cultures blur, accelerated due to globalisation, but also, because we all have our unique fingerprint which reshapes the reality through our perceptions.
(Mason 2007: 229–230)
How liberal democracies work depends on how well the citizens accept liberal democratic norms, values and principles. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect immigrants to accept these norms and values. However, often in public discussion there is a mislead disposition that the majority of the citizens already possess the attitudes that are needed for a liberal democracy to work properly. That is not always the case. The liberal democratic principles call for the inclusion of immigrants, and that requires attitudes, values and norms developed by the majority of citizens that often do not exhibit, at least to the necessary degree. Without saying, it is double standardish to presume actions from the immigrants that the majority of the citizens disobey. (Carens 2015: 257)
Integration of ethnic minorities is not essential only for the people themselves, but for the ability to function of the whole welfare state. The likelihood that increasing ethno-racial diversity will form ethno-racial cleavages that may erode the welfare system, is not determined straightly by the level of immigrants or by the multicultural policies per se.
Instead, it depends first and foremost on the state of immigrant's economic and political
integration, which inevitably brings us to such factors as the immigrant selection processes.
(Myles & St-Arnaud 2006: 353)
Yet, the case is not always about immigrant willingness to integrate themselves. John Rex (1996: 43–44) raises an important point that the privileged position of Christianity in liberal western democracies makes integration a lot harder. That is because even though, as an example, the Muslims have a full legal right to practice their religion in their host country, they in fact often have to argue and protect this right. Thus, Rex keeps arguing that only countries like the United States and France, where the church is fully separated from the state could be real multiculturalist societies. In the end, he does admit that Sweden and Great Britain for example, have successfully adopted multiculturalist policies, and additionally found a functioning consortium between religion and multiculturalism. However, Rex has a point by arguing that in an ideal version of a multiculturalist society, the religion is stripped down in the way that the public domain enables citizen's right to worship, but any religious tentacles will not extend to governance. Still, I cannot be without reminding that in Europe it has been exactly in France from where the strongest anti-Muslim speech has born, and where even the girls and the women wearing a burqa in schools and workplaces have been a target of a hate speech. (Rex 1996: 61–62)
This chapter has focused on the criticism of multiculturalism from two different starting points. First of all, I introduced the counter-voices in Finnish public discussion. As mentioned, in Finland the discussion has focused a lot to define the different roles of debaters instead of settling down to the theme itself. For the ‘Immigrant-critics' it is central to speak about ‘the common-sense' and blame the opponents, the suvakit as fools with ‘Utopian dreams' who form a danger to the society. From the local point of view, I turned to present the highlights of anti-multiculturalism in the global context. As I brought out, the international research has aroused few central aspects of the criticism, which all bind the multiculturalism and cultural diversity tightly together. The aspects throw us deep to the ethical roots of multiculturalism, which I will focus on the next chapter. The vital outcome of this chapter is that when we move to the empirical case study of this thesis, the different multiculturalist attitudes that we will find are embodiments of these shades of criticism presented here.
2.7 The Unsolved Ethical Questions of Multiculturalism
‘Among the human rights are the right to life (to the means of subsistence and security); to liberty (to freedom from slavery, serfdom, and forced occupation, and to a sufficient measure of liberty of conscience to ensure freedom of religion and thought); to property (personal property); and to formal equality as expressed by the rules of natural justice (that is, that similar cases be treated similarly)’ (Caney 2007: 153).
The citation above leads us to an interesting question: where is the boundary between one person's choices and the opportunities the society creates? Undoubtedly, the aim of modern Western democracy is to provide the opportunity to people to live by their own lifestyle and culture with members of their group, while minimising the interference with this way of life cheek by jowl with other groups occurrences and with their habits (Weinstock 2007: 258). In other words, from an Egalitarian liberal standpoint, the equal opportunities are what matters.
Opportunities can be seen equal if uniform rules and policies create identical choice sets.
From this point of view, the fact that people will make different choices based on their different preferences is irrelevant on the legal base. The justice is guaranteed by equal opportunities. This paragraph led us to the core of the topic of this chapter. This chapter will discuss the unsolved questions of the multiculturalism of which the most are linked to ethical and moralistic questions. (Owen & Tully 2007: 271)
However, it is essential to understand that the opportunity mentioned above is an objective, not a subjective-dependent concept. The following example will enlighten the statement.
Hypothetical, if there are two people and the other is unable to drive a car, because of some physical disability, and the other person is unable to drive a car, because of their religion, it is offensive to both parties to suggest that they are similarly situated. This illustrates that in the heart of the equality of resources is a distinction between choice and circumstances. When the inequalities arise from the former, a compensation is not needed, but inequalities that arose from the latter, require compensation. (Owen & Tully 2007: 270, 272)
I will raise one more question. As I have argued in earlier chapters, lifestyles, and therefore cultures are never homogenous. However, often when ‘creating’ the equal opportunities to the citizens, the demands of the minorities are often made in the face of the majorities. Thus, they
