Diversity Is Strength! But…What About Finland?
By Steve Sailer
We are constantly told that the long border and large disparity in income between the U.S. and Mexico makes it absolutely impossible for America to enforce its immigration laws.
And yet it is almost never mentioned that a not terribly dissimilar frontier exists within Europe: the 833 mile border between Finland (which has a higher per capita income than Germany, France, or Britain) and corrupt and dysfunctional Russia—the Mexico of Europe. While America's per capita GDP is 4.1 times Mexico's, Finland's is 2.7 times Russia's.
Even though Finland has the kind of Nordic welfare state that attracts immigrants (for example, 12 percent of neighboring Sweden's population is foreign-born), it still has one of the lowest percentages of immigrants of any Western European country: only two percent of its 5.2 million residents.
And a substantial fraction of Finland's immigrants consist of spouses of Finns, Finnish-speaking citizens of Russia (there are pockets of Finnish-speakers throughout the forests of northern Russia), Estonians, whose Uralic language is closest to Finnish, and Swedes (Swedish is the second official language). Third World immigrants make up less than one percent of the population.
This hasn't exactly hurt Finland. The World Economic Forum's poll of 11,000 global business leaders ranks Finland as possessing the second-most competitive economy in the world. (The U.S. is sixth.) Transparency International finds Finland tied with Iceland and New Zealand for the honor of being the least corrupt country on Earth. (The U.S. is merely tied for 20th.)
In 2005, the Washington Post sent two reporters to Finland for several weeks to find out why Finland has "the world's best educational system, produces such talented musicians and architects, and has more cell phones per capita than Japan and America." Sitting here in my pajamas in California, I could have saved the Washington Post all the expense. The most important reason why Finland is so Finlandy is because it is full of Finns. [More]
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Posts
15 comments:
Finns are not a hybrid population, but rather a tidepool of East Baltid type northern Europeans - even out of the 5% of Swedish-speaking Finns, at least four out of five are ethnically Finns, the rest having actually some Swede in them. Only real Eurasians you can find around are "Saamis" of Gola peninsula, while Saamis proper can trace their history to Iberian refugium of the LGM.
Anyhow, I wish it really was as enthically homogenous country as you make it - the immigration problem is genuine here as well, though not yet as bad as it is in Scandinavian Nordic. I don't think I have to tell you how "enriching" its effects are.
"Finns are not a hybrid population, but rather a tidepool of East Baltid type northern Europeans -"
Or just Northern Europeans. Period.
"even out of the 5% of Swedish-speaking Finns, at least four out of five are ethnically Finns, the rest having actually some Swede in them."
You can't divide the Swedish-speaking Finns into those who are ethnic Finns and those who aren't. But it's true that most of their ancestors are Finns.
However, the ethnic or genetic difference between Finns and Swedes is not greater than that between Swedes and Norwegians or that between Swedes and Danes.
"Only real Eurasians you can find around are "Saamis" of Gola peninsula,"
That's Kola.
"while Saamis proper can trace their history to Iberian refugium of the LGM."
Yes. They are descendants of the ice-age population of Spain and southern France, the people who did the wall paintings of Lascaux.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people#Genetic_History
Sami genetic history has been of great interest because of their large genetic distance to other European populations including their closest neighbours. It is mainly the north Sami and east Sami that have been investigated. There is considerable genetic variation between the different Sami groups but they all share a common ancestry. Female mtDNA especially has been investigated, but also Y chromosomes and classical autosomal markers. The research indicates that 95.6% of Saami mtDNA originated in the Iberia refugia while only 4.4% is of Siberian-Asiatic origin (Tambets 2004). A genetic link has been established between the Sami and the Berbers of North Africa going back 9000 years (Achilli 2005).
Sami Y chromosomes indicate that 29.8% originated in the Iberia refugia and 58.2% originated in Eastern Europe (Tambets 2004). The autosomal classic markers shows that the Sami have no close relatives in any population including their closest linguistic relatives but are in general more closely related to Europeans than people of other continents. The closest of the distant relatives are Finnish people, but this is probably due to more recent immigration of Finnish people into the Sami areas, and the assimilation of the Sami population into the mainstream population in today's Finland (Meinila 2001).
The Sami are no more closely related to the Siberian and Mongol populations than other European populations (Niskanen 2002), in contrast to the historically held view that the Sami are of Siberian-Asian origin. The genetic distances between the Sami and the rest of the world are due to founder effects and genetic drift resulting from their small and isolated population.
"there are pockets of Finnish-speakers throughout the forests of northern Russia"
Not true at all.
In Russia there are noticable numbers of Finnish-speakers only in St. Petersburg and in the surrounding countryside, i.e. Ingria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingria
"Genetically, Finns appear to be an interesting hybrid of Europeans and North Central Eurasians."
Not true at all. Finns are just Northern Europeans.
"The George Washington of Finland came from its Swedish-speaking elite that had long been the most sophisticated element in a rural culture."
The elite generally spoke Swedish because Finland was a part of Sweden for 700 years, and Swedish was the only official language, so all educated people knew some Swedish. This doesn't mean that Swedish-speaking people in general were a sophisticated element in the Finnish culture.
The members of the "Swedish-speaking" elite weren't necessarily native speakers of Swedish, they just used Swedish in official contexts. They also had often fake Swedish, German or Latin names even if their mother tongue was Finnish because such names were considered to be "cool". A lot of people also used to have official names in their census records that were entirely different from the names they actually used in their everyday lives. E.g. somebody whose name was Kalle Anttila, a Finnish name, would have the name Carl Anderson, a Swedish name, in the official census records.
"Russia had ruled Finland since obtaining it from Sweden in 1809."
Finland was an autonomous country under Russian occupation (1808-1918), comparable to Japan under American occupation.
"having to give up a modest amount of territory in 1940."
About 10 %. Whether or not that is a modest amount is a semantic question.
"After Stalin's ultimate victory in 1945, the Finns, having given the Soviets all they could handle, escaped the fate of other Eastern European countries."
Finland is not an Eastern European country but a Scandinavian country.
"It's very hard to get a job, an apartment, or welfare benefits without a valid ID showing you have the legal right to be in Finland."
Not just very hard, but literally impossible. It's mechanically impossible and logically impossible for an immigrant to get welfare benefits without a valid ID and a legal right to be in Finland.
Getting a job and an apartment without having a legal right to be in Finland would be possible only if you're able to find an employer who pays cash (i.e. you don't pay taxes, the taxman doesn't know of your income, the taxman doesn't know of your existence) and a landlord who is willing to accept you as a tenant without having your name on the door, without reporting your address to the census data bank etc. It would be very hard to find a landlord like that, unless you personally know someone who trusts you enough to agree to an arrangement like this. Basically this means that such an arrangement is impossible unless the landlord is a close relative of yours, e.g. your sister or brother.
"But Finland apparently does not intend to disappear—unlike America."
Sadly, there are a lot of idiots in Finnish politics who want to turn Finland into a multicultural nightmare like France.
saudi arabia is building a 900 kilometer wall along it's entire border with iraq, to keep out illegal aliens and terrorists. they are spending about 12 billion dollars to do this and have contracted american companies like raytheon.
it's sad that the politicians in america just plain lie to our faces, telling us a wall could never work, when american companies are building a wall that does work in other nations. and for the cost of just once month of the "war" in iraq, too.
So we're building a wall in SA and no doubt the American taxpayer has had the privilege of paying for the Israeli wall--but we cant secure our own borders! Tell me again why Obammy is such a great balm to the nation????Oh boy,maybe Hillary will be our first woman President! Yipee! We're really moving forward!! On a related topic,I saw something in the Economist (Yes,I will occasionally page thru the Economist and read as much as I can until I invariably slip into a deep sleep...:) ) about "national happiness"--Who are the happiest countries? The usual suspects. Northern Europe: Iceland,Norway,etc. The more white you are,it seems the happier you are! Those dull as dishwater Finns are singing inside while the gregarious Africans are probably miserable! "IMMIGRATION=DEATH"
aw come on,
If we could just let the Finns have 66 million Mexicans like the Bush Amnesty plan is going to give us, you know it would become a better place than it is now, and literacy would skyrocket, and their taxes would get lower, and they would act peacefully toward all those flaxen-haired-tall-elegantly-built, reserved, modest, intellectual-high G.P.A-high I.Q.'ed Finns.
Lets make Finland better, lets bomb them until they worship the Gawd' of diversity. Because as everyone knows, there is something just plain wrong about boring-oat white people.
Sigh. The "don't question our whiteness!" team is out. Yes, they are right, there is indeed no evidence whatsoever that Finns would be a "hybrid" population in the sense we would be known to descend from some Mongoloid population and some Caucasoid population. (There is no evidence that we wouldn't be, either, unless you're speaking about some specific populations, and it's just as silly to insist that it can't be true as it is to just declare that Finns are a hybrid population.) "Virtual Finland" is a big travel advertisement and about as good a source on anything as any travel advertisement out there ie. they'll want to avoid anything ordinary and boring and they'll want to play up any idea that makes the place seem more "special" and interesting. I'm surprised Sailer didn't pick this up, as he's usually so good at not buying it when someone's opinions exactly match the obvious incentives. (I think he's overly infatuated with Finland - I doubt he'd be so eager to link to it as a source if the government of Belarus put up a web page stating that Belarusians are an interesting hybrid people.)
Still, it's a big improvement to the situation a century ago, when it was standard for Finns to be counted as pure Mongoloids - not hybrids - often even in Finland (few people in Finland had ever seen an Asian until today's generations; if all the European books say that Finns look like Asians, do you conclude that the books are wrong or that Asians look like Finns? how would you know? both happened). Many early Finnish authors traveled around Asia expecting to find people who look just like Finns there, ending up very surprised by what they found. Even then, some people in Finland did not take the discovery well - being "Mongols" instead of being just another type of farmers without much glorious history (or any kind of history) would've made Finns really "special" and interesting. Some people are still chasing the idea - and some people are still obsessed with insisting that it isn't true.
Or just Northern Europeans. Period.
Yes - but if you look beyond hair and eye colour and height, you'll easily notice that northern Europeans (not just Finns but also eg. Swedes, Norwegians and Balts) are in many obvious ways closer to "Mongoloids" than, say, Italians or Spaniards are. It isn't surprising (Siberia is a lot closer than Iberia), but there's no consensus that Finns are any more of a Eurasian "hybrid" people than Swedes or Latvians are.
Finland is not an Eastern European country but a Scandinavian country.
That's just silly.
Saamis BTW look much more northern European than most foreigners seem to believe them to look like. This is also much due to silly old ideas - of course, those old authors always specifically sought the most exotic-looking Saamis they could find as "examples" to photograph! - and partly due to the fact that few foreigners realize that sort-of-Mongoloid looks are not that uncommon at all in non-Saami Finns & Scandinavians. In reality, no one can tell a lone Saami in Stockholm from the Swedes just by looks alone.
Mikko:
"After Stalin's ultimate victory in 1945, the Finns, having given the Soviets all they could handle, escaped the fate of other Eastern European countries."
Finland is not an Eastern European country but a Scandinavian country.
So to be fair all you are quibbling about in this bit is Steves use of the word 'other'.
Finland usually finishes at the top of the PISA study, and its relative ethnic homogeneity is never mentioned as a reason.
Soon a UN representative will issue a report condemning Germany's school system because -- surprise -- kids from the underclass and migrant families rarely make an Abitur.
A big difference between Finland and the United States is that Finland doesn't have pro-immigration Jewish groups such as the ADL trying to undermine its border security.
mä ainaki wihaan rasismii !!1!
jaakkeli said...
"Sigh. The "don't question our whiteness!" team is out."
So, you think it's unnecessary to point out primitive factual errors, like the "Finns are half-Asians" bullshit?
"Some people are still chasing the idea - and some people are still obsessed with insisting that it isn't true."
Some people are wrong and some people are right. There are idiots who believe the earth is flat, and there are people who "are still obsessed with insisting" that the earth is a ball. And then there are people like you who apparently think that both of these groups are equally right.
"northern Europeans (not just Finns but also eg. Swedes, Norwegians and Balts) are in many obvious ways closer to "Mongoloids" than, say, Italians or Spaniards are."
Not true at all. What have you been smoking?
"Saamis BTW look much more northern European than most foreigners seem to believe them to look like."
Antti Tuisku is a typical example.
http://www.anttituisku.fi/
I don't think he looks Northern European. He and other Samis typically resemble Spaniards and other Southern Europeans rather than Northern Europeans precisely because Samis are descendants of the ice-age population of Spain and southern France.
"few foreigners realize that sort-of-Mongoloid looks are not that uncommon at all in non-Saami Finns & Scandinavians."
These "sort-of-Mongoloid looks" of e.g. Antti Tuisku (see above) can't be interpreted as signs of Asian ancestry. There are people with similar "Mongoloid" traits everywhere in Europe. The Samis have gone through a genetic bottleneck, which has caused them to have a statistically very significant genetic difference relative to other Europeans. This is called the founder effect. People who have zero knowledge of genetics don't understand this, and that's why they mistakenly assume that if the Samis look different from other Europeans, they must be Asians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder_effect
The founder effect was defined by Ernst Mayr in 1963 to be the effect of establishing a new population by a small number of individuals, carrying only a small fraction of the original population's genetic variation. As a result, the new population may be distinctively different, both genetically and phenotypically, from the parent population from which it is derived.
"In reality, no one can tell a lone Saami in Stockholm from the Swedes just by looks alone."
Not necessarily true. Some Samis look like normal Scandinavians (e.g. Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, http://www.rovaniemi.fi/lapinkirjailijat/enils.htm) but some, like Antti Tuisku, obviously look rather foreign.
Anonymous said...
"So to be fair all you are quibbling about in this bit is Steves use of the word 'other'."
Yeah, so if I said "the USA and other South American countries", in your opinion it would be unnecessary nitpicking to say I'm wrong.
So, Sailer, are you ever going to correct the grave factual errors in your original column?
I really liked article but some cant accept truth like Mikko Ellilä who is typical finnish nazi and have very thin picture of the world. Elliläs ideas are doomed until he can change his reasoning.
Finns really have 10/30% northern east eurasian/mongolian admixture.
There is haplogroup,blood groups and allele evidence to "mongolian" admixture
links:
The Finnish population structure. A genetic and genealogical study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=4680662&dopt=Abstract
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2007/02/european-population-stratification.html
http://www.geocities.com/grpadm/Rootsi2006.pdf
Post a Comment