Massimiliano Spotti is a junior research fellow at the University of Helsinki. Fundamentally, he is a migrant. Yet he has an elite position, and so gets to be called an ‘expat’.

For decades, taking the side of migrants has been the rallying cry for many (language) activists, humanitarian organisations and social scientists. The EU has espoused this view, at least to a certain extent, with a series of ‘one-night stand’ events that celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity. But is this egalitarian/inclusive tenet feasible? As for Finland, the recent comments made by Eero Heinäluoma – MP for the Social Democratic Party - do indicate a call for the tightening of Finland’s own boundaries through a priori opposition to the looming dangers of recruiting a new active workforce from abroad.

Heinäluoma’s comments are certainly trendy. They are trendy in the sense that they are perfectly in line with the recent policy trends of many other European countries. Let us take the case of the Netherlands, where I have lived and worked for the past nine years. It used to be called the country of open mindedness and acceptance of diversity. Admitted but not demonstrably so, the most recent policy trends on migration show that newly arrived (non-Western) migrants should integrate. Here, integration means learning the Dutch language and learning about Dutch society. It is only on this basis, measured by the passing of an admission test, that non-Western migrants will be allowed to enter the country.

However, the Dutch case also shows the other side of the coin. Second-generation migrants – a result of the labour migration of the seventies – do much better than had bseen forecasted. Although often addressed by the media as zorgcategoriëen, i.e. categories in need of care, crude socioeconomic terms show that they are an agent group of social actors that delivers economic benefits and brings a cosmopolitan character to mainstream Dutch society. Yet again, the outsider, the alien or – to borrow French philosopher Michael Foucault’s terminology – the ‘abnormal’ is unsettling in that it does not fall within an established classification of language, territory and belonging.

Heinäluoma’s predictions of danger seem like something out of Dickens’ Bleak House. What if these migrants stay? And what if, once they stay, they turn out to be a bunch of Oliver Twists? In other words, what if they keep asking for more? To answer in a Dickensian style: me, myself, is also a foreigner, Sir. Me, myself, came here two months ago, Sir. Me, myself, wishes to stay, Sir. Me, myself, is – at least I hope – actively contributing to increase Finland’s position in the world of social sciences, Sir.