The Ministry of Justice of Finland funded ‘Creating Anti-Radicalization Awareness Network in Lapland’ (Radikalisaatiotietoisuusverkoston luominen Lapissa) project of the Arctic Immigrants Association (AMA Ry, Finland) in association with the ‘Global Northern Communities and Societies’ research group of the Faculty of Social Science of the University of Lapland was organized this symposium. The symposium is supported by the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Migration. It was co-sponsored by Santa Park, Lapland.
The symposium covered various topics, including the dynamics of radicalization, racism, and hate speech against immigrants and their impact on immigrants. Furthermore, the two-day presentation and discussion tried to identify grassroots initiatives and community engagement, analyzing legal and policy frameworks and a common ground for further discussion and international cooperation.
The two-day symposium started with the project research findings, which were presented by Syed Musa Kajim Nuri, the Project Coordinator and a PhD student at the University of Lapland. The project's significant findings revealed the presence of racism and hate speech against immigrants in Lapland. Most practitioners working with youth in Lapland and who participated in the project mentioned this. The symposium was moderated by Nafisa Yeasmin, who is a visiting researcher at the University of Lapland, a docent at Tampere University, and the lead of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Migration.
Two keynote speeches were provided by two distinguished keynote speakers. On the first day, the keynote speech was given by Fenna Canters, Senior Advisor, Radicalization Awareness Network of the European Union. The keynote speech explored the activities of the Radicalization Awareness Network. It discussed the concept of extremism and new forms of radicalization against immigrants and evaluated the best practices from lessons learned. There were two more papers presented on that day about the extremist mindset of young people and the systematic view on violent youth radicalization. The discussion was trying to evaluate young people's engagement process to violent radicalization and how it could be more dangerous against immigrants at certain levels. After those presentations, an actual Documentary film on Racism against Immigrants was shown at Polarium with the cooperation of the Arctic Immigrants Association. The name of the Film was ‘Fatma: An Afghan Finn’s Story,’ directed by Bethan Gilmartin. The film tried to show the real scenario of an Afghan Finn Boxer who faces racism and difficulties in integrating into society.
On the second day, the Keynote speech was provided by Maria Ivanova-Gongne, Associate Professor, Åbo Akademi University of Finland. Her speech was focused on the Challenges faced by Migrants and Refugees in Entrepreneurship and Work. It also includes the language barriers, integration process problems, and negative attitudes of the people as an Employer to provide work to Immigrants and Refugees. Last day, there were five more papers presented about the recruitment of youth into extremist movements, hate speech against immigrants, international students' life in Finland, the ecology of hate model against immigrants and refugees, and identifying best practices from international aspects.
The symposium was attended by Academicians, students, researchers, educators, practitioners, third-sector officials, police personnel, government officials, policymakers, community leaders, and religious leaders from national and international levels. Forty-five people attended the symposium for two days.
The symposium's outcome will help to identify the root causes and consequences of radicalization, racism, and hate speech against immigrants in the future and increase awareness about those. Furthermore, it will provide a greater understanding of the problem in local immigrant communities and the broader society. Besides this, it will generate new knowledge for policymakers to combat these issues. Moreover, it will inspire grassroots initiatives and community engagement to reduce this societal problem. However, it will help build international networks and collaboration to address these societal challenges in future.