On pohjantähden alla, Tää koti mulla mainen, Mä elämästä laulan...

6 jul 2010 | Martin-Eric Racine
Finland
My girlfriend and I were out picking up a cake at the bakery last week, when my phone rang.

Wanted: a coherent, sane Finnish political party

21 dec 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Finland Politik Invandring
In more than 11 years in Finland, I've been politically involved in a couple of political parties on the Right side of the spectrum - mainly because those parties tend to favor a free market economy and a work-oriented immigration. In one case, I was invited by fellow immigrants to attend the meetings of their favorite party's English section, because of my expertise on Immigration legislation and...

Nordic expats living in Finland wanted for survey

12 aug 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Norden Invandring
I'm interested in meeting with Nordic expats (Danemark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) living in Finland, to hear their experiences of settling down in this country, on two particular topics:

On the accessibility of public services in Swedish in Finland

9 jul 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Norden Arbetsliv Invandring
As confirmed by a comment to my previous article, Nordic workers moving to Finland also encounter problems whenever dealing with the bureaucracy. More specifically, getting service in the Swedish language apparently is becoming more and more difficult, in some Finnish municipalities, despite the fact that Finnish and Swedish both have an official language status in Finland.

Aftermath of the Magma/Helsinki Times survey on Swedish

29 jun 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Språk Finland Skola Utbildning Invandring
While searching the blogosphere for responses to the survey on Swedish culture in Finland, I came across this interesting gem [translated and commented in Finnish on Suomi 24] by Vasa Bladet columnist Kenneth Myntti.

When can we have a balanced and meaningful debate on immigration?

6 jun 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Mångkultur Finland Invandring Asylsökande
This question keeps on popping up in many recent newspaper articles, on discussion boards and in seminars debating immigration issues in Finland. At the core of the question is a general impression that, between the enthusiastic supporters of multiculturalism and the pessimistic nationalist rednecks, very little constructive discussion is possible in Finland.

Invandringskonsult

18 maj 2009 | Martin-Eric Racine
Språk Finland Svenskfinland Invandring Migration
In close to 11 years of living in Europe, I've accomplished plenty beyond working in the high-tech sector: I've also been fairly active in Immigration Policy, especially on aspects that affect migrant labor. Because of this, I keep on getting more and more requests to produce statements or to appear on panels to discuss issues pertaining to migrant labor and to immigrants' integration.

Valga - Valka : 1 linn, 2 riiki - 1 pilsēta, 2 valstis

22 dec 2007 | Martin-Eric Racine
Europa Säkerhet
Thursday evening, I joined the inhabitants of the twin town of Valga-Valka, sitting smack on the Estonian-Latvian border, to celebrate their entry into the Schengen treaty. Ever since I first crossed the border there on a roadtrip from Tallinn to Fallingbostel, in year 2001, I knew I would have to return and, sure enough, I briefly passed through during last summer with an Estonian friend, on our way...

Miscellanea

16 nov 2007 | Martin-Eric Racine
Teknik
Things have been rather hectic lately, so I haven't found much time to blog. Here's why:

Localisation beyond language packs

28 jul 2007 | Martin-Eric Racine

In my previous post, I briefly mentioned my K750i Sony-Ericsson mobile phone. I received it as a birthday gift this year, to replace my aging but trustworthy Nokia 3210 and, as with any multifunctional digital device, there was a learning curve during the adoption period. While some features were gladly and swiftly...

Adventures in Business Setting

21 maj 2007 | Martin-Eric Racine

One funny thing about being a foreigner is the linguistic choices people make when communicating with me. Case in point: my new job at Artec.

This being Estonia, there's a plethora of languages to choose from: Estonian, obviously, but also Russian, English and Finnish. Russian is possible because 30% of Estonians are ethnic Russians (or...

Life after Etch

25 dec 2006 | Martin-Eric Racine

This week, following the announce of the freeze, I upgraded most of my home cluster to Etch. The upgrade went surprisingly smoothly, although I had a bit of a scare when the kernel upgrade pulled in a bunch of dependencies that resulted in the forced removal of all previous kernels. This minor scare asides, kudos to everyone who...