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273 Deported Finns Deported Finns Auvo Kostiainen Although the United States was a land of dreams for immigrants, in real life it could be something else: their reception and final deportation was, to many immigrants, a nightmare. This contradictory face of the New World is seen in the formulation of the deportation policies, which were an important part of the policies of the immigrant-receiving countries, as they are in the contemporary world. It is evident that several hundred Finns entering a North American port were turned back. Of special interest, however , are deportations caused by social and economic problems, illness, criminal acts, or political activities , after these immigrants had settled in the country. Finnish Americans were in fact rarely deported for political activities, but the stories of this occurring aroused attention in the news media and within the Finnish ethnic community, especially during the Cold War years. Attitudes toward immigrants entering the American homeland, as well as issues regulated by official legislation, have always divided people. American society and business developments have influenced the issue, because during certain periods newcomers have been viewed as a serious threat to the labor market. Ethnic and other tensions have also come to the fore.1 The political system, economy, and labor conditions in the United States have not always embraced new arrivals, although the U.S. economy needed fuel to make use of its natural resources and to continue economic growth. These facts and the selection criteria have been demonstrated in various studies dealing with the treatment of immigrants. The Chinese, in 1882, were the first foreign group that faced the closing of immigration to the United States. This was based mainly on the competitive element in the labor market, as well as the limitations based on the idea of the “Yellow Race,” which was not seen as suitable for the United States. Finally, during the Second World War the legislation was changed, and the Chinese were again allowed as migrants with a small quota. Finally the “Yellow Race” legislation was changed in 1965, when the migration was freed from quota systems, mainly as a consequence of the labor force demand. Immigrants from various countries were turned back from control stations on an annual basis. Specific deportation cases have, of course, received publicity, but these accounted only for a small minority of all the cases. The number of deportations increased from the late 1800s. Thousands of immigrants were able to pass through Ellis Island in New York on any given day, but several hundred Auvo Kostiainen 274 of them could be turned back for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they did not fulfill the criteria for a prospective immigrant, because of health or other reasons. It has been well documented that the general health condition of the immigrants was examined. A classic study carried out in the 1930s by Janet Clark found that a person was usually deported for a period of either three or five years, or even indefinitely. A person could be deported for being a beggar or becoming “a burden to the society at large” because of mental illness, or for being a member of an illegal organization, such as an anarchist group, or for being a member of a radical labor movement.1 No exact information has been found on early deportations of Finns from the American continent, and the means of handling the deportations varied over the decades. In general, according to Jane Clark, exclusion because of physical, mental, moral, or economic reasons gradually became more and more rare during the early twentieth century. There were also “warrant cases” for arrest, for trial, or for deportation.2 In this chapter, I estimate the total numbers of deported Finns from the United States and Canada. If we look at the cases in more detail, we find that not only political radicalism but also the social conditions of the individual Finnish immigrants made them the target of U.S. immigration officials. However, the Finnish American community in many locations held the “Red Finns” label from the early decades of the twentieth century. At that time, the “loyal” immigrant Finns had, for example, founded the Lincoln Loyalty League to fight the radicals and to promote the image of “good Finns” in America. It seems that during the deportation of radicals in the 1950s, Finns were again faced with the historical burden of stereotypical images of radical Finns.3 Interwar Deportations There were statutes about deportations. The laws that clearly had...

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