Month: March 2011

Sensible Finns voice objection to racism and exclusion

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

To commemorate the UN Week for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that started on Monday, we will try to answer a question: Why is racism harmful to a society? How can it threaten Finland?

That timely question can be answered by asking why some people in Finland still believe that racism is sexy and patriotic?

Apart from swimming in ignorance and low-self-esteem, there is nothing patriotic about racism.  Patriotism means having a sense of community that is inclusive. Nationalism, on the other hand, uses ethnocentric arguments to raise low self-esteem.

This ad below sums up pretty well why racism is a threat to society:

Racism is a four-letter word:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppi5XtOYz9I&NR=1]

Celebrating diversity clip:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GY_jpfQzZs&feature=player_embedded]

A very important message to future generations:

Even though racism is difficult to spot it does not mean that it is invisible. True, it uses ingenious methods while hiding in the gutter of society as an ogre. One of its favorite alibis is that “it isn’t a racist but…”

Probably one of the reasons why some of us cannot see racism in our society is because it sits right under our noses.

How can racism threaten Finland? Why not look behind your shoulder deep into recent history: European colonialism, Nazi Germany, Former Yugoslavia, the Roma question in Europe, Rwanda, Israeli-Palestinian conflict… Should I go on? In other words, the more we discriminate against others we attack our society’s values in Finland. How can we speak of equality if we are in favor of excluding other members of society?

Verkkouutiset: Stubb: Maahanmuuttokeskustelun ilmapiiri ahdistava

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: It is not the first time that Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb has taken a strong stand against the xenophobia, racism and ignorance that too often characterizes the ongoing debate on immigrants and immigration to Finland.  About a month before the election on April 17,  it not only takes leadership but guts to speak out against what Stubb calls  an “oppressive” debating atmosphere.

The foreign minister was quoted as saying at a seminar on immigrant employment in Helsinki that Finland owes its success and economic growth to its openness and internationalization. “Success requires that internationalization also takes place in this country,” he said on Verkkouutiset, a Kokoomus electronic publication. Tabloid Iltalehti wrote (in Finnish) about Stubb’s comments as well.

Three matters emerge frequently when reading the arguments of some Finns who see immigration as a threat: fear, low self-esteem and ignorance. Even if some are misinformed and carry theories on cultures and ethnicities dating back to the nineteenth century, they can always learn from their mistakes.

Teaching people to control their racism is just as important as teaching democracy, equality and human rights.  Why? Because society works better than when it is based on inequality, racism and prejudice.

Are you of the same opinion?

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Ulkoministeri Alexander Stubbin (kok.) mielestä Suomessa käytävän maahanmuutto- ja kansainvälisyyskeskustelun ilmapiiri on tällä hetkellä ahdistava.

The keep on reading click here.

Wille Rydman’s campaign ad (no endorsement by Migrant Tales)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What kinds of feelings does this campaign ad by Kokoomus hopeful Wille Rydman invoke? Does it play into the anti-immigration sentiment gripping Finland at present or offer viable solutions to make immigration work for Finland? Is he just another opportunistic politician  that uses the anti-immigration card to lure votes?

In order to answer that question, you would have to ask to whom this ad it directed to. Immigrants? Or Finns who just cannot stomach cultural diversity?

Rydman, who has been labelled by some of his own party members as the Halla-aho of Kokoomus, suggested on June 10 in a letter to the editor to Helsingin Sanomat that the state should not finance multiculturalism but instead Finnish language courses.  There is a wealth of evidence that shows that if you deny people their right to express their identity you create mental health and social problems.

Rydman appears to have a simplistic view of culture. He has not read nor knows of such studies that show how important identity is to a person.

Is voting for Rydman synonymous with defending immigrants’ rights?

You decide. What do you think?

Migrant Tales memorable quotes of the week to March 14

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales publishes on Monday some interesting quotes on the ongoing immigration debate in Finland and elsewhere. If you have some quotes you would like to share with us, please forward them to [email protected]. ET

–In the popular imagination migrants are often characterised as marginalised, isolated, voiceless. And in many ways nothing could be further from the truth. Jane Wills, author of “Global Cities at Work”

–Would you name and shame even one refugee or asylum seeker who came to Finland with the express intention of living on social welfare benefits? I can think of a few who have spent many years looking for work with varying degrees of success, but these are certainly not the people you are describing. JusticeDemon on Migrant Tales.

–I support the welfare state but it cannot be maintained for long if there’s lots of immigration and a high unemployment. JL defending his view that immigrants should not get social welfare benefits as Finns.

–The reason why some of us are so interested in immigrants and people from different cultures is because we see ourselves through them. Enrique Tessieri

Old quote: We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. Anais Nin (1903-77)

Finnish labor is costly. I subcontracted my campaign to Bangladesh, says Mänkkönen of the True Finns on the left. Green MP hopeful Husein Muhammed responds: “Foreigners are taking away jobs from Finns?

An insult to over a million Finns

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The racial and cultural “theories” peddled by some members of parties like the True Finns are not only an example of their ignorance of the subject but a rude slap in the face to over a million Finns who live abroad. Many of us are that multicultural “nightmare” that some in this country want to avoid at all costs.

Too often when some Finnish politicians speak out against refugees and immigrants as if we were a plague, that person usually ends up insulting hundreds of thousands that emigrated from this country to other lands.

Finland’s debate on immigration and multiculturalism has deep flaws. For one, it has a lot of racist overtones since some believe that being an immigrant or having a multicultural background is a disadvantage. Finns are “white, Lutheran and represent a monoculture,” they argue.

With so many Finns living abroad in so many countries  how can anyone make such a ludicrous claim in a globalized world?

When anti-immigration groups in this country  insult refugees as “welfare shoppers” they throw dirt on those refugees and immigrants that left Finland in the past centuries.

Expatriate Finns must take part in the ongoing debate in Finland on immigration and refugees because we are the fruit that has budded in foreign lands thanks to our ancestors’ restless yearning and ambition.

I for one am especially proud of my Finnish and multicultural background.

HS: Perussuomalaisten ehdokkaina useita Suomen sisun jäseniä

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Fascism through the back door? That’s what it looks like, according to an article by Helsingin Sanomat, which shows that a number of prominent True Finns candidates belong to Suomen Sisu, an associaton that follows the ideology of the Mussolini-inspired IKL of the 1930s, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duken and the Nazi racial ideology of Alfred Rosenberg.

Rosenberg, who was tried and hung after being sentenced for crimes against humanity in Nuremburg, is the antithesis of multiculturalism. An architect, he became a pseudo philosopher on race. His argument in “The myth of the 20th century” was that for the Aryans to reach greatness they had to expel all the Jews from Germany.

Rosenberg was also involved in much of the “ethnic cleansing” programs in Nazi-occupied Russia.

You can find Duken’s writings in the neo-Nazi Kansallinen Vastarinta webiste.

One of the aims of Suomen Sisu is to “save” Finland from multiculturalism and stop different cultures from “mixing.”

As the April 17 election nears, more newspapers are starting to take a more critical view of the True Finns and especially its far-right wing led by Jussi Halla-aho and his followers.

The True Finns have been strangely quiet in the past weeks. Be ready for more revelations about some True Finns’ candidates.

What the cat will bring in won’t look pretty at all.

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Miska Rantanen

Perussuomalaisten eduskuntavaaliehdokkaina on useita kansallismielisen Suomen sisu -yhdistyksen jäseniä. Heitä ovat muun muassa Olli Immonen Oulusta, James Hirvisaari Asikkalasta, Teemu Lahtinen Espoosta, Johannes Nieminen Vantaalta ja Jussi Halla-aho Helsingistä.

To keep on reading click here.

The Helsingin Sanomat story is based on some good reporting by Tampere-based Aamulehti.

The True Finns and their “True Finland”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

With about a month to go for the April 17 election, the biggest question still refues to reveal itself: by how many times will the True Finns multiply their MPs from eight now? Some reliable estimates place the number between 15 and 35.

For me as a Finn with a multicultural background, there is a lot riding in these elections if we consider that Finland’s demographic challenges will begin to accentuate especially in the next two decades. We are heading to become a society where the number of over-sixty-five-year-olds in the population will jump to 27% by 2040 from 17% in 2007, according to Statistics Finland.

If you want to see today what Finland will look like demographically in the next three decades, one has only to visit some rural towns where over 30% of the population is over 65 years.

There is nothing wrong with pensioners. The problem, however, is who is going to pay for all the expensive health care and social welfare costs to service this ever-growing age group?

Should we be worried that the True Finns are heading for a victory in the April election?

Yes because instead of Finland looking for effective answers to its demographic as well as a number of other challenges facing our country and society, a large number of Finns have chosen instead to be spooked by the rhetoric and populism of the True Finns.

We have only ourselves to blame for the rise of the True Finns in the polls. We have never really addressed racism and discrimination forcefully enough in this country since we have had so few immigrants among our ranks in the past. Instead of questioning our hatred for the Russians, some of us still feel the same way about our eastern neighbor as on the same day they unjustly  attacked us in the 1939-40 Winter War.

Instead of trying to rid our society of ills like racism, some politicians have used it for their own opportunistic political aims by instilling fear and claiming that our country will be overrun by Russians and foreigners.

On the positive side of things, it is good matter that many Finns who should know better than to peddle nineteenth-century racial “theories” are now in the public light. I personally believe that they have given us a good opportunity to challenge for good their distorted ideas that date back to the 1930s and to the writings of Rolf Nordenstreng and Eugen Fischer.

I refuse to believe that Finland, the country that is our dear home and which sacrificed so much to build a world-class educational system and society, will throw it all away for a few cheap populist soundbites from groups like the True Finns and politicians like Social Democrat Kari Rajamäki and Wille Rydman of Kokoomus.

The “True Finland” that the True Finns want to build is nothing more than a “False Finland” glued by populism and low self-esteem. We must all stand up against them, especially on April 17.

BBC: Danish immigration minister Hornbech fired over scandal

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an interesting story from Denmark reporting that Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech had been fired from her job for not only illegally refusing citizenship to a group of Palestinians born there, but not informing parliament immediately of such a mistake, reports the BBC.

Writes Yahoo News: “Hornbech’s refugees, immigration and integration portfolio was handed over to Development Cooperation Minister Soeren Pind, who is considered a hardliner on the immigration issue.  In one of his first statements after his nomination, Pind described the UN convention that sent his predecessor packing as ‘stupid.'”

Some Finnish politicians from the True Finns are hoping that they will hold the same power as the populist and xenophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) led by Pia Kjaersgaard. Denmark’s Liberal-Conservative coalition government has relied on the support of the DPP to stay in power in exchange for tightened immigration and citizenship laws.

Even though the majority of Danes do not back the DPP, Denmark is a sad case how Islamophobia can grip a small nation. Denmark is the biggest loser of such a mistaken policy because it creates an inclusive and unequal society.

Do you agree?

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Denmark’s Immigration Minister Birthe Roenn Hornbech has been sacked after 36 stateless Palestinians were wrongly refused citizenship.

To continue reading click here.

YLE: Ruotsalaisministeri huolissaan Suomen kielikeskustelusta

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is an interesting story where Sweden’s Integration Minister Erik Ullenhage expresses concern over the tone of the ongoing debate concerning the rights of minorities such as the Swedish-speaking Finns in this country.

Without naming any parties, Ullenhage states that those countries that don’t respect minorities are losers because foreign trade is growing between nations.

Those who naively believe that one can bash one group of people and be for immigration at the same haven’t told us how this balancing act works and how you make sure that this hatred does not rub off  on other minorities. There sure is a lot of political opportunism and ignorance with a capital “I” out there that characterizes a number of Finnish politicians.

Do you agree?

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Ruotsin hallituksessa tunnetaan huolta suomenruotsalaisten asemaa koskevasta keskustelusta Suomessa. Muun muassa vähemmistökysymyksistä vastaava integraatioministeri Erik Ullenhage on huolissaan Suomen keskustelun sävystä, joka on tuttu muualtakin Euroopasta.

To keep on reading click here.

Migrant Tales memorable quotes of the week to March 7

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales publishes on Monday some interesting quotes on the ongoing immigration debate in Finland and elsewhere. If you have some quotes you would like to share with us, please forward them to [email protected]. ET

Immigration policy was criticized last autumn by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said that the attempt to build a multicultural society in Germany had failed. The statement is odd since this type of [integration] policy has never been practiced in Germany nor even in many other countries.  Pasi Saukkonen, Helsingin Sanomat

Maahanmuuttopolitiikkaa arvioi viime syksynä myös Saksan liittokansleri Angela Merkel. Hän totesi, että yritys rakentaa Saksaan monikulttuurinen yhteiskunta on epäonnistunut. Väite oli outo, sillä tällaista politiikkaa ei ole koskaan harjoitettu Saksassa eikä useimmissa muissakaan maissa.

Gathering from the ongoing debate (on immigration), it seems that immigrants are trying to rush into Finland through doors and windows. In reality we have the seventh lowest number of immigrants in Europe. Iltalehti

Julkisen keskustelun perusteella voisi luulla, että maahanmuuttajia tunkee Suomeen ovista ja ikkunoista. Todellisuudessa täällä on Euroopan seitsemäksi vähiten maahanmuuttajia.

(Thilo) Sarrazin’s* claims (on European racial superiority) do not hold water in today’s globalized world. Everyone can see that they are false. The scary matter is that different arguments on race used by those on the fringes of the immigration critical camp can get support. Responsible politicians and citizens should stay clear from these type of racial theories. Tatu Vanhanen, Iltalehti that quotes him from an article he published in Kanava.

(Thilo) Sarrazinin väitteet eivät menesty nykypäivän globalisoituvassa maailmassa. Jokainen voi itse havainnoida ne vääriksi. Pelättävissä kuitenkin on, että maahanmuuttokriittisen keskustelun marginaaleissa myös erilaiset rotuväittämät voivat saada kannatusta. Vastuullisten poliitikkojen ja kansalaisten on syytä sanoutua irti tällaisista rotuopeista. Tatu Vanhanen, Iltalehti

*Thilo Sarrazin, a former member of the executive board and head of the German Bundesbank’s risk control operations, claimed in a book that Turks, Middle Easterners and Africans had lower IQs than Europeans.

The term integration should mean mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities. Enrique Tessieri @MigrantTales

Old quote: To govern is to populate. Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810-84), Argentinean statesman who felt that Argentina would never become a prosperous nation with a population of one million that could easily house 50 million people.