Month: May 2011

MRN: 10 years after the race riots, Britain’s ‘patchwork heritage’ is not the problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: It’s always the same story in every European country: multiculturalism is a failure, immigrants don’t integrate and immigration policy is in shambles. The blog by Ruth Grove-White below published on Migration Rights Network (MRN) attempts to look at how Britain’s ever-growing cultural diversity has evolved since the 2001 Oldham race riots broke out.

The Oldham race riots were the worst in the United Kingdom in fifteen years  that sparked similar confrontations in Bradford, Leeds and Burnley.

Grove-White asks were Britain is in 2011 after a decade when the riots took place. During that period, Britain’s foreign-born population rose to 7% in 2011 from 4.5% in 2001.

“It is the effects of this diversity that are under dispute,” she writes. “With rising net immigration, we are told by politicians and media that it is an inevitable symptom of diversity, that these problems are worsening, that migrants should be made to do more to integrate, and that multiculturalism has failed. But are we really facing a crisis of this sort?”

Evidence, however, shows the contrary, according to Grove-White. “Research summarised in Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson’s excellent book, ‘Sleepwalking to Segregation?’ reports an increase in ethnic mixing, greater tolerance in social attitudes and more mixed-ethnicity friendship groups among diverse communities in Britain since 2001.”

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Ruth Grove-White

As the anniversary of the 2001 Oldham race riots comes around and fresh stats show that net immigration has leapt up once again, we need to rebut claims that our society is divided along ethnic lines.

Read whole story.

Malicious insinuation of minorities in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

In one day Finland’s image changed in the eyes of many people and the world. On April 17 the racism and malicious insinuation of minorities in Finland achieved a beachhead because of our lack of resolve. That weakness has now spoon fed a right-wing populist party that is threatening values like social equality for all.

Finland is learning how to throw good punches back at the ogre of racism. One of the best ways to tackle this monster is to question the countless malicious insinuations of minorities by parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).

One of the biggest stereotypes being marketed by some PS MPs is that immigrants and refugees abuse social welfare, are lazy, and therefore have little to no worth in our society.

Here is a blog on Uusi Suomi by PS city councilman Hemmo Koskiniemi of Rovaniemi, where on the basis of he-said-she-said testimony, labels an immigrant living in public housing of abusing the system. Migrant Tales called the City of Rovaniemi and asked if they ever got a call from Koskiniemi and if what he claims is true.

This type of insinuation by politicians like Koskiniemi not only shows their laziness to get the facts first before pointing the accusing finger, but the eagerness of some PS politicians to become social-media lynch mob leaders.

Sociologist Alan Bruce shows how the culture of prejudice is built:  “Its (racism) final stages sees it as it really is: hate-fuelled, other-centered loathing with a set of solutions (final or temporary) to address what is now labelled a “problem,” he writes. “Yes, a ‘problem’ created by…. the racists themselves… They minimize their nastiness by a desperate and false effort to blend in to normal politics. It looks like a rat, it walks like a rat, it sneers like a rat, it stinks like a rat: it is a rat.”

The ability of the PS to build good ethnic relations in Finland is a near-impossible task for the party. They don’t care about integration but instead drive home the point that diversity is some illness that must be stamped out with hearsay and stereotypes.

When politicians like the PS vehemently claim that immigrants and refugees abuse the social welfare system, they conveniently forget to back up their allegations and mention how the system is being misused by Finns, who are the majority in this country.

As a reporter working for Apu magazine in the early 1990s, when Finland was suffering from one its worst-ever recessions in history, I did some investigative journalism on social security fraud. At the time, Finland’s immigrant population totalled a mere 55,587 people, or 1.1% of the population.

One of my sources was a ministry of labor official who told me that moonlighting alone cost the state yearly between 100 million and 900 million Finnish marks (16.8 million and 151.8 million euros).

We could ask two important questions in light of the 1994 article that was never published by Apu because it was a hyper-sensitive topic in those days for politicians as well:  Why are we still in the dark about how many people in this country abuse social welfare?

Overturning and busting myths is a key weapon in the fight against prejudice. Sensible politicians should stand up to the malicious insinuations put out by the PS of immigrants, refugees and minorities.

Such leadership is needed now.

MTV3: Rasistit joutumassa uuden hallituksen silmätikuiksi

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: After calls last week by President Tarja Halonen for the new government to make a pledge to combat growing racism in Finland, it appears that not only most political parties but the public are taking a more vociferous stand against this social ill.

One matter that the victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) brought to the table with the election of people like Teuvo Hakkarainen, Jussi Halla-aho and others is that Finland can no longer deny that racism is a minor problem that will go away by itself.

Finland’s ever-growing polarization due to the PS victory in April has had a positive impact on parties like the Greens and Left Alliance, which have seen their membership soar by 45% and 13%, respectively.

Some PS politicians are politically off track if they believed that a few xenophobic blog writings would turn Finland into a subsidiary of the Danish People’s Party or the Sweden Democrats.

The embarrassing episodes that have been splashed in the country’s tabloids and newspapers only a month and a half after the election show that the PS are going to face a very rough four years. 

Just as pain tells a wounded soldier that he is still alive, Finland’s reaction to the PS shows that it will not tolerate free-fall racism and populism.

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Rasismin rajoittaminen voi saada uusia aseita seuraavassa hallitusohjelmassa. Kovempia otteita vauhdittaa muun muassa viimeaikainen julkisuuskohu perussuomalaisten kansanedustajan Teuvo Hakkarainen lausunnoista.

Read whole story.

The role of nationalist populism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Like a new chapter of a history book, each decade brings out its uniqueness to the foreign correspondent. In the 1980s it was Helsinki’s special relationship with Moscow and in the 1990s the country’s full political and economic integration with Western Europe. During the first decade of the present century we saw the impact of globalization. What kind of child will the 2010s be?

Life must have been easier than today for foreign journalists if they were writing about this country before World War II.

During the 1920s and 1930s,  one of the biggest topics written by the foreign media was on legendary sportsmen like long-distance Olympic champion Paavo Nurmi,  the “The Flying Finn.”

Another headline that won the hearts of the USAmerican public at the time was when Finland became the only nation in Europe to ever pay its debt back to the United States.  American cowboy celebrity Will Rogers mentioned this in one of his short columns in 1934  in the Washington Times:  “I just saw the finest Capitol or House of Parliament in the world, brand new. They vote by electric buttons… Not just because they paid their debt but these Finns are a knockout.  Did you know they are the seventh-biggest country in all Europe?”

During the 1920s and 1930s, there was also the odd story on prohibition and how alcohol was bootlegged from Estonia.

Finland made it back to the front-page world headlines in 1939, when Josef Stalin’s Red Army attacked Finland. The Winter War turned into a bittersweet mix of  suffering and valor of how a nation vastly outnumbered made a heroic stand against the former USSR.

If television brought horrifying images of the Vietnam War to American living rooms in the 1960s, the stories written on the Winter War by foreign correspondents had the same impact on world opinion.  Such stories almost brought France and England on Finland’s side. The history of World War 2 would have been very different if Stalin would have persisted in his attack of Finland after March 1940.

After the odd relationship with Nazi Germany in the Continuation War and the signing of a new armistice with Moscow in 1944, Finland disappeared behind the backdrop of international events.  Our nation was busy healing its wounds of the war and learning to survive in geopolitical near-isolation during most of the cold war.

In light of the last three decades that shaped Finland, what kinds of stories will foreign correspondents cover in the present decade?

Most likely one of the most important of these will be the role of nationalist populism.

Finland’s Tahrir Square is located on Facebook

Posted on by Migrant Tales

How deep in denial is Finland concerning the Perussuomalaiset (PS) and the values they represent? It’s pretty clear that the shameful racist gaffes of PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and the party’s public statement on Thursday condemning racism are fuelling Finland’s Tahrir Square on social media sites like Facebook.

Just like what ignited the Arab street to rise up against their despotic rulers, we are seeing in Finland candid outrage to social ills like racism that have been accepted in silence for so long but never seriously challenged.

The PS’ public statement denouncing all forms of racism is a good example of how Timo Soini’s party is emboldening Finns to take action in our own Tahrir Square. We saw it gain strength right after the April 17 election when about 1,000 people demonstrated against the PS in front of parliament.

Apart from PS MP Hakkarainen, whose racist gaffes have made Finland a worse place to live for minorities like immigrants, the public statement by the PS denouncing all forms of racism is a good example of their cat-and-mouse game stance on racism.

But what else could be expected from a party that mixes too often facts with populism and hearsay? The statement against racism by the PS is another unfortunate example: We agree to be against all forms of racism and discrimination as long as we destroy minority rights by doing away with so-called positive discrimination.

Some professors like Kaarlo Tuomi, Tuomas Ojanen and Veli-Pekka Viljanen warned in Saturday’s Helsingin Sanomat that the PS statement was “terrible” and “very problematic” because it is in conflict with our Constitution. Instead of promoting equality it would undermine it fatally.

The PS have crossed once again another line but have revealed to us their double-talk and how they plan to further their jumbled political agenda for this country.

Since leading political parties like Kokoomus and the Social Democrats underestimated the PS and did not consider their challenge a menace to our society on matters like racism, it is then the job of common people to take action, which they have started on different social media sites.

The continued willingness of different political leaders to continue to see Soini as a “moderate” and “nice guy” is synonymous with burying one’s head in the sand. They should look at the big picture: The PS has 39 MPs in parliament that would be ready to water down minority rights for their brand of populist nationalism.

Recent attacks reported in the media of immigrants by thugs and the PS’ wishy-washy stand on racism ensure that Finland’s Tahrir Square will continue to gain strength.

HS: Maahanmuuttajakin voi rakastaa Suomea

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Comment: Here is a moving letter to the editor published in Helsingin Sanomat by  Somali-born Finn, Wali Hashi, who tells about his appreciation and love for his second homeland, Finland.  Even if some people are trying to destroy this bond in parliament, there is nothing that can erase memories and love for your home. Hashi’s story is that of many tens of thousands multicultural Finns that live in this country today.

If I had the opportunity to live 50-80 years more and had to look back on this period and the last century, I’d notice that there were two Finlands: one that was predominately white in the twentieth century and a new one that is now culturally diverse. I do not, however, have to live that long to see that day because it will happen no matter how many Perussuomalaiset MPs get elected to parliament. 

Hashi agrees and states rightly at the end of the letter:”The Finnish flag is no longer the property of the white (Finns), but to all those that love and respect Finland.”

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Herjaaminen ei saanut minua vihaamaan maata, joka on antanut kaiken, mistä olen aina haaveillut: rauhaa, ruokaa, lääkkeitä ja asunnon.

Ruotsissa asuva pikkuveljeni soitti 16. toukokuuta kello 0.20. Ennen kuin hän onnitteli minua jääkiekon maailmanmestaruudesta, hän kysyi, mikä äänessäni on vikana ja onko minulla kenties flunssa. Vastasin, ettei minulla ole flunssaa vaan olin laulanut joka maalin jälkeen “ihanaa, Leijonat, ihanaa”. Se ei kuulostanut kivalta veljeni korviin, sillä hän on henkeen ja vereen Tre Kronor -joukkueen kannattaja.

Samaan aikaan nuori juopunut suomalaismies tuli sanomaan minulle, että minun on ihan turha pitää Suomen paitaa päällä, koska olen somali ja sellaisena aina pysyn.

Puhuin nuoren miehen kanssa siitä, miksi hän on suomalaisempi kun minä. Pitkän keskustelun jälkeen me molemmat huomasimme, että ainoa asia, joka meidän suomalaisuuttamme erottaa, on se, että hän on valkoinen ja syö makkaraa ja juo kaljaa, mitä minä taas en harrasta. Kaikki muut asiat, jotka hän määritteli suomalaisuudeksi, olivat minunkin ajattelumaailmassani. Mies on 21-vuotias, ja minä olen asunut Suomessa 22 vuotta. Se oli hänelle pieni herätys.

Kun sota syttyi Somaliassa, nuorten miesten kohtalona oli sotia joko hallituksen tai kapinallisten joukoissa. Sen välttääkseen vanhemmat halusivat lähettää poikansa turvaan maasta. Enoni lykkäsi käteeni rahaa, passin ja lipun ja sanoi, että mene nyt jonnekin.

Tulin nuorena poikana pakolaisena Suomeen. Muistan, että oli toukokuu ja katsoin ulos Venäjältä Helsinkiin saapuvan junan ikkunasta. Oli kauniin vihreää, ja maa oli siisti. Ensimmäinen reaktioni oli: “Vau, mikä maa!”

Sitten alkoi mustan miehen arki. Sain kuulla usein rasistisia huuteluja. Melkein joka viikonloppu ihmiset tulivat haastamaan riitaa, vaikka yritin välttää sellaisia tilanteita viimeiseen asti. Ensimmäiset oppimani suomenkieliset sanat olivat “neekeri”, “saatana”, “kusipää” ja niin edelleen.

Herjaaminen ei kuitenkaan saanut minua vihaamaan maata, joka on antanut kaiken, mistä olen aina haaveillut: rauhaa, ruokaa, lääkkeitä ja asunnon. Somaliassa olin ollut katulapsi. Aloitin työt kengänkiillottajana yhdeksänvuotiaana. Kun sain rahaa, lähetin yksinhuoltajaäidilleni maissia ja sokeria. Jouduin yhdeksänvuotiaasta asti pitämään huolta siitä, että äitini ja sisarukseni saisivat ruokaa.

Yksi niistä lapsista, joista pidin huolta, on pikkuveljeni Mohamed, jonka kohtalo vei Ruotsiin. Hän on siis Ruotsin kansalainen, ja olemme aina eri mieltä siitä, kumpi maa on parempi, Suomi vai Ruotsi. Kinastelu alkoi vuonna 1995, kun Suomi löi Ruotsin jääkiekon MM-finaalissa. Vuoden 2003 ottelun jälkeen veljeni taas muistutti aina siitä, kuinka Mats Sundin oli tehnyt viimeisellä minuutilla maalin.

Yksi asia, josta olemme veljeni kanssa samaa mieltä, on se, että me molemmat rakastamme ja kunnioitamme maita, jotka ovat ottaneet meidät vastaan.

Se, että yhdestä perheestä voi tulla eri maiden kansalaisia, kertoo tragediasta, joka on kohdannut entistä kotimaatani Somaliaa. Somalialaiset ovat lähteneet ympäri maailmaa, ja uusi sukupolvi on saanut uudet identiteetit, kun he ovat ruotsalaisia, suomalaisia, tanskalaisia, norjalaisia, yhdysvaltalaisia ja niin edelleen. Yhdestä Afrikan yhtenäisimpinä pidetyistä yhteiskunnista on tullut eri kulttuurien jakama joukko ihmisiä. Kansasta tai valtiosta voi tuskin enää puhua.

Suomen valtaväestön kasvu on nykyään kaksi prosenttia ja meidän maahanmuuttajien kahdeksan prosenttia. Tulevaisuudessa ei siis enää ihmetellä, kun värilliset maahanmuuttajat heiluttavat Suomen lippua ja ovat ylpeitä suomalaisuudestaan.  Suomen lippu ei ole vain valkoihoisille, vaan niille, jotka rakastavat ja kunnioittavat Suomea.

Wali Hashi, toimittaja

Turku

HS: Rasismia ei torjuta etuja purkamalla

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a good Helsingin Sanomat editorial on the public statement made Thursday by the Perussuomalaiset (PS) against all forms of racism.

The inclusion of so-called positive discrimination, or lowering the bar for some minorities, in the PS statement was criticized by the editorial.

If the PS had their way, their recipe for social equality, even for minorities such as the Roma, would be to scale back positive discrimination. HS disagrees with this position.

Moreover, one could ask if eliminating positive discrimination would be an effective way of undermining or fueling greater racism in society?

In a culturally diverse society it is important that we have the right mix of ethnicities and sex in any job. The other side of the coin is that if  minorities are not sufficiently represented in certain fields like the police force, it could lead to perceptions of institutional racism and sexism. The end result? Lack of credibility.

Leveling out the playing field for all people, even those that aren’t as fortunate enough to compete equally with other groups, is a noble way of promoting equality by leveling the playing field.

The other side of that policy could be that all forms of discrimination are wrong, even positive. This is the argument that the PS has chosen to take.

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Perussuomalaisten eduskuntaryhmä ilmoitti keskiviikkoiltana julkilausumalla tuomitsevansa kaikenlaisen rasismin, syrjinnän ja väkivallan.  Perussuomalaisilta oli vaadittu kannanottoa siksi, että yksi puolueen kansanedustajista on toistuvasti käyttänyt maahanmuuttajista ilmauksia, jotka luokitellaan rasistisiksi. Eduskuntaryhmä antoi samalla edustajalleen huomautuksen.

Read whole story.

Racist propaganda during Finland’s Winter War (1939-40)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Consequently, racial prejudice and discrimination are nonexistent (in Finland).                                                                                                          

Heikki Waris, An introduction to Finnish Society (1965), p. 2

Finland was also denying in the 1960s that racism did not exist because there weren’t any foreigners living in the country. Racism has, however, been part of our culture for a very long time: Kongo shoe polish, Neekeripusu (n-word kiss) chocolate,  the Fazer licorice Gollywog are some examples of how this social ill had implanted itself in the national culture.

If Waris and other researchers wanted to find out if racism existed in our culture, all they’d have to do was study Finns that emigrated to Africa, North and South America. I once asked a second-generation Finn in Argentina how many races there existed in the world. “There are three,” he said. “White, black and pitch-black.”

We can even see racism prevalent in a Suomen Kuvalehti Easter 1940 issue: “In the East Indies Islands there appears a strange form of sudden mental disorientation that is called ‘running amok,’ or being taken over by horror and then reacting in a mad fashion. Even while running away from battle with a dagger in hand, the inflicted person rushes here and there striking anyone dead (that gets in his way).”

And then on the next page of the story is a picture of two Finnish solider representing the “civilized” world who know how to keep calm in the face of shocking situations. “Can somebody imagine for example that these Finnish soldiers would “run amok?” the caption reads.

The gist of the story by PhD Jan Gästrin, headlined “Spiritual discipline,” is that blacks are uncivilized and Finns civilized. In battle Finnish soldiers don’t “run amok” but can withstand the most rigorous tests of war: rats, lice, poisoned air etc.

The first page of a Suomen Kuvalehti article published in 1940 that attempted to show how the European white man was superior to blacks.

Note: The author apologizes for the racist content of the Suomen Kuvalehti article and wants to make clear that he does not play down the valiant fight the Finns put up against the former Soviet Union in the Winter War.

HS: True Finns renounce racism, discrimination, and favouritism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: I got acquainted with the public statement made against all forms of racism by the Persussuomalaiset (PS) through PS MP James Hirvisaari’s blog. For those who do not know who Hirvisaari is, he’s probably the most eccentric in his attacks of immigrants, especially Muslims. But after he got elected he appears to have turned into Dr. Jekyll from his pre-election Mr Hyde-mode.

Another question mark of the PS’ statement is that it was drafted by Hirvisaari’s political soul mate, Jussi Halla-aho.

Kristiina Kouros, the secretary general of the Finnish League for Human Rights, considered the PS  statement awkwardly drafted and not clear because it differs from the UN and EU Declaration of Human Rights, where there is no mention of the discrimination of the majority population by the minority.  “It’s very rare that a minority (group) can exclude the majority by discrimination,” said Kouros in Iltalehti. “Minorities do not have that type of power.”

Even though it is a good matter that a party like the PS is speaking out against all forms of racism and violence, how seriously do they take such a statement especially when it was drafted after PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen went on another of his outbursts against blacks this week on Jämsä Seutu?

What do you think?

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True Finns MP Teuvo Hakkarainen was chided by his Parliamentary group on Wednesday for recent racist comments. The group also made public a statement condemning all types of racism, discrimination, and violence.

Read whole story.

If you want to read a strong critique of the PS’ statement against racism visit Ossi Mäntylahti’s blog (in Finnish).  He is a member of the Kokoomus party.

Denying racism is rejecting Finland’s cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

When one looks at some topical issues being debated in Finland, like the role of cultural diversity and tries to understand them, it is essential to dig deeper behind words. What do the most anti-immigration voices of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) say when they are against multiculturalism?

Anyone who has attempted to understand what multiculturalism is knows that it isn’t an easy concept to grasp. If we are speaking of the Canadian social policy that came about in the 1980s, there are only three countries in the world (Canada, Britain and Australia) that are officially multicultural, according to researcher Peter Kivisto.

Multiculturalism as a social policy works differently in all three of the above-mentioned countries. There is no same-size-fits-all when it comes to multiculturalism as a social policy.

What do anti-immigration groups like the PS tell us when they express their loathing for multiculturalism? Is it a last-ditch attempt to keep Finland white and hinder the development or, worse, deny our cultural diversity as a society?

What do anti-immigration groups like Suomen Sisu and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho reveal to us when state that they are against multiculturalism and find some basis for their arguments in the writings of  Alfred Rosenberg, David Duke and Michael Levin?

All of these persons have one matter in common: they are against cultural diversity, or are the antithesis of multiculturalism. Rosenberg, a Nazi war criminal who went to the gallows after the Nuremberg trials, believed that the ”Aryan race” would find greatness after it kicked out the Jews from Germany.

David Duke is a former Klu Klux Klan leader who believes whites should live separated from blacks. Levin is another controversial figure who sees whites at the top and blacks at the bottom of the ethnic totem pole.

When anti-immigration representatives in Finland tell us that they are only against certain groups moving to this country, they are stating us the same thing: we loathe people who strengthen cultural diversity.

The present debate taking place in Finland goes much deeper than what meets the eye because it is about the inevitable future of our society. One group, like some in the PS, are denying it by living in a Finland of the past century, while others have already accepted it.

What, then, is a person telling us when he claims there is no racism in Finland?

It’s the same side of the sinister coin: denial that Finland is already culturally diverse.