Month: June 2011

Migrant Tales literary blog?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Would launching a separate “little” literary blog (Migrant Tales “Little”?) be a good idea? It would publish poetry, short stories, short plays, drawings. anecdotes,  and pictures of our lives in Finland and elsewhere. Depending on how this lifts off, we could even organize contests.

Everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is warmly welcome to contribute.

“Little” literary magazines are different from consumer magazines. Many don’t carry ads and their circulation is under 1,000.

Please send all material and queries to [email protected]. 

Look forward to receiving your contributions so we can share them with others!

Enrique Tessieri

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Ireland and the financial crisis 2011. (Picture by ET)

This original Brazilian song could be about a young immigrant who travels to foreign lands. Here’s part of the song translated into English from the original Spanish lyrics below:

“Imagine and you’ll see

The Southern Cross Constellation*

Don’t ever forget it,

Irrespective of the path you take

That star appears

And its light will orient you…

Be curious

To see where the old sun hides

Behind another  horizon

For the simple reason that everything depends

On your imagination.

If you try, maybe you’ll discover

A path that nobody has found…

* The Southern Cross Constellation is as important to Brazilians as the North Star to the Finns. The Southern Cross Constellation is visible on the Brazilian flag.

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Spanish lyrics of “Consideración” by Rubén Blades

Imagina y verás
A la Constelación del Crucero del Sur.
No la ovides jamás,

Para que en cualquier rumbo que tomes
Esa estrella asome,

Y su luz te oriente,
Con la simple razón
De que todo merece consideración.

Determina y verás
La posibilidad de encontrar dirección,
Porque todo es posible,
Con tu decisión.

Ten la curiosidad
De ver donde un viejo sol se esconde,
Tras otro horizonte.
Por la simple razón de que todo depende

De tu imaginación.
Si lo intentas, quizás hallarás
Un camino que nadie encontró.

Si te orientas, verás
Que la luz de esa estrella
No te abandonó.

Busca y encontrarás

La razón de los sueños
De Eva y Adán!

Se oriente, rapaz:

Se oriente!

guardian.co.uk: North Carolina’s reparation for the dark past of American eugenics

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Comment: When we think of pseudo-sciences like eugenics we usually associate them with Germany. However, eugenics was widely accepted in other European countries as well as in the United States. The story below published by the Guardian shows how eugenics led to forced sterilization in the United States and how such practices continue to impact its victims to this date.

The following documentary, The Occult History of the Reich, gives a grotesque view of how eugenics got wide support from medical establishments and how it served fanatics like Adolf Hitler to set his country on a ruinous crusade. 

Even if sensible people know that eugenics is baloney with a capital B, associations like Suomen Sisu continue to flirt with such ideas through their views of “racial purity.” This is odd because Nazis like Eugene Fischer considered Finns of Mongolian stock. 

Apart from not having any scientific foundation, the legacy that eugenics left us is war and mass-murder in the name of racial purity.

Thanks to JusticeDemon for alerting me about this story.

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By Edwin Black

North Carolina’s compensation to victims of forced sterilisation is a chance to illuminate a gruesome US tradition of racial ‘science.’

Twenty-seven American states joined a decades-long pseudo-scientific crusade to create a white, blond, blue-eyed, biologically superior “master race”. Their misguided utopian quest was called eugenics. But only one state, North Carolina, is now readying a massive plan of financial repatriations to its surviving victims. Just how much North Carolina should pay is now the subject of a historically wrenching debate.

Read whole story.

Finland’s turning point and its national identity debate

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By Enrique Tessieri

Any student of society can see that Finland is at an important juncture concerning its future national identity.  At this turning point the country appears to be looking in two directions: To our past and to the future.

Those who are looking to the past are not ready (at least yet) to expand their definition of Finnish national identity to include Finns of other ethnic backgrounds.

Their views of Finnish identity is deeply entrenched in the late-nineteenth century, when we forged a national identity that was modelled for the birth of a new independent nation called Finland. While its limitations were never tested before because there were so few immigrants living in Finland, it is on the defensive today.

An indication that it is embattled was the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in the April election as well as the ever-growing menace of ultra-nationalistic associations like Suomen Sisu and Suomalaisuuden liitto.

Thus the big question we should be asking today is if our former way of looking at our identity applies today? Is it too exclusive? How can we make it more inclusive?

Much of  our perceptions of ourselves as a group have been possible through nationalism, which has helped us overlook some important points of our history to accommodate the myth of our ethnic and cultural homogeneity.

Ethnic homogeneity was reinforced in the past century through eugenics and racial hygiene “theories” that were shamefully put in cold storage after the horrors of World War 2.

Even in the 1960s, Finnish social policy experts like Heikki Waris fed the myth. He wrote in a booklet on Finland: “Racial homogeneity particularly characterizes the Finnish people who have practically no racial minorities…Conseuqnetly, racial prejudice and discrimination are nonexistent (sic!).”

The affirmation by Waris is odd taking into account the over million people emigrated From Finland in the last two centuries. Are these Finns and their descendants a separate or integral part of Finnish culture? Not according to Waris.

These types of myths about ourselves were reinforced in our citizenship laws as well. Up to 1984, children born to Finnish mothers did not have the right to citizenship only if the father was a Finn.

The view that Finnishness is ethnic is still evident in our laws. A child born in Finland becomes the citizen of her parents’ countries.

Challenging myths that have been built during most of our independence and reinforced by wars is not an easy task but essential if we want to create a more inclusive society in this century. This will become more critical as Finland becomes more culturally diverse through immigration.

Presently, the number of immigrants in Finland is small at 2.9% of the total population, but it is expected to rise to 7%-8%, according to some experts.

YLE: Immigration policy to focus on security

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Ever wonder what the Christian Democrats are doing in government and why its chairwoman, Päivi Räsänen, was appointed interior minister in charge of immigration affairs? The answer is simple: She is a conservative who can eat away at some of the anti-immigration thunder of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party. 

Contrary to the former minister of migration and European affairs, Astrid Thors, Räsänen will not be an easy target to shoot at for the PS.

Am I hopeful that matters for immigrants and refugees will improve under Räsänen and this government? I doubt it. 

I was, however, a bit worried about the  following quote by her in the story:  “Immigration policy will respect basic human rights, but the other thread running through policy will be security and sustainability in society. How many immigrants we can integrate into society.”

Those who know Räsänen’s views on refugees cannot forget when she said earlier this year that Finland should take Christian quota refugees as opposed to non-Christians. 

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Immigration policy is to shift emphasis towards safeguarding security in society, says new Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen. She told YLE radio that immigration policy would now shift to officials in charge of policing.

Read whole story.

Suomen Kuavalehti.fi: Mikko Heikka: Suomalaisia köyhiä ajetaan maahanmuuttajia vastaan

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Comment: The one-sided debate in Finland on immigrants, refugees and immigration to Finland has been an exercise in finding suitable scapegoats by anti-immigration groups like Hommaforum and parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).  In the column by Mikko Heikka below, the bishop of the Lutheran Church  argues how Finland’s poor have been driven against immigrants.

“One of the key topics that arose after the election was immigration,” he writes. “…Immigrants are seen as enemies that eat from the tables of Finns.”

One of the biggest problems in the ongoing debate in Finland is the lack of leadership by politicians of the mainstream parties.  Since public figures are not speaking out strongly enought against racism, it makes it more acceptable among some Finns. 

It is, however, a good matter that the Lutheran Church is standing up to this social ill that is threatening the country.

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Mikko Heikka

Köyhyys nousi huhtikuussa pidettyjen eduskuntavaalien tärkeäksi teemaksi. Myös hallitusneuvotteluissa asia on nähty keskeiseksi. Köyhyys ei kuitenkaan ole uusi ongelma. Jo vuosia kirkon tutkimukset ja piispojen puheenvuorot ovat tuoneet esille kasvavan köyhyyden seuraukset erityisesti pitkäaikaistyöttömien, lapsiperheiden ja yksinelävien arjessa. Näitä puheenvuoroja ei ole kuultu.

Read whole story.

Spiegel Online International: A War of Stereotypes – German Tabloid Returns Fire with British Quiz

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Comment: Here is a pretty funny story in Spiegel Online International about how related the Germans and English are related genetically. Certainly there are other more important matters that unite us as a group. One of these is culture, which is everything learned.

Spiegel Online International writes that the British press went bananas with the story. “Hundreds of articles soon appeared in newspapers across the country. And the Daily Mail published a tongue-in-cheek story headlined ‘Time to Embrace Your Inner Jerry!’ essentially claiming that Germans maybe aren’t all that bad. ‘The Germans just seem to come here and fit in without any nonsense — and they don’t rape and pillage anymore.'”

If we are all much more related than we’d think, whose interest has it been to emphasize our differences?

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It all started with an innocent science story published in SPIEGEL, and then in English on SPIEGEL ONLINE. A genetic analysis revealed, of all things, that millions of Britons carry a Germanic gene. Britain, it would seem, is more German than many are comfortable with.

Read whole story.

Read the Daily Mail version of the story.

Migrant Tales update I: A PS councilman’s “justified” racism

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By Enrique Tessieri

Perussuomalaiset (PS) Rovaniemi city councilman Hemmo Koskimies’ blog entry, ”Justified racism – a ‘n-word’ lives alone in a 75m2 home,” (the blog post was deleted by Uusi Suomi) still appears without any correction despite emails to Uusi Suomi’s editor-in-chief Markku Huusko and owner Niklas Herlin. A number of phone calls were made to Huusko but they were never returned by him.

Migrant Tales published on June 7 an entry on Koskiniemi’s blog writing.

The only person that answered my phone calls was Jarmo Koponen, an Uusi Suomi producer. He was helpful but told me that the net publication is not responsible for what their bloggers publish.

Good ethical standards in writing should apply to bloggers as well.  In the case of Koskiniemi, Uusi Suomi should require him to put out a correction or ask him to take the entry off the blog.

Neither of these have been done concerning the entry published on May 21, where Koskiniemi accuses the immigrant of getting special advantages at the cost of the city, state and a single Finnish father with two children.

Migrant Tales did get in touch with the City of Rovaniemi to find out if what the PS councilman wrote is correct. It is evident from the email reply from the city that Koskiniemi is exaggerating to say the least. The city claims no wrongdoing.

This case is of interest to us for a number of reasons: (1) It shows how politicians can make irresponsible bigotted statements with near-impunity; (2) stereotypes and racism are reinforced as a result and affect the whole immigrant community; (3) the response to these types of misinformation and “justified racism” show how prejudice and hatred of immigrants have mushroomed on the net and in Finnish society as of late.

The Koskiniemi case reveals as well how publishers, editors, even politicians, turn a blind eye and even take part in these types of spiteful writings.

Since I sent the first email to Uusi Suomi on June 1 to Huusko, and three more to him, Koponen and owner Herlin,what else is there to do?

Should we throw in the towel or send the matter to the Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN)?

Since Koskiniemi is a public figure of Finland’s third-largest political party, he is not only responsible but accountable for what he says.

Whatever the response of the JSN is, like the near-silence from Uusi Suomi, it will be highly revealing. It should, at least, give us some indication how to react to racist misinformation on the net by public figures.

At least it will tell us why this social ill is alive and kicking on the net.

euronews: Automatic deportation for foreign criminals in Denmark

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Comment:  The new law in Denmark, which passed by a wide majority and will now allow convicted immigrants to be deported after serving their prison sentences, is another example of how this small nation continues to dig itself deeper in a hole of its fears.

Immigrants, and especially Muslims, seem to bring out the worst of Denmark. Even so, the sad truth of the matter is that no matter how many times the Danish People’s Party (DPP) demands yet another tightening of immigration laws with the collaboration of the major parties, their fears and nationalism to keep immigrants and their children in line will never be banished nor fed.

The new tightening of the screws of the law will only bring more conflict, suffering and shame on Denmark, but reveal to future historians how the country lost it to nationalism and xenophobia. 

Taking into account that our anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS), is a member the Europe for Freedom and Democracy group in the European  parliament together with the DPP and other right-wing populist groups like the Lega Nord of Italy and Slovak National Party, it is no surprise that we are already hearing MPs clamoring for Finland to follow the Danish model.

PS MP Reijo Tossavainen, who recently said that Finland should shelve its international agreements and close the border to asylum-seekers, wrote on his Uusi Suomi blog that he only saw benefits to the country if it started deporting sentenced immigrants.

“Benefits can be found,” he writes. “In the first place, our country’s prisons are already so full that such a situation has been used as an argument to lighten (prison) sentences. Moreover, one day in prison costs the Finnish taxpayer more than one day in a middle-priced hotel.”

Tossavainen writes that a convicted immigrants should be deported irrespective if the person has family in Finland.

It is unfortunate for Denmark and for PS MPs like Tossavainen that tougher laws aren’t the panacea for our immigration problems.

In many cases tougher immigration laws only worsen them.

Meanwhile, recent comments in the end of May from the Danish immigration minister, Søren Pind, that foreigners should “assimilate” or leave, coupled with the country’s recent unilateral decision to reinstate border checks, have left some residents questioning the motivation behind the crackdown on Marmite, the yeast extract spread.

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In the future, foreign nationals who are convicted of a crime and sent to prison in Denmark will be automatically deported on their release. The controversial legislation sailed through parliament in Copenhagen by 97 votes to 7.

Read whole story.

YLE: Finland deports dozens of torture victims each year

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Comment:  Dr. Pekka Tuomala, the director of the Centre for Torture Survivors in Finland, has accused the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) of deporting refugees who have suffered torture to their home countries. 

Tuomala says that torture can include psychological methods like watching a relative being killed or raped. Such cases are often ignored by the FIS, according to him. 

“We can make a well-grounded assessment of whether somebody has been tortured or not, and we write that in medical statements,” says Tuomola. “According to the UN convention, torture victims should not be returned to the country where they were tortured. The problem is that the Immigration Service does not always believe us, or consider our statements.”

This is not the first time that Finland has deported asylum-seekers back to their home countries. In the cold war, it was the custom to send Soviet refugees back to the USSR.

Torture is the same thing but even countries like the United States have tried to make it more acceptable to the public. Even though the CIA taught repressive military regimes in different continents to the art of torture. Today the same crimes are committed through a funny term known as extraordinary rendition. 

“This is a really awful experience when you find out that a person is going to be returned to the same situation in which they were tortured,” said Tuomala. “In effect, it’s a death sentence.”

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The director of the Centre for Torture Survivors in Finland, Pekka Tuomala, has accused the Finnish Immigration Service of callous disregard for torture victims. He says that dozens of asylum seekers have their applications turned down and are deported back to their country of origin, in contravention of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Nearly 60 percent of all asylum seekers in Finland have some kind of torture trauma. Physical and sexual torture are the most commonly understood ways in which people experience torture, but the effects of psychological torture can be even more serious.

Read whole story.

HS: Ihmisrotuja ei voi perustella biologialla

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Comment:  Here is an interesting letter to the editor by Turku University professor of genetics, Petter Portin, who states that one myth that has been constructed by Europeans is the concept of  “race.” Genetic research has shown that so-called racial differences between people are very small.  The only differences that separate us are geographic. 

Even so, classifying people into different races has served many purposes throughout history. One of these has been to dominate groups and to justify their exploitation. 

One of the first to classify people into different races was Carl von Linné (1707-1778), who argued that there were four: white, red, yellow and black.

“The best matter would be to give up classifying people altogether,” Portin writes. “Using terms (to classify different groups) is a way to control them.”

The term ethnic group is used more in Europe than in the United States, where groups like blacks refer to themselves as a “race.” Mexican Americans, for example, call themselves “la raza,” or the race. Europeans that immigrated to the United States and who were “white” were seen belonging to ethnic as opposed to racial groups. 

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Petter Portin

Mitä pidemmälle ihmiskunnan geneettisen muuntelun tutkimus on edennyt, sitä selvemmäksi on käynyt, että mitään selviä ihmisrotuja ei ole olemassa. Antropologian historian aikana ihmiskunnassa on erotettu kymmeniä eri rotuja. Ihmisbiologiassa ollaan kuitenkin nykyään luopumassa tai on jo luovuttu rodun käsitteestä.

Read whole story.