One has to be careful about stories. Especially true ones. When a story is told the first time, it can find a place in the listener’s heart. If the same story is told over and over, it becomes less like a presence in that chest and more like an X-ray of it.
Month: October 2011
Itä-Savo: Tilastot eivät kerro todellisuutta rasismista
Viime viikolla julkaistun tutkimuksen mukaan viharikosten määrä olisi laskenut maassamme 15 prosenttia viime vuonna. Laskua voisi pitää huomattavana ja jopa ilahduttavana kehityksenä, jos siihen voisi uskoa aukottomasti.
If Finland is serious about stamping out racism…
If our society is a model of social justice for other countries to emulate, why would we tolerate discrimination and all types of racism? Which group are the biggest threat to our society: immigrants or anti-immigration groups?
Finland sees a 15% fall in hate crimes in 2010
Suspected hate crimes in Finland in 2010 totaled 860 cases, which is a 15% fall from 1,007 in the previous year, according to the Police College of Finland.
What to do if you are harassed in public in Finland?
Migrant Tales wrote back in May about how policemen in Pieksämäki and Mikkeli recommended against reporting racist harassment to the authorities. The Ombudsman for Minorities was in the dark as well about what to do but called the next day and said that harassment cases should be reported to the police.
Turun Sanomat: Osa turvapaikanhakijoista maksaa salakuljetuksensa sosiaalituella
Osa Suomeen salakuljetetuista turvapaikanhakijoista maksaa matkansa sosiaalituellaan. Viranomaisilla on runsaasti viitteitä salakuljetuksen ostamisesta velaksi. –?Tutkimuksissa on selvinnyt, että rahamaksuja välitetään lähtömaihin. Heti kun turvapaikanhakija saa toimeentulotukea, hän lähettää säännöllisesti rahaa Western Unionin tai Forexin kautta kotimaahansa, Länsi-Suomen merivartioston rikostorjuntayksikön tutkinnanjohtaja Matti Hägerström kertoo.
Separating urban myths from facts in the Finnish immigration debate (Part 2)
Staying on the topic of urban myths, other ones that we could mention are: immigrants do not want to integrate, immigrants live off social welfare and are lazy. Politicians such as Angela Merkel and David Cameron reinforce these types of urban myths by pinning their failures on the integration front on immigrants.
PS will not take any disciplinary action against MP Teuvo Hakkarainen
What kind of a message does the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party send to their supporters and Finland when they decide that it’s OK to turn a blind eye to one of their many controversial MPs, Teuvo Hakkarainen, who publicly insults homosexuals, lesbians and Somalians? Hakkarainen was quoted as saying on tabloid Ilta-Sanomat that these types of minorities should be relocated to the Åland Islands.
YLE in English: Immigration rules to be tightened
Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen has told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that she considers Finland’s practice in the reunification of the families of immigrants to be less strict than that of other countries. She added that while a review of immigration has only started, Finland will be imposing tougher criteria.
HS.fi: CITY LIMITS: Pillars of salt at McDonald’s in Helsinki
A father of immigrant origin and his two little sons were eating at McDonald’s in Helsinki’s district of Hakaniemi two weeks ago, early on a Friday evening. The boys were excited about their new Happy Meal Smurf toys. They were being a little noisy, as one- and four-year-old children are often wont to be. A woman sitting at the next table did not like to hear the family speaking a strange tongue. She began to shout at them, using abusive language.