By Enrique Tessieri The Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) has exonerated Kirkko&Kaupunki after a cartoon was published on December 14 mocking a group of Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MPs telling everyone who wasn’t a Finnish heterosexual and white conservative to leave Finland. The JSN said in a statement that Ville Ranta’s cartoon was neither…
Month: May 2012
Ethnic minorities now make up more than half of all births in the U.S.
By Enrique Tessieri How did some pocket-calculator demographers in Finland and Europe take the news that for the first time in U.S. history minority births surpassed over half of all births? A pocket-calculator demographer is anyone who uses birthrate and calculates it with years to warn us that group x will outnumber us in…
Do we write too little or too much about a social ill like racism?
By Enrique Tessieri A friend of mine recently said that one of the reasons why some don’t like Migrant Tales (MT) is because we write too much about racism. Do we treat a social issue like racism fairly on MT? Do we write too much or too little about it? Certainly I would be happy…
About Migrant Tales
Migrant Tales is a blog community that debates some of the salient issues facing immigrants and minorities in Finland and elsewhere. It aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians, and the public. The editor of Migrant Tales is Enrique Tessieri together with associate…
The long and costly ordeal of family reunification from Somalia to Finland
Ever wondered about the hassle and red tape a Somali resident of Finland must face to bring his family here? Apart from the long two-and-a-half year wait on average, the whole process is especially costly for a person from Somalia, where annual income totals about $600 (471 euros), according to the CIA Factbook. There are…
Language is not always your passport to inclusion and acceptance
Some politicians and social workers in this country believe that integration is only possible when an immigrant learns the Finnish or Swedish language. This may be true but there are other factors that play equally important roles in the integration process of an immigrant.
Lieksa, Finland, continues to be a thorn in Pohjois-Karjala’s side
Lieksa is a troubled city in the eastern Finnish region of Pohjois-Karjala. We have read too many stories on Migrant Tales and the Finnish media about the racism that has struck the city after some 250 immigrants mostly from Somalia moved there. Joensuu-based Karjalainen reported Monday that an immigrant’s car had been vandalized on Sunday
Migrant Rights’ Network: Voters’ verdict: Immigration not as important as the economy, Europe, or taxes
By Awale Olad Election junkies in the UK and Europe have had a satisfying fix over the last couple of weeks. From the historical win of Francois Hollande in France to the local election gains in the UK mid-term elections for the Labour Party and Greece’s new political turmoil and looming elections – a further…
Ilta-Sanomat billboard (lööppi) from February 5, 1997
Migrant Tales publishes on and off Finnish tabloid ads* (lööppi in Finnish) from the 1990s. Taking into account that Finland’s immigrant population started to grow during that decade, it is easy at least through some of the main stories of tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti to see how some of them reflected our xenophobic, prejudiced, racist or anti-Russian views.
Ryhmä X ja natsismin samankaltaisuus
Sari Karlströmin kirjoitus on hyvä esimerkki siitä kuinka helposti voidaan leimata kokonaisia ryhmiä. Karlströmin tapa on yhtä tyhjänpäistä ja loukkaava jos minä vaihtaisin kuvat ja kysyisin: