Month: November 2012

THL study shows high amount of mental health problems suffered by Russians, Somalis and Kurds

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The first question that came to mind when I read a disturbing study of Russian, Somali and Kurdish immigrants by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is why now? If the THL study is the first-ever of its kind in Finland about immigrants’ health and living conditions, why has it taken such a long time to materialize? 

One of the biggest surprises of the study was the high amount of immigrants who suffered from mental-health problems, THL researcher, Seppo Kosinen, was quoted as saying on Helsingin Sanomat.

In the study, males were healthier than women.

Taking into account the high amount of mental health issues that the THL study reveals, probably the biggest surprise is how little the health authorities knew about the state of health of some immigrant groups in Finland.

Does one need to be an expert to grasp that unemployment, discrimination, social exclusion and poverty are some culprits behind the mental health problems of immigrants? Certainly there are other ones like traumas endured in their former war-ravaged home countries.

Another matter that bothered me about the study was its shortened name, Maamu, which sounds like mamu, the shortened form of the Finnish name for immigrant, or maahanmuuttaja. 

While some immigrants don’t have a problem with this word, some do. If Finns call immigrants mamu is it then ok  to refere to men or women as äijä (dude) or gimma (chick), respectively.

Migrant Tales welcomes the belated THL study since it shows that Finnish health authorities are starting to take a real interest in the well-being of immigrants in this country.

Husein Muhammed: Integraation lähdettävä vähemmistöjen sisältä

Posted on by Migrant Tales

 

Husein Muhammed

Helsingin Sanomat uutisoi (29.11.) Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitoksen THL:n laajasta tutkimuksesta, jonka mukaan maahanmuuttajat voivat fyysisesti ja henkisesti huonosti. THL on selvittänyt kurdi-, somali- ja venäläistaustaisten vähemmistöjen hyvinvointia Suomessa. Erityisen huolestuttava tilanne on omalla yhteisölläni, kurdeilla.

Asian myönteinen puoli on se, että tällä kertaa poikkeuksellisesti juuri näkymätön kurdivähemmistö nousi esille. Kahden muun tässä tutkimuksessa olleen ryhmän tilanne puolestaan nousee aika usein esille. Venäläiset ovat suurin ryhmä, somalit ihonvärinsä ja ainakin oletetusti myös kulttuurinsa puolesta hyvin suomalaisista poikkeava ja siksi huomiota herättävä ryhmä.

Juuri terveyden ja nimenomaan kurdien heikon tilanteen esille nousemisen pitäisi saada maahanmuuttajien kotouttamisesta ja etnisestä yhdenvertaisuudesta vastaavat viranomaiset arvioimaan toimintaansa melko radikaalisti uudelleen. Yksinkertaistettuna tämän pitäisi tarkoittaa ensisijaisen huomion kiinnittämistä valtaväestön todellisen tai oletetun rasismin sijaan vähemmistöjen sisällä yksilöihin kohdistuvaan syrjintään.

Rasismia ja siihen puuttumista ei voi väheksyä, mutta tosiasiassa yhdenvertaisuuden toteutuminen vähemmistöihin kuuluville ei ole mahdollista puuttumatta vähemmistöjen sisällä vallitseviin haitallisiin perinteisiin ja rooleihin. Näitä kulttuureihin liittyviä asioita ovat esimerkiksi somaleilla hyvin konservatiivisen uskonnollisuuden nousu, kurdeilla kunniaväkivalta sekä romaneilla väistämisvelvollisuus ja kulttuurista johtuvat poikkeukselliset asumisjärjestelyt. Muillakin ryhmillä on näitä ja/tai muita kulttuurista johtuvia haitallisia perinteitä, joihin pitää puuttua.

Maahanmuuttokeskustelu Suomessa on juuttunut jo vuosien ajan siihen, saako Suomeen tulla maahanmuuttajia. On korkea aika päästä tosissaan keskusteluun siitä, miten täällä ollaan. Asian edistymistä vaikeuttaa se, että – toisin kuin vaikka seksuaalivähemmistöjä, vammaisia tai ruotsinkielisiä – maahanmuuttajia eivät kotouttamisessa tai yhdenvertaisuuden valvonnassa edusta maahanmuuttajat vaan heidän asiantuntijoinaan esiintyvät valtaväestön edustajat.

Vähemmistöjen ulkopuolella asuvilla valtaväestön edustajilla ei kuitenkaan ole todellista kosketusta vähemmistöryhmien sisälle. Eikä varsinkaan uskallusta puuttua vähemmistöjen sisällä tapahtuvaan syrjintään. Siksi kotouttamis- ja yhdenvertaisuusviranomaisilla ei joko ole ehdotuksia tällaiseen syrjintään ja syrjäytymiseen puuttumiseen tai ehdotukset ovat todellisuudelle vieraita. Tilanne vaatii pikaista maahanmuuttajien merkittävää mukaanottoa kotouttamisen ja yhdenvertaisuuden suunnittelussa ja toteutuksessa.

Kirjoittaja on lakimies ja tietokirjailija sekä Etelä-Suomen etnisten suhteiden neuvottelukunnan puheenjohtaja (2011 – 2015)

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Tämä blogikirjoitus julkaistiin Migrant Talesissä luvalla.

Another scandal hits far-right Sweden Democrats

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Sweden Democrat (SD) MP Lars Isovaara is resigning his seat after he spat at a parliamentary security guard, reports The Local. The latest scandal to the far-right party follows an earlier one this month after Swedish tabloid Expressen published a video of an SD MP who got rowdy  in public and hurled racist and sexist insults. 

SD party chairman, Jimmie Åkesson, stated that Isovaara’s behvior had eaten away his credibility, adding that the former MP has ”personal problems.”

Writes The Local: ”Isovaara reportedly oinked like a pig and spat at a security guard in the early hours of Wednesday morning after he had reported a robbery. He called the Expressen newspaper himself and urged them to publish the story, however the paper later published information that suggested the robbery never took place.”

In neighboring Finland, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party has seen numerous scandals ranging from drunken and disorderly behavior to  applying for membership in a neo-Nazi party.

How many of these PS MPs and party members have faced the music and resigned on their own will?

None.

 

 

Turun Sanomat: Is dual citizenship a threat to Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An article on Turun Sanomat quotes Turku School of Economics professor, Kari Liuhto, stating that dual citizenship rights in Finland were a mistake in light of the recent child custody row that erupted in October between Finland and Russia.

Liuhto believes that dual citizenship rights granted in 1999 in this country give Russia the opportunity to increase its influence in our national affairs.

Finland has about 60,000 people with dual citizenship, according to Turun Sanomat.

Is dual citizenship such a big of a threat to Finland as Liuhto claims?

While we can discuss the pros and cons of dual and multiple citizenship, those who see it as a bad thing are usually driven by nationalism, suspicion and loyalty issues.

Some countries permit dual or multiple citizenship while others, like India and China, do not.

The United States, which allows dual citizenship, keeps their citizens on a short leash through the Internal Revenue System (IRS). If you are a U.S. citizen and live abroad and have dual citizenship, you are obliged to file your annual tax statement to the IRS.

It is doubtful that tightening dual citizenship laws will change matters never mind calm Liuhto’s fear of Russia’s influence in Finland. That’s more of an in-between-your-ears issue. But the more nationalism and fear we spread, the greater will be our fear of the outside world and its citizens.

Liuto’s concern is only the tip of an iceberg of a far greater threat facing Finland and Europe these days: nationalism and intolerance.

Apart from draft laws to ban male circumcision and to make it easier to deport foreign convicts from Finland, parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) would certainly like to spike dual citizenship rights. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to grasp this.

 This video clip of a draft law spearheaded by PS MP Jussi Halla-aho shows the crackpot stuff these types of politicians say and do to gain attention, listeners and votes.

Finland used to have very strict citizenship laws in the 1919 Constitution. Only the children of male Finnish citizens were given citizenship automatically. If you were a citizen of another country, you lost your Finnish citizenship.

The children of female Finnish citizens were granted full citizenship rights in 1984.

 

 

Finnish Internet policeman spreads stereotypes on Twitter about the Roma

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish Internet policeman, Marko Forss, has been criticized for spreading stereotypes on Twitter about a Roma who tried to steal a frozen chicken from a market, according to tabloid Iltalehti. Shouldn’t Forss, who monitors hate sites and was named policeman of the year in 2011, know better? 

If it is surprising that Forss can make such a joke publicly, what is even more surprising is his excuse: ”I don’t see any racism in such a joke.”

What did Forss tweet? “Some funny things happen in police work, and for some reason these incidents often involve gypsies. In the best one a gypsy woman drops a frozen chicken from under her clothing in a shop. When police take the group into custody one of the men loudly objects: ‘come on, own up! Who threw that chicken at our Ally?’”*

The issue is not what he thought but how others could interpret and be offended by his so-called joke. Does Forss think that the Roma in Finland are so weathered by racism and social exclusion that they can take a joke that reinforces prejudices that they shoplift for a living?

Let’s imagine for a moment that the Finnish Internet policeman would be working for the Metropolitan Police in London and would make a similar joke about an ethnic group like Pakistanis.

Would he be able to get away with a I-didn’t-think-it-was-racist excuse?

I doubt it.

While we should be careful not to label all Finnish police as public servants who lack cultural sensitivity and savvy, Forss’ comment shows how few visible minorities  there are in the Finnish police force.

* Many thanks go to Justice Demon for the translation.

The PS’ anti-immigration message suffers a hard blow

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Despite the fact that the debate in Finland on immigrants and immigration has taken a turn for the worse in some respects, it’s not as bad as it used to be before the April 2011 parliamentary elections and when Anders Breivik went on his murderous rampage on July 22, 2011. While anti-immigration politicians still want to inflame public debate, their message no longer carries the same weight as before.  

Certainly there are still many Finns who believe that what these anti-immigration politicians say is true but not as many as such politicians would like.

Take a look at this video clip of a then-confident Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Jussi Halla-aho being interviewed in 2009 on Voice Häräämö. Why doesn’t he appear any longer on such programs as an “immigration expert (sic!)?”

Answer: loss of credibility and  because reporters are more critical than before of their message.

It must be frustrating for politicians, who base their popularity on anti-immigration rhetoric, to see their message fall on its face after being cut off at the knees by time.

This situation especially worries the biggest anti-immigration loudmouths of the party like MP James Hirvisaari, who recently claimed the PS did poorly in the municipal elections because it wasn’t outspoken enough on immigration issues as before.

Is this the main reason for the PS’ poor showing due to the credibility of its anti-immigration message? Did they do poorly in the municipal elections because of the crackpot stuff they say and do to gain attention?

Most likely.

If anti-immigration politicians of the PS are interviewed by the media today, it’s doubtful that any sensible person would take them seriously never mind any good reporter.

The same ogres that these politicians unleashed against immigrants follow them around like ghosts: racism, fascism and far-right ideology.

Finland is slowly but surely learning to distinguish between what is and what isn’t racism, what is and what isn’t far-right ideology.

This is a positive matter, but a lot more work needs to be done to rid this menace that threatens our society today.

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Abagond: Spielberg’s Lincoln

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Julian Abagond

“Lincoln” (2012) is a Steven Spielberg film about the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, the one that freed the slaves. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as his wife and Tommy Lee Jones as Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Gloria Reuben plays Elizabeth Keckley, Mrs Lincoln’s dressmaker and friend.

The film is based in part on the book “Team of Rivals” (2006) by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Executive summary: “The Help” as costume drama – though Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing as Lincoln.

Best line: When Gloria Reuben says to Lincoln:

White people don’t want us here – any of them. Do you?

Like the “The Help”, Participant Media lists this as one of its films about social action. And like “The Help” it rewrites history as a story about a well-meaning white person, who is not one bit racist, helping blacks by fighting against n-word-using white racists – while blacks largely take a back seat.

While “The Help” had fleshed-out black characters, this film has none. Gloria Reuben comes the closest – she is listed 17th in the credits. In this film about freeing slaves not a single slave appears.

On the other hand it does show black soldiers in the opening scene – so the Helpless Darkies in this one are not quite so helpless.

Although the film takes great pains to make Daniel Day-Lewis look like Lincoln, talk like Lincoln and walk like Lincoln, it whitewashes Lincoln.

In real life Lincoln used the n-word. Spielberg’s Lincoln does not – even though others in the film do.

In real life Lincoln said stuff like this:

… there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.

Spielberg’s Lincoln never says stuff like that. He is for equal rights! This is no longer history, but fantasy. Lincoln was against giving blacks the vote till the last week of his life, and even then it would only be for veterans and the “very intelligent” – Jim Crow stuff.

In real life Lincoln was for ethnic cleansing. He wanted to send blacks away after the war – till Frederick Douglass (not in the film) talked him out of it.

Douglass 11 years after Lincoln’s death said:

President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the coloured race.

Racism is not a matter of some misguided whites, like in a Hollywood film. Most whites are not Basically Good, as this film would have you suppose. Most are racist, morally compromised. Lincoln was no different.

What sets Lincoln apart was that he fought against his own racism, against his fallen nature, and did right in spite of it. Instead of giving into it and calling it right. That is the story that went untold. It would be far truer, far more interesting and far more helpful as a model for social action. Instead we get yet another feel-good White Saviour fantasy flick.

Read original story here.

 This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Check out this blog entry on Spielberg’s Lincoln movie posted by Racism Review.

Send kudos to those who speak out against racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We must change the ever-adverse debate against immigrants and visible minorities in Finland.  The way to end it is by giving our silence a voice and by sending kudos to those who have the courage to speak out against racism and prejudice.

Source: Lake Harriet Community School.

Migrant Tales would like to give kudos Tuija Väyrynen of the city of Kouvola, who said that racism and social exclusion are on the rise in her city.

For a city official to show her concern about such a worrisome social ill is one matter, but publishing it in the local newspaper with her real name shows courage and sets a good example.

In Finland, there are many people from all walks of life who are just as concerned about the rise of intolerance as Migrant Tales. We should therefore take the time to show our admiration to such people for the bravery.

To read the original story on Kouvolan Sanomat click here.

 

Turun Sanomat: Finland Democrats eye PS’ anti-immigration vote

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finland Democrats, which bases its political agenda on the far-right Sweden Democrats, aims to become a new party and compete for the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s anti-immigration vote, reports Turun Sanomat. The creation of a new anti-immigration party reveals the ever-negative debate in Finland surrounding immigrants and immigration.  

The PS is the only party that has attracted large number of votes due to its anti-immigration stance. Anti-immigration groups like Vapauspuolue, Muutos 2011 and other so-called taxi parties have failed to lure large number of votes.

A “taxi party” in Bolivia is one that is so small that all of its members can fit inside a taxi.

Click here to see original Facebook post.

The new party, which will be spearheaded by Jussi Yli-Paavola, established a new Facebook group Monday where the Finland Democrats “aim to defend the rights of Finns…a poor country that cannot be the social welfare office of EU brokers and Africans. We have to act before it’s too late!!”

An anonymous Finland Democrats’ member denied on Turun Sanomat that PS MPs like James Hirvisaari were going to form part of the new party. He said, however, that PS members are welcome to join the Finland Democrats if they wished.

Click here to see original Facebook post.

Apart from Hirvisaari, other far-right anti-immigrant PS members such as Freddy Van Wonterghem, Harri Tauriainen, Jani Viinikainen and Jani Salomaa are speculated to form part of the new party, according to some social media sites.

  Click here to see original Facebook post.

Even if the Finland Democrats will need more than luck to challenge the PS, it is a worrying sign how a small-but-vocal group of Finns aim to make far-right ideology and intolerance acceptable in this country.

UPDATE (7:45pm Finnish time): Turun Sanomat published a story earlier today based on a bogus statement sent supposedly by the Finland Democrats. The statement claimed that a number of PS members, including James Hirvisaari, had joined the new party. The updated story in Turun Sanomat, which was cited by Migrant Tales, has a Finland Democrat source that denies any PS members such as Hirvisaari, Van Wonterghem, Tauriainen, Viinikainen and Salomaa joining the Finland Democrats.

Thus the aim of the bogus statement was to fool Turn Sanomat and apparently punish it for publishing an armband story written by Hirvisaari’s former aide, Helena Eronen, back in April.

Kouvolan Sanomat: Racism on the rise in the Finnish city of Kouvola

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A city official that works with immigrants in refugees in the city of Kouvola, located 100km north of Helsinki, claims that racism and social exclusion are on the rise, reports Kourolvan Sanomat. The official, Tuija Värynen, said that complaints by immigrants of more racism and harassment rose clearly in March-April.

Victims of racism can be children and adults, according to Väyrynen.

Migrant Tales got in touch with an immigrant who lives in Kouvola, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I was once walking with a black imam and heard people hurl racist comments at us in public,” he said. “I try to avoid going to the market with black people because this attracts attention [and probably trouble]. I’m white. I never go to discos and bars.”

The immigrant from Kouvola said that a group of Somalis were asked to get off the bus by the driver because they spoke too loudly.