Month: January 2013

Abdirahim’s and Ali’s radio show begins today at 1pm on YLE

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Abdirahim Hussein and Ali Jahangiri kick off their weekly hour-long radio program on YLE today at 1pm. I know both persons. I especially like Abdirahim because his sincere no-nonsense about cultural diversity issues. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-10 kello 13.01.10

Ali is a talented speaker as well, trying to use humor to address a serious social ill like racism and acceptance.

One thing I haven’t asked the both of them is why they use the term “mamu?”

Constructive debate is one important matter that must be never forgotten in the ongoing debate about Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity.

If the aim of an article or debate topic is to strengthen stereotypes and racism of certain groups living in Finland, then that is what I’d call destructive debate.

Let’s Abdirahim and Ali the best of luck.

You can get in touch with both of them by calling 020 690 001.

Lip service and inaction water poisonous plants like racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Instead of debating whether racism and prejudice are serious problems or not in Finland, why not look at the factors that permit their existence in our society? A good starting point could be asking oneself the following question: Is our reaction to such social ills a reaction? 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-10 kello 11.33.37

Inaction, be it in the form of lip service or silence, is one of the main causes why racism exists in any society. If racism were a poisonous plant, complacency would be the water and fertilizer we’d use to feed it.

Here is an example of the latter. Your friend and/or peers agree that what happened to you is racist but the only thing they will do is agree with you. Life continues the same way as before. Nothing has changed because nothing has been challenged or questioned.

Just like when doing a good interview, it’s what the interviewee doesn’t say that is the most revealing.

If over 1.2 million Finns emigrated from this country between 1860 and 1999, why is so little mentioned about them at school? What values, myths and social constructs does it help to maintain in Finland?

The debate on immigration, immigrants and cultural diversity is lined as well by a generous amount of complacent statements followed by the word but…

Here’s a classic example: I’m not a racist but…

Another classic strategy by those who don’t want to question racism in this country is that they neutralize such a social ill with the following affirmation: If there is racism in Holland it’s ok to have racism in Finland.

Another example of the latter is the reverse-racism argument or claiming that immigrants are more racist than white Finns.

Both above-mentioned affirmations aim to make racism justifiable in our society.

Here is a universal red herring used by anti-immigration groups. No matter where they are from, what their ideology is, it’s always the following point behind their intolerance: “They are so different from us that they can never adapt to our society. Our intolerance is therefore as a result justified.”

Many more examples could be citied. For me, however, one of the most worrying is the close relationship our inaction has with institutional racism. Our oppressive and discriminatory behavior against other groups is sealed and approved thanks to our silence and inaction.

Since racism is learned we can unlearn it.

Writes Julian Abagond in a recent blog entry: “Racism is something you have to unlearn on purpose. Not by trying to not see color but, as a first step, by understanding how racism works and how it has affected you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pia Grochowski: Reflecting on prejudices

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Pia Grochowski

A few weeks ago I attended a course on global dialogue in Hong Kong and the question was posed to the participants, “is it possible to not have any prejudices?”

Many of us like to think of ourselves as above racism, above ethnocentrism, without prejudice. Many consider racism to be a thing of the past or something experienced elsewhere, we are post-racism. Others among us admittedly are, claiming to express some prejudiced beliefs, or legitimizing our actions. Some of us rationalize racism with commentaries along the lines of, “I’m not a racist but….”, or “I have a friend who is of (this or this ethnic group)”. With all these commentaries I am left wondering where is the line being denial and being. I spoke to many people from various countries and its these perceptions are just as harmful as racism as it shows a lack of self-awareness vis-à-vis the problem: denying, or failing to recognize racism is as harmful as racism in itself.

Going back to the previous question on whether its possible to not have any prejudices, my reply was that it’s not. People have prejudices, people are judgmental: prejudices and beliefs are a means through which we make sense of our external world. We categorize people; we categorize groups based on previous experiences. It’s a defense mechanism and also a way which we learn to navigate through social interactions. “But,” I continued my response, “but it is always possible to challenge our prejudices, to not act on them, and to give people the opportunity to express their own perceptions and voices and to change our beliefs”. The effort to challenge our beliefs, to be open-minded and accepting prevents those of us who are prejudiced from becoming racist. We may be prejudiced, we may hold ethnocentric beliefs, the things that turn us into racist is the close mindedness to not challenge them.

Reflecting on this, I am once again overwhelmed with the debate on racism that has been reignited in the Finnish media following the Abu-Hanna article. I could add so much more on how my friends or I have experienced racism in this country, but I feel in the face of mounting racist’s incidents no more evidence is needed, change is the only thing that is needed.

I hope from the discussion created from the article people start to think twice about their beliefs and actions. People will try and speak out and be more honest about the racist acts they witness, and start to deal with the issue of racism is a more directed manner. I have seen protests against racism, flash mobs against racism but I really wonder to what extent these work to really deal with racism. Will a flash-mob against racism teach a racist person to challenge their beliefs or will it make them defensive, insecure or attempt to deny them. Dealing with racism, in a multicultural society as Finland is becoming more and more by the day, requires both outward and inward reflection: will we dare as individuals to challenge our beliefs? I could write endlessly about this topic, but for the meantime I find it best to keep it simple. I’m asking for people to start reflecting on their own beliefs and work within themselves to remedy this situation. The discussion is ongoing but are we creating change, Gandhi is famously quoted for saying, “”Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Save the Children: Too little attention is given to racist harassment of minors in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The racist harassment that children are exposed to in Finland is either played down or sidelined completely, according to a statement by Save the Children (Pelastakaa Lapset), an association founded in 1922 that aims to improve the lives of children in Finland and abroad. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-8 kello 13.45.01

You can read the Save the Children statement (in Finnish) here.

Satu Kanninen, an adviser of the ogranization, told Migrant Tales that it’s important that a social ill like racism is debated openly.

“This wasn’t the case four years ago,” she said. “We are now starting to debate racism in earnest [in this country].”

Save the Children said that any type of racist harassment that children may suffer is not only unacceptable but boils down to questioning daily and constantly their Finnish identity and their right to belong here.

The feeling of security that a child may feel is undermined when he or she is a victim of racist harassment.

Kanninen agreed that in many respects the debate about racism in Finland boils down to accepting cultural diversity.

“What does being pure Finnish mean?” she asked, adding that in this century the acceptance of cultural diversity will be an ever-important topic.

Migrant Tales published this month a story about Rebecka Holm, a 14-year-old adolescent who rallied enough courage to write a letter to HBL that changed her life.

 

 

Enrique Tessieri: Racist harassment was part of my short childhood in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When I lived briefly in Helsinki in 1958-61, I still remember how I got harassed as a child by other children for not looking Finnish enough. If I experienced such violence when I was a child over 50 years ago, why do we still have a difficult time coming to grips with a social ill like racism?

Even if I didn’t understand it completely, I knew what racist harassment was at the age of five.

Looking back at those years and my relationship with this country thereafter, the saddest part of it all is the exclusion. You don’t belong because “you aren’t Finnish.”

Back then your fits were you best weapons to defend yourself from such verbal and physical violence. Acceptance was only possible that way.

I was strong but what would have happened if I couldn’t defend myself? How would it have affected my life and self-esteem?

Even if I knew how to defend myself, the racism I have experienced and seen inflicted on others have affected me greatly.

I never liked to go to play outside of my grandparents apartment house because there were 3-4 older boys who would constantly harass me verbally and physically every time they saw me playing outside alone.

Since they were older, I had no other choice but to run from them.

Once, when I went to a cinema to see a children’s movie, a complete stranger started to ridicule me at the top of his voice. The child started making fun of me because I had a plastic sheriff badge on my jacket. My ethnic background gave him a pretext to ridicule my clothes.

When hearing and writing about the experiences of other multicultural children and adolescents who grew up and went to school in Finland, I sigh with relief that I grew up elsewhere.

If I’d stayed in Finland, who’s to say that I wouldn’t be a victim of racism and bullying at school? I’d be all alone. The teachers would approve my classmates hostile behavior towards me with their silence and inaction.

One of the reasons why I write so much about a social ill like racism is because it changed my life.

You are left with only a question after its hostility: Why?

I have found that answer thanks to Migrant Tales.

Finland plans to charge tuition fees to foreign students

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Over half (119) of Finland’s 200 MPs are in favor of charging tuition fees to foreign students, according to YLE in English. The bill is being spearheaded by three parties known for their anti-immigration stances: National Coalition Party (37 MPs), Perussuomalaiset (39), and Center Party (29). Is the new bill a sign of how Finland is turning its back to the world?

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-7 kello 20.56.17

You can read the original YLE in English news story here.

The bill is also supported to a lesser extent by MPs from the Social Democratic Party (7), Swedish People’s Party (4), Christian Democrats (2), and Left Wing Alliance (1).

”There is nothing new in charging tuition fees to foreign students,” said Migrant Tales’ associate editor JusticeDemon. ”The UK has been doing this for years, with many of its educational institutions now depending on attracting such students in order to stay afloat financially.”

JusticeDemon said that despite the tuition range from  3,500 to 12,000 euros per year, the higher figure is likely to become a norm for university courses. “Charging anything less than the maximum will suggest that the course is somehow of lower quality than a corresponding more expensive course at another institution,” he added.

Arto Satonen of the National Coalition Party, the MP who initiated the bill, believes that time is ripe to start charging foreign students tuition fees because most of them leave the country after they get their degrees.

”If you look at the numbers, then people from Asia or Russia or Ukraine, and when they get their degree they are going to work in the UK, USA, Australia and so on,” he said. ”So it actually happens that the Finnish taxpayers’ money we are actually educating workers for the Anglo-Saxon countries’ economies.”

Despite this view, one of the cornerstones of the Finnish immigration system until a few years ago was forcing foreign students to leave the country after they took a degree, according to JusticeDemon. Since we want these students to stay in Finland , it shows a shift in attitudes, which are welcome.

See JusticeDemon’s comment below.

PS MP Reijo Tossavainen says the bill is important because it would stop discrimination against Finnish students.

”One year costs per (foreign) student 8,000 euros and in university 10,000 euros,” he commented on a blog. ”One student during his whole stay at an institution of higher learning costs 30,000-50,000 euros. In a whole year Finland gives to foreign students altogether a 300 million euro present.”

Tossavainen is a well-known anti-immigration voice of the PS. He said in 2011 that Finland should close its doors to asylum seekers.

Marina Laminen, president of the National Union of University Students, believes that Finland hurting is itself if it starts charging foreign students tuition.

”I feel that it’s a real bad idea because in Finland we really need the international students, both as students and for the labor market,” she told YLE. ”It’s been proven that the number of international students is not getting any better but will get worse with tuition fees.”

 

A cartoon that reveals a truth about integration and diversity in Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Sometimes when I read about how immigrants, their children and grandchildren are treated in some European countries, this cartoon comes to mind. 

After the first warning and after you understand fully the but after the ” we’re a very tolerant society…” line,  many will encounter the wall of  institutional racism, the final icing of your integration cake that ensures you will never compete as an equal member of society because of your ethnic background.

220px-svvalues_narrowweb_300x3080

Source: Rec. Soc. blog.

What is racism?

It’s squandering people’s abilities and dwarfing their potential.

Racism is like a greedy monopoly, which would rarely if ever admit that it is a monopoly. Its aim is to kill competition in order to benefit itself at the cost of everyone.

People support such an order of things because, one way or another, they think they benefit from it as well.

 

Migrant Tales (July 8, 2012): The absurdity of the reverse-racism argument in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Every now and then you’ll hear a visitor on Migrant Tales claim: What about [reverse] racism against [white] Finns!? Racism is a complex problem but one matter singles it out: It is an effective tool to socially exclude, control and exploit other groups in society from vital resources such as jobs and economic wealth. 

The fact that white Finns are the standard of everything in Finland is enough proof that they wield real power. White Finns don’t have to understand racism because they simply don’t have to. It’s not an issue because they are the standard of this society, the norm. Everyone else has a prefix attached to them like immigrant, immigrant descendant, black, Roma etc.

Valkoinen valta-4
This graffiti that reads “White Power” in Finnish was on a special elementary school’s wall in Mikkeli, Finland, for months before it was removed.

In May 2011, the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party renounced all forms of racism, even positive discrimination, or affirmative action.

It is surprising that when the PS made their preposterous statement, few if any media in this country understood how racist and grotesque it was and how it revealed a serious case of  colorblind racism (let’s pretend we’re equal because ethnic background does not matter, when in fact it does).

Colorblind racism works in Finland in an implicit and explicit manner. Its aim is the same:  ethnic background is not the issue. If it is an issue, it’s your  ethnic background.

  • ·         We have such a wonderful society that we are way past racism so get over it (explicit colorblind racism);
  • ·         It’s your culture, your parents or you that is hindering adaption to our society. In this case I recognize your ethnic background but only to shift blame and wash my hands of the problem (implicit colorblind racism).

 Accusing a visible minority, or immigrant of being racist against white Finns, is a good example of implicit colorblind racism.  Since racism isn’t a problem in our society, it can’t be my problem. It’s your problem.

Some successful immigrants or visible minorities who have succeeded in Finland may reinforce the same colorblind racist argument as white Finns. They may claim:  ”I’m not white but I adapted to the white Finns’ world. That is why I am successful. You too can be.”

Those immigrants who have racism issues usually come from countries where such a social ill is the standard. It’s easy for them to accept the white Finn as a standard because they too were the norm in their former home country.  As a result, some embrace the idea of becoming a Tuomo-setä, or Uncle Tom, because they are encouraged to and rewarded by white Finnish society for such behavior.

If you are ever confronted by a person who uses the reverse-racism argument, ask him or her how is the prejudice of a minority as devastating as that of the majority?

White Finns should stop whining about reverse racism because it isn’t an issue. It’s only one of many loaded arguments used by them to justify their racism.

This post was originally published on Migrant Tales on July 8, 2012.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Charging Kunnollisvaalit 2012 blog would be a setback for Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A statement by Kunnollisvaalit 2012, a blog that exposes far right writings of Finnish politicians who ran for city council in the October municipal elections, states that it may face charges for inciting ethnic hatred for publishing snapshots of such candidates.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-1-2 kello 20.50.39

Due to the adverse anti-immigration climate in Finland, some so-called anti-racists usually prefer to publish their views anonymously.

The identity of the editors of Kunnollisvaalit 2012 blog, which is an excellent source of information for the Finnish media, isn’t public.

Being harassed and even one’s life threatened in this country is a shameful fact of today’s Finland if you write against racism and promote tolerance.

The probable charges brought against Kunnollisvaalit 2012 hinge on what Perussuomalaiset (PS)  city council candidate, Amon Rautianen, wrote on his Facebook page.

The interesting legal question is if you repost material by a person or group that incites ethnic hatred, are you guilty of the same crime? Do journalists and bloggers have different rights in this respect?

The police appears to think so.

Kunnollisvaalit 2012 draws attention to a Jersild vs. Denmark landmark case  in 1994 in which the European Commission of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of the former.

In a nutshell, Jens Jersild, a journalist, published a TV interview of a group  that made abusive and racist statements. Jersild was convicted by a Danish court for aiding and abetting this group.

The ECHR, however, overturned the Danish ruling in favor of Jersild.

It said in a statement: ”In considering the ‘duties and responsibilities’ of a journalist, the potential impact of the medium concerned was an important factor. At the same time, it is not for the Court nor for national courts to substitute their own views for those of the press as to what techniques of reporting should be adopted by journalists.”

Good and reliable sources are an indispensable tool of the journalist and blogger. Good sources permit him or her to access information and put together the big picture. Kunnollisvaalit 2012 has played such a role.

During the dirty war period (1976-83) in Argentina, where censorship was the rule and where over 30,000 people disappeared as a result of  state-sponsored terrorism, the role of the media in exposing the ideology and methods of the military regime was crucial.

While Argentineans were too scared at the time or, in the worst of cases, persecuted, tortured and murdered for their opinions, what would have happened if nobody said a word never mind lifted a finger?

In many respects the same thing is happening in Finland today. Even if we don’t have a military regime ruling the country, we have the same ideology that encourages and intimidates silence and acceptance of views that have their roots in far-right nationalism.

Disagree?

Why not ask why nationalism and racism are in “vogue” these days in Finland.

Ask yourself why too many of us don’t feel any shame in exposing our racist and far-right views.

Certainly one reason is ignorance but isn’t ignorance one of the roots of racism. Looking at the comments on many Finnish comment boards one readily understands that many Finns are in the dark about their own racism. One factor behind our racism is the racism we have learned at home and at school.

We can unlearn our racism if we really want to, or at least recognize it in order to keep it under control.

Charging Kunnollisvaalit 2012 for inciting ethnic hatred or any other crime would be a serious blow to not only our freedom of expression, but winning the ideological battle against those who aim to make Finland a xenophobic, racist and socially exclusive place for white Finns.