June 2013 - Page 2 of 5 - Migrant tales

PS MP Hirvisaari gets publicly enraged with daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari has done it again. He didn’t lambast immigrants and Muslims this time, but got publicly enraged with a journalist working for Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat (ESS). What happened? Ari Helminen reported that Hirvisaari, together with another PS MP, had the most absences in parliament during spring.

Hirvisaari is from Asikkala, a town located near Lahti.

The news, that Hirvisaari and PS MP Ismo Soukkola had been absent from eight parliamentary sessions without an excuse, was apparently too much for the MP. Hirvisaari tweeted that ESS’ Helminen had “betrayed his trust” and that he will never greet or answer the journalist’s phone calls.

”…I don’t want to have anything to do with liars,” he continued. ”The worst rotten journalism [in Finland] is by TS [Turun Sanomat] and ESS. Extreme abuse of power, unfair and manipulation of people’s [opinion].”

Hirvisaari’s former aide, Helena Eronen, who wrote about sleeve badges in April last year, blamed Turun Sanomat for taking her opinion piece out of context.

Read PS MP James Hirvisaari’s tweets here.

Reading about Hirvisaari’s outbursts is nothing new from this cantankerous politician, but sadly reveals why Finland has become a country where intolerance and hatred have raised their heads big time.

Migrant Tales wrote back in May: ”Every time a PS MP like Hirvisaari opens his mouth, he actually helps the PS lose its appeal among voters and what’s important its chances of being a partner in a future government.”

Hirvisaari was sentnced for ethnic agitation in 2011.

Even so, he has continued to insult gays, immigrants and visible minorities in Finland. His far right Islamophobic credentials were reinforced when he announced that he publicly supports the Finnish Defense League.

women for refugee women: the everyday sexism project

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Migrant Tales

The Everyday Sexism Project exists to catalogue instances of sexism experienced by women on a day to day basis. For women refugees, uprooted in another country, or displaced within their own country, these experiences of sexism are often extreme and can be life threatening. According to the UN, there are approximately 40 million women and children who are refugees, between 78-80% of the total number of refugees.

Refugee women rarely have a voice but now you can share your story and show the world what sexism is like for a refugee woman. Say as much or as little as you like, use your real name or a pseudonym – it’s up to you. By sharing your story you’re showing the world how sexism threatens the lives of the world’s most vulnerable women everydayand why it is a valid problem to discuss.

Women for Refugee Women will be moderating this page, and if you prefer to e-mail us at[email protected] we can upload your story for you instead. Follow us on Twitter (and submit entries by tweet) at @4refugeewomen.

Visit women for refugee women website here.

You can add your story too.

About half of the PS MPs want to deny Finland’s cultural diversity

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Roughly half of the 39 Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs have signed a draft law that would in effect deny Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity in the youth law. If PS MP Olli Immonen had his way together with twenty other PS MPs, Finland would go into denial mode and conveniently brush its immigrants and visible minorities under the rug.

Social Democratic Party youth wing chairman, Joona Räsänen, criticized Immonen’s draft law. He said that the PS doesn’t want Finland’s youth to think that multiculturalism and diversity in our society are good matters. Read full story (in Finnish) here.

It’s not first that Immonen, who is chairman of the far right Suomen Sisu association, has drafted anti-immigration laws.

PS MP Immonen claims on his Facebook wall that in the present youth law multiculturalism is considered a good matter. “In my opinion, it shouldn’t be the law that should determine whether multiculturalism is a good matter or not. Let everyone determine it for themselves.”

With MPs like these and many others, it’s not difficult to spot the red herrings in their arguments. In simple English, Immonen is saying that Finland should not become culturally diverse and that we should do everything possible to prevent people who are different from us from moving to this country.

How many more of these laws, which have no chance in passing in parliament, will have to be drafted before we understand that Finland’s third largest party in parliament is not only racist but would destroy this country?

Twenty-one PS MPs have signed the draft bill. Some of these are Jussi Halla-aho, Jussi Niinistö, Juho Eerola, James Hirvisaari, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Ritva Elomaa, Reijo Tossavainan, Teuvo Hakkarainen and others.

Zuzeeko’s blog: Finland – Discrimination accounts for high Somali unemployment

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Zuzeeko Tegha Abeng

Somalis are among the largest groups of immigrants in Finland. They are also among the largest unemployed group of immigrants in the country. Many people [mistakenly] think that the high rate of unemployment among Somalis is because they are not willing to work. This, in my view, is not the case.

Read original posting here.

Somalians in Finland have been stereotyped as lazy and depend on social welfare, despite numerous news reports that of all immigrants in Finland, Somalis (including those with language skills and a profession) find it most difficult to find work.

During the Midsummer weekend, I had a discussion with a couple of people about the employment situation of Somalis in Finland. The majority of those involved in the discussion promulgated the view that most people of Somali origin are unemployed because of lack of education, “laziness” and dependence on KELA, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

In my opinion, the assertion is incorrect, stereotypical and sheds light on widespread prejudice and negative attitudes towards Somalis in Finland.

According to a report by Yle, the highest rates of immigrant unemployment in 2010 were among Somalis, Iraqis and Afghans who arrived Finland as refugees. The rate of unemployment for the three nationalities stood at over 50%.

The Director of Immigration Affairs for the City of Helsinki pointed out in the Yle report that “discrimination is clearly the big reason” for the high rate of unemployment among Somalis. According to the director, “of those who have been here 15 to 20 years, half have completed degrees in Finland”.

The director’s statement debunks the assertion that Somalis in Finland are unemployment because they are uneducated, lazy and enjoy being dependent on KELA.

In my view, employer discrimination and negative attitudes towards Somalis account for the high rate of unemployment among Finland’s largest group of Africans.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, one reason for the high rate of unemployment among immigrants in Finland is the fact that Finnish employers regard Finnish education and Finnish work experience as better than foreign equivalents. But immigrants from Somalia experience difficulties finding work, despite the fact that many of them have Finnish education. According to researcher Tuula Joronen, negative attitudes and impressions account for the phenomenon.

As high as 58% of Somali immigrants in Finland were unemployed at the end of 2003. [Source] The unemployment rate stood at 43.3% in 2008. [Source]

In 2010 and 2011, the risk of unemployment was highest among Somali speakers than among any other language group in Finland – according to Statistics Finland. Followed by high risk among Arabic, Persian and Kurdish speakers.

A poll revealed that Somalis and Muslims are among the groups most affected by racism and intolerance in Finland.

It is plausible to conclude from the aforementioned that prejudice, negative attitudes and employer discrimination against Somalis partly account for the high rate of unemployment in the Somali community. Many Somalis have learnt Finnish language and many have Finnish degrees and training. They should be employed without discrimination.

There was a total of 7,468 Somalians in Finland in 2012.

Read original blog entry here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Should Finns trust the police?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Migrant Tales

“…when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.”

Montesquieu (1689-1755)

A survey by T-Media reveals that Finns trust the most the police, educational and justice system and the least the media, EU and employer’s associations. Of those surveyed, 69% responded that they didn’t trust the media.

Even if close to two-thirds of Finns trust their police, should we in light of the revelations by Edward Snowden of vast global surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ?

A good case in point is a request by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) for increased surveillance powers.

One matter that should worry us is not the Supo request per se but how little some Finnish politicians, the media and public appear to care for oversight and transparency, which are crucial to the survival of our Nordic welfare state democracy.

Would the police and Supo abuse such power if they got greater surveillance rights?

The proper question we should ask, however, is what guarantees does the public have that the police and Supo will not go as far as theNSA and GCHQ? Do we have any idea how much we are being surveyed in Finland?

The best way to secure trust and an effective checks and balance system through proper oversight is paradoxically mistrust. It would be naive, even reckless, to believe that the police and other agencies that claim to defend and guarantee our security will always do so in our best interest. Power always corrupts.

Just like corporations can get greedy, so can military and public institutions. Securing support and vast funding means putting out a lot of spin and hype in order to instil fear in the public that we are constantly under threat.

Asking the military and national security agencies to make the world a more secure place is like asking a madman to make the world saner.

It will never happen.

Migrant Tales Literary: Midsummer

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Migrant Tales

By Leo Honka

Water, sky and land.

on fire

a day that refuses to die.

Water…

…sky…

…land.

And fire.

Immigrants and visible minorities would be the biggest losers if Supo gets greater online surveillance powers

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Is it a coincidence or just bad timing that the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) wants greater online surveillance powers? It was only last week when Edward Snowden revealed to the world how the NSA accessed private information of billions of people without their knowledge never mind their permission.

Read original story here.

Who would be the biggest losers if Supo and the police were given greater powers?

Not only would Finnish society lose, especially immigrants and visible minorities, who would be the targets of increased surveillance by Supo and the police.

In a live interview on The Guardian, Edward Snowden explained what was wrong with costly and out-of-control National Security Agency (NSA):

“Journalists should ask a specific question: since these programs began operation shortly after September 11th, how many terrorist attacks were prevented SOLELY by information derived from this suspicionless surveillance that could not be gained via any other source? Then ask how many individual communications were ingested to acheive that, and ask yourself if it was worth it. Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.”

In the late-1980s, there was little to no oversight of Supo. Friends of a Supo agent could easily access sensitive Interpol files on a person with the help of a phone call. Surveillance of foreigners back then was finding out if they participated in demonstrations, supported human rights as well as other “normal” information about what people do in a democratic society.

The track record of the police and its attitude of immigrants and visible minorities reinforce a worst-case scenario.

Apart from no black or visible minorities in the Finnish police force, the treatment of Finland’s first suspected terrorism case is another example that should keep us on our toes.

The father of our Western democratic system, Baron de Montesquieu, should never be forgotten. Since power corrupts, an effective checks and balance system ensures that matters don’t get too out of hand.

National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero gave his support to the Supo initiative.

Finland’s Data Protection Ombudsman, Reijo Aarnio, correctly poited out that a new set of problems would arise if the police expand their surveillance rights.

“When expanded police powers are proposed, there should always be an evaluation of what the effects will be,” he said. “That includes a determination of whether an envisaged threat has changed so much that these powers are genuinely needed.”

The media should stop stereotyping immigrants!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Black is beautiful, but I have a question: Why is it that whenever there is a story about immigrants or refugees in the Finnish media, the picture that is published with the story is usually of a black man or Muslim woman? Publishing pictures that feed the public a stereotypical image of immigrants does nothing more than reinforce prejudice and racism.

The media should do a better job and they can. The question is why don’t they?

Like in too many parts of Europe, the whole debate on immigrants, refugees, immigration and cultural diversity is distorted. The best proof of this aren’t the opinion pieces we read about immigrants in the media but the pictures that are published with them.

Why do we do this persistently even if immigrants from Africa and Muslims represent a minority, according to the Population Registration Center (Väestörekisterikeskus).

Of the 195,511 non-Finns living in our country, the majority are Europeans and non-Muslims. Somalis, for example, accounted for 0.26% of the country’s total population last year. Moreover, the overwhelming majority (77.3%) of people in Finland are Lutherans compared with 1.47% who belonged to “other” religions.

So why does the media picture immigrants and refugees as blacks and Muslims?

Ignorance, outright prejudice or both?

A recent story on Taloussanomat uses a black man to portray immigrants.

This picture on Helsingin Sanomat shows a foreign-looking man with a women who could be a Muslim.

Julian Abagond: Calling out racism

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Migrant Tales

By Julian Abagond

Calling out racism is where you point out that something is racist. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is an important part of fighting racism. It can even stop genocide, as crazy as that sounds.

Genocide: Genocides unfold in eight stages. Stopping it at any one stage, stops the genocide from going forward. The second to last stage before the mass killings is this:

Polarization: The first people killed in any genocide are not the pariahs themselves but those in the mainstream who speak up for them. The voices in the middle are silenced through threats, arrests or even killings. Now the message of hate goes unchallenged.

What applies to genocide applies to racism more generally. Racism grows and feeds off a culture of silence. The point of calling out racism is to break down that silence. It does not matter if you persuade anyone, it does not matter if you “win the argument”. It is very unlikely you will. What matters is that you were heard and planted that seed in people’s minds of, “Hey, maybe this is not right.”

Elizabeth Eckford was one of the first nine black students to go to Little Rock Central High School in the American South. That school was a racist hell for her – because the 90% who were not giving her hell would not stand up to the 10% who were. She could not even enter the school till the president of the nation grew a pair and stood up to the governor of the state.

The American civil rights movement succeeded when people stopped being cowed by fear of standing up to racists.

White people calling out racism: One of the best thing white people can do at the personal level to fight racism is to call it out when they see it. If not to the racist person’s face, then to family and friends. If not to family and friends, then at least inside their own head. Anything is better than nothing.

In America calling out racism matters more when it comes from whites. That is because of the Rules of Racial Standing – that thing where white people think others whites are way more objective and neutral about racism than blacks. The Tim Wise Effect.

Black people calling out racism: White Americans discount what blacks say, it is part of their cultural conditioning, but they still hear it. They hear what they say and, just as important, what they do not say. If something racist goes down and blacks say nothing, whites will assume that it is “okay” or “not so bad”. Especially since many whites assume blacks are “oversensitive”.

That is part of why I post on, say, Quvenzhané Wallis, but not Don Imus or the racist outcry over the Cheerios ad – because those two were roundly condemned even by white people.

Warning: Calling out racism does require judgement and sometimes courage. This post is not about that.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Center Party politician’s home attacked the third time in Helsinki

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Abdirahim “Husu” Hussein, a Center Party politician who hosts the Ali and Husu talk show on YLE, found a rude message at 4 am in the front of his apartment building door: a shattered beer bottle. It’s not the first time his family has been targeted in such a manner at their Helsinki home.

The police have questioned the suspect, who is Husu’s neighbor.

“This is the third time it’s happened and there seems to be a pattern,” he told Migrant Tales. “Somebody wrote ‘Binladen was here‘ on our door, the second time there was a drawing on my children’s bedroom window of a bomb that blew up and now this.”

Husu said he’s going to Canada for six weeks and is worried about his family’s safety.

Glass from a shattered beer bottle greeted Husu’s family at 4am. Source: Abdirahim Husu Hussein’s Facebook page.

It’s clear that such hostile behavior against a member of our society is unacceptable, especially if the motive was the person’s ethnic background.

Finland is slowly but surly standing up to the ogre of intolerance. A good recent example is the outcry of Swedish-speaking Finnish journalists who had received death threats by email. It’s common for university researchers, feminists and activists to receive death threats as well.

Migrant Tales has been the target of such threats as well.

The only way to deal with intolerance is by challenging it head on. Justifying it with the help of lame excuses in order to do nothing is to encourage it to live another day.

Month: June 2013