May 2014 - Migrant tales

Migrant Tales insight on EU elections: Win some, lose some

Posted on May 31, 2014 by Migrant Tales

As the political dust settles after the Euro elections last Sunday, can we claim like the media that the hard right made important gains? How did anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* of Finland fare compared with the previous elections in 2009?

Apart from the UKIP and National Front of France’s impressive election victories, there were some setbacks as well. The most notable of these were the defeat of Geert Wilders Freedom Party (PVV), which gained 16.97% of the vote in 2009 with 4 MEPs but saw its support plummet to 13.2% (4 MEPs). Other big losers were Vlaams Belang of Belgium (4.14%/1 MEP from 10.88%/2 MEPs) and Italy’s Lega Nord (6.15%/5 MEPs from 10.21%/9 MEPs).

See original posting here.

If I were the PS’ chairperson, Timo Soini, I’d be concerned about the poor showing of the party despite the fact that the party got two MEPs elected.

Ever since the impressive victory of the Finnish anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam party in the 2011 parliamentary elections, when it raised the number of MPs to 39 from 5 previously, it has been downhill ever since. In all of the elections after 2011, the PS has remained a low-teens party and not been able to match its 2011 election victory (see table below).

While 70% of the EU MEPs elected throughout Europe on Sunday are pro-EU, parties like the PS with MEPs like Jussi Halla-aho are finding out rapidly that the European media has a better memory than the Finnish media.

After bashing migrants and victimizing other minorities in Finland, the PS wants greater respectability by leaving the anti-EU and anti-immigration Europe for Freedom and Democracy (EFD) for the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) bloc. The Financial Times reported this week that the PS’ membership in the ECR would be a liability because of Halla-aho’s sentence for ethnic agitation.

Even if Halla-aho tallied about a third (80,772) of the PS vote, he did so mainly on an anti-immigration message, traveling as far as Lieksa, where a PS councilman demanded a “Somali-free” meeting room, to spread his diatribes against Muslims and cultural diversity.

Taking into account the disappointing results of the PS in the past three elections, the big question is if the party will ratchet up its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric as the April 2015 parliamentary elections near. If the PS loses half of its half-a-million votes next year, it means that it will send the party back to the minor political leagues.

Of the anti-EU and anti-immigration parties that were clear victors in the EU elections, two emerge: UKIP and the National Front.

The most impressive of the two is Marine Le Pen’s National Front, which won the election with 24.95% (24 MEPs) from 6.3% (3 MEPs) previously. Nigel Farage’s UKIP became the first party since the early twentieth century to beat the Conservatives and Labor in an election. It gained 26.77% (24 MEPs) of the vote versus 16.09% (13 MEPs).

Other anti-immigration parties that did well in the elections were the Danish Folk Party (26.6%/4 MEPs from 14.8%/2 MEPs), Freedom Party of Austria (19.7%/4 MEPs from 14.8%/2 MEPs), Sweden Democrats (9.7%/2 MEPs from 3.27%/-), and neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic parties like the Golden Dawn of Greece (9.38%/3 MEPs), Hungary’s Jobbik (14.68%/3 MEPs from 14.77%/3 MEPs), NPD of Germany (1.00%/1 MEP).

HOPE not hate European Editor Graeme Atkinson put the EU elections in the following words:

So just where is this generalized, much talked-about, media-hyped rise of fascism, rise of right-wing extremism etc [except in France]? Because even with the huge increase in FN [National Front] support, the overall far right vote in the EU grew only by 1.57 million over the 2009 score with an additional country Croatia in the mix. Indeed, apart from in the UK [if we include UKIP], Denmark, Hungary and France, the far right lost votes everywhere and only won 34 seats.

It’s unlikely that the two largest anti-EU and anti-immigration parties in the European parliament, UKIP and the National Front, will form an alliance.

As far as the far right, anti-EU and anti-immigration MEPs are concerned in the new European parliament, they continue to be a small minority but with a louder voice.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names 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.

The PS of Finland is named again on a list with other far-right and neo-Nazi European parties

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Migrant Tales

On Monday the Huffington Post listed the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* as one of the nine scariest parties to be elected to the European parliament in the “good” company of xenophobic and neo-Nazi parties like the National Front of France and Golden Dawn of Greece, respectively. On Tuesday, PolicyMic listed the PS as “one of the reasons we should be terrified about the people who just took power in Europe.”

Read full story on PolicyMic here.

On Wednesday, the PS’ name popped up again when the Simon Wiesenthal Center named it as one of ten parties it will monitor closely for spreading xenophobia, nativist nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-Semitism.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the PS with neo-Nazi parties like the NPD of Germany, Golden Dawn and Hungary’s Jobbik.

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, published on Wednesday citing the Huffington Post’s story on the nine scariest parties elected to the European parliament.

The PS has members who are Holocaust deniers and who play down the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.

One of these is newly elected PS MEP Halla.aho.

This picture by one of Halla-aho’s close allies in parliament, James Hirvisaari, caused the MP to be sacked from the party in October. Read full story here.

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

Migrant Tales turns 7 years today

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Migrant Tales

I’m very proud of the work that Migrant Tales has done to be a voice of those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.

We strongly believe that words can move mountains and taking into account the intolerance and xenophobia that has lifted its head in Finland during the last years, we need as many voices as we can to move those mountains. We believe in a culturally diverse Finland that encourages mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.

Please “like” us on www.facebook.com/likemigrant and follow us on @MigrantTales

Thank you for your support and your voices.

Enrique Tessieri, Mark, JusticeDemon, Mikko Kapanen, Ahti Tolvanen, Zuzeeko Tegha Abeng, Susannah and Fadumo Dayib.

Migrants’ Rights Network: UKIP’s strong showing challenges supporters of migrants’ rights to do better

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Migrant Tales

By Don Flynn*

There’s no point hiding the fact that the right wing party made effective use of public anxieties about immigration to build its position. But all the evidence on how the argument is running shows that it can still be turned round. But we’ll need a new upsurge of activism in support of social justice to do that.

It has been no surprise to find that immigration has played a big part in deciding the outcome of the European Parliamentary elections last week, and also influenced the vote for local elections in England.

As far as the European poll is concerned the outcome can be easily summarised: UKIP won a 27% share of the vote to secure the biggest share of MEPs, with 24 celebrating victory. The evidence from opinion polls is pretty unequivocal: the party’s success was in large part down to it being able to make immigration – specifically the immigration of European Union nationals – a symbol for everything that a large segment of the population believes has gone wrong in recent years.

There can be no argument that things have been going wrong for a lot of people for many years. Decent paid jobs are becoming ever scarcer, good housing a dream for anyone outside high paid income brackets, and schools and GP services are considered to be in decline by many families. Meanwhile Polish shops open on the high street and there seems to be a great deal more Spanish spoken on our buses than ever there was in the past. The way seems to be open for any enterprising politician to put two and two together on behalf of the electorate, and suggest that the total equals somewhere in the region of five.

Voting factors

In the aftermath of the voting a cottage industry of poll analysts has swung into action to try and find the deeper meaning of what is being described in the media as a political earthquake. Based on viewpoints expressed at a well-informed breakfast gathering at the British Future think tank this morning, at this early stage the following points seem most salient.

Firstly, UKIP relies for its impact on the results it achieves in voting areas with a particular conglomeration of factors. The exemplar of these are the communities which exist in what is often presented as the ‘left behind’ medium size towns in the coastal areas of eastern England. Declining port and fishing industries and surrounded by a wide hinterland of rural regions that offer little in the way of secure job opportunities have created the take-off point for a party that needs protest to kick-start its operation. Some variants on these conditions are also to be found in towns far away from the coast, with Rotherham and Leeds showing strongly for UKIP on this occasion.

Secondly, the party attracted two types of voters at voters at this poll, both in approximately equal proportions. One type thought that immigration is the main issue facing the country; the other that the state of the economy gives most cause for concern. The evidence suggests that the 50% who are concerned with immigration are most likely to stick with the party at the 2015 general election, while the economically worried will go back to their primary allegiance with the Conservative Party.

Thirdly, age and gender factors are relevant. Only 14% of 18-35 year olds voted UKIP, as opposed to 40% of people in the 55 plus category. Men favoured the right wing party more than women, showing up a difference rate of 26% to 20%.

Fourthly, educational and skill levels have proven to be good indicators of who votes are cast for. UKIP polls strongest amongst sections of the local communities who have not experienced higher education or picked up much in the way of vocational skills.

Fifthly, a ‘halo’ effect suggests that UKIP support is most likely to show up in communities which have relatively low ethnic minority presence yet are close enough to more diverse towns to experience multiculturalism at one stage removed. Their judgement that it is undesirable is seldom shared with such vehemence by the people who actually live in the midst of the urban melting pots.

Implications for migrant rights

What is all this likely to mean for those of us who expect to be talking and campaigning on immigration issues over the next twelve months as we head to a general election?

What needs to be said loudest and clearest is that this is most decidedly not the time to go quiet on a subject which is clearly vexing a large section of the public. On the contrary, it will be more crucial than ever to push ahead with efforts to keep a balanced conversation going about why the UK economy is exerting a strong pull factor for new migrants and what this has really meant for local and regional communities across the country.

We should also be looking for opportunities to get this conversation going in the cities and towns outside of London. The capital city is proving itself to be something of a fortress for the younger and better informed groups who are least likely to be attracted to UKIP’s gloomy viewpoint. But as long as it remains a phenomenon that can be easily dismissed as ‘merely London’ then we will see the deep pessimism of the right wing party gaining ground.

On the face of it there is no reason why a narrative of successful engagement with the potential of diversity should not also be present in cities like Bristol, Cardiff, and the entirety of the Midlands, North West, and Yorkshire and the North East. What is needed are new centres of activism around issues of inclusion and social justice which will drive this process forward.

A word of warning, echoing the message that came from British Future colleagues at this morning’s de-brief session: pushing forward the national and regional conversation on migration is not the same thing as ‘turning up the volume’ on the issue. Some in the mainstream parties will be tempted to do this with a loudly proclaimed message along the lines that ‘we share your pain’ in having to deal with all the messiness that comes from Polish retail outlets and polyglot public transport and are determined to deal with it. This has already begun to be heard by some in both the Conservative and Labour parties who think the threat from the further right will be contained by getting even tougher on immigration.

It won’t. Our appeal is for a mainstreaming of the discussion about immigration and what it means to modern Britain, joining up advocacy for better and fairer policies with a progressive programme for greater fairness and social justice across the whole of society, which will show itself up in decent jobs for all and a full and flourishing role for the public sector in providing high quality services. There is every reason to believe that this is a message, particularly when conveyed by messengers that ordinary citizens are likely to trust, that will win the day and contain the dangerous threat that the hard right wing anti-immigrant represents to us all.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

*Don Flynn, the MRN Director, leads the organisation’s strategic development and coordinates MRN’s policy and project work. He is a regular and sought-after speaker at conferences, seminars and lectures on behalf of MRN.

Simon Wiesenthal Center will monitor the PS as one of ten parties for spreading xenophobia and anti-Semitism

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Migrant Tales

After being named one of the nine scariest parties to be elected to the European parliament by Huffington Post, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the global Jewish human rights organization that challenges anti-Semitism, issued a statement where it names the Perussuomalaiset (PS) as one of ten parties it will monitor closely for spreading xenophobia, nativist nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric and anti-Semitism.

Placing the PS in the political company of France’s National Front, the neo-Nazi and far-right NPD of Germany, Greece’s Golden Dawn and Jobbik of Hungary, shouldn’t come to a surprise. What is, however, surprising how uncritically the Finnish media has treated the PS, especially when it comes to its anti-immigration and anti-Islam views.

Concerned by the rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe, the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on in early May EU Vice President Catherine Ashton to condemn the entry of “hatemongers into the European Parliament, launch an investigation into their source of funding” and “urge the parliamentary faction blocs to ostracize them.”

Read full statement here.

The interesting question we should be asking is why have publications like the Huffington Post and now the Simon Wiesenthal Center listed the PS? Why has the Finnish media been more “understanding” and commonly let off the anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam party easily off the hook for its hostility against migrants and visible minorities?

The answer is pretty clear since the Finnish media is part of the problem. It gives too often racists inflated respectability and importance.

Opposition to the PS and politicians who spread racism and hatred, and who have been sentenced on top of it for ethnic agitation, should never be considered “normal” politicians but outright extremists that are a threat to our way of life.

The PS has members who are Holocaust deniers and who play down the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.

One of these is newly elected PS MEP Halla.aho.

In October, PS MP James Hirvisaari got sacked from the party after he took a picture of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament.

Financial Times: MEP Jussi Halla-aho racist track record leaves PS out in the cold

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Success comes with a high political price especially if you base that success on spreading racism and prejudice. That is exactly the case of the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* who are hoping to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in Brussels but have been rejected by them because they see PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho as too racist, according to the Financial Times.

The Financial Times writes in another story that the freshly elected MEP, who was convicted in 2012 for “stirring ethnic tensions,” said “…something about the prophet Muhammad that we dare not repeat on a family blog. The True Finns [PS] also briefly suspended him from the party after he suggested that Greece’s debt problems could only be solved by a military junta [he retracted the comments].”

What is interesting to note is that the same anti-immigration and anti-Islam message spearheaded by Halla-aho and his cronies that was decisive for the PS’ historic victory in the 2011 parliamentary elections, is turning into its political epitaph to ever becoming a credible and mainstream political party.

The 12.9% showing of the PS on Sunday is still a long way off from the 19.1% it won in 2011. The PS’ showing in the presidential (9.4%) and municipal elections (12.3%) were equally disappointing.

If the same trend continues, it means that the PS will face a big upset in next year’s parliamentary elections.

Read full story here.

Knocking at the ECR’s door is another close ally of the PS, the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), which won the euro elections in its country by doubling the number of MEPs to 4 from 2009.

According to the Financial Times, both the PS and DPP both have MEPs that were convicted for ethnic agitation and therefore carry a lot of political baggage.

I find it very difficult to believe that [David] Cameron’s Conservatives, with whom we work closely to promote innovative, open and competitive societies, would team up with the True Finns whose rise is to large extent based on xenophobia and backward-looking 1980s nostalgia, writes the Financial Times, quoting one senior Finnish official.

While it’s clear that the PS is eyeing next year’s parliamentary elections and therefore is keen on joining the ECR group in order to get greater respectability, the big question is where they’ll end up in Brussels.

Moreover, even if the PS wishes to make its anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam stand mainstream, it’s another question if Europe’s mainstream parties will permit them to join their club.

PS leader Timo Soini says that joining Marine Le Pen’s is out of the question even if the National Front leader has courted the PS to join the European Alliance for Freedom, a new hard-right group spearheaded by the French politician.

That leaves the PS with Nigel Farage’s UKIP and the Europe Freedom and Democracy group (EFD), where members like the Lega Nord of Italy, which praised Anders Breivik for murdering 77 innocent victims on 22/7, are defecting.

Will Farage and Le Penn join forces? Will the PS be part of that new political group?

Time will tell.

Even if anti-EU and anti-immigration groups made gains in countries like France and the United Kingdom, 70% of the European parliament’s 751 MEPs belong to pro-EU groups in the center-left and center-right.

Zuzeeko’s blog: Racist vandalism is costly for Helsinki city

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Perpetrators of racism (racists) give all sorts of reasons in an attempt to justify or explain their twisted perception or treatment of fellow human beings who happen to look different. Sometimes economic reasons are evoked. Some in Finland argue, for instance, that migrants from Africa and elsewhere are “welfare shoppers” who move to the country to tap welfare benefits and deplete state funds. Despite their concerns, many racists go around vandalizing public spaces with racist writings and graffiti — forgetting that cleaning up the mess will be financially costly for the state and the city they seek to “protect” from “invaders”.

Read full blog entry here.

The City of Helsinki has cleaned up a bus stop (see pictures) that was vandalized with racist writings and drawings.

In a 2011 blog post, I wrote about the ugly face of racism at a bus stop in east Helsinki. The bus stop, which is next to Edupoli — an adult education centre in Hertoniemi, was vandalized with a scary, racist text and drawing of the swastika.

Driving past the bus stop in the spring of 2014 – about three years since the vandalism was first spotted – I noted that the bus stop had been condoned off and work was going on there. A few days later I stopped at the bus stop to see what was happening, and realized that the bus stop had been given a makeover. The vandalized glass at the back had been replaced and everything was looking nice, clean and welcoming to all.

In my mind, I wondered when driving off the bus stop how much the City of Helsinki spent cleaning up the mess left behind by a racist. Although unable to confirm how much was spent renewing the bus stop, I am confident the renovation was not free of charge. The city council must have allocated some money that could have been used for something else – if some disturbed individual hadn’t vandalized that bus stop.

Mindful of the fact that racist vandalism is not uncommon around Helsinki, it is plausible to conclude that the authorities spend lots of money cleaning up and making the city welcoming to all persons, irrespective of race, color, religion or gender.

Personally, I think the actions of racist vandals cost the city money and gives it a bad name. I welcome Helsinki city’s decision to do away with manifestations of racism at the bus stop in Hertoniemi. Although costly, cleaning up makes the city more welcoming and goes a long way to protect the image of Helsinki – World Design Capital 2012. The authorities should get rid of manifestations of racism in other parts of city. Vandals on their part should do their city (our city) a favor — stop messing up public spaces and forcing the city to use resources that could be put to better use.

If racists, who describe themselves these days as “patriots”, truly love their country and care about its economic situation they won’t vandalize public spaces and force city authorities to spend resources cleaning up racist writings and drawings in bus stops and other public spaces.

Read original blog entry here.

*Zuzeeko Tegha Abeng is an associate editor of Migrant Tales.

Disingenuous Finnish PS MEP-elect Jussi Halla-aho fears image would suffer with parties like far-right National Front

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Migrant Tales

In an interview on YLE, Perussuomalaiset (PS) newly elected MEP Jussi Halla-aho said that it was doubtful that the anti-immigration party would form part of a parliamentary group with far-right parties like the National Front of France “because the party’s image would suffer.”

What a disingenuous statement by a politician who has based his career together with the PS on spreading racism and hatred of Muslims and migrants. Moreover, hasn’t he considered that the only group where the PS will be accepted is the present one, or the Europe for Freedom and Democracy?

If put in the right context, Halla-aho is saying that the PS’ image would suffer ever-greater damage if it grouped with parties like the National Front.

The French xenophobic party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, has said that she would like the PS to form part of her new group in the European parliament.

Read full story here.

Without naming the National Front or Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom, Halla-aho said that far-right anti-immigration parties in Europe were in the same ideological ballpark as the PS.

In the face of Halla-aho’s comments, what then is the difference between the Lega Nord of Italy, which praised Anders Breivik after he murdered 77 victims on 22/7, and parties like the National Front?

The PS can blame itself and its actions for its right-wing populist, far-right and nationalistic anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam image.

The PS forms part to the same European parliament group as the Lega Nord, Danish People’s Party, UKIP and others in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.

Huffington Post: The PS of Finland is one of the nine scariest parties elected to the European parliament

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Is it surprising that The Huffington Post named the “True Finns,” or Perussuomalaiset (PS), in the same far-right league as the National Front of France, Danish People’s Party, Lega Nord, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom and neo-Nazi Golden Dawn? Nigel Farage’s UKIP is not on the dubious list.

Unfair? Not really if we look at PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho’s track record and his racist rambles about Muslims and migrants.

Finland’s other elected PS MEP, Sampo Terho, considers himself as a politician who is “critical of immigration.”

If you add both MEPs together, their message and rhetoric equal the following: We loathe cultural diversity and we are for social inequality.

Terho is chairman of the Suomalaisuuden Liito, a narrow-minded hate-mongering association that spreads hatred of cultural diversity because it believes the only “right” Finn is a white Finn.

Have any newspapers or journalists in Finland ever seriously questioned the PS’ strange bedfellows, starting from the anti-EU and anti-immigration Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European parliament? Why don’t they ask them how they can be part of the same parliamentary group as the Danish People’s Party and Lega Nord, of which one of its members stated that Anders Breivik’s ideas were “in defense of western civilization?”

Why would Europe, never mind Finland, vote for candidates who invest in spreading hatred and reinforcing racism against migrants and minorities? The answer to that question is pretty clear: Europe hasn’t done enough to challenge intolerance and its European “white” ethnic privilege issues.

Read full story here.

If we look at the Huffington Post list of Europe’s nine scariest parties that were elected to the European Parliament, then we can see that all of them have major racism issues dating back throughout their history to the present.

About half of the countries on the list had colonies in Africa and elsewhere and were directly responsible for the slave trade and pillaging their former colonies of their wealth and committing systematic genocide with the help of eugenics. None of them have ever apologized for the atrocities they committed as former colonial powers.

Should we be surprised, then, that a country like France, the United Kingdom, Italy or Germany has a party that openly hates migrants?

One important question that none of these parties will ever answer clearly is how they plan to roll back the hands of time and restore their countries to their imagined ethnic “purity” of fifty years ago.

Geert Wilders tried that in March and unleashed a political scandal when he said he would make sure that there would be fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, according to The Guardian.

Are the PS a racist party? This cartoon was published by the PS and attempts to show that climate change is something that African medicine men predict.

For migrants and minorities, the EU elections on Sunday were a clear indication that matters will get much worse in Europe before they improve. Opportunistic politicians will target migrants and minorities to get elected and seek power.

They will speak and act like former colonial masters but in a twenty-first century context.

The EU elections are a call for migrants and minorities to raise their voices and take charge of their future in an ever-hostile Europe

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Migrant Tales

What does the election victory of anti-EU and anti-immigration parties reveal for the future of the EU, immigrants and minorities in Europe? The bad news is that matters will get worse before they improve, even if these parties didn’t get a clear mandate in the EU elections.

Writes the Guardian:”But not by as much as they did in the past. This was in no meaningful or moral sense a victory for the pro-European parties or for the European project that they cherish and drive. These parties have no sure mandate now…That’s not to say that the popular uprising at the ballot box swept the board. It didn’t, and it is extremely important not to exaggerate it.”

One of the scariest matters concerning Sunday’s result is how anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam parties want to reform Europe. What credible answers if any do they have concerning our ever-growing cultural diversity?

For minorities and migrants in countries like France and the United Kingdom, the election is a clear wake up cal. Placing one’s hope that parties like the National Front and UKIP have credible solutions for our cultural diversity is foolish thinking.

The only ones who will improve the lot of migrants and minorities in Europe are migrants and minorities with sensible Europeans. For that Europe needs a civil rights movement like what happened in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.

Thus not only was the EU political map redrawn, but a new clarion call could be faintly heard: participate and be active or suffer the consequences.