Parliament has approved 105-92 a bill that will pave the way for same-sex marriage, according to YLE in English. The vote in favor of same-sex marriage is the first-ever citizens’ initiative that has been approved by the Eduskunta, or parliament. The vote was a big setback for Timo Soini and the Perussuomalasiet (PS)* party, which had spent a lot of political…
Month: November 2014
Same-sex marriage bill vote Friday will be a cliff hanger
Finland will vote Friday on the long-overdue bill that would make marriage legal between same-sex couples. A lot rides on tomorrow’s vote. In many respects, the outcome of Friday’s vote shows Finland to be at an important crossroads. Some analysts see the passage of the same-sex marriage bill not only as a victory for gays but for…
Finland: A nation of emigrants
While some heads of state like Barack Obama speak of the United States as a nation of immigrants, Finland has historically been a nation of emigrants. How does being a nation of emigrants differ from being a nation of immigrants? There is a big difference and reveals in part why some Finns are so hostile…
Julian Abagond: nation of immigrants
Migrant Tales insight: Finland is a nation of emigrants, not of immigrants. Even so, the same structures that have kept intact the structures and systemic exploitation of minorities, slavery and Jim Crow are still alive and kicking despite the fact that we try to convince ourselves that the United States is a nation of immigrants. …
Migrants’ Rights Network: “How to talk about immigration?”
Don Flynn* The thinktank British Future created a stir last week with the publication of its new book, How to talk about immigration. It is clear that, given the current febrile state of the public mood, a lot of damage can be done by talking about immigration in ways that are insensitive to many people’s…
Homophobic Finland? Thank the Perussuomalaiset
Some weren’t too worried when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* won their historic parliamentary election victory in 2011 by raising the number of MPs to 39 from 5. “They’ll implode like the Rural Party did in the 1970s,” and “This is only a passing [political] fad” was what one heard. One matter is clear after almost four…
Systemic disenfranchisement of migrants and minorities in Europe
One important question that doesn’t appear to bother too many politicians is why migrant voter turnout in Europe is so low. In the 2012 municipal elections of Finland, 20% of eligible migrants voted compared with 18.6% in 2008. This is a far cry from 59.5% and 62.2% of Finnish citizens that voted in such elections,…
Institute of Race Relations: Roma – fascism’s first victims, again
Liz Fekete Anti-Roma violence draws strength from fascist ideas that linger on in mainstream European thought. On 15 September, a Roma man from Romania, homeless in Sweden, died of injuries sustained on 31 August, when a fire broke out at a Roma temporary tent camp in Högdalen, southern Stockholm. We will probably never know whether…
Do you think David Cameron should be given ‘a medal’ for immigration?
Finnish Prime Minister Alexsander Stubb continues to surprise us. This time he proposed giving the UK, or Prime Minister David Cameron, ‘a medal’ for immigration. Taking into account how Cameron sees himself threatened by the UKIP and how he’s caved in to anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric, the distinction proposed by Stubb is odd to say the…
Defining white Finnish privilege #14: Losing sight of the real issue
One of the matters that has always surprised me in Finland is that if you speak out against intolerance and racism, you are sometimes seen as the rude one, not the one making the inappropriate comment. Apart from playing down a social ill like intolerance, we too often lose sight of the real issue: the victim. There…