Month: March 2016

An asylum seeker at Villa Meri reception center is on hunger strike protesting poor treatment by the staff

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One refugee at the Villa Meri asylum reception center in the western city of Rauma is on hunger strike denouncing the poor treatment by the staff. Hoivapalvelu Metsätähti, a subsidiary owned by Helsinki-based Mehiläinen, a private health care company, operates the reception center

Luona, another private company that runs eight reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Hyvinkää, has been under media scrutiny for the poor treatment of its occupants. The case has raised questions about the role of such companies in the asylum reception “business.”

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The Villa Meri asylum reception center is located in Rauma, located 94km north of Turku. Source: Google.

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A brave boy that reminds us in Finland to not take our eye off the racist ball

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After Valtteri Saarinen went on Finnish national television Monday and said that racist harassment at school was something “normal” even President Sauli Niinstö was shocked. Valtteri said that he’s been named the “n-word,” and called “feces” and “a feces-colored” person for such a long time that he doesn’t react to such racism any longer. 

President Niinistö, who has given mixed statements about racism and asylum seekers in Finland, tweeted:

This type of injustice shouldn’t happen in Finland.

Sometimes you’re shocked first thing in the morning. That’s what happened today when an 11-year-old boy told about his experiences on television. He’s discriminated and called names because of his skin color. Even bus drivers don’t pick him up. This type of injustice cannot happen in Finland. Valtteri gave a brave example to the [European] Week Against Racism.

Even if it’s a good matter that President Nninstö speaks out against racism in Finnish society, I am, however, a bit surprised that he’s surprised by what happened.

Racism in Finland is played down and some of the culprits for this are politicians and the media.

Finland does need to do much more to challenge racism and hate speech.

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See full video clip here. One of the surprising matters about what the boy said was the TV commentator, who didn’t call Valtteri Saarinen a Finn but stated that “migrants and adopted children” face racism. Finns face racism too!

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The Perussuomalaiset and hate speech, hypocrisy and red herrings

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why wasn’t a member of a high-ranking government party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* sacked after she said on Facebook that she didn’t have condoms to give Muslim children tricker-or-treating?

The PS politician, Terhi Kiemunki, who is the chairperson of the party in Tampere, apologized for what she said.

PS party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, didn’t ask for Kiemunki’s resignation even if what the PS politician said was unacceptable.

All of the above is fine but here’s the million-euro question: Why wasn’t Kiemunki sacked?

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Read full story here.

The fact that the PS politician didn’t get ejected from the party reveals what is wrong with Finland today concerning racism and hate speech. Too many politicians, the media, and public officials don’t take racism and hate speech seriously enough. That’s why Kiemunki wasn’t ousted from the party.

By not challenging social ills like racism and hate speech not only puts in question our society’s values but destroys their credibility in the eyes of migrants and minorities.

* 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.

 

How many former asylum seekers from Luona got jobs thanks to a fast-track employment scheme?

Posted on by Migrant Tales
How is it possible that a fast-track hiring scheme for former asylum seekers at Barona,  an employment agency that owns Luona, a private subsidiary that manages eight asylum reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Hyvinkää, gets a lot of attention in Helsingin Sanomat? 

How come a company that has come under media scrutiny for treating asylum seekers “like livestock” is now helping people to become model tax-paying members of society?

Some important questions that the Helsingin Sanomat article forgets to ask are how many, apart from the three Eritreans, were hired as a result of the fast-track scheme, and how much money will it bring to Barona coffers through language courses, training,  renting apartments owned by the company as well as from commission paid by prospective employers. Barona is an employment agency.

From what Migrant Tales understands, the success of the fast-track employment scheme is modest to say the least. Only a minuscule amount of the 3,000 asylum seekers at Luona’s reception centers have found work under this system.

One former asylum seekers stated that he did not know of anyone other than the three Eritreans, who are on a 45-day trial period at a logistic company, to have been hired.

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Are we related as a society to vigilante groups, hate forums, xenophobic parties and publications?

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Should we be surprised that vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin, hate forums like Hommaforum and anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, racist online publications like MV-lehti have grown and captured our darkest imagination?

Another rude reminder of our links to such social ills fell on semi-deaf ears when YLE exposed how the leadership of the Soldiers of Odin pose with weapons and display Nazi symbols in a private Facebook group.

How is it possible that a vigilante group not only got registered as an association but continues to be one in light of what YLE exposed? Can registered associations in Finland teach their members how to use weapons against migrants?

Should we be surprised by such hostility, racism, and bigotry? Why are we scratching our heads in semi-disbelief by the fact that one out of every journalist received threats, according to a survey by the Union of Journalists in Finland?

How is this possible that a Nordic welfare state like ours, which has one of the highest standards of living and education systems in the world, appears incapable of challenging the rise of xenophobic parties, ever-growing racism, and bigotry?

If we looked in the mirror what would we see staring back at us?

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Read full story here.

 

The first blow came in 2011 when the PS, a populist anti-immigration party with links to the far right, won 39 seats in parliament. What happened during that year and the previous decade was a prelude of the things we see today.

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Racist garbage called MV-lehti magazine, Hommaforum and Magneettimedia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales doesn’t usually comment about the racist garbage published in Finland by online publications like MV-lehti, Hommaforum, and Magneettimedia. All of these websites have one matter in common: they write and cater to a racist audience.

A story that Migrant Tales published about an Afghan who attempted to take his life on Friday night was picked up by MV-lehti. Without any respect for the person who committed suicide, the online publication twisted the facts of the original story to suit its racist worldview.

There is a new story published today by MV-lehti, which is a case in point on how this online publication makes up news. Plagarism and making up news is the worst mistake a journalist can commit.

MV-lehti writes the story in English apparently to attract a wider international audience:

“Two Soldiers of Odin, who by chance happened to be around, saw what was happening and stopped the harassment by pushing the Arabs to the ground with force and holding them until the police came.”

What’s wrong with the story? It’s all made up. Nothing of the sort happened.

Tampere-based daily Aamulehti published a story today confirming that the story was made up.

The popularity of online publications that spread racist garbage has grown in Finland. Their presence is a reminder that the national media has failed in challenging racism in this country and been instead a service to such publications by offering them readers that still believe that the world is still flat.

Statistics that expose how bigotry and prejudice are alive and kicking in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Facts expose lies, but bigotry and racism help resurrect them. 

It shouldn’t surprise us that during an economic recession that some expose their racist views. Add to the latter weak politicians, a complacent media, and a party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in government, which base their popularity on xenophobia and populist nationalism, and you end up with a perpetuating brew of hate. 

Especially since fall, the narrative coming from the police service, politicians, and the media is that asylum seekers bring crime and rape our women.

Every time they label an asylum seeker “a rapist criminal” a familiar “us” and “them” positioning emerges: We’re good, they’re suspect.

But the bigotry of such Finns got questioned in January when the police administration said that only a small amount of suspected rape cases involved asylum seekers.

The police service of Ostrobothnia reinforced Monday what the police administration stated in January. It said that during March 7-13 only 0.1% of all calls they got to investigate involved asylum seekers, reports Talouselämä.

How long will it take this country to understand that most asylum seekers that came here are traumatized people fleeing the worst kind of war and terror that involves poverty as well?  Why are we then making up urban tales about them?

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

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