The Finnish government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has done everything possible to make asylum seekers feel unwelcome in Finland. On Friday, they tightened family reunification guidelines and recently did away with giving residence permits on humanitarian grounds.
Month: June 2016
Iraqi asylum seeker hunger strike: Before and after
Namir al-Azzawi was on hunger strike for nine days. On those two days he fainted and was sent to the hospital on Wednesday and Sunday. Migrant Tales spoke to him on Friday.
Maria Rittis Ikola: Imagine a world without white privilege
Maria Rittis Ikola* Imagine that white Finns like me weren’t able to speak over others in every medium available. Imagine a time when white people were not able to express their confusion and dismay over political correctness in prime spaces in Finnish newspapers, because nobody would let them. Imagine that racialised journalists didn’t have to…
Finland tightens family reunification laws and denies migrants the right to a family
The Finnish parliament didn’t vote Friday to tighten even further family reunification guidelines but effectively socially excluded and relegated migrants, especially asylum seekers, to second- and third-class citizens. The news ironically coincides with the death of former Rural Party MP Sulo Aittoniemi (1936-2016), a person who was against refugees and cultural diversity.
MP Jo Cox’s death revealed and reminded how important our struggle against barbarism is
On Thursday, we heard about the tragic killing of Labor MP Jo Cox, which was a stark reminder of the things she warned us about like hate speech, racism and outright hostility towards migrants and minorities. All we can do when such a heinous act gives us and our democratic institutions a blow is to stand strong.
YLE parliamentary working group: Broadcaster is “diverse but not multicultural”
A parliamentary working group chaired by National Coalition Party (NCP) MP Arto Satonen to examine the role of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) is not proposing any drastic change to the system of funding but plans to make the broadcaster more nationalistic.
Culturally diverse Finland has a history
Because migrants and minorities in Finland do not have power, we are taught to believe we are rootless and have no historicity. It is not true: migrant and anti-racism activism in Finland was already very alive in the 1980s.
Thulfiqar Abdulkareem Abdulameer: My story
Last year I was 27 years old, working as a journalist in my hometown Baghdad, where I had studied business administration. I wrote an article about the war, and how the militias were sending young, untrained guys to fight against ISIS who were well equipped with modern weapons. I wrote that it was like sending these young fighters to their deaths.
Otavan Sanomat: Sankarini Rosa Emilia Clay
Somalialaisena, joka on asunut Suomessa neljä vuotta, minulle Rosa Emilia Clay on erittäin tärkeä esimerkki. Clay oli ensimmäinen afrikkalainen, joka Sai Suomen kansalaisuuden vuonna 1899.
Otavan Sanomat: Uusi elämä, uusi ihminen
Minä olen afganistanilainen, vaikka synnyin Iranissa ja asun tällä hetkellä Suomessa. Koska olen asunut monissa maissa, minulle ei ole niin tärkeä tietä mistä kaupungista tai kylästä olet.