Month: December 2016

Why did Finland allocate so much money on asylum reception centers that treated in too many cases refugees like “livestock?”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Who watches over, never mind defends, the rights of asylum seekers?

The Supermen*

In 2015 and 2016 some 38,000 asylum seekers [1] came to Finland and scores of asylum reception centers sprung up rapidly throughout the country to house these people. Even if the government’s answer to the ever-growing number of asylum seekers was “to make Finland unattractive for asylum seekers,” these people did a service to Finland by helping expose our ineffective and costly immigration and integration policy.

Disagree? How is it possible that it takes for some migrants 5-7 years before they can knock on the door of an employer and ask for a job?

Why is migrant unemployment many times higher than the national average?

Why do migrants get paid on average 25% less than white Finns?

It’s clear that there’s a lot of work to be done to lessen the pay gap between migrants and white Finns and lower high unemployment levels.

Fabrication or the truth?

An anti-racist colleague at the recently held Golden Family Awards in Helsinki exposed an interesting problem about our reporting of asylum seekers this year.

“When I started to read [the first] stories [from January] about that abuses that asylum seekers were suffering at reception centers, the first matter that crossed my mind was if they are true because they were so unbelievable,” the person said. “How could people in our country treat others in such a terrible manner?”

For Migrant Tales, 2016 was the year of investigative journalism. We published 128 news stories on asylum reception centers, interviewed scores of asylum seekers, and got in touch with many newspapers. Our efforts helped us to get the deputy manager of the Kolari asylum reception center fired.

Asylum seekers who are minors wrote a letter to Pitäjänuutiset in the fall explaining why they are seeking asylum in Finland.

Our network of sources involves comprises of a journalist and Arab-speakers who know the asylum-seeker situation in Finland as well as the back of their hand.

In the beginning, nobody wanted to write about such abuses never mind read about the terrible stories we started to expose to the public. When Migrant Tales approached Helsingin Sanomat in January,  the reporter at Finland’s largest daily gave little importance to the carefully investigated story we sent showing abuses at Luona, a private company controlled by Barona that managed back then reception centers in Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, and Hyvinkää.

Continue reading “Why did Finland allocate so much money on asylum reception centers that treated in too many cases refugees like “livestock?””

Maahanmuutto ja Sipilän hallitus vuonna 2016

Posted on by Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen

Moni suomalainen tulee muistamaan vuoden 2016 politiikan vuotena; sellaisena, jossa Suomen hallituksen tahto törmäsi liian usein perustuslain kanssa.

Joidenkin hallituspuolueiden kannattajien mielestä ongelma on perustuslaissa ja jopa jotkut kansanedustajat ovat tahtoneet muuttaa perustuslakia, jotta heidän tahtonsa menisi läpi.

Maahanmuuttopolitiikassa Keskusta ja Kokoomus ovat luopuneet tärkeistä periaatteista, kuten yhdenvertaisuudesta ja jopa perustuslain kunnioituksesta, jotta perussuomalaiset pysyisivät tyytyväisinä. Pahinta on, että uutisten valossa asiantuntijoita ei kuunnella.

Hallituksella on kielteinen asenne maahanmuuttoa kohtaan, ja se asenne on heijastanut muun muassa maahanmuuttoviraston työntekijöden työtahtiin ja työlaatuun. Ensin sama virasto määritteli mitkä maat ovat turvallisia tai eivät ja sitten ihmisten massiiviset palautukset alkoivat. Samalla kiristettiin tuntuvasti turvapaikan saaneiden mahdollisuutta saada perhe Suomeen.

Joulukuun alussa hallituspuolueet näkivät kovasti vaivaa 3 000 paperittomien elämän kurjistamiseksi nykyistä enemmän ja työryhmä ohjeisti kuntia antamaan kielteisen turvapaikkapäätöksen saaneille vain perustuslain mukaista, välttämätöntä hätämajoitusta, ruokaa, vaatteita ja sairaanhoitoa. Kuulemma toimeentulotukea ei laittomasti oleskeleville makseta. Mutta mitä perustuslaki sanoo toimeentulosta ja hätäavusta? Joidenkin lakioppineiden mielestä työryhmä kehottaa kuntia rikkomaan lakia.

Millä ei näytä olevan väliä, kun kyse on turvapaikanhakijoista. He ovat toisen luokan kansalaisia hallituksen silmissä. Näin vaikka juhlapuheissa puhutaan kauniisti ihmisoikeuksista ja yhdenvertaisuudesta. Pahinta, mitä Suomi on ilmeisesti tänä vuonna tehnyt, on se mitä me emme näe tai koe ja josta medioissa puhutaan hyvin vähän, eli se mitä on tapahtunut niille tuhansille turvapaikanhakijoille, jotka on lähetetty ”turvallisiin maihin” takaisin.

Hallituksen kova ja kylmä linja turvapaikanhakijoita kohtaan heijastuu yleiseen asenteeseen myös kaikkiin Suomessa asuviin maahanmuuttajiin ja jopa kielivähemmistöihin. Suomi suomalaisille tarkoittaa pientä porukkaa, joka myös päättää eduskunnassa ja hallituksessa Suomi on vain suomenkielisille. Ruotsikieliset tuntevat hyvin nahoissaan sen mistä puhun. Puhumattakaan siitä, että saamenkielisten asemaa parannettaisiin. Vuonna 2016 ei ole ollut helppoa olla turvapaikanhakija, maahanmuuttaja, muslimi, ruotsinkielinen, työtön, sairas eläkeläinen tai humaani. Hallituksen asenne eri ihmisiä kohtaan huolestuttaa monia ja syystä.

A naturalized Finn and businessman cannot open a bank account at the only bank of Pertunmaa

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Pertunmaa is a small town of 1,800 inhabitants 18km off Highway 5 that takes you to Mikkeli. The owner of Pertunmaan Pizzeria, which opened its doors this month, has had trouble opening a bank account for his business at the only bank of the town. 

According to the owner, Rasoul Khorram, who has lived in Finland for six years and is a naturalized Finn, was told by the Osuuspankki savings bank manager Jouko Isokuortti turned him down when he wanted to open a bank account.

“He [Isokuortti] said that I couldn’t open a bank account at his bank because I was a customer of Nordea [bank],” he told Migrant Tales. “He said I didn’t speak Finnish well enough and should take more classes [to learn the language better].”

Khorram protested and said that it wouldn’t be practical to open a bank account at the nearest Nordea branch office which is Mikkeli located 57 kilometers away.

“When I told him that I’d like to get in touch with his manager, he ordered me to leave the premises,” he said.

Considering that Khorram is a Finnish citizen, it’s pretty clear that the Osuuspankki manager’s decision to not let him open an account is arbitrary and discriminatory.

While the interview for this story was made in Finnish with Khorram, the fact that he is a naturalized Finn should be sufficient proof that he can speak the Finnish language.

Pitäjänuutiset, the local newspaper that is read in Pertunmaa and Mäntyharju, wrote a story on the problem.

Continue reading “A naturalized Finn and businessman cannot open a bank account at the only bank of Pertunmaa”

Migrant Tales (December 27, 2011): Immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: This opinion piece was published exactly five years ago. Check out what we wrote back then and how immigration law in Finland have tightened. If immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are, what do our immigration laws reveal about ourselves?

Last year, 32,476 asylum seekers came to Finland. While many of us received them with open arms, that welcome eventually turned into suspicion and a sinister wish that they’d leave our country as fast as possible.  

The attitude of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, after he offered asylum seekers his home in September of last year, not only exposes hypocrisy but reveals moral cowardice in the face of a challenge. 
________________________

Tell me what your immigration laws are and I will tell you what kind of society you live in. Show me how those laws defend minorities and encourage cultural diversity and I will show you hypocrisy.

There is a saying that a person’s true character is not exposed during good times but when there is great adversity.

The global financial meltdown of markets in September 2008 and the euro financial crisis today is testing our “good will” to breaking point.

Far-right, populist and even right-wing conservative groups in countries like the U.S. have succeeded in making  racism sound fair, according to Colorlines.*

There are worse examples of how the spirit of the laws and that of deeds show how our societies are flirting and have succumbed in some cases to the ways of despotism.

A case in point is Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona, who got his wings clipped after the Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security stripped him of several federal tools for immigration enforcement, according to Police Patrol. *

Continue reading “Migrant Tales (December 27, 2011): Immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are”

A letter of apology for the disgraceful treatment of asylum seekers in Finland by the government

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Dear Asylum Seeker, 

The cartoon below by Ville Ranta could apply to Europe as well. Instead of having politicians like Perussuomalaiset* Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and other government ministers stating that “you can’t come in because there’s no room for you,” it’s our hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy that has been exposed to the tee. 

Even if some may curse your present, I welcome it. Thanks to you, the over million asylum seekers that came to Europe in 2015, you have exposed our hypocrisy and our exceptionalism.

Aminkeng A. Alemanji wrote in his doctoral dissertation a very good description of how our exceptionalism works:

“The imperfection of the other is used to establish and maintain the hierarchies that put the dominant group [white Finns and Europeans] at the top and the Other at the bottom. [T.] Coates [2015, 105] reminds us that “a mountain is not a mountain if there is nothing below”, and in Finland it is the Other as a result of his/her imperfection that is below – the valley necessary for the mountain [the dominant group] to be a mountain.”

This is an old cartoon from last year but still topical. See the original posting here.

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Is Christmas a time of joy and hatred towards Muslims?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An asylum seeker in Finland sent Migrnat Tales this picture at a bus stop in Mikkeli, located about 230km north of Helsinki. Finland is gearing up for the Christmas spirit as some racists post posters full of hatred towards Muslims. We apologize to our Muslim friends for posting such a horrible poster. 

The question about this poster is pretty simple: How come a person can easily place such a poster at a bus stop? Why didn’t they stop such a person? Why didn’t they tear down such a poster?

The people who posted this poster below are the same ones who will tell you with a poker smile that there’s no racism in Finland. They justify their hatred by believing in ethnic fairy tales.

Just taking down these types of posters in silence isn’t enough. Politicians, as well as other civil leaders and the general public, should go public and condemn such racist and Islamophobic diatribe.

Remember when PM Juha Sipilä offered his home in Finland to asylum seekers?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In September 2015, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä offered his home in Kempele to asylum seekers. Even so, the tone and position of the prime minister and the government changed by December when Sipilä said that he couldn’t offer his home to asylum seekers any longer because his hometown in northern Finland wasn’t safe for refugees.

Yes, you read right: The prime minister admits that his small town in northern Finland isn’t safe for asylum seekers. If Kempele isn’t safe for refugees, it isn’t safe for any visible migrant and minority.

It’s incredible that a prime minister admits that he cannot guarantee the safety of people in this country and, worse, does nothing to address such a problem.

The sequence of events in fall-winter 2015 tell it all: kind words by Sipilä to asylum seekers coming to Finland; a rape takes place in Kempele at the end of November, one suspect, who is an asylum seeker, is detained; Kempele residents come out like a lynching party to protest against the asylum reception center in the town, which moves to an undisclosed location.

Read story and watch video here.

Continue reading “Remember when PM Juha Sipilä offered his home in Finland to asylum seekers?”

Repatriation agreement between Iraqi Ministry of Migration & Displaced and Finland comes to naught

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Talks between the Iraqi Ministry of Migration & Displaced and Finnish permanent secretary of the interior ministry, Päivi Nerg, have ended without any agreement, according to an official statement, which added that some 5,000 Iraqi asylum seekers have returned from Finland to Iraq. 

The Iraqi foreign ministry has confirmed as well today in a statement the latter by stating that it will not accept any deported Iraqis from European countries.

Last year, 32,476 asylum seekers came to Finland. Of these, 20,485 were from Iraq.

According to Finnish media sources, Finland has forcibly deported some 1,500 Iraqis against their will to Iraq. That compares with 1,600 who returned on their own will and 1,500 through the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Four thousand Iraqi asylum seekers have gone missing in Finland.

Migrant Tales understands that the police have urged asylum seekers to leave the country with a 1,000-euro incentive.

The ministry of migration & displaced said that Iraq would be willing to accept Iraqi criminals but Nerg said that such an agreement wasn’t possible, according to the statement.

Read original posting here.

Defining white Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police service and “them”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there is an institution that is the epitome of white Finnish privilege that is doing everything possible to hinder cultural and ethnic diversity among its ranks, that institution is the Finnish police service. 

Am I exaggerating?

Just go to the police service’s online pages and you will not find a single person who is a visible minority.

Gathering from the police service’s website, women are well-represented but nothing, absolutely nothing, is said about visible minorities never mind the police’s sensitivity towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

Visit the Finnish police service’s web page here.

Definition #32

The fact that there isn’t a single visible minority on the Finnish police websites shows us that they are far behind the times of other European nations like the United Kingdom and Sweden.

There must be a lot of opposition to cultural diversity as well if  a recent poll showed that about half of the police surveyed claimed to have voted for the National Coalition Party and the anti-immigration populists Perussuomalaiset.*

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police service and “them””

Terroristien palveluksessa!

Posted on by Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen

Heräsimme taas kauheaan uutiseen Berliinin joulumarkkinoilla tapahtuneesta hirmuteosta. 12 ihmistä kuoli ja 48 loukkaantui. Saksan poliisi antaa muutaman tunnin kuluttua lisää tietoa. 

Rauhaa kaikille!

Olisi teko terroristin tai terroristien tekemä tai ei, ei sitä pysty mitenkään hyväksymään tai siitä ei mielestäni pitäisi tehdä pilaa tai yrittää kerätä irtopisteitä tulevia vaaleja varten Valitettavasti näin on kuitenkin tehnyt perussuomalainen meppi Jussi Halla-aho.

Kenen etua tragedian alla Jussi Halla-aho ajaa päivityksellä? –Yksi mahdollinen vastaus on, että ääri-islamistien. He toivovat nimenomaan lännen vihaa ja kaunaa kohdistuvan myös muslimeihin, joilla ei ole tekemistä terroristien kanssa.

Itse olen sanaton, mutta en yllättynyt Halla-ahon päivityksestä. Facebookin päivitys toistaa vanhan kaavan mukaan teorioita uppoavasta lännestä ja islamin invaasiosta. Halla-aho on tullut tunnettu noista samoista puheista. Halla-ahon vaalityö alkoi ja noilla mielipiteillä julkisuus on taattu!

Halla-aho toimii hyvän tavan vastaisesti kun kesken järkytyksen lietsoo ihmisiä.

Entäs kunnioitus uskonrauhaa kohtaan? Eikö sillä ole Suomessa enää väliä?