Meillä on hallitus ja erityisesti yksi hallituspuolue, jonka jouluinen tehtävä on päästää eroon kolmesta tuhannesta kielteisen turvapaikkapäätöksen saaneista ihmisistä. Tuon päämäärän eteen, noita ihmisiä pitää perustuslainvastaisesti kohdella toisin kuin muita yhteiskunnan jäseniä. Saman puolueen kansanedustaja on sitä mieltä, että perustuslaki on “alkanut nyppiä”. Eikö eduskunnassa opeteta kansanedustajille mitään valtiosääntöoikeuksista? Saman puolueen sihteeri, sen sijaan että…
Month: December 2016
Finland’s about-turn in immigration and asylum policy reveal populism and suspicion
There is an interesting article in newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti that claims that before Finland gave 85% of asylum seekers a positive decision today it’s almost the opposite.
Finland’s ever-growing crisis of undocumented migrants is the government’s and Social Democratic Party’s doing
Thanks to the 107 MPs listed below that voted on April 13 to approve law 2/2016 that did away with granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds, Finland faces today an unprecedented rise of undocumented migrants.
Thanks to PM Juha Sipilä, Finland’s ranking as the country with the most press freedom will most likely see a setback in 2017
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) ranked Finland as the 1st of 180 countries in its 2016 World Press Freedom Index. That may change after Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s meddling inYLE’s affairs.
Am I surprised that Finnish fiction sees migrants as unhappy victims? Not!
Researcher Pasi Saukkonen tells us in a YLE story that “not one content immigrant is found in Finnish fiction.” One may ask how come? The answer reveals the constant issue that undermines the narrative that white Finns construct about migrants and our culturally diverse community: It’s their view, their narrative, full stop.
Exceptionalism is our greatest enemy in promoting social equality and press freedom in Finland
I used to comment mock the Swedes before for their exceptionalism. The argument is simple – Sweden is such “a perfect” society that social no-nos like racism don’t exist. The same exceptionalism that we may see in Sweden is alive and kicking in Finland, too. Exceptionalism is everywhere and you know it if you are Other.
Finland, asylum seekers and the media: Moral cowardice and passing the buck
Migrant Tales has written a lot about how the Finnish media writes about migrants, asylum seekers, and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, problem of the Finnish media, when it writes about migrants and minorities, is that it gives white Finland the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn’t be…
Aminkeng A. Alemanji: Anti-racism education is key to challenging social ills like racism
Every now and then there are critical voices that shine through fearlessly. One of these is that of Aminkeng A. Alemanji, a Cameroonian researcher who defended successfully in October 2016 his doctoral dissertation on anti-racism education.
Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD): Enriching the Public Discourse by highlighting Colonial Continuities
The Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD)* has been actively working on the empowerment of people of African descent and Black people in Germany for almost 30 years. Its aim is to raise their voices and also to generate visibility for their perspectives and realities in the German society. The ISD is dedicated to challenging the discourse that does not want to see nor acknowledge Black presence in Germany. For more than three hundred years, people of African descent have been born and raised in Germany, have made Germany their place of home, but narratives about the Black experience in Germany often remain silenced in the public discourse. While their stories do not exist in the dominant historiography, stereotypical clichés dominate the images of the Black Diaspora. Racist pictures and beliefs need to be understood as a historically developed relationship of power – blurring past and present depictions of Black people’s realities.
The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka
Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat published on Saturday and Sunday stories about the problems and abuses that asylum seekers face at the Red Cross-run Laajakoski reception center. The fact that incompetence, poor management, and abuses of asylum seekers take place at the reception center near Kotka is unacceptable.