“In today’s Finland, it is nothing uncommon for the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to reject family reunification by a Finnish spouse on the grounds that the child does not need a father.Doesn’t need a father? Migri should ask Argentina’s Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo if the father, mother, and grandparents are key to a child’s identity and well-being.”
Month: April 2018
Finland’s hostile environment for migrants, asylum seekers, and all types of minorities
At Migrant Tales, we are hearing more and more stories about the suffering and plight of undocumented migrants and how greedy companies are taking advantage of asylum seekers. Some of these that we have heard are asylum seekers working full time in black for 500 euros a month and a promise that they will be hired as staffers, which would help them to get a residence permit.
Ovatko poliitikot, virkamiehet ja media tänä päivänä rasistisempia, kuin sotavuosina?
Me teemme Suomessa yhä edelleen tiliä siitä, mitä meillä tapahtui niinä vuosina, kun natsit tekivät hirmutöitään etelämpänä Euroopassa. Aiemmin muistelimme, vähän huojentuneinakin, että oliko niitä nyt viisi niitä juutalaisia, jotka lähetimme Saksaan tapettaviksi, nyt Wikipedia kertoo, että pakkopalautimme kymmenen juutalaista pakolaista ja joitakin kymmeniä juutalaisia sotavankeja – ja syyksi mainitaan Saksan painostus. Tuolloinkin homma olisi…
A letter from a jailed Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland
Instead of making Iraqi Muslims feel at home in Finland, the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä is doing everything possible – in the Timo Soini and Jussi Halla-aho spirit – to give such vulnerable groups the cold shoulder. Sipilä and his government are the enthusiastic planters of the seeds of discrimination and inequality of Finland’s Muslim and visible migrant community.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Finnish media’s hidden racism
“The fascination of the Finnish media for racist statements by politicians like Laura Huhtasaari is the real culprit behind the spread and normalization of racism in this country. If I had to give a grade to the Finnish media on how it handles stories about diversity and racism, I would give it a fail.”
To Finland from a Pakistani family: A second letter about hate crime*
Migrant Tales (MT) insight: In mid-March, MT published a letter from a Pakistani family. The victim, the father of the family, was brutally attacked on February 23 by three white Finnish youths. The victim and his wife believe that what happened was a hate crime. The police disagree. According to the wife, the following day after the Pakistani migrant was attacked, the police called the wife and stated that it was not a hate crime because “the suspects were intoxicated.”
Islamophobia is the fear that white Christian Europeans will lose power and privileges to minorities. Disagree? Ask a Muslim woman
A French appeals court upheld this week a ruling that denied an Algerian woman citizenship because she refused to shake the hand of a French official, according to The Local. The woman cited “religious beliefs” for not shaking the official’s hand. The appeals court defended the decision to not grant citizenship on the grounds that the woman, who is married to a French man since 2010, had “not assimilated into the French community.”
Three white Finnish youths who attacked brutally a Pakistani migrant are charged with attempted murder, not a hate crime
After the brutal attack on a Pakistani migrant in Vantaa on February 23, the police investigating the case has deemed that what happened is not a hate crime but attempted murder, according to a police statement. The victim and his wife were adamant about the motive of the crime, which they considered racially motivated.
France overturns again transferring asylum seekers to Finland for fear that they will be deported and put in harm’s way
France has done it again and put Finland’s draconian asylum policy into the light of day for what it is: inhumane and politically guided.The Administrative Court of Appeal of Lyon has upheld a decision against transferring an Afghan family to Finland for fear that they could be deported to Afghanistan.
Another case of an Iraqi asylum seeker married to a Finn with a five-month child who may face deportation
Just like Abdul, the Iraqi asylum seeker who is married to a Finnish woman expecting their child in September, Ibrahim* is the latest case of another asylum seeker denied a Finnish residence permit by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). The Iraqi asylum and his Finnish wife Inna have a five-month-old child.