Month: August 2018

Why exaggerating about the dangers of “Sweden’s immigration problem” is racist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

You hear a lot from anti-immigration politicians like the Perussuomalaiset* and even the police about how we must contain “Sweden’s immigrant problem” from coming to Finland. If you analyze such a claim and weigh its truth you will rapidly arrive at the following conclusions: It is racist and untrue. 

It is racist because it paints migrants with a single brush. The claim suggests that migrants are the cause of crime, rape, no-go zone lawlessness,  abuse the system, and destroyed our near-perfect society. 

Dead wrong. For starters, Sweden was never a near-perfect society. That is a myth. 

A number of studies also confirm that migrants do not bring more crime. Here is an article on the myth of migrant crime in the United States. The link between immigration and crime only exists in the imagination of some people.

The Conversation writes about crime levels in Europe: “Similarly, a large-scale European study on the effects of immigration on crime concluded that while an increase in immigration generally does not affect crime levels, it does go hand-in-hand with increased public anxiety and anti-immigration stances.”

     The argument by some xenophobic politicians   that there is a link between immigration and crime is simply untrue and exaggerated.

Instead of fueling hatred and polarizing society between “us” and “them,” the fact that politicians and the media believe that there is a link between immigration and crime poses something more worrying about ourselves: racism, ethnonationalism, and denial with a capital “D.”

The fact that politicians and the media continue to support such untrue claims reveals as well their lack of leadership and deep-seated prejudices based on racism, which are alive and well and which have always existed in such countries. 

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

The Trumpization of Finnish politics

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* vice president Laura Huhtasaari, a vocal Islamophobic anti-immigration politician, has been since January under scrutiny due to the plagiarism found in her Master’s thesis. 

If you read the reaction of the Finnish media about the latest ruling by the University of Jyväskylä, one common theme is that the plagiarism scandal will not affect Huhtasaari never mind the PS.

The whole affair is a bit like Donald Trump, who hops from one scandal to the next. Scandals don’t appear to hurt the US president but strengthen his support base.

Is the Huhtasaari plagiarism scandal one good sign of the Trumpization of Finnish politics and how the anti-immigration party has poisoned politics in Finland since its historic election victory of 2011?

Laura Huhtasaari has made a name for herself with her Islamophobic statements and her support for US President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. She has been called a number of things like the Islamophobe with the kindergarten teacher smile. 

Huhtasaari, who is a teacher, got a damning report from the University of Jyväskylä this week concerning her master’s thesis. According to a statement by the University of Jyväskylä, Huhtasaari’s thesis “had a disregard for good scientific practice and dishonesty in the form of plagiarism, according to Helsinki Times.

The statement states the following about Huhtasaari’s thesis, which was approved in 2003: “For their part, the procedures have misled the scientific community of researchers and the authors of future theses. plagiarism nature and scope, the violations of good scientific practice are serious,” reads a press release from the University of Jyväskylä.

Huhtasaari’s thesis cannot be revoked by the university since there is a five-year statute of limitations. 

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Finland’s inhumane and uncaring asylum policy is ever-vigorous. We must change it.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland’s immigration policy is inhumane If this is the case, what does it say about its integration program? 

A family of five minors and adults including both parents from Afghanistan left Finland most likely on Thursday after they found out this week that their appeal for asylum was rejected by the supreme administrative court. 

The family was devastated by the news and had one overriding worry about their situation in Finland as one family member asked with evident gloom in her voice: “Can they deport us back to Afghanistan?”

One politician that has promoted Finland’s hostile environment for asylum seekers and migrants is National Coalition Party Speaker of Parliament Paula Risikko. Politicians like her believe that countries like Afghanistan and Iraq are “safe” to deport asylum seekers. Shame on her for her ice-cold antipathy towards migrants.                            Cartoon by Sira Moksi.  

Accompanying the Afghan family’s dread about their future in Finland was the inhumane and heartless asylum and immigration policy, which was everywhere and so overpowering trying to shatter the hope of a vulnerable and poor family. 

Yes, I blame Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and the rest of the government, especially the Center Party and National Coalition Party in collusion with the Perussuomalaiset* and now Blue Reform party. They have morally corrupted our humanity and sense of fairness as a nation. 

These parties and their leaders are the ones dismantling this country piecemeal of its democracy and Nordic values. It is hypocritical and disingenuous to talk about social justice when our government and country act like an out-of-control Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to the suffering of others.  

I had spoken about a plan of action with the Afghan family and what we could do to help them to avoid deportation. It was too late. The following day I saw them received the following message below:

The last sentence, “we escap(e),” exposes the inhumanity of our asylum policy.

What are we supposed to tell these people? If we told them the truth we would tell them that Sipilä’s government doesn’t want these people to stay in Finland because they are Muslims from Afghanistan. 

There is, however, hope against the Islamophobic bullying so “normal” in Finland today. In April 2019, Finland holds parliamentary elections.

Let’s not forget the names and faces of the ministers, MPs, and parties that brought us to such a morally bankrupt juncture.  Yes, those ones, that constantly tell us lies about migrants and who won’t tell you too loudly that they want to keep Finland white and Christian. 

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Does Finland’s integration plan turn migrants into active or submissive members of society?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We hear near-constantly from the police in cities like Varissuo and journalists warning us about the dangers of “multiculturalism”  in Sweden and how it may spread and wreak havoc in Finland. This type of reporting is unfortunate because it not only reinforces stereotypes about migrants but their exclusion from society. 

As long as Finland’s official immigration policy, the overriding message of politicians and journalists is to portray migration and cultural diversity as a threat, these types of conclusions and stories we’ll continue to spoon feed our prejudices and leave unchecked our stereotypes.

Portraying migrants and visible minorities as a threat only helps to feed the present hostile environment towards such groups. 

Finland generally sees – especially non-white, non-EU Muslim – migration as a threat. Our integration program and countless Finnish-language courses for such migrants are designed to turn most of them into second-class members of society. It’s not very empowering to know that your job prospects are bleak and that your salary is too low to pay for your cost of living in Helsinki. 

The Saami offer migrants and minorities today a good example of how they suffered centuries of cultural encroachment and how their language and culture were supposed to disappear from the map. 

Adapting to Finland does not mean giving up your culture but to be proud of it. It does not mean dying your hair white or becoming a Bounty candy bar, which is dark from the outside, white from the inside. 

This video shows (in Finnish) what some Saami youths think about being a minority in Finland. 

Watching an interview with Saami youths in the video clip above, there are two statements that caught my attention.

“I don’t consider myself to be a Finn and I know there are Saami who see themselves as Finns,” said the first woman on the left. “But I’m [not a Finn but] a Saami and Finnish citizen.” 

Petra Laiti added: “Saami culture is not defined by Finnish culture and that Finnishness is an umbrella term formed by different [cultural] groups that form part of this blanket definition.”

In an interview with regional police officer Vesa Jauhiainen, who works with migrants and their children in Varissuo, correctly stated that marginalization of youths and ineffective integration are factors that cause problems. 

But here is the million-euro question: What expectations do white Finns have of migrants and minorities concerning their adaption or “integration?” 

While this may seem as an obvious question to some, it reveals many of the problems that migrants face in Finland. Is the object of our integration program to convert migrants into members of society or prepare them to become equal members of society? Does our integration program do anything to prepare and adapt the Finns to a society that is culturally and ethnically diversity? 

Considering the history of minorities like the Sami, Roma as well as other groups in Finland,  the answer to the above questions is clear: Most migrants are not supposed to become equal members of society, especially groups like non-EU Muslims, unless they have been here for many generations. 

We need an earnest discussion in Finland on how to empower our ever-growing culturally diverse communities and, if they wish, to become active members of society.  

Integrating and encouraging migrants and minorities to be submissive members of society is a recipe for failure and for future social problems, which are evident today. 

  

Blue Reform MP Simon Elo: Let’s make discrimination official in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if the Blue Reform*, which is an offshoot of the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS), wants to change the constitution so that non-Finnish citizens would get paid less social welfare than Finnish citizens, the suggestion by MP Simon Elo exposes to the tee the racism of his party and hatred of migrants. 

Blue Reform, like the PS, are not only a danger to our Nordic welfare state and democracy, but a threat to migrants and minorities living in Finland. 

Why? Because both parties are racist. 

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The fact that a party in government wants to officialize discrimination reveals the extent of racism in the government and why this social ill has worsened under Prime Minister Juha Sipilä.

Such discrimination that Elo proposes isn’t possible because it is unconstitutional. Section 6 of the Finnish constitution expressly states: 

“Everyone is equal before the law. No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age,
origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

Finland will hold parliamentary election in April 2019, which explains why Blue Reform is so eager to take out its racism card in order to attract similar-minded voters.

Blue Reform’s support, according to various polls, is dismal, or under 1%.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Neo-Nazis and the Perussuomalaiset: Where do they and we draw the line?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A year has elapsed after a Moroccan went on the rampage on August 18 and started attacking people indiscriminately with a knife in the southwestern city of Turku. Two people were killed and 10 were wounded. 

On the anniversary of the stabbing, which is seen by the authorities as Finland’s first modern terrorist attack, three far-right and neo-Nazi groups organized a march to commemorate the anniversary. Another group called Turku Without Nazis (Turku ilman natseja) organized a countermarch to protest the presence of the three far-right groups: Nordic Resistance Movement (Pohjoismainen vastarintaliike, PVL), Soldiers of Odin, and “188” or Nationalist Alliance (Kansallismielisten liittouma).

What went largely unnoticed by most of the Finnish media was the participation of an anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP, Kike Elomaa, and two members of her party. All three took part in the demonstration organized by the far-right and neo-Nazi groups.

Some may rightfully ask why far-right groups have grown in this country and elsewhere. The answer to that question is simple: Far-right- and neo-Nazi-leaning parties like the PS have allowed them in places like parliament. 

PS MP Kike Elomaa and two party members taking part in the far-right and neo-Nazi demonstration in Turku on Saturday. Source: Ilta-Sanomat.

At the heart of the problem is also Finland’s difficulty in seeing and condemning far-right and neo-Nazi groups. 

As US political scientists Steven Levisky and Daniel Ziblatt stated in their analysis of President Trump’s administration, “The erosion of democracy takes place piecemeal, often in baby steps.”

Our blindness to the threat posed by far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Finland is a good example of how the erosion of our democracy is happening before our eyes and in baby steps.  

 

Read the full story here. 

The silence of the politicians to such threats, especially that of the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, is another problem promoting extremist groups. 

Even if far-right groups like to talk about free speech, their aim could not be further from the truth. Their aim is not more democracy but less of it. 

It is up to us to stand up and draw the line between us and far-right groups and neo-Nazis. If we do not do it, nobody else will do it for us. 

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Fayaz’s statements from his cell in Metsälä Reception Center for migrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales
Link: https://www.facebook.com/ahmad.refugee/videos/316232489113797/

A week after Fayaz has stopped his 10-day hunger strike by the insistence of nurse and caseworkers, he has published a video from his cell in the Metsälä reception center for migrants. 

In the video (Published by Fayaz and Ahmad Hosseini a local activist) he is giving an update about his situation, his case, the unbelievable stress, uncertainty about his life and his future. He mentioned that he has even prepared himself to die! 

Simply for being a refugee, and someone who has fled a dangerous situation, he is treated as a criminal by the law enforcement and Helsinki Police. The reason that given to him for his detention in Metsälä Reception Center is that he has left Finland to another country! In this video, he makes clear that the reason why he fled to Luxembourg from Finland was due to the fear of deportation.

After a conversation with him last week, he mentioned that his friend who fled to Luxembourg with him is now accepted as an asylum seeker in Luxemburg. Fayaz is afraid of Taliban for hostility towards him and his family. In 2013, his father went missing in Ghazni, and he fled Afghanistan in 2015.

Here is the note I published on Facebook after the meeting with Fayaz: 

“This morning, I had the privilege of meeting Fayaz at Metsälä Migrant Removal Center, which was basically a low-level security prison. Some spaces in this world cannot be described by words so I don’t even try. He was on the 9th day of hunger strike and very weak but had such a warm presence that I will probably never forget in my life. I wish that we can at least get him out of there. Everyone should know that “Refugees are not criminals and they are welcome here” and human life has to be preserved.

Just this week there was a new wave of attacks around Afghanistan in Ghazni and Kabul where NewYork Times called it: “Dream of a Better Life in Afghanistan Ends in a Hilltop Grave for Students” and Amnesty identified the attacks as “War Crime”. Simultaneously, Mohammad Javid a local activist has published a tweet about the recent deportation to Afghanistan carried by Suomen Poliisi

Link: https://twitter.com/javiditmj/status/1029991379865403392

Migrant Tales in a recent post has compared Finnish Migration policies to Trump’s USA and it’s zero tolerance migration policies. And Helsinki’s Stop Deportations group has published an interview with Finnish ambassador in Afghanistan during the “Afghan women Film festival” in Espoo, talking about the current unsafe situation of Afghanistan.

Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi: Asylum seeker sent from Finland killed in “safe” Iraq

Posted on by Migrant Tales

For how long will the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) with the backing of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government continue to maintain that Iraq is a “safe” country to deport asylum seekers? The latest victim of this flawed policy is 33-year-old Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi, who sought asylum in 2015 and died on Wednesday in Basra. 

Migrant Tales reported in October 2016 of two Iraqi asylum seekers who returned to their home country and were killed.

Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi in Finland during better days. Source: Facebook.

According to a source who has been in touch with Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi’s relatives in Iraq, the young asylum seeker was apprehended by the police, tortured and then killed.  

“There are conflicting stories about Alsilmawi’s deportation to Iraq from Finland,” said the source. “The family in Iraq said that he returned voluntarily while other sources at the Jämsä asylum reception center state that he was detained by the police and forcibly deported.”

Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi’s death certificate. Source: Facebook.

This story will be updated.