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Month: October 2018
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Growing up in a society where racism is the bedrock
You can hear the following phrase in countries like the United States, but how many Finns do you know who admit that they “grew up in a racist society?”
Believe it or not, I have heard even educators tell me that there is no racism in Finland.
Aminkeng A. Alemanji hit that flawed statement seated in deep denial on the head when he researched Finnish exceptionalism.
A woman of color in Finland was told that she was ethnically “unsuitable” for a job
In Finland, labor market discrimination is rampant. A woman of color from Rwanda, Alice Mutoni, thought she was about to get hired but things went sour when her probable employer discovered that she was black. He said, “this was a Finnish company selling Finnish things,” according to YLE News.
The non-discrimination ombudswoman, Kirsi Pimiä, said that Mutoni’s case was a typical example of workplace discrimination in Finland. She said that her office receives regularly complaints about ethnic- and race-based discrimination.
”We have seen a lot of racism in Finland, and research findings indicate that Finland tops the table when it comes to this type of discrimination in Europe,” Pimiä was quoted as saying to YLE.
Read the full story here.
One of the best ways to complain about discrimination in Finland is to raise a storm, like Muoni did.
Ali’s journey: Getting married in Turkey and the long wait. Will he get a visa to Finland?
On 10.10.2018, Ali,* 22, and his Finnish wife, 19, spent one of the most memorable days of their lives when they got married in Ankara. Present at the ceremony were two witnesses, the wife’s sister and a friend of Ali’s. Marriages in Turkey take place at the Turkish Marriage Offices.
“Everything went smoothly and rapidly,” said Ali. “The justice asked who we were [prove our identity] and if we accepted each other as wife and husband.”
Ali came to Finland as an asylum seeker in 2015 and fell in love with a Finnish woman, whom he had to leave behind because he had five rejections for asylum. Ali was detained and sent on two occasions to the Joutseno immigration removal center.
See links below for more stories about Ali’s life in Finland, his detention, and return to Iraq.
The process of getting married to a Finn if you are an Iraqi can take months and is costly.
“I had to spend 1,000 dollars in Iraq to an agent who helped me get all the connections in Ankara,” he said. “Then, after we got married, we went to a private company that does the interview for the Finnish embassy to apply for the visa. That cost 600 dollars.”
After having done all the paperwork and interviews, Ali said that he expects to wait 6-9 months for the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to decide whether he will give him a visa or not.
“The Finnish embassy may interview me as in some cases but sometimes they don’t,” he said. “I’m hopeful that things will go well. It was sad to part but my wife gave me a lot of encouragement.”
The newly weds in Ankara, Turkey.
Laura Huhtasaari and Ville Tavio: How some sectors of the Finnish Lutheran Church promote racist discourse
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
William Blake (1757-1827)
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* vice-president and MP, Laura Huhtasaari, is keen on building her political career on Islamophobia and polarizing our country into two distinct camps: “us” and “them.”
Apart from plagairizing 80% of her Master’s thesis, she copy-and-paste jobs of her Islamophobic and anti-immigration rhetoric from the likes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and US President Donald Trump.
On October 8, Huhtasaari and PS MP Ville Tavio took part in an open talk about asylum policy in Finland at St Michael’s Church (Mikaelinkirkko) of Turku.
I wrote a rebuttal last year to an anti-immigration column written by Tavio published in the Helsinki Times. He never bothered to reply. Like Huhtasaari, Tavio is an admirer of Marine Le Pen’s Islamophobic and openly hostile Front National.
What did the Lutheran Church wanted to gain by inviting two anti-immigration hardliners to debate asylum policy is a mystery to me.
Huhtasaari lets off her usual Islamophobic rants about Muslims at the event:
“I honestly hope that the church defends Christian values, Christians, Christian traditions, otherwise Muslims will wipe out [our Christian way of life].”
See the original Facebook posting here.
While it’s doubtful that two politicians like Huhtasaari and Tavio will help create a better society based on mutual respect and understanding, the real worrisome matter is the reaction of other politicians and society in general.
Mostly silence and turning a blind eye.
* 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.
Anti-immigration stances and policies of the United Kingdom will lead to its breakup
What three countries are officially multicultural? They are Canada, Australia and the UK. In the case of Canada and the UK, these countries adopted multiculturalism as a social policy to avert the breakup of their countries.
As everyone knows, Canada has a French-speaking Quebec that aspired to become an independent nation. One of the most important roles of Canada’s multiculturalism was to make sure that Quebec remained a part of the country.
And it did.
Read how PM Theresa May deraild the UK’s Brexit process here.
It is the same story for the UK with respect to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Here is the big question: As the UK retreats into its ever-xenophobic and hostile shell of the outside world, will such stances and policies lead to the eventual breakup of the so-called United Kingdom?
A deportees’ round-trip journey to a former hell and back
Ali, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is an asylum seeker, was deported with his wife on Tuesday from Helsinki to Baghdad. In Baghdad, he took a plane back to Finland. He is now staying with his wife at an asylum reception center in Greater Helsinki.
“The journey started at 9:30 am [Tuesday] from Helsinki, where we flew to Paris,” said Ali. “After Paris, we were flown to Amman [Jordan]. The police in Jordan were mean. Even if I pleaded not to send us back to Baghdad, they sent us anyway.”
I
Helsingin Sanomat publishes the same story on October 28, or 17 days after Migrant Tales published the story on October 11. We don’t get any credit for publishing the story first. Read the full Helsingin Sanomat story here.
Ali said that both of them felt exhausted after such a long ordeal and trip.
The Iraqi asylum seeker, who came to Finland in 2015 and who has five rejections for asylum from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), said that he was applying fora car mechanic job opening in Helsinki.
“My chances to try out for the job ended because I was deported,” he said. “I want to work and live off my own money in Finland.”
Ali and his wife don’t know what will be their fate and awaits them in Finland.
How the Finnish police fuel mistrust and erode credibility with migrants and ethnic minorities
The Finnish police servicer held a seminar on Wednesday on migrant surveillance. NGOs like Stop Deportations and Refugees Welcome expressed outrage and published some PowerPoint slides shown at the seminar by the Helsinki Police department responsible for immigration matters.
Sanna Valtonen of the Refugees Welcome NGO expressed dismay with the material used by the police to depict migrants and asylum seekers.
“My first reaction was disbelief,” she said. “No NGO present at the seminar reacted to these slides except for us [Stop Deportations and Refugees Welcome].”
Ethnic profiling is illegal in Finland but the seminar shows that the police still don’t get it and persist in having antiquated and racist views of migrants and minorities.
Linda Hyökki wrote in a story published today in Migrant Tales: “Police inspector Heli Aaltonen showed a tasteless series of PowerPointe slides representing the ‘most common’ [ethnic traits of its] customers.”
Even if Aaltonen’s presentation aimed at being funny, it fell flat on its face because of the slides’ racist depiction of people of different backgrounds.
Aaltonen’s attitude shows a common problem when white people like her want to try out their sense of humor at the cost of migrants and ethnic minorities.
Go here to read some of the racist depictions of different migrant groups.
Hyökki writes about Aaltonen’s PowerPoint slide presentation: “The depictions were bluntly racist, enforcing stereotypes of immigrants from different backgrounds such as Russians/Estonians being alcoholics who live in illegal dorms and Africans being drug dealers. Moreover, they were also drawing from anti-Muslim discourses that have become – apparently widely accepted even within institutional contexts –hence offering the perfect proof for what we can call structural Islamophobia:
The structural Islamophobia and racism embedded within Finnish Police
Migrant Tales insight: This story was received today by us from Linda Hyökki.
On Wednesday, October 10, the NGO “Stop Deportations” and Sanna Valtonen from “Refugees Welcome” shared on social media pictures that shocked anti-racist activists, and indeed generally anyone who is concerned about ethnic profiling. In a seminar named “Lost in Helsinki”[1], organized by the department responsible for immigration matters at the Helsinki Police, inspector Heli Aaltonen showed a tasteless series of powerpoint slides representing the “most common” customers. The series was supposed to be funny (?), or a lousy attempt to commemorate the national day of Finnish literature[2], as the slides depicted the “Modern-day 7 brothers”, a reference to one of the most known Finnish novels and written by Aleksis Kivi, the national author of Finland. In these slides, all 7 “customers” were named after figures from the novel.
The depictions were bluntly racist, enforcing stereotypes of immigrants from different backgrounds such as Russians/Estonians being alcoholics who live in illegal dorms and Africans being drug dealers. Moreover, they were also drawing from anti-Muslim discourses that have become – apparently widely accepted even within institutional contexts –hence offering the perfect proof for what we can call structural Islamophobia:
“Timo”: from Somalia; married to three wives; drinks alcohol occasionally; has come to Finland after his wife (wife has a Finnish citizenship and used family reunification to get Timo to the country); divorced his wife after receiving residency permit; after his divorce, Timo used family reunification to get his other wife to Finland; Timo’s third wife has been brought to Finland by using the identity of the first wife; has children with all three wives.
“Eero”; an asylum seeker from Iraq; lied about his age; received a negative decision regarding his asylum due to groundless application; Secret Police has given a statement about Eero that he is a threat to the national security
Aaltonen also added a profile of a female customer “Aino”, borrowing the famous figure from the Finnish national epic poetry work compiled by Elias Lönnrot. “Aino” was depicted as a girl wearing a headscarf, so clearly referring to her religious affiliation as a Muslim. She was supposed to be a stay-home wife – as allegedly staying inside doors is something that her “religion obliges” her to do –, a victim of domestic violence, someone who is inactive in the job market and cannot even communicate due to lack of language skills. Oh yes, she was also supposedly a victim of human trafficking.
These are devastating examples about how embedded racism and Islamophobia is in Finnish state connected institutions. With such “ethnic profiles”, inspector Aaltonen as an official representative of Finnish Police did nothing less than spread bigotry, prejudices and consequently contributed to hate speech and victimization of minorities. It goes without saying, that associating certain ethnicities or nationalities with Islamophobic stereotypes puts all members of these ethnic groups under the radar of bigots? The presentation reproduced images of Muslim men being violent abusers of women, deceiving and misusing Finnish social services and state funded financial aid, notwithstanding the images of “backward” Muslim women as oppressed not only by their husbands but also by their religion – Islam.
It is time that the Finnish Police issue an official statement distancing the institution from any racist or Islamophobic ideas about minorities and immigrants residing in our country. It is time, that we openly discuss the extend to which racism and anti-Muslim prejudices are a structural problem. If this is the “contribution” of the Finnish police to intercultural understanding, social cohesion and security of all citizens and residents in the country, then how are religious and ethnic minorities ever supposed to trust the professionality of the police in dealing with hate crime when all their official representative Aaltonen has done is to spread more hate.
[1] Helsinkiin kadonneet -seminaari
[2] October 10th is the national day of Finnish literature, “Aleksis Kiven päivä” named after the national author of Finland.
Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland: Who and why we are
Even if the NGO Anti-Hate Crime Organisation (Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry) was founded on September 8 and registered on October 3 by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), our association was spreading its first roots on February 23.
On that Friday in Vantaa at about 11:45 PM, three Finnish youths violently attacked a Pakistani migrant.
Migrant Tales wrote in March: “A group of youths and stabbed at least twenty times and repeatedly hit with ax causing, among other injuries, a fractured skull. The police are quiet until Tuesday when it puts out a statement, which does not mention that this may be a hate crime.”
If it were reported by the police as a hate crime, it would be one of the worst ever in Finland.
I met the victim, his wife, and two daughters, for the first time in March in the hospital. His state was terrible and weeks later it would take as long as four hours for the nurses to remove his stitches.
One of the wishes that the victim had, who is a member of our NGO’s board and our first honorary chairperson, is to tell people about hate crime. One matter that saddened him was that no NGO – except for one – had visited him when he was recovering in hospital.
One of the first matters we plan to do, among other matters like networking and forming alliances with different NGOs, is community empowerment like our honorary chairperson wishes. We will gladly oblige.
Since we believe that there is a lot of work to do in the area of hate crime, and, unfortunately, this will worsen in Finland, our answer to this challenge is Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry/Finska Anti-hartbrottsorganisation rf/Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland.
Apart from being Finland’s first hate-crime NGO, we call on everyone interested to join us and to challenge this social illness.
The journey is a long one but we are confident that we will prevail.