As we mentioned in our report in March, Finland’s youth gang problem is a tool used by the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party to tar-and feather migrants. It is an excellent topic to drive home Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s migration policy that will disenfranchise such people.
In an Ykkösaamu interview Saturday, apart from Interior Minister Mari Rantanen’s occasional awkward giggles, the interview left out one important question: the roots of Sweden’s gang violence problem.
If you ask Rantanen, she will blame the problem on immigration policy and the “wrong” type of migration. She will not mention a word about Sweden’s exclusive and class society and the lack of opportunities for racialized people.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. Source: Yle
Certainly government programs and making Finland a more inclusive society for everyone would be a difficult question for Rantanen to answer because the government is tightening immigration policy and slashing social welfare and services to migrants.
Her answer is a dog whistle: Blame it all on the wrong kind of migrants.
Some of the tightening of government migration policy include limited three-year use of paid interpreters, and linking your knowledge of Finnish language to getting social welfare, among others.
Rantanen called the latter “incentives” even if they are really ultimatums.
Continue reading “The biggest challenges that Nordic countries like Finland have to challenge their gang violence problem are exceptionalism and denial”
