Read original tweet here.
Julie Pascoe is senior advocacy officer at the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Europe’s largest anti-racism NGO.
Author: Migrant Tales
YLE A-studio talk show’s question and image sum up Finland’s migration and demographic challenges ahead
Monday’s A-studio talk show debated Finland’s low birthrate and what the country could do to challenge the threats of an ageing and shrinking population as well as how migration could ease such woes. Present at the talk show were Left Alliance chairwoman Li Andersson, Justice Minister (National Coalition Party) Antti Häkkänen, and Nordea bank economist Olli Kärkkäinen.
While there was nothing new that said at the talk show, there was one question and one image that summed it up.
Kärkkäinen asked a very important question: “Even if politicians are so much in agreement that we need migrants, especially labor migrants, why has so little been done?”
The host asks the Nordea economist to answer his question.
“It’s easy to speak here [in these talk shows] about students staying to live in Finland and get a residence permit if they search for work,” he continued. “We can slash red tape, give out residence permit faster, but for some reason, there is little progress [in changing the present situation]. Let’s hope that demographic pressures will bring changes [faster] when the next government takes power.”
One reason why the present government has done so little is the Perussuomalaisiet*, and Blue Reform, which are populist anti-immigration parties. The former was in government but after it split into two factions in 2017, the Blue Reform is in government even if it popularity in opinion polls hovers around 2%.
Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April 2019.
Another striking feature of the talk show was the background picture of a migrant working as a cleaner.
Is this how YLE and Finland see migrants? Are they just cheap labor to do menial work that Finns don’t want to do?
Watch the full A-studio talk show here. Can’t foreigners do anything better than work for cleaning companies?
Considering Finland’s ineffective and inhumane immigration policy, and if the migrant gets a residence permit, his or her rights at the workplace are far from satisfactory.
QUOTE OF THE DAY (Gustave M. Gilbert): “Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy”
What characteristics unite anti-immigration politicians like the Perussuomalaiset* and Blue Reform of Finland? Captain Gustave Mark Gilbert, the Army psychologist at the Nuremberg trials (1945-46), said what the Nazi war criminals on trial had an incapacity to feel with their fellow men. That fellow men and women are today Muslims, among other groups. “Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy,” he said.
Read the full story here.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, 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 never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.
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.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In Finland whiteness calls the shots
Migrant Tales has written about this before:
“In Finland, whiteness is so ingrained in the psyche of the nation that children of color hide from the sun in summer because it tans their skin. They understand better than anyone else that the darker their skin the more their classmates will turn their backs on them. It is a case of hostile Othering.”
Finland’s Roma minority will tell you about the hostility and discrimination when you are not white. Photo: Enrique Tessieri
Finland knows that it is in demographic hot water but leaves its future woes to chance
A new forecast by Statistics Finland tells us what we’ve known for a long time: We are in demographic hot water and our population will start to shrink and get older, according to YLE News. Net immigration will keep up present population levels at 5.6 million until 2035, but will decline to 5.5 million in the 2050s.
YLE News writes: “In 2010, the average number of births per woman in Finland was 1.87, compared to an average of 1.49 children per woman in 2017 — the lowest level in Finnish history. The overall fertility rate in 2018 is expected to decline to 1.43 and the last time that the birth rate declined as much in consecutive years was in the 1960s.”
As population forecasts show, Finland needs to take steps to increase its low birthrate and lure migrants to the country.
Using the roughly 35,000 asylum seekers that moved to Finland in 2015-2016 as an example, it’s clear that Finland and the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) have shown their usual hostile face to migration.
Read the full story here.
Even if common sense tells us that Finland needs more migrants, luring newcomers to the country is easier said than done.
Suomen Kuvalehti (25.11.2010): Maahanmuuttajia on syytä kiittää
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Say it loud and clear if you have the opportunity
At a European Network Against Racism (ENAR) general assembly in Brussels in 2014, I met an activist from Austria who runs Radio and TV Afrika in Vienna. Alexis Neuberg said something at the meeting that I have always kept close to my heart:
“If you have the opportunity to be near power don’t censor yourself. Use that opportunity to drive home your point.”
Go to the website here.
White Finnish nationalism and racism reveal themselves on Father’s Day
Today people of all backgrounds celebrated Father’s Day in Finland. A Johannes Sipola, who is the chairperson for Lapland of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth, had another opinion and tweeted: “A happy Father’s day to all white fathers.”
It’s incredible to what lengths and ignorance some will dive in order get attention.
Sipola is a good example of the racism that inflicts Finland today.
Here, Johannes Sipola wishes only white Finns a happy Father’s Day.
And continues: “The issue boils down to the survival of the Finns [in the face of ever-growing cultural ethnic diversity in Finland]. All types of misguiding ads about multiethnic families is only a way to cover up the takeover of white Finland.”
“Many ads, [TV] series and movies give the impression that marriages between different races is peaceful. For example, mixed-race marriage in the United States is a bit under 3.5%. At the most it has reached over 4%.”
Of course [multi-ethnic marriages] do harm. I don’t want that [white] Finns will be replaced by other [ethnic] groups. I love Finns above all and in my opinion, we have a right to live and exist.”
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, 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 never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way. .
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 PS and Blue Reform of Finland are an aberration and should be voted out in 2019
I have never believed or trusted the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* even if some were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt after their historic win in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Some claimed that it would only be a matter of time when they imploded.
The implosion of the party happened in June 2017, or six years later.
Finland holds parliamentary elections in April 2019. This may mean the near-end of two parties that have only sowed divisions and hatred of migrants and minorities. They may become a taxi or mini-taxi party (all of its MPs can fit in the back seat).
Migrant Tales has always been highly critical of the PS because it is an anomaly in Finnish politics.
Blue Reform, the faction that split from the PS in 2017, is just as bad, if not worse because they are in government.
The former party likes to let racism hang out while the latter coats it with sugar.
Both are disgraceful examples of Finland’s political system.
We have said tirelessly since 2011: The PS, and after 2017 Blue Reform, are chronically xenophobic and Islamophobic parties openly hostile to those who are different from them.
The briefing on the Finnish elections reads: Finland’s Fate — “We are not extremists so you can sleep safely,” says the head the country’s ascendant ‘True Finns’ party (yes, that’s their real name). Of course, not everybody agrees: “Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland,” writes Enrique Tessieri. Read the original briefing here.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, 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 never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way. .
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.
Challenging Finland’s racism problem:Raise your voice, trust yourself, and don’t succumb to fear and self-censorship
When I moved to Finland over forty years ago, there were only about 10,000 foreigners living in the country. The biggest national group were the Swedes, who were mostly Finns who had become naturalized citizens of that country. One of the questions we asked back then was about the level of racism in Finland.
The consensus back then was that the level of racism depended on the color of your skin.
Back in the good old structural racism days of the 1980s, laws such as the Restricting Act of 1939 (law 219/1939), which became redundant in 1992, prohibited foreigners from owning real estate and acquiring a majority stake in Finnish companies—limiting this to 20% normally and 40% under special permission. Other “darlings” of that period were that foreigners weren’t allowed to establish newspapers, never mind organize demonstrations and be politically active.
At the time in Finland, there was no habeas corpus, no right to appeal your deportation, and no laws against racism never mind hate crime. Even Soviet citizens were forcibly returned to the former Soviet Union after requesting asylum.
In a country were immigrants were a rare sight but which had seen over 1.2 million of its countrymen and women emigrate between 1860 and 1999, racism and especially discrimination were like the egg-like objects in Alien that, when touched, were ready to attach a monster on the victim’s face.
Finnish social policy experts like Heikki Waris lived in academic denial in the cold war years of the 1960s. He claimed: “Racial homogeneity particularly characterizes the Finnish people who have practically no racial minorities…Consequently, racial prejudice and discrimination are nonexistent.”
Take a look as well at the discrimination of the Saami never mind the hostile exclusion of the Roma from our society.
Like in other countries, Finland suffers from denial. A person who is in denial responds to social ills, like racism and bigotry, with silence, which is a political statement.
Some people in Finland, even educators, believe there is no racism in this country.
But there is tons of evidence that proves the contrary. The media, which reflects who we are and our prejudices as a society, shines a light that should worry us.
Below are a poster and some stories published by the Finnish media below that expose just that.
This story was published in September. Why is the woman wearing the niqab in the picture, which was later removed by YLE. Read the original story here.
This was used at Finnish schools up the 1970s to teach them the alphabet. It reads: An n-word washes her face but it does not whiten.
If we remain silent than we have only ourselves to blame.
Raising your voice is a powerful statement. Don’t squander it with your fear and self-censorship.
Finland’s struggle against racism, bigotry and social exclusion is a long one but we must start today on that journey to replace those structures that relegate us to being second-class citizens of this society.