Author: Migrant Tales

Far-right politician Huhtasaari and the PS pull one of the oldest tricks on the media

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Anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* vice president, Laura Huhtasaari, hit the jackpot when she attacked a Finnish school project in Tampere for “encouraging hatred.” The poster made by teenage students pitted herself and the PS’ chairperson, Jussi Halla-aho, against President Sauli Niinistö and Green Alliance MP Pekka Haavisto with the following question: towards Finland, or towards death?   

She claims without offering proof in a tweet below that “a number of students” of the school have contacted her and told her how teachers there spread hate speech and encourage hatred of politicians who were elected democratically. She continues: “This happens at an elementary and high school. The picture [below] is from a [name of school omitted] in #Tampere.”

As a result of Huhtasaari’s tweet, the school has received hate mail and even had to hire security guards to guarantee the students’ safety.

Johanna Loukaskorpi, the mayor of Tampere, said that politicians should not interfere with what is taught at school based on a curriculum.

”I think it’s most unfortunate that an MP would highlight an individual school and students in a tweet to promote her political ideology,” she was quoted as saying in the Independent. “I personally think that the poster was quite effective in that it made an impact and is thought-provoking. The school can now discuss how much of an impact a single poster can have or how an image can spread through social media to an incredible extent.”

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Continue reading “Far-right politician Huhtasaari and the PS pull one of the oldest tricks on the media”

Some asylum seekers in Finland live in crowded rooms and in dreadful conditions

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Below are two picture and a short note from an asylum seeker called Adam who came to Finland in 2012. During his long and painful sojourn in this country, being locked up for a year at the Joutseno immigration removal center to being an undocumented migrant, Adam is now staying at an asylum reception center in the Greater Helsinki area.  

The pictures below speak for themselves: seven people crowded in a single room and living in questionable conditions. How many of us would be willing to live in such circumstances?

This is not the first time that Migrant Tales has written about the terrible conditions of migrants in Finland.

Read the full story about how some asylum seekers were treated at Finnish asylum reception centers here.

The life of many asylum seekers means crowded rooms and long waits for asylum.

Adam writes:

We live 7 person in room now. They do sanctions against me. The workers have try to put more people in my room. I spoke to the social worker here many times that I don’t like when a lot of people. They specifically do what I don’t like.

[I] checked another rooms in the same floor, the customers live 4 persons in room like our. The Finnish refugee politic is shit. So, after this everything what the workers do to me, how can I be good with them or how can I respect them?

I haven’t [done a] crime. So, for what do they hate me so bad?”

Who would want to live in such a room for years?

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Migrants face abuse on both sides of the labor market

Posted on by Migrant Tales

“An Iranian engineer with a master’s degree who had lived in Finland for about 20 years, claimed that he had applied to 4,000 jobs. Of that amount, only one prospective employer asked him for an interview, which was done online. He wasn’t hired. If migrants have a difficult time getting work from companies run by white Finns, many, especially people of color, face exploitation from foreign-owned companies, which pay them low wages.

The job-seeker believes that his Muslim name and background hinders his prospects.

An asylum seeker hired on-and-off by an Espoo-Helsinki-based food distributor, was paid under the table. His job was to change the sell-by dates of its products. Read the full story here.

Why does this happen? Are the authorities doing their jobs?

Do they care?”

After Metsälä, Joutseno, Oulu will become Finland’s third immigration removal center

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Finland’s third immigration removal center will start operating from the summer of 2019 in the northern city of Oulu, according to YLE. Finland has two detention centers located in the Helsinki neighborhood of Metsälä and in the eastern Finnish town of Joutseno. 

The new immigration removal center house 30 people.

The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) said that a third center is needed due the demand for detention capacity of asylum seekers.

“There are good airplaine connections [from Oulu] to send [deport] people back,” said Janne Similä, deputy manager of the Hiekkaharju asylum reception center.

The new center will be located next to the asylum reception center.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Turku appeal court of Finland upholds earlier decision to ban neo-Nazi PVL group

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Migrant Tales was happy to hear that the appeal court in Turku has upheld an earlier decision by the Pirkanmaa district court in Tampere to ban in Finland the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL) and Pohjoinen Perinne (Nordic Tradition Group), a PVL –linked group, according to YLE News.

The PVL will have to end operations in Finland once court’s decision becomes enforceable, or when there is no longer any possiblity of appeal by the neo-Nazi group.

Last November, the court in Pirkanmaa banned the PVL but the group appealed the decision.

Apart from openly supporting anti-Semitism, racism and hostility towards sexual minorities, both courts ruled that the PVL encouraged violence. The ultimate aim of the former neo-Nazi organization is to set up in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic region a nationalist socialist state.

The PVL represents one of many extremist groups in Finland that have gained more public exposure.

The growth of the far-right group could not be possible without the support of political parties like Perussuomalaiset (PS),* Blue Reform and even mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which do not openly support fascism but seem distant relatives to such extremist ideologies.

PS members Ulla Pyysalo have had links to the PVL as well as others, like Sampo Terho and Jussi Niinistö, in far-right groups.

* 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.

 

 

YLE of Finland changes picture of niqab-wearing woman after objections. The new picture still instills fear of asylum seekers.

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YLE published on Wednesday a story about what different parties’ positions are on migration and cultural diversity. The picture that the Finnish state-owned broadcaster chose was, in our opinion, a poor example of opinionated journalism that fuels fear and racism. 

Migrant Tales asked: “If the story is to look at each parties’ stand on migration, what is a woman with a niqab doing in the picture? The article calls it burka but in fact, the woman is wearing a niqab. By the way, how many women wear the niqab never mind the burka in Finland?”

After objections from NGOs like Fem-R and others like us, YLE decided to trash the original picture and replace it with two visible migrants, which instill fear and racism of asylum seekers.

Racist journalism is always harmful to migrants.

Before…

The original article published on Wednesday.

…After

 

The latest version of the story that continues to instill fear of asylum seekers.

Sloppy Finnish journalism that plays into fearmongering and xenophobia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Below, is one example of many of how media like the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) fuel racism and fear of asylum seekers in Finland. Asylum seekers and Muslims form a small part of Finland’s total immigration picture. Why do they give so much attention to them?

If the story is to look at each parties’ stand on migration, what is a woman with a niqab doing in the picture? The article calls it a burka but in fact, the woman is wearing a niqab.

By the way, how many women wear the niqab never mind the burka in Finland?

What would you call this type of reporting apart from shoddy, even opinionated journalism by YLE?

This type of reporting should not come as a surprise from the state-owned broadcaster since it has seen a lot of changes and meddling by politicians like Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset.*

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

* 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.

Construction company in Turku area: work 15 hours/day, seven days a week for peanuts

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A friend from South America called me and said how a construction company he worked for exploited its workers. Migrant Tales hopes to denounce the company located in the Turku area. 

“I know of a South American couple who the the owner [of the company] brought to Finland,” he said. “They worked long hours with no days off and wanted to go back to their country after working for a month and a half even if they planned to stay till November.”

The owner paid he woman 16 euros and the man 101 euros for a month and a half of work after discounting their plane ticket and insurance.

Finding a job as a migrant in Finland can lead to exploitation and abuse. The source of the article is not in the picture.

According to my friend, he worked for the same construction company 15 hours a day seven days a week, sometimes until five in the morning.

Continue reading “Construction company in Turku area: work 15 hours/day, seven days a week for peanuts”

Blue Reform’s Sampo Terho of Finland and his politically ambidextrous misbeliefs

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Blue Reform* minister for European affairs, culture and sports, Sampo Terho is politically ambidextrous: He can say one thing and state a totally different thing. It is like coming out of the closet and going back in. The opportunism in such ambidextrous behavior is believing that others don’t notice. And we do.  

In the statement below, Terho gets tough on Muslims but takes a more benign view of Foreign Minister Timo Soini’s right to attend anti-abortion gatherings abroad as a member of the government.

In the first quote below on the left, he states the following about Muslims: “A country that accepts refugees and immigrants cannot tolerate that its culture would die. Those who move here must inevitably change and adapt to our basic values.”

But then he makes an about-turn on the foreign minister’s case, who is also a member of the same party: “Soini has personal beliefs, an opinion he has a right to have. Personal opinion and freedom of religion are Western values based on human rights.”

What hypocrisy!

Thank you, Rasismivapaa Suomi, for the heads-up.

* 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-refugee sentiment in Finland and politicians who capitalize on fear and racism

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A new survey by PEW Research Center shows that there is wide support in several EU countries for taking in refugees. The report shows that Spain is the most welcoming while Poland and Hungary are the least responsive. 

Another EU country in the survey, Italy, also scored far behind Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, and Greece.

As Finland holds its parliamentary elections in April 2019 and EU elections a month later, parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), Blue Reform,* and politicians of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) are eager to capitalize on anti-immigration sentiment.

And that is what is happening now after a massive police operation took place over the weekend and which led to the arrest of two suspects, an Estonian and Russian citizen, suspected of laundering money.

The arrest of the two foreigners, especially of the Russian citizen, has caused a Russophobic knee-jerk reaction from politicians of the PS, Blue Reform, Social Democrats and the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) to restrict the purchase of land from outside the EU and EEA.

MP Suna Kymäläinen of the Social Democratic Party, who got re-elected in 2015 thanks to her anti-Russian stance on real-estate purchases, reiterated her calls for tighter controls on non-EEA citizens. PS MP Tom Packalén, who has built a reputation on his anti-immigration views, said that parliament should speed up a law that would force non-EEA and EU citizens to get a special permission to buy land.

Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö said that the new law would grant the government the right to intervene in transactions that it sees jeopardizing national security.

Another result of Finland’s xenophobia is limiting the rights of dual citizens even if discrimination is prohibited in the Finnish constitution.

Read the original PEW study here.

As with Sweden, support for refugees in Finland must be in the same ballpark.

Continue reading “Anti-refugee sentiment in Finland and politicians who capitalize on fear and racism”