Author: Migrant Tales

Thanks to PM Juha Sipilä, Finland’s ranking as the country with the most press freedom will most likely see a setback in 2017

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Reporters Without Borders (RWB) ranked Finland as the 1st of 180 countries in its 2016 World Press Freedom Index. Even if Prime Minister Juha Sipilä believes that his questionable behavior towards YLE‘s affairs will not impact the country’s ranking, he will probably be in for a surprise. 

RWB’s methodology to access press freedom comprises of 87 questions in 20 different languages. Sipilä has hurt Finland’s ranking under “media independence,” which reads: “Measures the degree to which the media are able to function independently of sources of political, governmental, business and religious power and influence.”

It’s pretty clear that as a result of the actions of the prime minister, YLE’s ability to function independently without political and government influences have come to public light and are compromised.

Two reporters at the state-owned broadcast company, Jussi Eronen and Salla Vuorikoski, resigned this week citing that critical reporting of politicians like the prime minister has been suppressed at YLE.

There are other questions as well about press freedom in Finland. How come reporters are required to show the article to the person you interviewed before the story is published?

Read full story here.

Having worked for over twenty years as a foreign correspondent in countries like Finland, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Colombia, I’ve always wondered about the exceptionalism of the Finnish media.

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Am I surprised that Finnish fiction sees migrants as unhappy victims? Not!

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Researcher Pasi Saukkonen tells us in a YLE story that “not one content immigrant is found in Finnish fiction.” One may ask how come?  The answer, in my opinion, is simple: It’s a white Finnish view, their prejudices and the narrative they want to give of Others. 

The fact that there isn’t “a single content migrant” reflects, in my opinion, the xenophobic attitudes, exceptionalism, and outright denial of Others from being treated as equal members of society.

White Finnish authors cited in the article write about migrants through the lens of exceptionalism and white Finnish privilege.

Entitlement gives, in these cases, the power to construct social narratives based on the writer’s prejudices. and ignorance.

There are many countries where immigration is seen as something positive. In Finland, however, it is seen as something negative, especially if those people are Muslims or dark-skinned.

Am I surprised why migrants never enjoy a good ending in fiction?

Not at all. It’s only another indication of Finland’s suspicion of Others.

Exceptionalism is our greatest enemy in promoting social equality and press freedom in Finland

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I used to comment mock the Swedes before for their exceptionalism. The argument is that Sweden is such “a perfect” society that social no-nos like racism simply cannot exist. The same exceptionalism that we see in Sweden is alive and kicking in Finland, too. Exceptionalism is everywhere and you bump into it near-constantly if you are Other. 

Aminkeng A. Alemanji highlights the issue in his doctoral dissertation: “The notion of Finnish exceptionalism is very slow to accommodate changes to its existing framework because it is constructed on the idea of being the best, where the best cannot get any better.”

Finnish exceptionalism doesn’t only apply to ethnic issues but is seen in the narrative of the Finnish media and how it functions.

A prime example of the latter is a recent row between Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and YLE because critical reporting of politicians like the prime minister is suppressed.

Read full story here.

Finnish exceptionalism never became clearer to me than when I wrote in 1989-91 from Helsinki for newspapers like the Financial Times in 1989-91.

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Finland, asylum seekers and the media: Moral cowardice and passing the buck

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Migrant Tales has written a lot about how the Finnish media writes about migrants, asylum seekers, and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, problem of the Finnish media, when it writes about migrants and minorities, is that it gives white Finland the benefit of the doubt. 

We shouldn’t be surprised by this because the national media is white.

By giving the police service, the Red Cross, and other institutions in Finland the benefit of the doubt, the media believes what they say even if it has doubts.

A good example of the latter is how the Finnish media handled growing hate speech, xenophobia and the rise of an anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, before the 2011 parliamentary elections.

It appeared that the rise of a party like the PS, which based its campaign on populist nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric, delighted many representatives of the Finnish media because the party reinforced their prejudices and bigotry.

Even so, one may ask how newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat, which should know better, could journalists like Saska Saarikoski be misled into believing that PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, is a “champion of free speech?”

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Aminkeng A. Alemanji: Anti-racism education is key to challenging social ills like racism

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Every now and then there are critical voices that shine through fearlessly. One of these is that of Aminkeng A. Alemanji, a Cameroonian researcher who defended successfully in October 2016 his doctoral dissertation on anti-racism education.

Migrant Tales spoke to Alemanji on anti-racism education and Otherness in Finland. Why should anti-racism education be the standard at our schools versus multicultural and intercultural education?

“When racialized victims cannot name their experiences of racism as racism, then racism, does not exist,” he writes in his dissertation, “the scope for local anti-racism activities becomes very limited, as it prevents antiracism efforts from flourishing or persisting.”

Alemanji’s dissertation got a lot of media attention in newspapers like Jyväskylä daily Keskisuomalainen.

It is a paradox but when we spread catchwords like social equality to minorities we play into the trap of Finnish exceptionalism.

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Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD): Enriching the Public Discourse by highlighting Colonial Continuities

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Keshia Fredua-Mensah & Jamie Schearer

The Initiative of Black People in Germany (ISD)* has been actively working on the empowerment of people of African descent and Black people in Germany for almost 30 years. Its aim is to raise their voices and also to generate visibility for their perspectives and realities in the German society. The ISD is dedicated to challenging the discourse that does not want to see nor acknowledge Black presence in Germany. For more than three hundred years, people of African descent have been born and raised in Germany, have made Germany their place of home, but narratives about the Black experience in Germany often remain silenced in the public discourse. While their stories do not exist in the dominant historiography, stereotypical clichés dominate the images of the Black Diaspora. Racist pictures and beliefs need to be understood as a historically developed relationship of power – blurring past and present depictions of Black people’s realities.

This must also be interpreted through the lens of colonialism. There is almost no awareness in German society about the atrocities committed during colonialism. The fact that the first concentration camps were built in Namibia, former German South-West Africa, usually remains unknown to the wider German public. This is particularly ignored in the education sector. The genocide against the Herero and Nama and the traces it has left, affecting these communities until today, remain obscured with no effort of reparations made from the German side¹. Hence, it is especially offending that Germany’s `development aid´ is inadequately being advertised as a form of reparations for the genocide against the Herero and Nama. Development aid is clearly not working towards healing the trauma of the colonized peoples, who suffered a “war of extermination (1904 -1908)”². This strategy of the German government deflects from the cruelties that took place and once again imply that the colonizer takes the lead in the defining what is needed to repair the suffering of the affected groups, rather than inquiring about and respecting the way in which the Namibian society wishes to come to terms with the past and its repercussions in present times.

Groups like AfricaVenir, Berlin-Postkolonial e.V., AK Panafrikanismus e.V. – Bündnis Decolonize München and Tanzania Network e.V. as well as the ISD and ADEFRA have been standing in solidarity with demands for reparations from the global South. In 2011 20 human remains of Herero and Nama were handed over to a Namibian delegation. The skulls were taken from Namibia after the genocide between 1904-1908 for experiments³. A second handover took place early this year. Many more human remains are still in Germany’s research hospitals and archives. The active support and campaigning in Germany have strengthened the position of the Namibian side. Tools like interventions, media outreaches, inquiries to the German Parliament were used to increase the pressure on the German government to deal with the topic.

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The ISD does not view reparations solely as a mechanism of financial compensation for people of African descent / Black people. Instead there is a need for a structural approach that will allow for the rectification of a broken system. A system that was not built to equally protect and provide for everyone. The Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires (CRAN) in its dossier “Esclavage et Réparation”  highlights the need to actively tackle racism through “legally, morally, culturally and symbolically”4 repairing the broken system that leaves Black people disenfranchised.

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The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka

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Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat published on Saturday and Sunday stories about the problems and abuses that asylum seekers face at the Red Cross-run Laajakoski reception center. The fact that incompetence, poor management, and abuses of asylum seekers take place at the reception center near Kotka is unacceptable. 

What is even more incredible is the Laajakoski reception center’s manager, Saija Makkonen, who won’t comment about the serious allegations.

We wonder if the abuse and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Laajakoski are “individual cases” or a worrying trend.

Are Deputy Manager Tiina Meisola telling asylum seekers to go back to where they came from and mocking a suicide attempt “individual cases?”  What about a nurse, who allegedly told an asylum seeker that she didn’t care if she died in Finland or Iraq?

The long list of complaints by the asylum seekers reveals that the management has lost control of the situation and apparently wants to brush the serious problems of the reception center under the carpet.

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat revealed the problems that asylum seekers face at the Laajakoski reception center.

Considering that we’ve written a lot of stories about the problems of only three asylum reception centers managed by the Red Cross and other ones run by private companies begs a question: Are these cases exceptions or a worrying trend?

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Asylum seekers: The situation at the Laajakoski reception center is “absolutely catastrophic”

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We’ve been getting some distressing reports from the Laajakoski asylum reception center near the southeastern city of Kotka, where there appears to be a serious breakdown of trust between the management/staff and a number of asylum seekers. 

In November, a petition was signed by most of the 250-odd asylum seekers at the reception center. They pointed out some of the issues (see below) but their overriding demand was that the management and staff should be changed.

Even if running an asylum reception center isn’t easy, one would expect high standards from a humanitarian association like the Red Cross. Even if organizations can make mistakes when hiring staff, what is unpardonable is if that they do little to nothing to correct the problems at the reception center.

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Source: Mikko T. Helminen and Wael Cheblak.

We have written a lot about reception centers in Finland this year. One of these was in May when we wrote about Kolari asylum reception center deputy manager, Jari Sillantie, who was sacked for being unfit for the job. If Sillantie’s Facebook is a reflection of his view of migrants and asylum seekers, he “likes” Islamophobic politicians like Perussuomalaiset* (PS) MP Laura Huhtasaari and “likes” causes such as Suomi Ensin, a far-right group.

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Ethnic profiling in the EU is illegal and discriminatory

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Please share: 

#EthnicProfiling is unfair & discriminatory. @EU_Justice we need EU standards on #FairPolicing #SingledOut 

When police use ethnicity as a basis for a stop & search it is #discrimination. EU member states must stop #EthnicProfiling #SingledOut 

#EthnicProfiling can damage trust & alienate local communities. EU must develop standards on #FairPolicing @EU_Justice #SingledOut 

39% of Roma surveyed in Greece said they felt that they were stopped by police because of their ethnicity #EthnicProfiling #SingledOut 

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Why migrants and minorities in Finland continue to suffer from discrimination and social inequality

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Entitlement and denial are some of the reasons why respect for cultural diversity and treating Others in Finnish society as equals faulters. There is too much lip service like “we’re against racism” but few deeds to give such a powerful statement life and meaning. 

Entitlement reinforces denial. It permits the majority to have its racist cake and eat it.

There’s no way that we’ll have too many listeners to our anti-racism cause as long as entitlement and denial play a central role in how the majority views and treats minorities.

It’s pretty simple: How can I, a member of the minority, tell the majority, which has entitlement and power, that it should give up its privileges so I could be treated and compete on the same level as he or she? How can I convince public officials and politicians to put into action those “we’re against racism” catchphrases?

Worse yet is that we have members of our culturally diverse community that are mouthpieces of the majority or mamu-setäs (Finnish Uncle Toms).

If we look at countries like the United States, the Civil Rights Movement (1955-68) and its most illustrious leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. show us that the only way you are going to change things is through a social movement.

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