Author: Migrant Tales

Defining white Finnish privilege #22: From racist, fascist to politician without memory

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We saw a lot of white Finnish privilege during the April parliamentary elections and government talks, which include the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. If lowly things like turncoat politics and chicanery, racism and white Finnish privilege would have a smell, that stench would knock you off your feet right now. 

The new speaker of parliament, Maria Lohela, is a good example of the racist-fascist who became the politician without memory. Lohela has made Islamophobic and xenophobic statements in the past to attract voter attention and get elected. Lohela said, however, right after she was elected Friday as speaker of parliament that everything she said in the past is the past and now a new chapter begins.

Lohela can say such absurd things because she has white Finnish privilege. You can be a racist, even a fascist, and paint yourself as a politician with amnesia by simply erasing everything you said in the past that may undermine the power you enjoy today. You can do so without even apologizing to all those people you insulted with your racist statements.

Another PS MP that has a murky past in fascism is the new defense minister, Jussi Niinstö.

Continue reading “Defining white Finnish privilege #22: From racist, fascist to politician without memory”

Facebook: Thumbs down to Maria Lohela and hurray for our side!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When big mainstream parties play along with populist and anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which base their campaign on one part hot air and two parts xenophobia and nationalism, you get the government we have today and a speaker of parliament called Maria Lohela. 

Christian Thibault has been a tireless activist for migrant and human rights in Finland. Here he is below with a group of activists holding up signs to MPs going to vote for the new speaker of parliament.

Good for you! I take my hat off for you Christian and those other brave activists that were with you holding signs that read: Don’t vote for Lohela and Stand up against racism.

In one picture below there is Green Party MP Jani Toivola standing together with the activists.

And that is what Lohela’s questionable track record is: She has said some pretty racist and horrible things about migrants and Muslims. Her whole political message is based on xenophobia.

Those terrible things she has said are the skeletons in her closet that will creep behind her for the rest of her political career, which I and many hope will be short.

 

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* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

New speaker of parliament Maria Lohela: Islamophobic skeletons in the closet

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the surprise appointments that popped up was Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Maria Lohela, who was nominated Friday as the new speaker of parliament. Lohela is no common MP since she has taken a very strong stand against immigration in general and Muslims in particular.

Somebody who knew Lohela told Migrant Tales that she appears to be a sensible person until you slip the term Muslim in the conversation. She then turns into a Ms Hyde.

Lohela has got her anti-immigration and Islamophobic credentials through the Nuiva Manifesto, which relies heavily on one-way adaption, or assimilation. She was opposed to same-sex marriage as well.

He xenophobic writings about Muslims are like skeletons that follow her like murky shadows.

Some of the most outrageous aims of the Nuiva Manifesto include:

  • The state should not finance immigrant groups’ culture, language, identity and religion;
  • They believe that neighborhoods are turning into ghettos;
  • Deport convicted migrants from Finland;
  • Conditional citizenship for ten years;
  • Finland should stop so-called humanitarian immigration and accept as few refugees as possible.

Just like Lohela’s opinions, the Nuiva Manifesto’s aim is to disempower migrants and minorities in Finland. Even if Finland officially supports integration, or two-way adaption, the Nuiva Manifesto favors one-way adaption, or assimilation.

Continue reading “New speaker of parliament Maria Lohela: Islamophobic skeletons in the closet”

Two important questions I’d ask incoming PS minister of justice and employment

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It should be clear by know through countless examples that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* intentionally make outrageous statements in order to get media attention for the party and themselves. The new PS justice and employment minister, Jari Lindström, stated a while back that he’d be in favor of reinstating the death penalty in “some circumstances,” according to YLE in English. On Tuesday we learned about PS subsitute councilman Olli Sademies’ opinions about forced sterilization of African refugees.

Put on your seat belts folks and enjoy the tragic-comic political play that will be led by the PS during the next four years.

Instead of commenting on what politicians like Lindström said, and which are important to know, we must also hold them accountable for their promises.

Lindström is a former paper mill worker who later became a lab assistant.

We all know that one PS strategy is to victimize and scapegoat migrants and minorities because it brings them votes. When they take your attention from the real problem, which is how they’re going to lower unemployment and create jobs, they place the blame on migrants and minorities, which are responsible for the country’s problems.

The first question I’d ask Lindström is the following:

As the incoming justice and employment minister, how do you plan to lower unemployment in general and migrant unemployment in particular? In the latter group, the jobless rate is officially two- to three-times higher than the national average, which was 10.3% in April, according to Statistics Finland. How would you promote employment of migrants in Finland and what is your stance on tougher anti-discrimination laws?

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Facebook: Hello new government, goodbye to the Finland we knew

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So here are the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ministers: Timo Soini (foreign minister), Jussi Niinistö (defense minister), Jari Lindström (labor and justice minister), and Hanna Mäntylä (social affairs and health minister).

Two words can describe all four of them: anti-immigration and nationalistic. When you combine these two matters you get scapegoating, suspicion, “us” versus “them” to name a few.

Parties like the PS that base their policies by attacking certain immigrant groups that live in this country as residents are washing their hands, and showing their failures in addressing rising poverty and social inequality. They do so by opportunistically blaming migrants for the country’s problems.

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* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

 

 

Anna María Gutiérrez Sorainen: Huivipäisen tytön kouluvuoden päättäjäiset

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Anna María Gutiérrez Sorainen*

Luin lohjalaisten ryhmästä silminäkijän kertomuksen siitä, kuinka ryhmä nuoria oli kannustamassa kahden nuorten naisen tappelua Lohjan keskustan Laurinkadulla tänään keskiviikkona! Toisella oli pitkät hiukset ja tummaihoisella oli huivi.

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Silminnäkijän mukaan olisivat tappelun syyt mitä tahansa, se oli väärin, paitsi tappelun katsominen toimettomana, myös se, että kun toinen tappelun osapuoli pyrkii pois paikaltaan, kuten tumma tyttö teki, ei ole oikein, että toinen osapuoli lähtee repimään taas poislähtevää.

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Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen: Maahanmuuttajanaiset patriarkaalisessa ympäristössä Suomessa

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Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen

Monikanaiset-liitto Ry: n nettisivuilla sanotaan muun muuassa, että maahanmuuttajanaisten kotoutuminen on todettu erityisen vaikeaksi niissä maahanmuuttajaryhmissä, joissa lähtömaan tasa-arvotilanne poikkeaa huomattavasti vastaanottajamaan tilanteesta. Patriarkaalisissa yhteisöissä naisen paikan katsotaan olevan kotona. Hänellä ei siten ole samanlaisia mahdollisuuksia kouluttautua ja vaikuttaa yhteiskunnassa, ja häneltä puuttuu jopa mahdollisuus tehdä omaa elämää koskevia päätöksiä.

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Olen havainnut samaa politiikan toiminnassa. Aihe on arka ja oikeastaan tähän asti maahanmuuttajanaisten asemasta maahanmuuttajamiesten keskuudessa politiikassa ja julkisessa keskustelussa ei ole puhuttu laisinkaan.

Ei se ole helppo aihe, koska kulttuureista toiseen on eroja. Voin tukeutua Monikan kokemuksiin ja selvityksiin, mutta itse parhaiten voin kertoa kokemuksistani näinä vuosina. On olemassa sellaisia maahanmuuttajamieskavereita joille saa ja voi sanoa vapaasti päin kasvoja olevansa heidän kanssaan eri mieltä asioita ja jopa kritisoida heitä heidän omista ratkaisuistaan. Ystävyys silti kestää. Esimerkki tästä on monille tuttu Enrique Tessieri.

Continue reading “Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen: Maahanmuuttajanaiset patriarkaalisessa ympäristössä Suomessa”

UPDATED Helsingin Sanomat: PS Helsinki substitute councilman wants forced sterilization of new African refugees in Finland

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Helsinki substitute councilman Olli Sademies of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party stated on Facebook that Finland should carry out forced sterilization of new African refugees that move to the country, reports Helsingin Sanomat.  Such a racist statement by a member of the PS is nothing new. A PS politician wrote in 2013 that groups like African refugees, which are prone to commit rape according to him, should be chemically castrated.

Writes Sademies: “When Africans arrive as ‘refugees’ to Finland, they continue to reproduce at the same rate [as in their home countries] even if they would do with less children. In order to force [high birth rates] to plummet we should limit the amount of children immigrants can have. Three [children] would be the maximum.”

While such statements are outrageous and reinforce that the PS is a hostile party to immigrants, minorities and to our ever-growing culturally diverse society, it’s the reaction of the party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, which is even more incredible.

Continue reading “UPDATED Helsingin Sanomat: PS Helsinki substitute councilman wants forced sterilization of new African refugees in Finland”

Why you should not call the Perussuomalaiset “the Finns Party”

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Finland will become the third country in the EU along with Belgium and Greece that will have a populist and anti-EU party in government, according to The Guardian of London. The daily describes the Finns Party as far right. Just like Migrant Tales, it uses the acronym PS but mentions the official English name of the party once in the story below. 

The reason for using the Finnish acronym for the party is simple: The name is horrible in English and has nothing to do with the Finnish name, which is the Perussuomalaiset and can be translated as “true” or “basic” Finn. Some have even translated it as “fundamental” Finn.

At Migrant Tales explain in all of our stories why we use the Finnish name of the party on our postings:

The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo was asked about this on Ruben Stiller’s Pressiklubi  why the party had “kidnapped” the name to imply that all Finns are the party. She said it was a good name that other parties hadn’t noticed and was used because the PS represents all types of Finns from academics to workers.

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Facebook: Does “Finnish labor” include migrants, naturalized Finns and minorities?

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One of the members of the new government, the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, said that jobs will be created for Finnish labor. In the present anti-immigration environment in Finland, such statements have a hostile ring to migrants, naturalized Finns and minorities since they don’t promote inclusion and fair hiring practices. 

Considering that migrant unemployment is three-times higher than the national average, do you think that such statements, which stress “us” and “then,” improve the chances of such people getting hired?

Why can’t politicians like PS chairman Timo Soini, who likes to make nationalistic statements, drop the adjective “Finnish” and state that the efforts by the new government and policy will create new jobs?

Certainly that phrase sounds more inclusive than “Finnish labor.”

It’s pretty clear what Soini means by Finnish labor, or suomalainen työ, which is code for “don’t hire migrants and minorities. It’s your patriotic duty as an employer to hire white Finns.”

It would be great if at least one journalist could ask Soini if he considers migrants, naturalized Finns and minorities to be “Finnish labor.”

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* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.