Migrant Tales, Author at Migrant tales

Two Finlands will be celebrating our country’s first centennial in 2017

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Migrant Tales

When Finland celebrates its first centennial on December 6, 2017, what will we be commemorating? Independence? Our Nordic way of life? Social equality? Will there be two Finlands, one that is socially included and another one that is not, celebrating on that special day?

Source: Cornerstone News and Information.

People who aren’t socially excluded will have good reason to celebrate in 2017.

But matters will be very different for those who belong to socially excluded Finland, which comprises of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, visible minorities and the unemployed. They have dreams of a better life but many of their hopes end up at the social security institution, Kela, unemployment office or as a worker at a menial job that pays too little and which forces you to live in debt.

The problem with these two Finlands is that those that have power, the included group, want to keep things as they are. As their greed and go-go-capitalist values and self-centered lifestyles grow, so do the ills of our society.

While nobody has given this form of exclusion a proper name, it should be called white Finnish privilege. It is the same social ill that has kept minorities like blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and others oppressed and excluded in the United States and elsewhere.

White privilege uses race and ethnic background as a social filter to exclude others in order to control important resources like jobs, political, social and economic power.

Excluding part of society in such a hostile manner is expensive and costs taxpayers an arm and a leg.

One example of how intolerance has raised its head in Finland was reported by YLE, which revealed the last time Finland was able to accommodate 750 refugees in its UN annual quota system was in 2003. Opposition by municipalities to receiving refugees is one reason why Finland hasn’t been able to bring 750 refugees yearly, according to the story.

We’re not talking about thousands never mind tens of thousands of refugees but a few hundred!

One of the culprits of the present situation is the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, which campaigned in the last elections that municipalities should not accept refugees.

Just like few will admit a white Finnish privilege problem in this country, even fewer will agree that our intolerance is homemade and spoonfed at home by our parents and reinforced at our schools.

Finland did everything in the last century to limit immigration and foreign investment to the country. Imagine what kinds of attitudes and prejudices you must teach new generation of Finns to have maintained such a Draconian system.

Only after 1995, when Finland became an independent country, matters started to change for the better.

We have made progress but in 2017 there will be two Finlands celebrating our first centennial.

Finland’s anti-immigration sentiment surprised a lot of people

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Finland is a country that is graying at a rapid pace and needs to bring skilled labor. Some parties, like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), believe that immigration especially from outside the EU should be stopped at all costs. Others don’t mind as long as immigrants bring skills and contribute to society by paying taxes.

In the face of these two opposing views, Finland is on a collision course.

Whatever opinions you may have on immigration and cultural diversity, the fact is that our population is aging at a fast pace.

According to Statistics Finland, the number of pensioners will rise from the present 17% (905,000 persons who are older than 65 years) to 27% by 2040 and 29% (1.79 million) by 2060. Better medicare will fuel this trend. Persons over 85 years in Finland will rise from 2% (108,000) to 7% (463,000).

One of the interesting matters that few speak of these days is how wrong forecasts got it. They may have estimated correctly population growth and age structure, but never in their wildest days did they expect so much opposition to immigration. So much so, in fact, that we saw the rise of an anti-immigration and anti-EU party in 2011, the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which gained 39 seats in parliament versus 5 in 2007.

In the spring of 2008, a survey by the ministry of finance revealed that Finland would need almost two million immigrants by 2020 to plug the labor shortage caused by our aging population.

The Ministry of the Interior saw back then the economically active population would decline by 189,000 in 2009-20.

”In order for increasing immigration to compensate for [the] workforce leaving the market, Finland would require some 300,000 immigrants between 2009 and 2020,” said Tarja Rantala, chief inspector for the immigration department of the ministry of interior.

Even if Statistics Finland estimated in May 2007 that the immigrant population will almost double nationally by 2025 to 300,000, its clear that their forecast was too conservative. A new report by the official statistics agency published in February 2013 now sees the immigrant population of Helsinki and surroundings to rise to around 300,000 by 2030.

Certainly the latter two estimates by the ministry of finance and ministry of the interior were made when PS chairman Timo Soini led a party of five MPs.

It is unfortunate that Europe is being overtaken today by ever-growing populist anti-immigration and anti-EU sentiment. The present situation will prove costly for countries like Finland, which need to attract more skilled labor to the country and adapt to their ever-culturally diverse societies.

In many respects, the present situation is Finland’s doing. During most of its time as an independent country it had systematically restricted as much as possible foreign investment and immigration to the country. We are now paying a high price because of that policy.

As long as the PS continues to cast a strong populist anti-immigration and anti-EU shadow in Finnish politics, and as long as politicians lack the courage to challenge it in earnest, Finland’s immigration policy will never serve it the way it should.

http://www.migranttales.net/finlands-challenge-in-the-new-decade/

Migrant Tales Literary: Mark or question mark

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Migrant Tales

By Dana

Source: www.aumethodists.org

White or yellow or one step until yellow …Finish the race???

The question mark means that it is a question for you, so this story wants your ideas; u can prove them, ur idea as u wish.

This is a colorful question so it isn’t an easy question to answer… but if I contrarily asked a colorless question every one would be answer it easily.

Actually i am trying to understand more about your race because i want to know where you came from, when, how and why did you come to Finland???

And there is nothing wrong to talk about race or ask this question… that’s my opinion.

Did you all came from the same place? Like the Ural Mountains… or from some different place?

Some Finns have tight eyes, flat noses and round faces; some of you aren’t white but yellow…again this is only my observation.

Well for sure you know who you are better than anyone else.

When you are a blond, there’s a faint, faint streak of yellow.

Yes your race… don’t be shocked because it was you who made me focus on race from the first day i set foot on Finland.

However i am proud of who i am… i love myself and my family and when i have a question i answer it easily… i am a Persian from Iran.

i always love everything and everything that I have belongs to me.

Race is not important for me but morals are more important. Talking about race isn’t forbidden by me since i’d like to know more about who you are.

I am myself a brunette and Persian, but in Iran we have white, blond, dark and darker… different kinds of people live in my country.

My grandfather was a white man with green eyes (they called him blond, but he was not like your blond). My grandmother was like me.

I’d like to test my DNA… it would be exciting for me to know even if I couldn’t change the result. I am who I am.

Finally we are both guests in this land, aren’t we not?? The Sami were here before you moved here, and when i came here you were both here.

You came earlier and i came later… you came with your family and and i came alone and it was not my will… it was the UN’s will.

Then why isn’t this land called Samiland instead of Finland???

Really?

I have never seen a Sami person in Finland and i would like to meet them…it is one of my wishes; i’d like see them face to face and close up. i’d like to know about their culture. Well i was living only in Vaasa and then in Helsinki, i know they live in such places but I never met one of them.

NOW

So how do you feel about my question?

Do you like it if a stranger asked you such a question?

Or do you think that it your the only one who has the right to ask such a question?

Does race play a big role in your life? Well this is a big question for your politicians and government… i don’t know if they’d even let you ask such a question.

This question gives the Finnish government such an allergic reaction that its body temperature can rise to 45C°.

My chin is up.

Is Finland’s interior minister promoting a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity?

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Päivi Räsänen is in charge of the interior ministry that makes the following mission statement on its website: “Finland will be the safest country in Europe – a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity.”

Fine, agreed.

How does Räsänen further the equal treatment of immigrants, gays and visible minorities when she speaks so lowly of them.

Her exclusive statements reveal her fondness for the 1950s or many decades before that. Back then, Christian values were in vogue: You were an outcast if you were gay; racism was part of Finnish life and never questioned; Romanies were all crooks; women served men; and the only real Finn was a white Finn.

The Christian Democrat politician is the cordial mask of intolerance that wears a suit and tie. It is a deception, however. Behind those cordial words is a lifetime of social exclusion without a drop of empathy for anyone who doesn’t fit the interior minister’s narrow Christian world.

Räsänen has come under fire for a number of reasons, from claiming that homosexuality is an illness to suggesting that people have the right to oppose laws that are against the Bible.

She is the antithesis of the modern Nordic democratic state. She has no empathy for immigrants, pregnant mothers who have been raped, gays and other minorities.

In my opinion, the interior ministry’s mission statement actually says the following: “Finland will be the safest country in Europe for white Finns – a country built on equal treatment and equal opportunity for white Christian Finns.”

Go to website here.

Disagree? Read on:

Interior Minister Räsänen disagrees with findings of police report on the Romany minority

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales asked Monday what kinds of arguments will politicians now come up with to criminalize begging after a police report didn’t reveal any links between Romany beggars and human trafficking and organized crime.

The police report not only exposed shameful urban legends used to victimize poor Romanies from Romania and Bulgaria, who make 10-20 euros a day, but revealed the populism, racism and sheer contempt that some politicians have for this minority.

Conservartives like Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen for her homophobic, anti-abortion and anti-immigration views. Read full story here.

After over six years, this blog has taught me an important lesson: intolerance blinds. Those who are blinded by their prejudice and bigotry have learned to dress their arguments with suits and ties. One of these concerns the Romany minority.

The old stereotype about the Romanies in Finland was that all of them are criminals and therefore shouldn’t be trusted. An old prejudice that existed in Finland at the turn of the century was they were horse thieves.

Many of the politicians who want to criminalize begging, grew up at a time where the Romany minority were seen as criminals.

The most incredible fact about those politicians who want to criminalize begging is that they’d care less for the victims. If you look closer, they are shedding crocodile tears if that.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, a conservative who believes that homosexuality is an illness and claimed this summer that it’s ok to break the law (abortion) if it is against the Bible, is the first politician to comment on the police report.

“There are perceptions as well that [during 2005-09] there are links [to human trafficking and organized crime],” she was quoted as saying on YLE.

Why is Räsänen so keen on maintaining a view that these Romanies are victims of human trafficking or victims of criminal organizations? Because that’s what her argument has been all along in order to criminalize begging.

The same argument will be used by other MPs. These are National Coalition Party’s Arto Satonen and Jussi Halla-aho and Olli Immonen of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, both who are members of the extremist Suomen Sisu association.

YLE interviewed on Tuesday Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen, who said he would be in favor of criminalizing begging because it “isn’t something we’re used to” in the Nordic region.

We should ask Pajunen, who makes about 200,000 euros a year, more than the mayor of London, if it is in the Nordic spirit to make so much money and care so little about the needy.

Shame on Pajunen and all those that want to sweep the Romany problem under the rug.

Julian Abagond: What did race have to do with the George Zimmerman case?

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Migrant Tales

By Julian Abagond

What did race have to do with the George Zimmerman case in America?George Zimmerman, a half-white, half-Latino man who gets a bloody nose and a few scratches on his head, shoots dead Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, 17-year-old black boy, calls it self-defence and is found “not guilty” of both murder and manslaughter by a nearly all-white court. How could that possibly be racist? I mean, it is not like Zimmerman used the N-word. It was a fair trial! Besides, the president is black!

Here are some ways:

Black life was assumed not to matter much. In effect, a bloody nose and a few scratches on the head of a man who is half-white mattered more than the life of a 17-year-old black boy. It was not just Zimmerman who thought that, so did the police, who did not think the killing was a big deal. So did the prosecution, who pretty much just went through the motions – they did not even properly prepare their witnesses.
The Black Brute stereotype – the idea that black men rape and kill for no reason, that they have “violent tendencies”, “criminal propensities”, as if huge numbers of them are savage psychopaths or something. It is why white women clutch their purses, why whites cross the street – because, apparently, black men only tug at purses gently, cannot cross the street and never go after those who show fear. This stereotype ran throughout the case:
- Zimmerman racially profiled Martin. As a neighbourhood watchman, Zimmerman only reported black males as “suspicious”. Martin was one of them, even though it was only seven at night and he was minding his own business walking back from 7-Eleven. It was not like Martin was breaking into a house or a car or beating up someone.
- The police assumed Martin was the bad guy. Instead of giving Zimmerman a drug test and holding him for 48 hours while they sorted out what took place, the police let him go to work the next day! They believed his story just on his say-so – in part because it fit the Black Brute stereotype perfectly: some black guy jumped out at him in the dark and tried to kill him. For no reason. Because, apparently, black men are like mad dogs.
- The prosecution lawyers never seriously questioned the main hole in Zimmerman’s story: Why in the world would Trayvon Martin want to kill George Zimmerman? Martin did not know Zimmerman. Zimmerman says he did not threaten him. Martin had no record of violence or insanity. The Black Brute stereotype is the spit holding this story together.
- The defence lawyers painted Martin as a dangerous thug, based not on a police record or record of violence, but on how he looked! How was that possible?
- The jury was packed with white women. We do not know what their thinking was. Maybe they were not racist at all. But the defence certainly assumed they were, playing on their purse-clutching fears of black men!

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Finnish police: Roma beggars are not victims of human trafficking or linked to organized crime

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Remember the hostile reception that Romany beggars have got in the past from some Helsinki municipal politicians like mayor Jussi Pajunen, Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs like Olli Immonen and National Coalition Party MP Arto Satonen, who wants to make begging illegal?

The Finnish police now claims that Romanian and Bulgarian Roma beggars that come to Finland aren’t victims of human trafficking or in league with organized crime but come on their own will, according to Tampere-based daily Aamulehti.

The news is quite a setback for those that lobbied for a get-tough approach to Roma beggars. Just like the ludicrous claim that Muslim women should stop wearing veils and headscarfs because they are “being oppressed” by men, a similar argument is being used by some Finnish politicians to “help” Roma beggars.

The only way to end begging by the Roma – they argue – is by criminalizing it on the grounds that those that do it are either human trafficking victims and/or exploited by organized crime.

Left without any credible excuses, it’ll be interesting to see what politicians like Satonen come up with to continue victimizing Roma beggars, who make between 10 and 20 euros a day, according to the police.

PS MP Immonen said last year on his Facebook page that the only way to deal with Roma street beggars from Eastern Europe was to make begging a crime and forcibly deport them back to their home countries.

Even if the Roma are the ones being targeted by some politicians, it’s the same suspicion and fear of foreigners that we have seen for so long in this country.

The police’s findings coupled with the reactions of politicians reinforce what Migrant Tales has suspected all along: Shameful ignorance and racism towards the Romany minority by members of the National Coalition Party, PS and Christian Democrats.

We wrote in a blog entry over a year ago:

“But let’s try to understand the recent red-herring debate in parliament between the opposition PS and government [concerning Romany beggars]. Why are we so concerned about these people coming to Finland? Is it our racism and loathing that reflects back on us when we see them begging? Is it our failure as a society to deal with our own Romany “problem?” Are we shocked to see that there are actually people in Europe who are poor and exploited?”

Are these Roma, who make small sums of money daily, a threat to us or have they revealed that some of us are just greedy racists.

Why we must challenge anti-immigration parties across Europe

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Migrant Tales

A political party that bases its popularity on anti-immigration and populist rhetoric is like playing a risky political game of Russian roulette. The game continues until the only bullet in the revolver goes off in your head. Higher bets are placed each time that the revolver doesn’t fire: more xenophobia, more hate speech, more racist rhetoric, more prejudice…

Read the major headlines of Europe’s main dailies, social media websites and Migrant Tales to understand that we are on a perilous path. Even if we wanted to change our xenophobic ways, some of us have passed the point of no return.

One story that struck me this week happened in Paris, France. A veiled woman was beaten in a bus and later arrested by the police. The victim could be a member of the Romany community in Eastern Europe, anti-Semitism in Denmark, a black minister in Italy, or a Somali refugee in Finland.

Here’s what happened:

“Ms Lamia is a professional caregiver…On June 30 2013, at 6 pm, Lamia takes the bus like any other night to go to work. When an elderly woman gets on the bus, Miss Lamia naturally gives away her seat, but the lady refuses and violently invectives Lamia about her headscarf. Follows a stormy debate: ‘Dirty Arab, go back to your country, you should read the Koran …’ screams the lady. As she is about to get off the bus to go to work, Ms Lamia faces once again the aggressiveness of the old lady. She thinks Lamia is following her, so she shoves Lamia who, this time, replies. At that moment, a tall man comes to Miss Lamia and violently slaps her. She clings to him to hold him while calling for help. It took the intervention of a few people to stop him. Requested by Lamia, the police arrives on the scene and, instead of arresting the aggressor, decides to put Miss Lamia in custody.”

The fact that this still happens in a country like France shows that we have learned very little after about 100 million died in two World Wars. It shows as well that the medicine to treat a serious illness like intolerance is insufficient. It’s like giving aspirin to a patient with terminal cancer.

Here’s another story about the rise in hate crimes against Muslims in France:

Hostility rises when Islam is in the news, for example last year when an Islamist killed seven people or when a politician accused Muslim children of stealing classmates’ snacks, the Committee against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) said. The CCIF welcomed a European Parliament decision on Tuesday to lift the legal immunity of far-right leader Marine Le Pen so she can be tried on racism charges for comparing Muslims praying in the streets here to the wartime Nazi occupation of France. The group said in its annual report (French) that anti-Muslim acts rose to 469 last year, after 298 in 2011 and 188 in 2010. The rise reflected trends cited by other recent reports that also noted increasing levels of anti-Semitism and racism in France.

Check out the weekly headlines by I CARE:

Kosovo Jails Macedonia Mass Murder Suspects
Macedonia: Spate of Anti-Gay Attacks
A Mosque in Reykjavík Threatens Icelandic Culture
Sweden: fall in number of hate crime reports
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on Finland
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on Portugal
Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on San Marino
Polish Jewish leader protests handling of anti-Semitism cases
Islamophobia in the Netherlands
Position of LGBT population in Serbia “improves”
Tipton mosque blast was ‘terrorist attack’, say police (UK)
Newcastle Division’s Lee Patrick wants to gas Muslims (UK)
Harpenden Town Council condemn ‘fake’ Gypsy site notice (UK)
Right-wing extremists launch bid to revive Fascist party (UK)
Disquiet over ‘shameful’ policing of racial violence in Brent (UK)
Veiled woman beaten in a bus in Paris, the police arrests the victim (France)
Anti-Muslim acts rising in France, rights group says
Marine Le Pen expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred (France)
Islamophobia assaults in Argenteuil (France)
Need for the immediate investigation of homophobic, sexist and racist motives behind two attacks (Cyprus)

The fact that a particular political party, like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats and others across Europe, base their political agenda on anti-immigration rhetoric tells you that they are playing with fire and are one of the main causes of the cancer spreading throughout Europe.

There’s still time to tackle the biggest threat to our societies today, which is right-wing anti-immigration populist ideology, and wake up those who pay homage to them with their silence.

What does the PS’ new party secretary mean by “tightening [Finnish] immigration policy?”

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Migrant Tales

Left Alliance MP Risto Kalliorinne asks Perussuomalaiset (PS) new party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo to elaborate what she means by ”tightening immigration policy?” Apart from labeling herself a chauvinist, Slunga-Poutsalo “demanded” that Finland should tighten immigration policy.

Read original story here.

While Left Alliance MP Kalliorinne poses an important question, we all know the answer that Slunga-Poutsalo would give if she elaborated on what she said.

The answer lies with the far right Danish People’s Party’s EuroMP Morten Messerschmidt, who was invited to speak at the PS’ annual congress in June. He said recently:

“I think we need three sets of rules of immigration. One for Europeans, who will be regulated by EU-law. One for people from the rest of the Western World, including parts of East Asia, South America, etc. And then a third set of rules for the third world, who in general do not really offer anything we can benefit from…”

The latter statement by Messerschmidt is in line with the Nuiva Manifesto and the thinking of many PS anti-immigration extremists like MP Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others.

The interesting question, however, is why the PS hasn’t yet revealed more aggressively its DPP colors on immigration policy. The answer probably hinges on how much the PS thinks it can profit from an anti-immigration political stance.

Slunga-Poutsalo believes that the party can, which explains why she is making anti-immigration statements in the first place.

The problem lies in the PS as well. Ever wondered why its chairman plays down its far right anti-immigration faction? It’s not because he’s a nice guy and likes immigrants, but because he sees this faction as a threat to his political base.

Soini has claimed in the past that PS’ anti-EU stance played a key role (80%) and anti-immigration a minor role (20%) in its historic election victory of 2011.

If you want to know where the PS’ anti-immigration policy is heading and how it will end, study the far right DPP.

ENAR press statement: Anti-Roma statements in France: a race to be the most outrageous?

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Migrant Tales

MT comment: Taking into account the xenophobia gripping Europe these days and how far right, populist and even mainstream parties are vying for the anti-immigration vote, the same is going on in Finland. The victims are the most vulnerable groups like Romany beggars. A story on YLE in English reports that the National Coalition Party is planning – once again – to prohibit begging. The anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) are strongly in favor as are the Christian Democrats.

What a shameful stance by these parties. Nothing will be resolved not matter how many anti-begging laws you pass except for exacerbating the problem.

___________

Brussels, 10 July 2013 – On 7 July, Christian Estrosi, French Member of Parliament and Mayor of the city of Nice, made public racist statements targeting the Roma and Traveller population and threatened, among others, to install surveillance cameras in Roma and Traveller camps. A few days before, Jean-Marie Le Pen had made similar anti-Roma statements. The European Network Against
Racism (ENAR) strongly condemns this stigmatising competition using hate speech to gain electoral support and calls on politicians in France and across Europe to instead start proposing constructive solutions to ensure Roma inclusion – for the benefit of all.

Read original statement here.

ENAR Chair Sarah Isal said: “These anti-Roma statements are disgraceful, all the more so coming from Christian Estrosi, an elected representative of the mainstream UMP political party. Comments fuelling hatred and stigmatisation against any group on the basis of their ethnic or national origin have a particularly damaging impact when they come from public figures and politicians.”

Instead of proposing populist and ineffective repressive measures, French local politicians such as Estrosi should start by implementing the law requiring that towns with populations exceeding 5,000 provide suitable camping grounds for Traveller communities. This law has so far not been respected in Nice.

“Politicians should live up to their responsibilities as elected representatives to provide for all their citizens on an equal basis and not indulge in such dangerous and divisive statements. Together in Europe, we can achieve great things. Let’s just do it”, said Isal.

Read ENAR statement here.

Author: Migrant Tales