Author: Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales Literary: Black shirt

Posted on by Migrant Tales
By Dana

I need a few balck shirts now

I only have one and my mom’s gone

I need a few more i need to change

Who r u mom – where are you?

I need to comb my hair but i can’t

Come on mom do it for me, i need you

After seven years you opened ur wings

So sorry i  only have broken songs to offer

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My tears come and go, i can’t hide them

What have you done? Dont leave, don’t go, please: NO!

I want talk to you, i really need to

Who taught you to leave? I disagree, but to whom?

I love your heart, i love your words

I need to hug you, I miss your calls.

Especially now,  i’m a mourner but still don’t get it – why?

I can’t accept it, you are the best part of me

Oh i need your help, where are you, mom?

Who can buy me a balck shirt now, tell me who?

U rise higher, higher and highest

But i’m here below with a hunter

Now my colour turns to a repulsive yellow

But you’re colourless, oh mom: HELLO!

I’m not dizzy but in deep shock

No/one is here, no/one can make this work

I need your smile… don’t go too far

Come touch my fingers you’re my star

My self feels alone, my blood runs away

you are my essence,i need to join you

I need u need u, i need to join you.

 

Suomalaisuuden liitto: Seeing Finland through blue eyes

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Suomalaisuuden liittto, an association taken over by the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party to lobby against Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity, condemns in a statement death threats to leading figures of the Finnish Swedish-speaking community.

While it is a good matter that the association’s chairman Sampo Terho condemns such death threats, it is quite another matter if we should take his words seriously. Should Suomalaisuuden liitto take instead a bold look at itself in the mirror and ask if it is somehow responsible for stoking the flames of intolerance against our Swedish-speaking community?

Together with Vapaa kielivalinta and the youth associations of the PS and National Coalition Party, Suomalaisuuden liitto has launched a campaign to demote Finland’s second official language to elective status at schools.

What kind of an association is Suomalaisuuden liitto? How many non-white Finns does it have on its board? None. The association sees Finland exclusively through blue eyes.

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One of the pet issues that the PS like to attack is affirmative action. Why? Because they are colorblind. Source: The Sociological Cinema via Annie Hayford. 

This is not the first time that death threats have been sent in Finland. Feminists, researchers and even Migrant Tales have been intimidated in such a questionable manner. There is a pattern, however: Those that promote or research cultural diversity are likely to get death threats in this country.

It’s clear by the PS’ and Suomalaisuuden liitto’s track record that they’re not too happy about Finland’s every-growing cultural diversity, which they see as a threat. This is one reason why we should treat Terho’s words with tweezers.

Check out how one PS MP played down the death threats while another one, former police chief inspector Tom Packalen, thought it was a bad idea to publish it as news on the country’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, even if one of the daily’s managing editors was threatened.

Here again we see an old stunt by the PS: condemn racism but give it simultaneously a pat on the back.

Attaching little importance to intolerance speaks volumes as well.

Should we be worried by the exclusive white nationalism promoted  by PS-run associations like Suomalaisuuden liitto? Certainly, but time has a magic effect and is ruthless with those who like to remain anchored in its stuffy corridors.

Those that don’t want to accept the fact that Finland never was, is, or will be just a “white” society, will eventually turn into museums where future generations can see with astonishment how some Finns thought about diversity a long, long time ago.

 

 

 

Migrant Tales turns six years today

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Migrant Tales celebrates its sixth year as a blog today. Our blog has grown from a humble voice to one that gets noticed in Finland and abroad. 

Our aim is a simple: Migrant Tales is a blog community that debates some of the salient issues facing immigrants and minorities in Finland and elsewhere. It aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.

Our blog’s existence hinges on challenging intolerance in all shapes and forms in this country and elsewhere.

As long as intolerance is a problem, Migrant Tales will be there.

 

Ombudsman for Minorities responds to Migrant Tales’ queries concerning phone operators and insurance companies

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Migrant Tales spoke recently to the office of the Ombudsman for Minorities about two cases by Finland’s mobile phone operators and insurance companies. We asked as well if using the term students with immigrant backgrounds, or maahanmuuttajataustainen, at elementary and middle schools was discriminatory. 

The term maahanmuuttajataustainen appears to be so common in some Mikkeli schools that they refer to such students with the acronym “MMT.”

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If you feel that you are discriminated because of your ethnic and/or national background, the Ombudsman for Minorities is a good place to inquire about such matters from Monday to Friday from 10-noon at  071 878 8666.

In an email dated May 13 to Ombudsperson for Minorties Eva Biaudet and Rainer Hiltunen, ombudsman head of office, I pointed out the three above-mentioned cases.

The Ombudsman for Minorities gave the following responses in a telephone interview:

Mobile phone operators can in principle ask for a deposit if the person doesn’t have a credit history in Finland. This rule should not only apply to immigrants but to everyone who lives in Finland irrespective of the person’s nationality.

One of the solutions that the Ombudsman for Minorities gave was for the potential customer to ask the phone operator if it was possible to provide a credit history from the person’s last country of residence.

On the second mater concerning residence and language requirements by insurance companies, the Ombudsman for Minorities said that such cases are still ongoing. The cases and sources supplied by Migrant Tales would be given to the department in charge of negotiating these matters with with insurance companies.

The final matter, whether it was discriminatory for elementary and middle schools to openly call third-culture children ”students with immigrant backdgrounds” was discriminatory, the Ombudsman for Minorities asked what better word could be used in place of maahanmuuttajataustainen. 

At some learning institutions the term ”immigrant” or ”person with immigrant background” has been dropped and replaced by  “mulitucltural student.” Even if this isn’t the best term, it’s much better than immigrant or person with immigrant background.

It’s clear that the terms used to label immigrants, their children and visible minorities can fuel discrimination and promote inequality. By labelling a person who was born in this country or who has lived most of his or her life in Finland a person with immigrant background is making the following affirmation: Your not equal to me because I’m a native and you’re a foreigner.

Finnish Swedish-speaking journalists and public figures receive death threats

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Is it a surprise that prominent Finns belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority received anonymous hate mail and death threats this week? If you want to find the roots of such hatred, one place to look is the anti-immigration, anti-Swedish language and anti-EU Perussuomalaiset (PS) party. 

Members of the Swedish-speaking communities are not the only ones who have received death threats. Feminists, researchers and even Migrant Tales have received such threats as well. It is a sad reality of life in Finland these days. 

It’s no news that part of the PS’ survival plan as a political party includes a concerted campaign against immigrants, visible and language minorities in this country. Another target of the conservative populist party is the Finnish media, which it claims is biased against the populist party.

Amid all this intimidation and attacks, PS chairman Timo Soini claims with a poker face that his party doesn’t hate anyone.

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Read whole story here.

YLE journalist Bettina Såghbom said that she and her family have received death threats on Monday and Tuesday by email, according to YLE in English. Helsingin Sanomat managing editor Paula Salovaara is another journalist who was sent death threats by email this week.

Apart from being strongly opposed to immigration and Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority, the PS has attacked the Finnish media as well.

The views of PS MPs like James Hirvisaari should worry us since Finland’s third-largest party in parliament believes it’s acceptable to pry in the newsroom and tell the media how to do its job.

MP Hirvisaari has branded  journalists in the past as “bloodthirty hyenas” as well as “arrogant lying scum.”

Tom Packalén is another PS MP who is eager to teach the national media what they should write about his party. He called Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, former Soviet daily Pravda (a favorit term used by many PS politicians), and accused the daily of limiting freedom of speech.

Migrant Tales has never hid its concern about the ever-worsening anti-immigration and anti-minority climate in Finland exacerbated by groups like the PS and assisted by the recession.

Death threats against prominent figures of the Swedish-speaking community in Finland as well as prying into the newsroom by politicians should send alarm bells off. An attack against any minority in the vile manner of the PS and steps to compromise the independence of our national media should be strongly condemned as well.

We have fresh examples in Hungary how anti-Romany and anti-Semitism sentiment promoted by nationalist parties has led to greater scrutiny by the government of Viktor Orbán of that country’s media.

In today’s Europe what goes around comes around much faster than before.

 

Sweden and Woolwich reveal the eager face of intolerance

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Be it the riots in Sweden or the tragic murder of a British solider in Woolwich last week, it’s always the eager face of intolerance that is ready to expose itself. The knee-jerk reaction to these events reveals something disturbing about us: our prejudice, intolerance and near-clueless answers on how to move forward in a culturally diverse society during economically trying times. 

Mainstream politicians, who may mean well, end up digging their political graves when they try to attract the anti-immigration vote. We saw this with disastrous results for them in Finland in the April 2011 elections and most recently in the United Kingdom, after the good showing of the anti-immigration UKIP party in the local elections.

Despite proof that it’s politically risky to be in cahoots with anti-immigration groups by echoing their message of intolerance, it seems that Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen of Finland hasn’t learned from his past mistakes. He said that one way of avoiding the riots that took place in Sweden is to keep the amount of asylum seekers in check.

If people are fleeing war and violence, isn’t it their human right to seek asylum in a country like Finland? Or should they go somewhere else because we speculate that they will instigate Husby-type riots in the future?

If I could, I’d ask Prime Minister Katainen why he made such a statement and how many asylum seekers are taking part in the riots in Sweden. I seriously doubt there are any asylum seekers rioting in Sweden.

What do such inopportune statement reveal about the political atmosphere in Finland? It shows that mainstream parties still fear the populist anti-immigration and anti-EU Perussuomalaiset (PS) and have few good arguments to challenge it.

It’s not the first time that the prime minister had made such an untimely statement about immigrants in Finland. In March 2010 he said that ”debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist.”

That affirmation by the prime minister opened the Internet floodgates of greater intolerance and victimization of immigrants and visible minorities.

National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero added as well more fuel to the flames of intolerance by stating that what happened in Sweden could soon take place in Finland. He thus labels and reinforces negative prejudices of immigrants that they are a problem instead of an asset to our society.

What do all of these tragic events and reaction by our officials tell us about the present state of intolerance in Finland? It not only shows ignorance and political opportunism, but reinforces the idea that too many in this country are still in the dark about how to promote greater tolerance.

Sad but true.

ENAR press statement: Riots in Sweden – time for government to finally address ethnic minorities’ exclusion

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Comment:   As Migrant Tales has written on a number of postings, the riots in Sweden mirror the dire situation of some immigrant groups in that country and how marginalized they are from the rest of society. 

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Brussels, 28 May 2013 – The ongoing riots in Stockholm, Sweden are a strong wake-up call for Swedish  authorities. For too long, Sweden has turned its back on the dire social and economic situation of migrants  and minority communities who are facing increasing marginalisation, scarcer access to decent housing, higher unemployment rates, as well as excessive use of power by policing authorities. The European  Network Against Racism (ENAR) condemns both the violence use on the street by rioters and the ongoing  institutional violence of successive Swedish governments, which have chosen not to address the deeprooted causes of exclusion plaguing Swedish society.

For instance, the Swedish police project ‘REVA’, aimed to crack down on irregular immigrants, has led to racial  profiling in checking ID and residency permits of anyone ‘foreign-looking’. Such practices are clearly  discriminatory and undermine the rights of individuals. They also contribute to the exclusion and demonisation of particular communities.

We call on the Swedish government to:

– Put measures and resources in place to remedy the discrimination, high unemployment rates and segregation faced by ethnic minority communities                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       – Put an immediate end to the excessive use of police powers targeted at ethnic minorities and migrants.                                                                     – Engage in a dialogue with grassroots NGOs to develop an action programme to decrease tensions in communities and rapidly improve their socio-economic conditions.

ENAR Chair Chibo Onyeji said: “It is essential to use non-violent methods in the pursuit for justice and socioeconomic change. But urgent action is needed to create a constructive environment that can give young people  growing up in ethnic minority communities a foundation for a bright future. Fostering inclusion and reducing the increasing inequalities faced by ethnic minority communities should be at the forefront of Sweden’s political concerns.”

Read original statement here.

Sweden riots: People cannot live off football, crumbs and destitute pity

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In the face of the riots in Huusby, Sweden, which have now spread outside the northern Stockholm suburb, there’s one culprit we should pay close attention to especially here in Finland: The erosion of Sweden’s comprehensive welfare state system. 

Faced with a seven-billion-euro budget deficit, it isn’t surprising that few if any politicians in this country want to dwell too much on the backlash the downsizing of our social welfare state could have on Finland. It’s not only easy but politically convenient to blame immigrants and their Swedish children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for the rioting.

National Coalition Party MP Arto Satonen is one Finnish politician that caught my attention concerning what he said about the riots in Sweden. The MP, who is chairman of National Coaliation Party’s parliamentary group, gave the following solutions:

  • Keep the number of asylum seekers under control;
  • Greater effort must be made to integrate immigrants;
  • Ghettoization (he calls it segregation) must be avoided.

Why does Satonen talk about “keeping the number of asylum seekers under control?” Is he suggesting that asylum seekers are more prone to rioting and being marginalized than labor immigrants? Asylum seekers are the last group that would be rioting in Husby or in other parts of Stockholm and Sweden.

The same opinion was expressed by National Coalition Party Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, who said that the number of asylum seekers must be kept in check, according to YLE. His comment was criticized by Left Alliance Minister of Culture Paavo Arhimäki.

I agree with Satonen’s second point but it’s unclear how we are going about this in Finland. High immigrant unemployment and youth marginalization, job discrimination, and the rise of a populist anti-immigration party that won 19.1% of the votes in 2011 make integration a greater challenge.

I am always a bit surprised when Finnish politicians speak of the danger of ghettoization. On the one hand, Finland officially praises multiculturalism but on the other hand dreads when too many visible immigrants live in the same neighborhood.

The same concern was expressed by teachers in a survey in 2011, which showed that 41% of teachers would like to place limits on third-culture children in the classroom. One third of those polled would not place any such limits.

Satonen said that football was a great integrator. Agreed. However, people can’t live off sports.

They need opportunities, jobs and Nordic social equality.

Jouni Karnasaari: “Keski-ikäinen mies, oletko vaarassa sairastua rasismiin?”

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Jouni Karnasaari

Suomalainen keski-ikäistyvä mies joutuu monenlaisten pohdintojen ääreen kilometrien karttuessa matkamittariin. Kakkostyypin diabetekseen sairastumisen riski kasvaa, samoin sydän- ja verisuonitautien riski. Repsahdukset alkoholismiin muuttuvat yhä todennäköisimmiksi. Kaikkien edellämainittujen suhteen on olemassa tukiverkostoja, aikaisen havaitsemisen ohjeistuksia ja ennaltaehkäisevää toimintaa. Yhden kansansairauden osalta näin ei kuitenkaan ole.

Rasismi kansansairautena on lisääntymässä siinä määrin että voitanee puhua jo epidemiasta. Kuten diabeteksessa, rasismissakin ensimerkit ovat lähes huomaamattomat – alkuun esimerkiksi erilainen ulkonäkö aiheuttaa vain ihmetteleviä katseita, taudin pahetessa puheeseen tulee uusia elementtejä kuten “tuo on NIITÄ” tai “noita me täällä elätetään”. Akuuttivaiheesta krooniseen vaiheeseen siirtyminen voi tapahtua nopeasti mikäli ei reagoida ajoissa.

Itse olen ollut siinä onnellisessa asemassa, että olen toistaiseksi välttänyt edellämainituista sydän- ja verisuonitaudit, alkoholismin ja diabeteksen. Varmaankin kiitos hyvän valistuksen, koetan pitää vyötärölihavuuden kurissa, liikkua riittävästi ja syödä edes jotakuinkin terveellisesti.

Rasismiin sairastumiselta en sensijaan ole onnistunut välttymään. Kun näin jälkikäteen omaa sairaushistoriaansa tarkastelee, ensimmäiset selvät hälytysmerkit näkyivät 90-luvun alkupuolella. Tuolloin olin melko vastikään muuttanut Mikkeliin, samoihin aikoihin kun entisen hotelli Varsavuoren tiloihin oli avattu Somalipakolaisten vastaanottokeskus. Kuten allergian puhjetessa, minuun vaikuttivat massiivinen epäkohtien esille nostaminen ja yleistyksien hyöky ja aivan kuin varkain olin mukana keskusteluissa joissa aina vain kovemmin äänenpainoin rakennettiin raja-aitaa ihmisten välille. Vastustuskykyni petti ja sairastuin rasismiin.

Kuten vaikkapa sepelvaltimotaudissa, rasismissakaan pelkät ympäristötekijät eivät riitä laukaisemaan sairautta, oma vaikutuksensa on myös perintötekijöillä ja muilla sairastumisalttiutta lisäävillä tekijöillä. Yhtä kaikki, kerran rasismiin sairastunut ei voi enää palata ajassa takaisinpäin. Kuten alkoholisti, joka ensimmäisen kerran ymmärtää olevansa alkoholisti, myös rasisti aloittaa hitaan paranemisprosessin vasta tunnistaessaan ja tunnustaessaan sairautensa.

Oma paranemisprosessini on kestänyt nyt jo lähes kaksi vuosikymmentä ja edelleen rasismi tunkee ajoittain pintaan. Mutta kun tunnistan tuon puolen itsessäni enkä hyväksy sitä, uskon että sairaus ei enää saa minusta ja ajatuksistani yliotetta.

Omassa paranemisprosessissani erinomaisena tukena on ollut työpaikka joka on siedätyshoidoin kyennyt lannistamaan etenevän sairauden – erilaisuudelle altistaminen, moninäkökulmaisuuden lisääminen, luottamus ja hyväksyminen ovat niitä tekijöitä jotka ovat mahdollistaneet parantumisen. Olen tuskallisen tietoinen siitä, että läheskään kaikilla ei tällaista mahdollisuutta ole, mutta ehkäpä mahdollisuuksia tulee aikaa myöden? Niitä odotellessa oma luontaishoitoreseptini joka toimii takuuvarmasti – harjoita siedätyshoitoa mahdollisimman usein ja hakeudu tilanteisiin joissa altistut muullekin kuin huonepölylle.

Suurin uhka Euroopalle ovat he, jotka haluavat puolustaa meitä toisilta

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Minua ei pelota kulttuurinen moninaisuus puhumattakaan terrorismi. Toisten kulttuurien olemisen kieltäminen globalisoituneessa maailmassa on sama kuin yrittäisi kieltää seksin. Kulttuurinen moninaisuus ja seksi ovat osa ihmisyyttä. On turhaa kieltää jotain niinkin luonnollista.

Toki on paljon uhkia. Yksi niistä on  äärioikeistolaiset, populistiset sekä maahanmuuttovastaiset ideologiat, jotka ovat hyvin yleisiä tämänpäiväsissä Euroopassa. Jos emme haasta näitä ilmiöitä on samaa  kuin asettaisimme hirttosilmukan kansalaisoikeutemme kaulaan.

Terrorismin laajentuminen tai sen pelko voi johtaa meidät vaaralliselle totalitarismin polulle, koska yrittäisimme suojata itsemme kaikin mahdollisin tavoin.  Löytäisimme paljon syntipukkeja, mutta emme lopulta ratkaisuja eikä rauhaa.

En pelkää kulttuurien moninaisuutta, terrorismi tai Husbyn kaltaiset mellakat Suomessa. Haluan, että populistiset poliitikot erityisesti perussuomalaisesta puolueesta lopettamaan pelkäämisen minun puolestani.

Älä käytä Ruotsissa tapahtuneita mellakoita tekosyynä hyökätä sitä vastaan kuka olen tai kieltää oikeuteni olla erilainen tässä maassa.

Hyväksy se tosiasia, ettei yksikään nykyinen tai tuleva laki estä Suomen moninaisuutta tai sitä, että se pitäisi meidät turvassa terrorismilta. Suomi pyrki vuosina 1939 ja 1995 rajoittamaan ankarasti maahanmuuttoa ja ulkomaalaisten muuttoa tänne epäonnistuen.

Useasti maahanmuuttovastaiset rinnastavat maahanmuuton terrorismiin vaikka se on edelleen erittäin harvinaista Euroopassa, EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2012 mukaan. Sinulla on Euroopassa suurempi vaara kuolla auto-onnettomuudessa, lääkärin virheestä tai poliisin luodista kuin terroristi-iskusta tai kulttuurien moninaisuudesta.

Britanniassa traagisesti murhatun armeijan sotilaan tapaus torstaina osoitti sen, kuinka Britannian reagoi ja miksi suvaitsemattomuus on  suurin vaara Euroopassa. Islamin terrorismi on yksi vaara mutta vielä suurempi uhka ovat ne ryhmät, jotka väittävät puolustavansa meitä siltä uhalta.

Sinä olet vaarallinen. Kyllä, sanoin sinä, joka pelkäät minun puolestani ja olet valmis laittamaan kansalaisoikeutemme kylmävarastoon.