The April 1981 issue of the Foreign Student marks an important turning point where the Foreign Students Club openly calls for better rights for foreigners. The front page picture, with two band-aids covering a Lux commercial woman’s mouth, was Enrique Tessieri’s and Alex Sannemann’s idea. The newsletter did not hide its intention either. On the front page, it now read “THE NEWSLETTER FOR STUDENTS AND IMMIGRANTS.”
The newsletter was packed with an editorial about challenging self-censorship, and a comprehensive update about the new aliens’ law.
What drives the government, particularly Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen of Perussuomalaiset (PS), to give utmost attention and tackle the issue of youth street gangs? Is it a sincere attempt to solve such a social problem, or an opportunity to further victimize migrants and minorities in Finland?
The assertion isn’t far-fetched. The PS is historically the first major contemporary Finnish party to benefit stigmatizing other groups, such as Muslims, Africans, and other non-EU nationals, as less valuable.
Many of Rantanen’s social media posts before the April election, which were deleted and white-cleaned after the election, were based on racist far-right conspiracy theories. “We shouldn’t be so blue-eyed that soon we won’t be blue-eyed,” is one of her infamous quotes. Sinisilmänen, or blue-eyed, means being naive in Finnish.
Moreover, although these types of quotes do not instill credibility in Rantanen’s ability to find solutions to youth problems, her efforts are further shot to pieces when she blames the “problem” on the “wrong” type of immigration policy.
Another takeaway is the government’s statements about clamping down on youth crime and its near-silence on far-right terrorism.
Another matter that raises red flags is the PS’s track record. In all the general elections in 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2022, the party has used successfully a migrant crime theme to attract voters to the polls.
Neighboring Sweden held its election in September 2022 against a backdrop of spiraling gang violence where over 60 people were killed.
By promising to get tough on such crime, the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, and the Moderate Party led the right-wing bloc to victory. Their success also provided the PS with an important migrant crime theme to exploit politically. The problem, however, was that Finland’s youth gang problem was small compared with Sweden’s.
In the autumn of last year, the police estimated that there were 100-200 gang members in Helsinki and Turku.
As crime is usually an important topic covered by the media, it attracts more attention if so-called people of foreign backgrounds are part of the narrative. Should it surprise us that coverage of Finland’s youth gang “problem” started to grow rapidly in October after the September elections of Sweden?
In the May 1981 issue, the Foreign Student continued to mirror the activism of some of the Foreign Students Club’s members against Finland’s arbitrary and unjust treatment of foreigners. The newsletter reported on the Mayday petition, which received over 500 signatures demanding basic human rights for foreigners.
“If unity creates strength, don’t whisper anymore,” wrote the May issue of the Foreign Student.
Migrant Tales will publish all of the eleven issues of the Foreign Student, the newsletter of the Foreign Students Club of Helsinki. The March 1981 issue continued to test the waters by speaking out for foreigners’ rights.
Writes the Foreign Student: “Foreigners in Finland are taking a new stand concerning their rights here. All of us are asking: why such a tough stand concerning us while the Finnish Authorities are hypersensitive about the way Finns are treated aboard, as for example in Sweden?”
The February 1981 issue was the second of eleven newsletters that came out. The Foreign Student played an important role in giving migrants a voice during a period when foreigners were supposed to remain quiet about their civil rights.
Published in 1981, I wouldn’t have used today words like “Gypsy” and “Lapp” to refer to the Roma and Saami, respectively.
The second issue tried to speak about immigration and question Finland’s very restrictive policy towards foreigners.
Migrant Tales will begin to publish the Foreign Student, the newsletter of the Foreign Students Club of Helsinki. The January 1981 issue was the first newsletter, which came out 11 times until January 1982. The Foreign Student played an important role in giving migrants a voice during a period when foreigners were supposed to remain quiet about their civil rights.
When the Foreign Student was published about 11,000 foreigners lived in Finland. Most of these foreigners were Finns who were naturalized Swedes.
It also helped to drive up membership of the club and gave the foreign community a needed voice.
The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has had a long love affair with Denmark’s anti-Muslim immigration policy, one of the toughest in Europe. With loaded guns in government, the PS must be happy that they can adopt, with the blessings of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the two minor coalition partners, the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) and Christian Democrats (KD), that country’s harsh immigration policy.
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) used to call the anti-immigration shots in government but in recent years their support has declined abruptly. In the 2022 election, the DPP lost 11 seats to remain with five seats in parliament, which is a far cry from the 37 seats they won in 2015.
The fortunes of the DPP have been undermined by the Social Democrats who have adopted and succumbed to the same hardline immigration policy and rehotirc of the far-right party.
While some are debating if a radical right party becomes more moderate when in government, Denmark offers us an answer: it radicalizes other parties who must adopt more hostile stances in order to survive and not be devoured by a populist party.
Apart from the government’s immigration policy that disenfranchises migrants by weakening more their civil rights and making them vulnerable to exploitation by employers, one wonders how far the PS – with the blessing of the NCP, SPP and KD – will go in order to make life difficult for migrants.
in Denmark, the DPP went as far as to force migrants to speak only Danish at home and deport whole families if a member is convicted of a crime. When will we see the following aims below in Finland?
Spearheading these radical changes in Finland’s immigration policy is PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. She recently announced plans to speed up the asylum process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.
Thanks to Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” we can now get a terrific glimpse of the suffering of asylum seekers who were used as political pawns by Belarus and Poland. Since it would have been impossible to film the movie in Belarus or Poland, Holland created a movie with actors to debict these people’s suffering.
Writes the Guardian: “Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.”
The movie also exposes the hypocrisy and racism of Europe towards such people.
“The end of the film makes the explicit comparison between the two refugee crises,” the daily continued, “and the different receptions granted to Ukrainians and to the much smaller number of darker-skinned refugees from Africa and the Middle East received at the border.”
In Finland, Perussuomalaiset* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen announced a tightening of asylum procedures in Finland by speeding up the process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.
If there is a big divide and mistrust between the media and the Muslim community it was exposed by a scoop the tabloid ilta-Sanomaton a secret “mosque” in a Helsinki nursery. Throughout the years, some Muslim imams and other members of the community have expressed apprehension of the Finnish media.
For those who may not know, Finland has only one mosque built in the 1940s located in Järvenpää, a short drive north of Helsinki. All the rest of these mosques without a minaret are, in fact, prayer rooms.
Finland’s only mosque with a minaret is located in Järvenpää and was built in the 1940s. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.
True, some Muslims call prayer rooms mosques.
While many will disagree with Suomen Muslimifoorumi’s Aladin Maher about his views on gay marriage and the great replacement conspiracy theory, the underlying message of the stories written about the “mosque” reveals a deep-seated mistrust of Muslims that is amplified by politicians from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*and National Coalition Party.
The story about the mosque awoke Finland’s Islamophobic hardliners like Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Minister Wille Rydman, MPs like Atte Kaleva, Joakim Vigelius, never mind the thousands of hostile comments on social media.
All of these politicians and ministers had something bad to say about the mosque and Maher and exposed their hypocrisy.
We shouldn’t be surprised the these hostile comments came mostly from the Islamophobic PS and National Coalition Party.
If the ongoing hostile comments are anything to go by, it shows that any meaningful dialogue between some sectors of Finnish society and the Muslim community is light years away.
Rejection by the media and certain politicians of Muslims ensures that nothing will change.
Monen mielestä hallitsematon maahanmuutto alkoi vietnamilaisten venepakolaisten saapuessa 1970 luvun lopussa. Vielä enemmän säikähdettiin, kun ensimmäiset somalipakolaiset tulivat v. 1990.
Hallitsematon maahanmuutto lisääntyi nopeasti 2000-luvulla. Päivittäiseksi ongelmaksi asia nousi Jussi Halla-ahon myötä n. vuodesta 2006 lähtien.
Vuonna 2008 hallitsematon maahanmuutto oli jo täysin sekoittanut Helsingin asuntomarkkinat.
Jytkyvaalit 2011 olivat jo mennä täysin persujen piikkiin. Lupaavat kokoomusnuoret sentään keräilivät osan hallitsemattomasta maahanmuutosta Kokoomukselle. 14.3.2011
Timo Soini on yksi taitavimmista hallitsemattoman maahanmuuton käyttäjistä. Jos joltakulta puoluekaverilta siinä sivussa ihan vahingossa lipsahtaa kiihottaminen kansanryhmää vastaan, Timo on aina päässyt pälkähästä lauseella: ”Itse en sanoisi noin.” 12.10.2015
Sauli Niinistö on puheissaan jatkuvasti hyödyntänyt hallitsematonta maahanmuuttoa, vaikka ei haluakaan leimautua sen enempää kokoomuslaisiin kuin perussuomalaisiin kannattajiinsa. 3.2.2016
