Author: Migrant Tales

When racism attacks its eager keeper in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Racism is a serious social ill that festers in all societies. Some parties, like the Persussuomalaiset (PS), appear to be dazzled by the political opportunities it offers in the way of votes, public attention and fueling their nihilism. What they forget, however, is that racism has no master and can bite back at its eager keepers. 

Anders Breivik, who went on a mass-killing rampage in Norway on July 22, is a recent example of how racism and xenophobia can turn against those that let it out of the cage.

After racism bit back at one of its keepers in Norway, we have seen anti-immigration parties in Norway, Denmark and Sweden lose ground.

The PS as well appears rightfully concerned about the negative impact of the racism and bigotry that some of their party members have spread wholesale with gusto.

This explains why PS MP James Hirvisaari, one of the most far-right anti-immigration extremists in Timo Soini’s party, is appealing the government to stop the deportation of a Vietnamese family, according to Uusi Suomi.

Migrant Tales, which has followed the PS like white on rice, knows perfectly well that Hirvisaari’s appeal is only crocodile tears. It is a cheap political stunt by him to shake off some well-earned and self-inflicted labels of his party like racism, bigotry, homophobia, male chauvinism and neo-Nazism.

Hirvisaari’s opportunistic ploy is a positive sign, however. It shows that the PS is clearly concerned about the damage that its anti-immigration stand can and has inflicted on the party.

The ugly face of racism in Finland is alive and kicking on Facebook (Lieksa)

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By Enrique Tessieri

If you want to see the face of racism in the raw in Finland, visit the following Facebook website called “Mamu keskustelu ilman sensuuria (lieksa),” or “Immigrant debate without censorship (Lieksa).” After reading a few threads you will see the face of racism in Finland stare back at you fully exposed and unrestrained.

It is welcome news that the police took action Friday against some of the people on the Facebook site for inciting racial hatred and, worse, encouraging violence against the roughly 200 immigrants that live in the small city of 12,800 inhabitants.

Lieksa is a small city in the eastern Finnish region of Pohjois-Karjala, a region well known in Finland for its issues with racism. Even so, a lot of people as well as organizations like JoMoni in Joensuu are doing a lot of work to challenge the ever-growing face of racism in this part of Finland.

Pohjois-Karjala launched in the 1970s a successful health campaign to lower cholesterol levels and save lives. The region should  launch a very strong campaign against racism to save this part of Finland from social and economic impoverishment due to the hostile attitudes of some of their inhabitants.

Who wants to move or live in a region that has a racist label hanging over its head? How many companies would relocate there? How many students from outside the region want to study in a city that has such a dubious reputation?

One matter is clear when reading some of the comments on “Immigrant debate without censorship (Lieksa)” from the festering wound of racism in that city: Shameless ignorance. Some of those that post on the Facebook site don’t even understand that they have serious issues with their racist attitudes.

Sad, but true.

Spiegel Online International: Neo-Nazi Killings Expose Broad German Xenophobia

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Comment: If you want to learn about how to treat neo-Nazi and far right parties, Germany would be the place to begin your search. Due to the horrific things that happened in Germany under the Nazi regime, the Germans if anyone know how self-destructive racism and xenophobia can be. 

Taking into account the rise of a populist party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) that is anti-EU, anti-immigration and above all anti-Muslim, will we see in Finland more far-right parties gaining strength? If this happens, we have nobody else to blame than ourselves.  

We should not lay a red carpet for far-right parties. We lay a red carpet and bow to them whenever we are silent and don’t ask serious questions like journalist Lisa Bjurwald does in her latest book, “Euroopan häpeä – Rasistien voittokulku.”

Like the Spiegel Online International story below, which shows how neo-Nazi groups have been killing immigrants in Germany, an eerie question stares back at us: When will it happen here, especially after the horrific events that took place in Norway on July 22? 

During these very difficult times when racism and xenophobia are raising their heads in Finland, it is important that we look at countries where these types of social ills have been a problem before. Germany is one of these countries. 

Writes Spiegel Online International: “When racism raises its ugly specter in Germany, the response has always been the same: block it out, look the other way, change the subject. No one says anything when a woman in a supermarket in Greifswald is spit on because she looks Asian.” 

Just like neo-Nazi killings expose broad German xenophobia and racism, we should be just as concerned about the rise of these social ills in Finland. 

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A Commentary by Stefan Kuzmany

The discovery of a neo-Nazi terror cell in Germany has many concerned about the country’s reputation. With good reason. Racism and xenophobia have deep roots in German society — and the vocabulary used to describe the right-wing extremist crime spree is telling.

Read whole story.

HS in English: Prospect of dancing gays keeps MP away from Independence Day reception

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Comment: Homophobic comments by Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Pentti Oinonen raise an interesting question about Finland’s third-largest party: How many or its MPs AREN’T xenophobic, racist, far right or homophobic? 

Oinonen explained his decision to not attend the president’s annual December 6 independence day reception by quoting a recently-deceased war veteran: “He said that he would not have fought on behalf of Finnish independence if he would have known that homosexuals would be dancing at the Independence Day celebration. That is a shocking experience for a veteran.”

The PS MP’s comment raised a furry on different social media websites. 

One of Finland’s best known gay figures, Touko “Tom of Finland” Laaksonen, was a decorated war veteran. 

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True Finns MP Pentti Oinonen has announced that he will not attend the President’s annual Independence Day reception on December 6th this year. Oinonen said that he would not be comfortable at a party attended only by people who are well off.

Read whole story.

Exemplary Finns and exemplary immigrants

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By Enrique Tessieri

You don’t need the acceptance of over 5 million people to feel welcome in Finland. Only a few exemplary people will do, even one or two persons. Even though I am a Finn with a multicultural background, these exemplary people have given me strength and belief in this society.

A situation or a person can change your life for good, even a simple sentence uttered.

I hope that immigrants and minorities who live in Finland meet and find more of those exemplary Finns. There are more of them than people think especially during these politically turbulent times fueled by intolerance, racism and hatred.

Those that encourage social inequality of immigrants and minorities are the total opposite of those exemplary Finns. They are the shameful Finns who can still learn to become exemplary.

The first exemplary Finns I met were my grandparents, mother and later on writers like Eeva Kilpi as well as many others.

I met Kilpi in 1967 by chance when I landed in front of her summer house in the middle of an open field that was hugged by a tranquil sunny afternoon forest.  We still see each other and remember how we met on that special day forty-five years ago.

She wrote about our meeting in the woods of Savo in a book called Häätanhu and encouraged me to never to return to Finland as a foreigner.

I believe that our instant bond of friendship had to do a lot with displacement. She was a refugee from Karelia and I was the son of immigrant parents living in Los Angeles, California. Our common love was a home called Finland and its sublime woods.

There are many other exemplary Finns that I have met in this country and abroad as well. One matter that unites all of them is that they not only accepted who I was but encouraged me to be that person.

Just as there are exemplary Finns there are as well exemplary immigrants.

KU Verkkolehti: Rasistinen äärioikeisto hivuttautuu valtavirtaan

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Comment: Lisa Bjurwald’s book, Euroopan häpeä – Rasistien voittokulku (Art House), is not only encouraging but a constant reminder of the threat that far-right and right-wing populist anti-immigration parties pose on Europe and countries like Finland. 

You can read as well about Bjurwald and the launching of her book Wednesday on Uusi Suomi and Demari. One of the many interesting points she points out is that no far-right party in Europe considers itself politically in the extreme right never mind spreading racist ideology.

There is, however, according to Bjurwald enough evidence to show that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is no different from other populist ones like the Sweden Democrats.  The Guardian headlined an interview with PS head Timo Soini as a “far-right Finnish politician.” 

Said Bjurwald on Uusi Suomi: “Timo Toini operates as a typical (like other populist parties in Europe) stating that the Perussuomalaiset (party) does not approve racism. But they do accept it, if not these representatives would have gotten kicked out of the party.”

She adds: “Not even our racists (in Sweden) are this stupid (as the PS).”

The job of condemning the PS’ racism and hostility towards minorities like homosexuals shows that still some of the Finnish media, political parties and the general public don’t take seriously the message of intolerance and hatred coming out of the PS.

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Arto Huovinen

Euroopassa on pitkään suhtauduttu aivan liian huolettomasti äärioikeistosta tulevaan uhkaan, sanoo aiheesta kirjan kirjoittanut ruotsalainen toimittaja Lisa Bjurwald.

Read whole story.

HS.fi: Rasistikin suvaitsee itseään

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Comment: An editorial by Helsingin Sanomat follows up a pole published on Saturday, which showed that 51% of Perussuomalaiset (PS) supporters believed that some ethnicities and cultures were so backward that they could never live among us. 

The affirmation, that because they are so different from us, is not only a racist view as Helsingin Sanomat points out but an old excuse by anti-immigration parties to justify racism. 

It is an encouraging sign that Finland’s biggest daily knows how to call racism for what it is: unacceptable and shameful in our society. 

It’s pretty incredible that PS head Timo Soini, who tries to portray himself as a good cop to the public, has nothing intelligent to say about the poll except that publishing it was proof of how biased the media is to his party. 

Racism, like any type of social illness, must be challenged. There are certain values in our societies that are inalienable. One of these are inclusion, social equality and justice. Racism is a destructive force that eats away at our values and society. It impoverishes us in many ways.  

The fact that the PS does not want to debate these polls and racism within its ranks is highly revealing. The party’s silence speaks a thousand volumes.

Migrant Tales gives a big thumbs up to Helsingin Sanomat and a big thumbs down to the PS. 

As a follow up, check out the opinion piece by Seppo Kononen on Savon Sanomat. Good analysis except for the last sentence, where he asks Halla-aho who would clean the streets of Helsinki if there were no foreigners. Don’t Finns clean streets as well? Are immigrants all seen as cheap labor doing menial jobs?

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Keskustelu suomalaisten rasismista ja sen heijastumisesta politiikkaan on lukkiintunut toistuvaan kaavaan. Muiden puheenvuoroissa arvioidaan, että rasismi ja muukalaispelko ovat lisänneet perussuomalaisen puolueen kannatusta.

Read whole story.

Racism in Finland: She loves me, she loves me not…

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The region of Pohjois-Karjala in eastern Finland has gained a dubious reputation for being one of Finland’s hotspots of racism. A poll published by Joensuu-based Karjalainen shows that while people from this region are  not against labor immigrants but they don’t want refugees moving there. 

If I interpreted one of the findings of the poll correctly, everything is supposedly fine in Pohjois-Karjala for immigrants as long as they go to work there and pay taxes, right?

Wrong.

If anything, the poll reveals how deep in denial some inhabitants of the region are concerning racism and how it has flourished. Remember the businessmen who did not want people with “pigment problems” to apply? What about those establishments owned by self-employed immigrants that have been attacked in cities like Joensuu? Ever heard of Lieksa?

The poll even suggests blame on immigrants: There was no racism in our town before foreigners came here.

Even if some inhabitants of the region may not want refugees, I wonder if any person would want to move to a city like Lieksa?

Despite the big challenges that Pohjois-Karjala faces, Karjalainen and associations like JoMoni led by Alain Miguet have done a lot of good work on the anti-racism front.

Their jobs are not made easier by parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which have not made a clear break with racism. Instead, some of their MPs even openly promote it.  The PS are now the biggest party in Pohjois-Karjala, according to a poll published on Turn Sanomat.

The more racism lifts its head in Finland, doublespeak explanations claiming that we don’t have a problem with such a social ill will become more prominent.

We will claim that we like certain immigrants but loathe others.

Pohjalainen.fi: Perhe-elämä kuuluu ihmisoikeuksiin

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Comment: Below is a very good letter to the editor on family reunification published on Vaasa-based daily Pohjalainen. It is surprising that Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Christian Democrats (KD) that stresses the importance of family values, wants to tighten family reunification laws even further.

It’s not that Finland is being invaded by families of immigrants and refugees. In the last 12 years an average of 329 people annually have been able to bring their families to Finland.  Forty percent of all applications are rejected by the authorities. 

The anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is most likely the reason explains Räsänen’s and the government’s stance. Acting tough — they believe — on immigration is good for the polls and keeps the PS from growing further at their expense.   

Räsänen’s and the government’s view about tightening family reunification laws is a disturbing glimpse of how Finland procrastinates on this front. How can you accept an asylum seeker,  who is a minor, and deny that person the right to have his parents by his side? That is pretty inhumane in my opinion. 

Certainly if you believe that Somalia is a peaceful place and all those that come from there are fake asylum seekers, then I understand why you want to make family reunification more difficult.

A visit to Mogadishu by Räsänen and other Finns would do wonders to wake them up to the suffering and squalor there.  

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Emina Arnautovic

Nykyisessä hallituksessa maahanmuuttokysymykset ovat sisäasianinministerin pöydällä. Kristillisdemokraattien puheenjohtaja Päivi Räsänen on lyhyenä ministerikautenaan antanut muutamia lausuntoja maahanmuuttopolitiikkaan liittyen. Viimeksi hän esitti perheyhdistämisen sääntöjen kiristämistä, vaikka ministeri Astrid Thors korjasi todettuja ongelmia jo edellisellä hallituskaudella.

Read whole story.

Knowledge about the threat of racism is nothing new in Finland

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Lame excuses like “we haven’t had too many immigrants in Finland” are used to justify some of our knee-jerk reactions towards other groups. A talk about racism over 40 years ago on YLE shows that there were people in Finland who understood perfectly well what racism is and what kind of a threat it poses to society.

Check out the talk, Mitä on rasismi (What is racism), on Elävä arkisto.

The nineteen-minute talk on YLE in 1969 shows that people in Finland could analyze what racism is and how racists create and spread urban myths about other groups.

Jussi Jalonen’s blog on Uusi Suomi shows eloquently how groups like the PS’s hit-and-please-forget tactics on racism.

If it was pretty clear to the YLE commentator what a racist was over 40 years ago why is it difficult for some of us don’t know what it is today? Racists are either too opportunistic and/or ignorant to know that racism is a big no-no in a modern society like Finland.

What they do, however, is rehash old racist theories and offer them as something new, which they are not.

Apologies on behalf of the commentator for using the term “n-word” in Finnish.

Thanks to Janne Suuronen for the heads-up.