Author: Migrant Tales

Thank you for making Migrant Tales what it is today

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By Enrique Tessieri

My personal gratitude goes to all the bloggers that have made Migrant Tales “a voice for those immigrants and minorities whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.”

Our latest recognition comes from Aleksandr Shatravka, who we met thanks to this blog. Thanks to that meeting, I was able to publish in Apu magazine one of Finland’s first-ever comprehensive stories about what happened to Soviet refugees when they were caught by Finnish Border Guards and returned to the USSR.

I had waited over 25 years to meet one of these former Soviet refugees.

Shatravka has now published a book in which he cites Migrant Tales.

Migrant Tales has been mentioned elsewhere as well: Here is a link to Dunia Magazine that published a column by yours truly. Migrant Tales has got attention from some important news publications. In the spring I got a call from a journalist from “Deutschlandradio”, the National German Radio, it was mentioned on Time Magazine right after the April 17 election, and recently I got a call from the BBC. is another Twitter publication that picks up our blog entries as well as other ones like The Finns Daily.

I am very pleased that what we write on Migrant Tales gets noticed in and out of Finland.

Our success would not have been possible without you!

Spiegel Online International: How 9/11 Triggered America’s Decline

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Comment:  The impact of 9/11 can be clearly seen after ten years of that devastating attack that made the United States lose its way in the so-called war on terror declared by former President George W. Bush.

Contrary to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who said right after the mass killings by Anders Breivik that Norway’s answer would be more openness and more democracy, Bush went on a $3-trillion foreign policy crusade that has cost the United States dearly.

Writes Speigel Online International:  “For a short time after the attacks, the country seemed united. Americans embraced each other. Even the cold city of New York suddenly seemed warm. But instead of cultivating public spirit, President Bush sought to find a pretext — any pretext — to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. This is his most tragic legacy, the fact that America can no longer even mourn its victims properly — because Americans have long been not just victims, but also perpetrators.”

If there is one party in Finland that can thank Bush it is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The US’ war against the Muslim world gave rise to Islamophobists like Jussi Halla-aho and a long list of others. Without their anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric the PS could have never won 39 seats in the April election. 

In 2003 I published an opinion-piece on Suomen Kuvalehti on the US invasion of Iraq and how it would have catastrophic consequences for the credibility of that country. At least for me, the Iraq invasion was a strong whiff of deja vu since it was the way Washington handled its big-stick policy in Latin America.

“Latin America was a region where coups – oops! régime change — occurred on a grand scale. If experience of how the U.S. influenced Latin America in the last century is anything to go by, the people of the Middle East are in big trouble,” I wrote back in 2003.

Probably the saddest matter of 9/11 is that the United States under Bush started to believe its own spin and invincibility.

Where were you on 9/11 and how to do you think that attack, which should be seen as a crime and not as a declaration of war against all Muslims, changed the world?

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The events of Sept. 11, 2001 led to a wave of solidarity with the US. But the superpower has lost that goodwill over the course of the wars it subsequently waged. Now America is mainly seen not as the victim of terrorism, but as a perpetrator of violence itself.

Read whole story.

HS.fi: Salon irtisanottu talonmies palaa töihin

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Comment: The fired building superintendent, who got laid off because clients complained of his ethnic background, has been rehired by his former employer Salon Omakotiyhdistys ry, according to HS.fi quoting Finnish News Agency (STT).

The moral of the incident? If you expose discrimination and racism things may change.

Keeping quiet if you are a victim of discrimination and racism is as bad as working in the black. In both cases you forfeit your rights and leave your future to chance.

Another encouraging matter about the incident shows that things can change for the better in Finland but there is one key requirement: Silence is a definite no-no.

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STT

Turku. Salossa irtisanottu ulkomaalaistaustainen talonmies palaa takaisin töihin. Salon omakotiyhdistys pyysi aiemmin miestä palaamaan, ja hän kertoi perjantaina tulevansa takaisin.

Read whole story.

Community Village blog: What makes us what we are

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Comment: I was kind of shocked to hear last week the views on immigration of a prominent member of the community and a member of a large political party: “Finland must close its borders to immigrants,” he said. What surprised me most about his argument was that he considered Finns as some endangered human group in Europe that once hunted mammoths. The “colonizers” were modern-day immigrants who would wipe out the Finns as Christopher Columbus did with the Amerindians when he landed on the island of Hispanola in 1492.

One matter to keep in mind when hearing these types of arguments is that whenever a person speaks of Finns as a tribe he or she is flirting with racism. If there is one matter that awakens the racist spirit in Finns it is classifying ourselves as a tribe or, worse, as an endangered group of people.

Actor Edward James Olmos in the youtube clip below puts the whole perspective of race and/or ethnicity in perspective. In the US people like to use the term “race” whereas in Europe we use “ethnicity” to mean the same thing. Even so, the US used to classify blacks and Asians as a race but European immigrants as ethnic groups. 

According to Olmos, it is incredible that we use race as a cultural determinant. “To this date you should never invited me here,” he told a group at the UN. “Because I detest what we have done to ourselves. Out of a need to make ourselves different from one another we made the term race a way of expressing culture…There is only one race and that is the human race.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSFDrOxWCXY&feature=player_embedded]

Why are some Finns obsessed about ethnicity? Is it because it is an effective way of controlling and excluding others from society and its resources?

What do you think?

Thank you @getgln for the heads up!

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Ethnicity is amorphous, and only a small fraction of what makes us who we are. “There are no races, there are only clines,”  according to antrhopologist Frank Livingstone.

Helsinki Times: Finnish insurer to pay damages to Congolese families

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Comment: It is a positive sign that more cases of racial discrimination are becoming public. One of these below was by Lähivakutus, an insurance company, which refused  to pay damages to a dozen Congolese families in Kajaani because they weren’t Finnish citizens. The insurer admitted its mistake and accepted to pay damages to the families only after the case was taken to the Ombudsman for Minorities. 

These cases, like the building superintendent in Salo who was fired because of his ethnic origin, are unfortunately the tip of the iceberg of a probably much widespread problem in Finland. Unfortunately, many immigrants who are victims of discrimination refuse to take action on their own. 

It is very important that when we are victims of discrimination we file a complaint. This is not only important for us but to our children and grandchildren so they may live one day in a country where these types of practices are the exception.

In the 1980s I applied for an oil company Esso credit card but was refused on the grounds that I wasn’t a Finnish citizen. When I got my Finnish citizenship I applied for a credit card from the same company again. They said they would grant me the credit card but I now refused to accept it. 

A good starting point to report discrimination is the Ombudsman for Minorities.

You can reach them from Monday to Friday 10-12 at 071 878 8666.

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Finnish property and casualty insurer Lähivakuutus is to pay damages to a dozen Congolese families for discrimination, the Finnish minority ombudsman’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

Read whole story.

Here is the statement (in Finnish)  by the Ombudsman for Minorities.

YLE: Poliisi yllättynyt rasistisista asenteista

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Comment: I just love whenever I read that the police is “surprised” by the rise of racist attitudes in Finland. In an interview given to YLE, Etelä-Karjala region police chief Jyrki Wasastjernan said it was a surprise that such attitudes are rising even though the number of hate crimes reported to the authorities continue to be small.

Migrant Tales has assisted some immigrants in reporting hate crimes to the police. Reporting such a crime is easier said than done.

A serious journalist should do a bit more digging and find out why so few hate crimes are reported to the police and why racist attitudes towards Russians are gaining strength in cities like Imatra. Probably one answer is that the police and authorities don’t want to admit that hate crimes are a major problem facing our society and therefore rely too much on statistics for the truth.

I am certain that a hand-on-heart chat with some random Russian residents of Imatra could reveal a lot more than statistical information.

Just because hate crimes against immigrants in Etelä-Karjala is small could reveal just the opposite: racism, which undermines trust and credibility, is seen as such a big problem by some immigrants that they don’t bother to report it. It’s a bit like living in a dictatorship. You don’t report human rights violations because you fear you could become a victim.

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Poliisin näkökulmasta rasististen asenteiden kasvaminen Etelä-Karjalassa on yllätys. Rasistisia piirteitä sisältäneitä rikoksia on kuitenkin tullut esiin vain muutamia vuosittain.

Read whole story.

MTV3: Jari Tervo: Suomeen pitää saada lisää ulkomaalaisia

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Comment: Writer Jari Tervo continues to make waves in Finland about racism and the ever-growing immigrant population. He hoped that Finns would become more tolerant of other groups since the immigrant population in Finland has grown significantly in the last decade.

Tervo makes a very good point and addresses a big issue in this country: the lack of cultural diversity.

Finland’s cultural diversity was crippled in the last century when our foreign population plummeted. In 1920 we had 3.5 times more foreigners living in this country than in 1970, when the immigrant population totalled about 7,000. The biggest national group back then were Finns who had become naturalized Swedes. 

The lack of cultural diversity reveals a lot about us as a nation and society. The ongoing immigration debate is one of many examples. It shows how ill-prepared we are in accepting cultural diversity and how aggressively some of us react to it.

The lack of cultural diversity hurts how we approach and resolve problems. One of the reasons why we can still agree about our history is because cultural diversity was on the defensive. What do, for example, Russian Finns think about our independence and the Continuation War?

As our society becomes more culturally diverse, we will not only begin to look at ourselves differently but accept certain matters that are still unacceptable or still taboo about ourselves today.

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Kirjailija Jari Tervo syyttää yhä suomalaisia rasisteiksi. Hänen mukaansa esimerkiksi useissa nettikeskusteluissa kirjoitetaan rasistisia kommentteja. Tervon mielestä suomalaiset joutuvat pohtimaan uudella lailla suhtautumistaan ulkomaalaisiin ja erilaisiin ihmisiin.

Read whole story.

Salon Seudun Sanomat: Salolaisen maahanmuuttajatalkkarin työsuhde lopetettiin ehkä laittomasti

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Comment: Salon Seudun Sanomat reports that the odd-job man who was laid off from his job apparently because of his ethnic background plans to sue his former employer, Salon Omakotiyhdistys ry. 

The step taken by the laid-off employee is important for a number of reasons. For one, he is not only challenging racial discrimination at his former job but exposing how possibly other Finnish companies hire and fire immigrants. Challenging discrimination at the workplace and elsewhere is important for the sake of our children and future generations.

This case is a good example of how the media can bring to light discrimination in Finland and how it can be addressed.

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Salon omakotiyhdistys rikkoi maahanmuuttajatalkkarin työsuhteen lopettamisessa mahdollisesti kahta lakia. Näin sanoo Lounais-Suomen aluehallintoviraston työsuojelun vastuualueen lakimies Vesa Ullakonoja.

Read whole story.

Salon Seudun Sanomat: Maahanmuuttajan talkkariksi palkannut Salon omakotiyhdistys joutui peräytymään

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Comment: Here is a good example of how prejudice and racism work together in Finland. An odd-job man that worked for Salon Omakotiyhtistys was given the boot because clients complained that he was not only an immigrant but black as well. This happened in the city of Salo, located near Turku.

Imagine being hired to do a job and then your boss tells you that you have the wrong skin color and/or ethnic background.

I hope that victim gets hold of a good lawyer and sues the company for discrimination.

Do you agree?

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Salon omakotiyhdistyksen palkkaama maahanmuuttajataustainen talkkari ei kelvannut kaikille yhdistyksen jäsenille. He antoivat aiheesta palautetta myös puheenjohtajalleen Jaakko Korpelalle. Korpela sanoo suoraan, että asiakkaat eivät ottaneet talkkarin palveluja, kun kuulivat, että hän on maahanmuuttaja ja musta.

Read whole story.

guardian.co.uk: A world without borders makes economic sense

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Comment: Here is a good question: Why do we restrict immigration? Who does the present system benefit? These are some of the questions that Michael A Clemens looks at in the guardian.co.uk story below.

He writes:  “Large numbers of people wish to move permanently to another country – more than 40% of adults in the poorest quarter of nations. But most of them are either ineligible for any form of legal movement or face waiting lists of a decade or more. Those giant walls are a human creation, but cause more than just human harm: they hobble the global economy, costing the world roughly half its potential economic product.”

And continues: “Many people fear that even a minor increase in international migration will wreck their own economies and societies. Those fears deserve a hearing. They are old fears, of the kind that filled US newspapers a century ago. The US population subsequently quadrupled, largely through immigration to already-settled areas. Today, even in crisis, America is the richest country in the world. History, too, deserves a hearing.”

Do you agree?

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By Michael A Clemens

What is the biggest single drag on the beleaguered global economy? Opponents of globalisation might point to the current crisis, which shrank the world economy by about 5%. Proponents of globalisation might point to the remaining barriers to international flows of goods and capital, which also serve to shrink the world economy by approximately 5%. That sounds like a lot.

Read whole story.