Author: Migrant Tales
Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Yle continues to shamefully label racialized youths as dangers to society
The Finnish mainstream media has a poor reputation in the eyes of racialized Finns for spreading and labeling them. Yle did it again on its 8:30 pm news, where it led with a picture of a white youth giving the finger, followed by no sources except for “the police believes” that street gang criminal activity has taken a turn for the worst.
Then the reporter gives her verdict, sourcing her opinions to the police without mentioning statistical information, never mind an official’s name.
“Shootings in public places, bragging about criminals and showing it on social media indicate that street gang criminal activity has grown in Finland, according to the police.”
The Yle reporter states that the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) said four years ago that there were no youth street gangs in Finland. Today there are about ten gangs, mainly in Turku and Helsinki and surroundings, with about 200 members, according to the police.
Who are these youth gang members anyway?
Surprise, surprise: “Youth gangs are different from motorcycle gangs,” the reporter states, “since they listen to rap music, they are mainly men of foreign background and exert influence in the neighborhoods they live.”
Continue reading “Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Yle continues to shamefully label racialized youths as dangers to society”Twitter (Petra Laiti): Anti-Saami hatred in this Nordic human rights paradise
I had the opportunity to interview Petra Laiti in 2017. A steadfast activist for Saami rights, I remember one matter from the interviews: Her clear views and eloquence. She is a gifted leader.
If Finland has a questionable reputation, how it treats Others like migrants and minorities, the Saami is a case in point. In the 1970s, Finland still punished school pupils for speaking their home language.
Laiti said in the interview her advice on how to confront racism and hatred: “Make as much noise as you can! she said.
Kanta-Häme court that dropped charges in hijab case against the police will be appealed, according to prosecutor
A Kanta-Häme district court that dropped charges against seven police officials and security guards for forcibly removing in 2017 two Muslim women’s hijabs will not be treated by the court in what remains of the year but in 2023, according to prosecutor Heidi Savurinne.
The case is significant from the view of religious freedom and equality before the law. Why are asylum seekers forced to remove their hijabs for police photos if those with residence permits don’t have to? As long as a woman’s face isn’t covered, EU law allows women to use the hijab for a passport picture.
Blast from the past: A call to demonstrate in 1982
It’s been over 40 years since a group of foreigners and Finns organized a demonstration from the Porthania’s University of Helsinki to the steps of parliament. It happened on a Tuesday, 19 October, and it was a very cold day.
For further reading: Culturally diverse Finland has a history.
These were the statements we put out on that memorable day.
Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Why are shoplifting Romany women news?
Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, which has had a murky history for publishing and attacking Somalis and other migrants in the 1990s, publishes a story about two Romany women who shoplift 2,600 euros of merchandise.
Certainly, shoplifting is a crime, but what about when a tabloid publishes a story that reinforces stereotypes about a certain group? Considering that Ilta-Sanomat was responsible in the 1990s for fueling Finnish racism against groups like the Somalis, isn’t that “a crime” also?
Apart from pointing out that the two women had hidden the merchandise in their Romany dresses, one of the suspects had yelled and acted aggressively against the security guard.
What would have happened if the shoplifters had been white Finns? If it were news, the tabloid would probably lead with the following headline: “A white Finns shoplifts.”
Who would be interested in reading such a story?
In our opinion, the story about the Romany women shoplifters has no other role than exposing the reporter’s prejudices and racist stereotypes of Romany women.
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Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: How #astudio persecutes and labels migrant youths with dubious talking points
#Astudio host Marja Sannikka kicks off the next topic on the talk show on gang violence with the following words that sound like a thriller: “Knives, violence, revenge. Finnish youth gang crime grows at a worrying pace.”
In the talk show, does Sannikka gives us any facts about “the worrying [growth] pace” of gang violence in Finland? Instead, she speaks to four youths in the Vantaa neighborhood of Tikkurilla who give their views on the topic without any facts.
“I think matters have got worse in the past two years,” says one, “while another says that “people act more aggressively than before.” Knives and other weapons are more common, according to them.
While – again, without any statistical data – it takes about 10 minutes for Sannikka to mention that magic scapegoat word, “person of foreign background.” According to her, the police claim that 90% of the gang members are “people of foreign background.”
If you make such a claim, the host should back it up with facts. Moreover, how many so-called “people of migrant backgrounds” belong to gangs? 90%? 70%? 30%? 1%? 0.001%?
Most first- and second-generation Finns don’t belong to gangs and do something more useful with their time.
Why does Sannikka use #astudio to label and victimize all migrant youths?
Police officer Markku Heinikari has no answers about the roots of this problem and what to do about it. Mika Mehmet, the social worker who grew up in two cultures, mentioned that it had to do with belonging and a weak sense of identity.
What Mehmet said is correct but did not go far enough: What about the role of racism and the lack of adequate social services? How do talk shows like the one by #astudio contribute to the problem?
Continue reading “Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: How #astudio persecutes and labels migrant youths with dubious talking points”
Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Don’t cry Finland if you don’t like migrants
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulation daily, writes in an editorial about why the country needs labor migrants to secure economic growth and services offered by the welfare state. We are at a critical crossroads: It is the first time in history that more people die than there are newborns.
While the editorial invites debate on Finland’s serious demographic woes, it is misleading because it only highlights the usual talking points by leaving out new arguments offered by brown and black Finn migrant researchers.
The editorial bases its call for more labor migrants on the pension insurance group Varma CEO Risto Murto’s book, Puuttuvat puoli miljoonaa, The missing half a million.
Murto’s book does not reveal anything new about Finland’s demographic woes. Over one-fourth of about 8% of Finland’s foreign population in 2020 lives in Helsinki; in 2035, it will rise to over a third; the low employment levels of people who came to Finland as refugees.
While Murto does not explain why the employment level of Afghans, Iraqis, Somalis, and other people of color is low in Finland, he and Helsingin Sanomat leave out the fact that their employment level rises the longer they live in Finland.
For some odd reason, the Helsingin Sanomat editorial and Murto forget to mention that refugees in Finland comprise about 10% of all foreigners. As we know and have seen, Finland’s hostile environment against visible migrants spread by parties like the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), Christian Democrats, and others.
When they attack foreigners, such parties speak of this group as one group, “migrants.”
Finland has historically shunned immigrants, even if it is a country of emigrants. In the 1970s, when hundreds of thousands of Finns were moving to Sweden, the country decided against labor immigration to plug the economically active population deficit.
Several questions arise on how Finland could be a magnet for labor migrants. Less bureaucracy, family reunification, child education, Finnish- and Swedish-language lessons.
Of all of the factors Murto believes would attract labor migrants, the most important one is missing: a migrant and minority-friendly society that is inclusive.
The latter is easier said than done. Historically and politically today, Finland has shot itself in the demographic leg by allowing its suspicion of outsiders to overtake the better of them.
Continue reading “Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Don’t cry Finland if you don’t like migrants”Being a racist or a closet racist in Finland and eating your cake and having it too
Any serious student of Finnish society should eventually grasp that institutional racism is one of the mothers of all social ills in the country. Institutional racism gives cover to racists and to the toxic white saviors who do irreparable harm to migrants and minorities.
You don’t need a lot of research to figure out the latter. Look at people who have the power to enforce and regulate it.
If the issue is institutional racism, why does Finlan do so little to challenge it? One of many examples of discrimination is the labor market. Why do we rarely read in the media about the authorities clamping down on this problem? It is, instead, a new study over an old one highlighting this problem.
The answer reveals a sad truth: there is no intention or political will to change matters. The situation is what it is because they are supposed to be that way.
US social thinker James Baldwin put it in the following words:
Source: GoodReads
Without any intention of changing matters, rest assured that most projects with newcomers will miss the mark or fail outright. The integration authorities will feed newcomers the usual half-truths about Finnish social justice, which is highly selective.
Unfortunately, the latter will happen with some of the blessings of our culturally diverse communities.
Even so, I am confident the more Finland’s culturally diverse population grows, the more evident this social ill will be, and the need to change it permanently.
Sweden’s election and UK PM Liz Truss’ demise are a warning to Finland’s National Coalition Party
Populism is a good way to win elections but an impossible way to govern.
How far will right-wing parties like the Moderate Party of Sweden go to make a pact with their political devils? How much populism and empty nationalism led to the demise of UK Prime Minister Liz Truss? These are valid questions for Finland’s National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which is making similar pacts with populism.
Kokoomus, like the Moderate Party of Sweden, and the rapid downfall of UK Prime Minister Truss must have raised some concerns. An election strategy is needed for April, but peppered with toxic populism and anti-immigration soundbites?
Finland faces a lot of challenges. For one, it needs labor migrants but this is difficult to realize on a grand scale because the Perussuomalaiset, Kokoomus, and other parties that attack and see migrants as a threat.
Politicians make fiery speeches against migrants – note they speak of all migrants – and then expect people to move here. Even for some who live here, the environment looks and feels hostile.
If we continue down the road of populism and exclusive nationalism, it’s clear that our future spells ruin.
Disagree?
See the UK before and after Brexit.