Category: Enrique Tessieri

Nativist nationalist anti-cultural diversity politician Sampo Terho named as Finland’s minister of culture, sport and European affairs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What kind of message does the appointment of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho to minster of culture, sport and European affairs send? Does it strengthen our Nordic welfare state values or does it drive a wedge between us? Does it expose our denial of racism and bigotry in this country? 

If there is a government that has done great harm to our welfare state and our Nordic values it is without any doubt Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government. Apart from targeting the most vulnerable sectors of our society like single mothers, the unemployed and marginalized, the government’s inhuman and obsessive policies have targeted asylum seekers, migrants and minorities.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

This isn’t a government that has only tightened laws like family reunification and caused the number of undocumented migrants to soar, but has declared war on our ever-growing culturally diverse society as well.

Spearheading this hostility is the PS party, which has built its political campaign on anti-migration and especially anti-Islam rhetoric.

The new minister of culture, Terho, is no common politician but one that has built his political career and worldview on racist ideology that will end up undermining our Nordic welfare state and values.

Apart from being minister of culture, Terho is the chairman of the Association of Finnish Culture and Identity, an association whose main task is to exclude non-white Finns and minorities from being treated as equal members of society.

In 2007, the new minister of culture published a eugenics-spirited essay dividing humans into three racial groups (Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian) on the different races of the world and how the white Europeans were going to become a minority in the face of non-European migrants.

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Finland plans to deport another family with four children aged 1 to 6 years to Iraq

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if former Finnish President Tarja Halonen (2006-2012) said today that deportations of asylum seekers should be suspended until the authorities  have updated their security information of Afghanistan, Iraq and especially Syria, according to YLE News, there are plans to deport yet another Iraqi family with four children to their home country on Friday, April 28.  

The youngest child of the family is about a year old and the eldest 6 years.

One of the sources that is trying to help this family and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the family is in danger in Iraq because their mother could face an honor killing for not having the consent of her parents upon getting married.

“The family has two rejections for asylum and they are staying at the asylum reception center in Pori,” the person said. “I wish our government would follow the law and not return women and children back to conflict areas where they are put in harm’s way.”

The Finnish Constitution doesn’t allow minors and adults to be deported to war zones.

Section 9 of the Constitution guarantees:

“The right of foreigners to enter Finland and to remain in the country is regulated by an Act. A foreigner shall not be deported, extradited or returned to another country, if in consequence he or she is in danger of a death sentence, torture or other treatment violating human dignity.”

Three of the four children of the Iraqi family posing in the picture could be deported from Finland next week.

Taking into account the the number of deportations to countries like Iraq will pick up this year, the Finnish parliament approved in December that children can be locked up like common criminals like in the case of the Iraqi family of nine at the Joutsen immigration removal center.

All the Finnish parties except for the Greens, Left Alliance and the Swedish People’s Party voted in favor of the law, according to a statement by Amnesty International.

 

Defining white Finnish privilege #34: Building a political career on privilege and nativist nationalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Social Democrat MP Satu Taavitsainen found herself in a lot of hot water this week after she published a picture of herself in Instagram wearing a fake Sámi dress. While this is a no-no because minorities like the Sámi may see it as cultural appropriation, an MP like Taavitsainen should know better. 

But she didn’t, and hasn’t.

She claims that the Sámi dress she published a picture of in Instragram was made by a tailor for her mother and wanted to show it off. However, this is not the first time that the MP from Mikkeli has dressed up in Sámi attire. In the 2015 parliamentary elections, she was pictured wearing a four winds Sámi hat, called ?iehgahpir.

That picture above can no longer be found on her website.

While this whole affair raises a lot of question, why did Taavitsainen want to show off to her many Intagram followers her fake, or feikkigáktien, Sámi dress?

What’s wrong with what she did anyway?

If the SDP MP would have taken a little time to study the history of the Sámi and what they think in today’s Finland, she’d understand why it’s advisable not to do what she did. The reaction against what she did is one of many eamples.

Another problem that should be highlighted is not the physical dress per se but the message it sends about a minority like the Sámi.

For one, Taavitsainen, a white Finn, has the privilege and power to be “a Sámi” for a day if she wishes without carrying the burden of history of these people, which they must endure 365 days of the year.

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A member of the Solidiers of Odin carried out attack on #cupofteawithme demonstration in Oulu on April 7

Posted on by Migrant Tales

On April 7 at 4:40am the #cupofteawithme demonstration in Oulu was attacked when three unlit petrol bombs were thrown at the tent. One of the suspects, a member of the vigilante group Soldiers of Odin, was detained by the police, according to YLE. The police found as well two sticks of dynamite at the suspect’s home.

The police are investigating the attack on the demonstration as unlawful threat, an act of vandalism, and illegal possession of explosives.

On March 31, the Iraqi demonstrators were forced to move from the Oulu city center to Torinranta, a worse location since there are fewer people and apparently more dangerous and prone to attacks.

The #cupofteawithme demonstration in Oulu started [on March 11] as a show of support to the #righttolife demonstration in Helsinki organized by Afghans, Iraqis and Finns.

Read the full story here.

Helsinki Times: A rebuttal to Ville Tavio

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An op-ed piece published by the Helsinki Times on April 11 by Finns Party (PS) MP Ville Tavio is a good example of why migrants, minorities and sensible Finns should react and be concerned about the type of country some politicians want to steer Finland towards becoming.

Just as the headline of the op-ed piece is problematic, so are many of the arguments that Tavio sets forth. For example, the PS MP sees the movement of asylum seekers to Europe as an economic factor. He claims that Europe is an “attractive” destination for asylum seekers that “lack the necessary skills for employment and the will to adopt local habits and values.”

Read the full rebuttal here.

For one, somebody should tell Tavio that the vast majority of asylum seekers don’t come to Europe. It is only a minority. Most of them settle in countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and others. Moreover, the underlying reason why a minority of these asylum seekers came to Europe was because of war, as well as our values related to social equality and human rights.

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The flimsy bridge that bonds MV-lehti and Soldiers of Odin is racist hatred

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

MV-lehti is a racist trash “publication” that that steals stories and rewrites them to fit its racist world. Its “editor,” is none other than Ilja Janitskin, a fugitive from the law. One of the crimes that MV commits over again is that it defames people and exposes them to hate-vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin. In other words, MV incites racism and ethnic agitation.

An asylum seeker called Jihad Baghdadi is one of many that have been harassed by MV-lehti. His picture has been published without his permission and portrayed as “a terrorist.”

The snapshots below were published on Migrant Tales with Jihad Baghdadi’s permission. He wants to publish them to show that he won’t be pushed around by such a white-trash publication.

There are a lot of variants of the word terrorism. The origin of the word derives from terror and/or to terrorize and instill fear. There’s the regular type of terrorism, state terrorism and racist terrorism, too.

The asylum seeker Jihad Baghdadi, who was singled out by MV-lehti and portrayed as a “terrorist” by the publication is a good example of racist terrorism.

With no respect for people’s privacy, MV attempts to terrorize people with fake news.

Continue reading “The flimsy bridge that bonds MV-lehti and Soldiers of Odin is racist hatred”

Does Finland’s Migri asylum policy hinge on the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset party?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This warning posted on Tiia Nohynek’s Facebook wall today is the best example yet of how the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has influenced immigration policy in Finland. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) warns asylum seekers not to believe rumors and that nobody gets asylum for economic reasons. 

For those who know why asylum seekers come to Europe will appreciate that most of them come here because of what they have heard our politicians say publicly: human rights, peace and be treated with dignity.

The problem is that when they came to a country like Finland, they didn’t find such ideals, like human rights and being treated with dignity, didn’t apply to them.

Don’t believe rumours: YOU CANNOT GET ASYLUM in Finland on economic grounds. After receiving a negative asylum decision you must return home. If you try to abuse the system, financial assistance is not given. You may also be prohibited from entering the entire Schengen area for two years.

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The fate of the Iraqi family of nine who may end up deported still hangs in the balance

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The family of nine from Iraq, who are detained at the Joutseno immigration removal center in southeast Finland, sent a letter to Prime Minister Sipilä. It is beyond any person with a minimum sense of justice how children, between the ages of 1.5 and 14, can be detained like common criminals. 

There are many people who are outraged by Finland’s tough asylum policy and specifically with the detention of this Iraqi family, whose only “crime” is to search for a country where they can live free from strife and dignity.

“There is nothing new concerning this case,” said an activist who went to Joutseno today.

The family continues to be detained and deportation proceedings continue.

The source said that an earlier posting on Refugee Hospitality Club claiming that the family would be released soon because they have reapplied for asylum is false.

Two pictures that show the harsh reality of asylum seekers in Finland.

The family of nine sent a letter to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, which read:

Continue reading “The fate of the Iraqi family of nine who may end up deported still hangs in the balance”

PS MP Ville Tavio: An Islamophobe that is bent on keeping white Finnish power and privilege at any cost and lie

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When publishing anti-immigration rhetoric by politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Ville Tavio, it’s very important to lead with the following warning: “MP Talk gives members of parliament the opportunity to share their views on Finnish society with an international audience. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Helsinki Times.“

MP Tavio is a PS MP who has declared war and wants to relegate non-white Finns and migrants to second- and third-class citizens.

Read the full op-ed piece at your peril here. He makes impossible campaign promises that will catch up with him one day like with the PS in the municipal elections of Sunday. The PS are known as a turncoat party because they’ve broken most of their campaign promises.

A recent op-ed piece in Uusi Suomi by the MP from Turku suggested that the Finnish constitution should be changed to give Finns priority over foreigners when it comes to rights.

“The sovereignty that the Finnish state entitles it to decide that its primary task is safeguarding the rights of its own citizens [at the cost of migrants],” he wrote.

Tavio is a lawyer so he should know better what the constitution says and guarantees about equality before the law. His issue, like all of the far-right anti-immigration wing of the PS, is to keep white Finnish power and privilege even if it means relegating migrants to second- and third-class citizens.

The op-ed piece in the Helsinki Times is another example of his disdain and hostility towards migrants and minorities in Finland.

Continue reading “PS MP Ville Tavio: An Islamophobe that is bent on keeping white Finnish power and privilege at any cost and lie”