Category: Enrique Tessieri

Defining white Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police service and “them”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there is an institution that is the epitome of white Finnish privilege that is doing everything possible to hinder cultural and ethnic diversity among its ranks, that institution is the Finnish police service. 

Am I exaggerating?

Just go to the police service’s online pages and you will not find a single person who is a visible minority.

Gathering from the police service’s website, women are well-represented but nothing, absolutely nothing, is said about visible minorities never mind the police’s sensitivity towards our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

Visit the Finnish police service’s web page here.

Definition #32

The fact that there isn’t a single visible minority on the Finnish police websites shows us that they are far behind the times of other European nations like the United Kingdom and Sweden.

There must be a lot of opposition to cultural diversity as well if  a recent poll showed that about half of the police surveyed claimed to have voted for the National Coalition Party and the anti-immigration populists Perussuomalaiset.*

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Finland’s about-turn in immigration and asylum policy reveal populism and suspicion

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is an interesting article in newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti that claims that before Finland gave 85% of asylum seekers a positive decision today it’s almost the opposite. 

The article quotes National Coalition Party (NCP) Interior Minister Paula Risikko, who claims that Finland’s hardline stance is the same as Sweden’s and no different from the EU concerning Iraqis.

“It [refugee policy] isn’t [different], on the contrary,” she was quoted as saying in Suomen Kuvalehti. “Finland gives its support to the commission to renew [and implement] a common a common refugee policy [for the EU]. The aim is to prevent abuse of the asylum procedure and to counter the ongoing illegal movement of asylum seekers from country to country and harmonize policy on this.”

If we study closer Risikko’s statement, it’s clear that it has nothing to do with reality but is purely political and based on suspicion of Iraqis, the biggest national group that came to Finland from fall 2015.

Moreover, her suspicion isn’t only seen in her statement but in the harsh laws that the government has proposed and passed that tighten immigration and refugee policy.

Read full story here.

One good matter that asylum seekers have given Finland is that they have exposed our ineffective immigration and integration policy as well as our exceptionalism and denial of racism.

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Finland’s ever-growing crisis of undocumented migrants is the government’s and Social Democratic Party’s doing

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Thanks to the 107 MPs listed below that voted on April 13 to approve law 2/2016 that did away with granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds, Finland faces today an unprecedented rise of undocumented migrants.

According to various estimates, the number of undocumented migrants is seen rising from a few hundred to thousands, even by as many as tens of thousands.

Prior to scrapping residence permits on humanitarian grounds, an asylum seeker who got a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) was granted a temporary residence permit if there wasn’t a repatriation between Finland and his country.

Law 2/2016 is poorly thought-out and is an example of how populism and xenophobia are guiding the government by the leash when it comes to immigration policy. Thus Finland’s immigration policy doesn’t hinge on whether countries like Iraq are safe or not, but on anti-immigration politics.

I am astounded many times to watch officials of the Migri, politicians who are interviewed by complacent journalists state that these people only came to Europe to search for a better life.

So?! Is it is a crime to flee a failed state like Iraq embroiled in violence and search for a better life in Europe?

Anti-immigration rhetoric in Finland has become so extreme that we label whole groups for fleeing countries that we destroyed directly and indirectly in the first place.

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Thanks to PM Juha Sipilä, Finland’s ranking as the country with the most press freedom will most likely see a setback in 2017

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) ranked Finland as the 1st of 180 countries in its 2016 World Press Freedom Index. Even if Prime Minister Juha Sipilä believes that his questionable behavior towards YLE‘s affairs will not impact the country’s ranking, he will probably be in for a surprise. 

RWB’s methodology to access press freedom comprises of 87 questions in 20 different languages. Sipilä has hurt Finland’s ranking under “media independence,” which reads: “Measures the degree to which the media are able to function independently of sources of political, governmental, business and religious power and influence.”

It’s pretty clear that as a result of the actions of the prime minister, YLE’s ability to function independently without political and government influences have come to public light and are compromised.

Two reporters at the state-owned broadcast company, Jussi Eronen and Salla Vuorikoski, resigned this week citing that critical reporting of politicians like the prime minister has been suppressed at YLE.

There are other questions as well about press freedom in Finland. How come reporters are required to show the article to the person you interviewed before the story is published?

Read full story here.

Having worked for over twenty years as a foreign correspondent in countries like Finland, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Colombia, I’ve always wondered about the exceptionalism of the Finnish media.

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Am I surprised that Finnish fiction sees migrants as unhappy victims? Not!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Researcher Pasi Saukkonen tells us in a YLE story that “not one content immigrant is found in Finnish fiction.” One may ask how come?  The answer, in my opinion, is simple: It’s a white Finnish view, their prejudices and the narrative they want to give of Others. 

The fact that there isn’t “a single content migrant” reflects, in my opinion, the xenophobic attitudes, exceptionalism, and outright denial of Others from being treated as equal members of society.

White Finnish authors cited in the article write about migrants through the lens of exceptionalism and white Finnish privilege.

Entitlement gives, in these cases, the power to construct social narratives based on the writer’s prejudices. and ignorance.

There are many countries where immigration is seen as something positive. In Finland, however, it is seen as something negative, especially if those people are Muslims or dark-skinned.

Am I surprised why migrants never enjoy a good ending in fiction?

Not at all. It’s only another indication of Finland’s suspicion of Others.

Exceptionalism is our greatest enemy in promoting social equality and press freedom in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I used to comment mock the Swedes before for their exceptionalism. The argument is that Sweden is such “a perfect” society that social no-nos like racism simply cannot exist. The same exceptionalism that we see in Sweden is alive and kicking in Finland, too. Exceptionalism is everywhere and you bump into it near-constantly if you are Other. 

Aminkeng A. Alemanji highlights the issue in his doctoral dissertation: “The notion of Finnish exceptionalism is very slow to accommodate changes to its existing framework because it is constructed on the idea of being the best, where the best cannot get any better.”

Finnish exceptionalism doesn’t only apply to ethnic issues but is seen in the narrative of the Finnish media and how it functions.

A prime example of the latter is a recent row between Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and YLE because critical reporting of politicians like the prime minister is suppressed.

Read full story here.

Finnish exceptionalism never became clearer to me than when I wrote in 1989-91 from Helsinki for newspapers like the Financial Times in 1989-91.

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Finland, asylum seekers and the media: Moral cowardice and passing the buck

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales has written a lot about how the Finnish media writes about migrants, asylum seekers, and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, problem of the Finnish media, when it writes about migrants and minorities, is that it gives white Finland the benefit of the doubt. 

We shouldn’t be surprised by this because the national media is white.

By giving the police service, the Red Cross, and other institutions in Finland the benefit of the doubt, the media believes what they say even if it has doubts.

A good example of the latter is how the Finnish media handled growing hate speech, xenophobia and the rise of an anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, before the 2011 parliamentary elections.

It appeared that the rise of a party like the PS, which based its campaign on populist nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric, delighted many representatives of the Finnish media because the party reinforced their prejudices and bigotry.

Even so, one may ask how newspapers like Helsingin Sanomat, which should know better, could journalists like Saska Saarikoski be misled into believing that PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, is a “champion of free speech?”

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Aminkeng A. Alemanji: Anti-racism education is key to challenging social ills like racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Every now and then there are critical voices that shine through fearlessly. One of these is that of Aminkeng A. Alemanji, a Cameroonian researcher who defended successfully in October 2016 his doctoral dissertation on anti-racism education.

Migrant Tales spoke to Alemanji on anti-racism education and Otherness in Finland. Why should anti-racism education be the standard at our schools versus multicultural and intercultural education?

“When racialized victims cannot name their experiences of racism as racism, then racism, does not exist,” he writes in his dissertation, “the scope for local anti-racism activities becomes very limited, as it prevents antiracism efforts from flourishing or persisting.”

Alemanji’s dissertation got a lot of media attention in newspapers like Jyväskylä daily Keskisuomalainen.

It is a paradox but when we spread catchwords like social equality to minorities we play into the trap of Finnish exceptionalism.

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The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat published on Saturday and Sunday stories about the problems and abuses that asylum seekers face at the Red Cross-run Laajakoski reception center. The fact that incompetence, poor management, and abuses of asylum seekers take place at the reception center near Kotka is unacceptable. 

What is even more incredible is the Laajakoski reception center’s manager, Saija Makkonen, who won’t comment about the serious allegations.

We wonder if the abuse and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Laajakoski are “individual cases” or a worrying trend.

Are Deputy Manager Tiina Meisola telling asylum seekers to go back to where they came from and mocking a suicide attempt “individual cases?”  What about a nurse, who allegedly told an asylum seeker that she didn’t care if she died in Finland or Iraq?

The long list of complaints by the asylum seekers reveals that the management has lost control of the situation and apparently wants to brush the serious problems of the reception center under the carpet.

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat revealed the problems that asylum seekers face at the Laajakoski reception center.

Considering that we’ve written a lot of stories about the problems of only three asylum reception centers managed by the Red Cross and other ones run by private companies begs a question: Are these cases exceptions or a worrying trend?

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Asylum seekers: The situation at the Laajakoski reception center is “absolutely catastrophic”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We’ve been getting some distressing reports from the Laajakoski asylum reception center near the southeastern city of Kotka, where there appears to be a serious breakdown of trust between the management/staff and a number of asylum seekers. 

In November, a petition was signed by most of the 250-odd asylum seekers at the reception center. They pointed out some of the issues (see below) but their overriding demand was that the management and staff should be changed.

Even if running an asylum reception center isn’t easy, one would expect high standards from a humanitarian association like the Red Cross. Even if organizations can make mistakes when hiring staff, what is unpardonable is if that they do little to nothing to correct the problems at the reception center.

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Source: Mikko T. Helminen and Wael Cheblak.

We have written a lot about reception centers in Finland this year. One of these was in May when we wrote about Kolari asylum reception center deputy manager, Jari Sillantie, who was sacked for being unfit for the job. If Sillantie’s Facebook is a reflection of his view of migrants and asylum seekers, he “likes” Islamophobic politicians like Perussuomalaiset* (PS) MP Laura Huhtasaari and “likes” causes such as Suomi Ensin, a far-right group.

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