Category: Enrique Tessieri
Finnish politicians continue to feed the hostile environment against migrants and minorities
“Dog whistles win votes but destroy nations.”
Sayeeda Wars, former Conservative Party cochairperson.
To understand the thuggery that happened in the United Kindom, we should set the record straight: They were race riots instigated by mobs of white men. It is not the first time that the United Kingdom has experienced race riots. The first one were the deadly disturbances of 1919 in Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow, London, Salford, Newport, Barry, Hull, and South Shields, according to David Olusoga.
In Finland, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has made its political mark by attacking and denigrating migrants and minorities. The National Coalition Party, with MPs like Tere Sammallahti, Martin Paasi, Heikki Vestman, Atte Kaleva, and others, has found common ground with the PS’s xenophobic message.
One of the most toxic of the race riots has been Matias Turkkila, editor of Suomen Uutiset, a PS newspaper.
Considering the shameful and simplistic views by politicians who argued conspiracy thories to expalin the violence in the United Kingdom, shows me that we are also setting the groundwork for white men to take to the streets. The government is taking away services right now, not migrants.
Some Finnish politicians justified the race riots in the UK. From left to right: Finance Minister and Chairperson of the Perussuomalaiset, Riikka Purra, with her infamous statement made in 2008, “If you gave me a weapon, [youth with migrant background] corpses would appear on a commuter train, you see.” PS MP Onni Rostila, National Coalition Party MPs Tere Sammallahti and Matin Paasi.
Why haven’t we seen one editorial denouncing these politicians’ distorted views? Where are the OP-ED pieces? Where is the condemnation by other politicians? How long will the lies and bashing go on?
Continue reading “Finnish politicians continue to feed the hostile environment against migrants and minorities”Finnish justice ministry plans to slash Council for Mass Media’s aid
A widely criticized decision by Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Justice Minister Leena Meri to slash the Council for Mass Media’s (JSN) aid next year, should not only be seen as another step by the PS and government to undermine the role of the media.
JSN Chairperson Eero Hytönen said in Journalisti that it was “a political decision by the minister [Meri].”
Read the full story (in Finnish) here.
Hytönen said the original proposal for state aid to JSN by ministry officials was different from Meri’s decision.
Meri has denied Hytönen’s claim.
Continue reading “Finnish justice ministry plans to slash Council for Mass Media’s aid”Riikka Purra’s dilemma: “Am I Riikka or ‘riikka?'”
The far-right terrorism and riots in the UK are raising a lot of questions about how the government would react in a similar situation. Some, likePerussuomalaiset (PS)* Finance Minister Riikka Purra, expose schizophrenic behavior. Sometimes she is the heartless finance minister slashing the budget and bringing misery to the most vulnerable segments of the population, and other times she goes in her racist rants.
“riikka” Tweets: “…the development of double standards, the collapse of borders, mass immigration, migrant crime and the over-representation of specific groups of migrants in virtually everything negative.”
“On top of it, the white population pays for the whole self-destructive joke with their taxes.”
To top it off, riikka wants us to read a racist piece published in the PS party’s Suomen Uutiset by one of its MPs.
Continue reading “Riikka Purra’s dilemma: “Am I Riikka or ‘riikka?’””Finland’s and Estonia’s bullying of Russians
With no solution in sight to the end of the war in Ukraine, part of the collateral damage is the Russian-speaking community of Finland, by far the biggest language group outside of Finnish, Swedish, and Sami.
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a lot of hatred and suspicion of Russians. Even if Finland signed an armistice with the former USSR in 1944, it appears that too many Finns are still in the trenches.
Some, driven by their xenophobia of Russians, would be ready to take away their dual citizenship rights. One of the most enthusiastic is former President Sauli Niinistö. A December survey showed that 34 MPS, mostly of the hard-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party, would want to prohibit Russians from having dual citizenship.
So great is the hatred of brown asylum seekers and Russia that in June Finland threw its good name under the bus as a Human Rights defender and upholder by lowering itself to the same level as Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, which deny people the right to asylum.
A study by Hannes Viimarananta, Ekaterina Protassova, and Arto Mutajoki on Russian speakers in Finland, says that such a community is commonly misunderstood.
“Russian-speakers in Finland are framed, firstly, as an immigrant group, alongside other sizeable immigrant groups. Secondly, Russian speakers in Finland are commonly [and simplistically] perceived as representatives of Russia—a powerful, and at times threatening, neighboring country…” the authors write.
The Estonian-Russian border crossing at Narva. Sources: Helsingin Sanomat and Wikimedia.
Continue reading “Finland’s and Estonia’s bullying of Russians”
Finland’s immigration policy has been for decades racist by design
Claim: The deportation law has nothing to do with migration policy.
Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, among other Perussuomalaiset* politicians
Migrant Tales: It has all to do with migration policy!
The pushback law has not only brought several pressing questions about how Finland respects Human Rights, its Constitution, and international agreements, but it continues to reveal a decades-long policy on how to keep out certain national groups like Muslims from Finland.
Finland’s migration policy has been enforced to look at outsiders with suspicion. In the 1970s, when thousands of Finnish migrants were moving to Sweden, the government considered bringing labor migrants to compensate for the huge loss in man- and womanpower.
The government decided against such a move and today we are paying a big price for such a decision.
Let’s look at the present government’s immigration policy, with the support of government coalition party members National Coalition Party, Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats. The long-term policy has been to keep migrants, especially Muslims and blacks, out of Finland.
Thus especially today the immigration policy of the government is racist by design.
Even if this poster is for the UK, it could apply to Finland. Source: Migrants’ Rights Network.
Karolina Budzisz: Tales of our own
Migrant Tales insight: Throughout the years, Migrant Tales has received a lot of recognition. The latest one is from Karolina Budzisz, who wrote her thesis on anti-racism voices in Finland. During the past seventeen years, we have kept true to our goal: It aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians, and the public. Migrant Tales has published 5,293 posts from over three hundred contributors to date. We stopped taking comments a few years ago, but there are 32,172 of them. We are proudly one of the anti-racism voices in Finland fighting against social ills like the Perussuomalaiset, racism, and discrimination.
Recognition of our work is the greatest reward we can get.
Abstract
Immigration remains among the most salient topics in the socio-political debate in a dynamically transforming Europe, which is reflected in the scholarly interest in the theme. However, as this thesis argues, the attention paid to anti-immigration and pro-immigration poles of the debate is not equal and the agency of immigrants in providing knowledge on the issue pertaining to them directly is relatively neglected in academia.
Read the full thesis here.
“Tales of Our Own” strives to explore the characteristics of pro-immigration and immigrant-made discourses and investigate their relationships with the dominant hostile narratives around immigration emerging in the context of the current populist upsurge. The thesis conceptualizes populism as an antagonizing mode of articulation that provides a stylistic framework for arguments inciting the process of othering. Immigrants in these circumstances constitute perfect ‘Others’, excluded through many novel narratives guising straightforward xenophobia under the mask of neoliberal values. Exploring an underdeveloped discursive frontier with regard for its authorship contributes to the study of the immigrant response and substantial argumentation in the debate. Moreover, it follows the objective of reclaiming immigration as it recuperates the voices of the very actors of it – those ‘on the move’.
Continue reading “Karolina Budzisz: Tales of our own”Finland should ask the EU to ditch Human Rights altogether. Why should we care less for refugees?
The depths of Finnish hypocrisy continue to find new records with President Alexander Stubb. Finland entered uncharted waters a week ago after the pushback law was passed, which compromised the country’s human rights, the Constitution, and international agreements.
The president’s hubris and anti-Russian sentiment were exposed for everyone to witness when he said that the pushback law would serve as a good model for other countries to copy.
Stubb signed the new bill into law on Monday. He was a bit apologetic: “I understand the legal and humane considerations associated with this act. The debate is an indication of Finnish people’s strong commitment to national security and the rule of law.”
Even Interior Minister Mari Rantanen showed a rare commodity of her personality: I hope the new law will never be applied, she said.
During these difficult times when Finland has ditched its human rights obligations, we should not forget one matter: The new law is incompatible with Human Rights, the Constitution, and international agreements. Article 30 of the Human Rights Convention states:
“Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”
Even if Stubb portrays strength, some consider him a wishy-washy politician who could care less for migrant and minority rights. Read the full story in Finnish here.
Continue reading “Finland should ask the EU to ditch Human Rights altogether. Why should we care less for refugees?”Human Rights in Finland should be our struggle’s clarion call
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”
Nelson Mandela
The passage on Friday of the pushback law with the support of the Social Democrats, demonstrates that we have entered uncharted waters. We should not be naive to think that the shelving of human rights, undermining our constitution, and turning our backs on international agreements will be a one-off matter.
Even if Human Rights form part of our Constitution, one may ask why so little regard for such rights. One reason is that Finland saw Human Rights as subversive during the Cold War since it undermined relations with the former Soviet Union.
In Argentina, my country of birth, we used human rights as an ever-growing rallying cry against one of the most sanguinary military regimes in our history. The matter was sounded by groups like the Mother of Plaza de Mayo whose loved ones had disappeared.
At first, they were called the “Crazy” Mothers of Plaza de Mayo because no one dared to stand up against the military régime.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo still demonstrate on Thursdays at the Plaza de Mayo right in front of the presidential palace. Their first march took place in April 1977, the month I started my conscription in the army. The Mother of Plaza de Mayo was one factor why the military regime could not murder with impunity. People like me are eternally grateful for their bravery and example.
The fact that Human Rights took a big blow in Finland thanks to the pushback law, it’s clear that we cannot rely on the government or the Social Democrats to defend these rights. We therefore need a social movement that raises awareness of Human Rights.
In Argentina, Human Rights violations were one factor that brought the military regime down. We must do the same to vote out this terrible government that wipes its rear end with Human Rights.
Some may ask why do I make such a fuss about Human Rights.
The answer is simple: I lived in a country where Human Rights were shelved that was followed by Illegal detentions, torture, and death.
12 July 2024 was Finland’s day of infamy for Human Rights and the rule of law
Finland’s controversial pushback law received in parliament the needed two-thirds majority to turn away people seeking asylum at the border. One hundred sixty-seven MPs voted for the law while 31 voted against it.
Critics of the law argue that it conflicts with the Constitution, Human Rights, and international agreements signed by Finland with the United Nations and the EU.
Below, Mats Uotila, a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party member, wanted to ridicule those MPs who voted against the law. They are the few brave ones who stood up against the fear-mongering and ultranationalistic attacks by the PS, National Coalition Party (PS), and others.
One of the most jaw-dropping pictures in parliament today was PS Fiance Minister Riikka Purra and Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. The law when approved, which puts in harm’s way migrants seeking asylum and a better life, makes Rantanen cry and hug Purra.
What is wrong with these people? They get emotional when they succeed at stripping people of their Human Rights?
Minister Purra and Rantanen hugging and shedding tears after Finland threw under the bus Human Rights, the Constitution, and international agreements protecting asylum seekers.
Continue reading “12 July 2024 was Finland’s day of infamy for Human Rights and the rule of law”