Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 171 of 245

Forssa, Finland: A hotbed of racist behavior where words turn into bullets

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Migrant Tales

The southwestern town of Forssa is located 116km from Helsinki. A mass fight took place there on Tuesday between white Finns and asylum seekers, according to YLE News.

Writes YLE News: “Police in the town of Forssa on Wednesday detained several people in relation to disturbances outside an asylum reception centre which occurred on Tuesday night.

Witnesses say that a large group of locals approached the reception centre, fighting a group of residents of the centre once they arrived. Police say that both groups used weapons in the brawl.”

A warning: “Fuck off [asylum seekers] from my Forssa.” Source: Kirsi Hipp.

Forssa has established a committee with the Red Cross to calm tensions in the town. We wonder how many asylum seekers, migrants and minorities form part of such a committee. It they are members of such a committee, will their suggestions be taken seriously?

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Racism in Finland and elsewhere 101

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Racism and other social ills like bigotry are made to appear complex by those that perpetrate them. Making discrimination look complex is nothing more than a way of giving it shelter through a lie called denial.

In Finland, there is racial prejudice, racial discrimination and racism and lots of it.

Let’s take a rapid look at racism in Finland and elsewhere 101 in four simple pictures and a video that explains reverse racism in the United States.

Even if the video applies to the United States, it could well apply to Finland or any European country.

An example of racial prejudice in Finland is that certain ethnic groups only want to live off social welfare and are rapists. Source: Sociological Cinema.

A good example of racial discrimination in this country is not landing an interview because you speak Finnish with an accent and because you’re not the “right” ethnicity. Source: Sociological Cinema.

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After targeting migrants and asylum seekers with tougher laws, Sipilä’s government now sets its eyes on Roma panhandlers

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Should we be surprised after the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä tightened immigration policy it is now targeting the Romany minority? If the government has its way, Finland will criminalize panhandling.

Sipiläs government, which comprises of the National Coalition Party (NCP) and anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is one of the most anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity governments in a long time.

The first question that such a draft law that would criminalize panhandling raises is why it is needed in the first place? Are Roma panhandlers from countries like Romania and Bulgaria such a problem?

PS MP Raimo Lehto believes so.

“Panhandling should be forbidden because it annoys and bothers Finnish citizens,” he said, “and they tell us that they should be taken off the street because they frighten certain people.”

Read and watch the full interview (in Finnish) here.

The new law, which specifically targets Roma from countries like Romania and Bulgaria, comes after the government passed laws that did away with residence permits under humanitarian grounds, tightened family reunification requirements and shortening appeal times for asylum seekers.

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If we are against racism, bigotry and homophobia why do we continue to be Facebook friends?

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Some may rightly ask why it took over a year to charge former PS substitute councilman Olli Sademies for stating that African men should be sterilized, Here’s another question: Why are there so few light-slap-on-the-hand sentences for hate speech in Finland? In 2009-14 there were only 27 people who were sentenced for ethnic agitation, according to MTV, which cites Statistics Finland.

All of this points to one thing that we are near-constantly denying: Racism, bigotry and discrimination have deep roots in Finland and such social ills are perpetrated by white Finnish privilege.

Former Perussuomalaiset party member and retired policeman Olli Sademies is being charged for ethnic agitation. His comments are so full of racism that he’s on the same level as former PS MP hothead James Hirvisaari. He’s an example of not only the racism and ignorance of Finnish society but their deep roots in the police and politics. Would you be Sademies’ Facebook friend?

Institutions like the police service are so deeply immersed in their own denial of racism and bigotry that they actually believe that they don’t ethnically profile anyone.

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Former PS deputy councilman of Helsinki to be charged for ethnic agitation

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* deputy councilman for Helsinki, Olli Sademies, who suggested last year on Facebook that Africans should be forcibly castrated will be charged for ethnic agitation, according to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulating daily.

Sademies, who is a retired policeman, was sacked from the PS in September.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The former PS local politician denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was innocent.

“Freedom of speech and expression also includes saying things that may even upset some population groups,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat. “I hope that the district court [of Helsinki] acquaints itself with the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights on this matter.”

During 2009-2014, only 27 people have been sentenced for ethnic agitation, according to MTV, which cites Statistics Finland.

The greatest number of sentences for ethnic agitation were given in 2012, which was 12.

Ever wonder how people like Sademies were ever accepted in the police service and the PS?

It says a lot about how much denial there is in Finland about racism.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”

The Finnish media’s “fascination” of racists is a problem

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Here’s a simple question: Why on earth does a newspaper like Etelä-Suomen Sanomat of Lahti even bother to publish a story about a handful of racists who demand that Finland shuts its borders to asylum seekers?

The answer to that question could shed a lot of light on how the media treats groups that are against our Nordic values, Constitution, and hostile to migrants and minorities.

One of the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw a rapid rise in the 2008 municipal and especially in the 2011 parliamentary elections was, unfortunately, media fascination over the new “party on the block,” which was overtly anti-EU, anti-migration and especially anti-Islam.

When you ask some analysts why a party like the PS attracted so much interest, you’ll usually get a typical white Finnish answer: They were an option to voter skepticism of traditional parties. If so, why does this skepticism target migrants and encourages politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Eerola and many others to be hostile racists on steroids?

Read full story here.

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How Finnish-as-a-second-language courses relegate people to second-class status

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Even children who are born in Finland but whose parents aren’t Finns are sent to S2 (Suomi toisena kielenä) language courses. One student, who attended for three years S2 Finnish-language courses, claims that such courses won’t help him succeed at university.

Moreover, what does it mean to be part of an S2 program in a racialized country like Finland that labels even naturalized Finns as “people with foreign background?”

“The problem is that S2 teaches you basic Finnish for the workplace but doesn’t help you to learn how to write essays when you go to university,” said the former student, who attended S2 courses in the 7-9 grades. “This means that you’ll end up doing menial low-paying jobs all your life because your writing skills aren’t up to par.”

The mother of a child, who was put in an S2 class when he started school because his parents were born abroad, expressed concern about how such classes would affect her son.

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Finnish interior ministry report: violence against migrants hasn’t grown significantly in 2015

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish ministry of the interior reported in a statement Monday that there hasn’t been a spike in violence last year perpetrated by extremist groups despite some 32,500 asylum seekers that came to the country in 2015. The ministry cites Sweden and Germany as countries where violence against migrants committed by extremist groups have apparently grown.

The report claims that violence by extremist groups like the neo-Nazi Kansalinen Vastarinta and others hasn’t risen in “a significant way” in the face of a high number of asylum seekers.

“The number of suspected crimes reported to the police due to the crimes committed by extremist groups didn’t, however, rise in 2015,” ministry of the interior head of development, Tarja Mankkinen, was quoted as saying in a statement. “Even so, right-wing extremism and ant-immigration movements have become more prominent [in Finland] and the [anti-immigration] atmosphere has worsened.”

Read full statement (in Finnish) here.

There are a couple of things that we should keep in mind concerning the report, which we should study critically.

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Asylum seekers in Finland: New law that will shorten the time of appeal is a “cowardly” act

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Migrant Tales

President Sauli Niinistö signed into law Friday a bill that will make it virtually impossible for refugees to appeal asylum cases rejected by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), according to YLE News. While the Finnish media hasn’t cared to ask what asylum seekers think about the new law, Migrant Tales got in touch with three asylum seekers about the matter.

The new law, which will come into force on September 1, will shorten from 30 days to 21 the rights of asylum seekers to appeal negative residence permit decisions by Migri. Moreover, conditions to appeal to the supreme administrative court will become stricter as well.

Never ever forget that no one can take away your human rights. Article 30 states: No one can take away your [human] rights.

An asylum seeker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person believed it wouldn’t jeopardize the person’s chances of getting a residence permit, said that the new law will reinforce what asylum seekers have come to learn the hard way about Finland.

“People [asylum seekers] feel very sad [how the government has turned its back on them],” the source said. “They have learned that Finland has forfeit its humanity for economic considerations and that the government is racist. Imagine, we crossed dangerous seas, traveled through many countries to learn that in Finland nobody wants us and there are no human rights.”

Shorter appeal times will make harder for asylum seekers.

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Migrant Tales (April 14, 2015): My identity is mine, not yours, so stop labeling me according to your prejudices

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Don’t let anyone, no one, ever define who you are. That’s your right and never give it away.

Why do some public services like the police even some migrants believe they have the right to define who are? The police do it constantly. Every time they label a person or group as a person with “foreign” or “migrant” background they are effectively relegating that person publicly to second- or third-class status in society.

Like in neighboring Sweden, where “a person with migrant background” is code for non-European or non-white, in Finland, it is used to remind you that white Finns run this country politically, culturally, economically and socially.

What’s even worse is the usage of the term mamu, which is used by anti-immigration politicians near-constantly in this country whenever they speak disrespectfully of migrants.

A recent example of how the term was used was by Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Maria Tolppanen, who said she wants to see less mamus and more people at Vaasa’s city square.

Some claim that Tolppanen’s usage of the term mamu was code for Somalis.

The term mamu is in the same league as the n-word or if you call a member of the Romany minority mustalainen. These three labels can be used by members of those groups but it is inappropriate for white Finns to use them since it would be disrespectful and offensive.

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