Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 176 of 246

YLE parliamentary working group: Broadcaster is “diverse but not multicultural”

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Migrant Tales

A parliamentary working group chaired by National Coalition Party (NCP) MP Arto Satonen to examine the role of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) is not proposing any drastic change to the system of funding but plans to make the broadcaster more nationalistic.

One of the most surprising matters that the parliamentary working group will change concerning YLE’s role is exchanging the name “multicultural” for “cultural diversity.”

While the term “cultural diversity” is a good synonym for “multiculturalism,” striking off the latter term from YLE’s role shows blatant ignorance and how nationalism and intolerance have crept into Finnish politics.

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Culturally diverse Finland has a history

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri*

Because migrants and minorities in Finland do not have power, we are taught to believe we are rootless and have no historicity. It is not true: migrant and anti-racism activism in Finland was already very alive in the 1980s.

The demonstration in October 1982 demanded basic rights for foreigners in Finland.

“Our dominant classes have made sure that the worker has no history, doesn’t have a doctrine, any heroes or any martyrs. Every struggle has to start from scratch, separated from previous struggles; the collective history is lost, their lessons are forgotten. History appears as it if were private property, whose owners are the owners of everything.”** Rodolfo Walsh (1928-77)

The late Argentinean writer and social activist Rodolfo Walsh (1927-77) showed the power of investigative journalism in Argentina when he published Operation Massacre in 1957. The book exposed how supporters of president Juan Domingo Pero?n were captured and shot by the military junta’s secret firing squad, after Pero?n was deposed by a military coup. Walsh’s quote, that the worker has no history, offers a good description of the situation of migrants and minorities in Finland today. Even if we too aren’t supposed to have any history, the interesting question to ask is why we are taught to believe that we are rootless and living on the outer fringes of society.

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Thulfiqar Abdulkareem Abdulameer: My story

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Thulfiqar Abdulkareem Abdulameer*

Last year I was 27 years old, working as a journalist in my hometown Baghdad, where I had studied business administration. I wrote an article about the war, and how the militias were sending young, untrained guys to fight against ISIS who were well equipped with modern weapons. I wrote that it was like sending these young fighters to their deaths.

That article put my life in serious danger— the militias threatened me, and one of my friends told me there was a plan to kill me. I had to leave immediately, so he started helping me to run away. In the meantime, the militia planted a bomb in my friend’s car, seriously injuring him.

September 11, 2015, was my last day in my country. I fled without getting a chance to see my niece, who was born the day before. I left everything behind.

It must be easy sometimes to beat someone up just because of how they look.

The violent journey through Europe

My only chance was to cross the sea with the other immigrants. It wasn’t easy to put my life in the hands of the greedy people smugglers. But I felt I had no other choice.

We set off from Izmir towards the island of Lesbos in a rubber boat with a capacity of 35. There were 50 of us. Kids and women were crying. It felt like the hardest two and a half hours of my whole life. Until finally it was over. A miracle.

A group of brave volunteers were waiting for us on the beach. We’d made it to Europe but our hardships weren’t over. We continued on foot for seven hours to the nearest camp. Thousands of people were there waiting for their papers, fearful of what was to come, and longing for what they’d left behind. It was miserable. We stayed there for three days, sleeping out in the open.

My memories of our journey onwards from Greece are that it was awful and hard. First to Macedonia, then on to Serbia. The Serbian army were treating people harshly, with no respect. People were sleeping on the ground, almost naked, in the freezing cold—some parents had burnt their clothes to keep their children warm. The queue to get travel documents took two days. After that we made it to Croatia, then Hungary. The soldiers there also acted unbearably. It must be easy sometimes to beat someone up just because of how they look.

From there I travelled through Austria to Germany. I had planned to stay in Germany, but there, people told me that asylum seekers in Finland were getting their decisions much more quickly. So I decided to carry on—to Denmark, through Sweden, and finally arriving in Tornio, northern Finland, on October 16, 2015.

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White Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Migrant Tales

There has been a lot of debate about the present government tightening further family reunification laws. It shouldn’t come to any surprise that such measures not only reveal hostility towards asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities but are an example of white Finnish privilege in its most extreme forms.

Even if the Constitution guarantees that everyone in Finland is equal before the law, the truth is that you’re not. If you have Finnish citizenship your ok but if you are a foreigner or an asylum seeker that got a residence permit, it’ll be virtually impossible and costly to bring your wife and kids to this country.

Why?

Because this government, which comprises of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Center Party and National Coalition Party, is openly hostile to Others.

We’ve known it all along that even naturalized Finns aren’t equal before the law because they’re not considered “real” Finns but are people with “foreign backgrounds.”

If the government has its way with the passage of the new law, a person has to make 2,600 euros a month after taxes if he wants to bring his spouse and two children.

Even if the government states that such laws are important because they discourage asylum seekers from coming to Finland, it is just another PS anti-immigration ploy with the support of the Center Party and NCP to keep Finland white.

See full program here.

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Saido Mohamed defects to the Greens, cites differences over ever-tightening immigration policy

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Saido Mohamed has defected from the National Coalition Party (NCP) to the Greens, according to YLE.

“After the parliamentary elections [April 2015] I started to have serious thoughts about membership in the National Coalition Party,” she told Migrant Tales. “My values and morality were in conflict with the party’s line on immigration policy.”

Mohamed said she was disappointed that the NCP hasn’t shown any leadership in challenging ever-growing hate speech and racism.

“I’m now joining a party that speaks how things are and what should be changed concerning migrants in Finland,” she said. “In politics you change things with other people.”

While the Finnish media has treated NCP Interior Minister Petteri Orpo with kid gloves, Mohamed pointed out in the YLE story that is under Orpo’s leadership that Finland has tightened immigration policy especially in the area of family reunification.

“I have waited from the National Coalition Party courage to condemn simply and clearly ever-growing racism and hate speech,” she was quoted as saying in YLE. “That type of courage I haven’t seen [from the party]. On the contrary, the long spell of silence has been easy to interpret that the party approves [racism and hate speech].”

Read full story here.

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UPDATE: Iraqi asylum seeker hunger strike day 4

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Namir al-Azzawin informed Migrant Tales by Facebook that he is out of hospital and will resume his hunger strike near Parliament. Zimema Mhone will upload a video shortly with an interview with al-Azzawin.

Al-Azzawin said he needed a tent. Does anyone have a tent to give or could lend?

Namir al-Azzawin.

Iraqi asylum seeker hunger strike: Namir al-Azawin taken to intensive care

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Migrant Tales

We are saddened to inform the following news about Namir al-Azzawin, who has been on a hunger strike for three days.

Writes Zimema Mhone: “I just got word that Namir fainted and was taken to intensive care.”

Al-Azzawin wrote a letter on Sunday addressed to the people of Finland:

Dear People of Finland,

I started my hunger strike on Sunday in protest of the unfair decision by the Immigration Authorities (Migri), which claim that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are safe to return asylum seekers. Many of us Iraqis were disappointed by the decision taking into account that we fled that country because it wasn’t and still isn’t safe. I will not stop my hunger strike until the Immigration Authorities change their decision.

We hope the best for him and a speedy recovery to this brave man.

Namir al-Azzawin.

Irakilaisen syömälakko päivä yksi: “Irak ei ollut silloin eikä tänäänkään turvallista”

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Hyvät suomalaiset,

Aloitin syömälakko sunnuntaina protestina Maahanmuuttoviraston epäreilu päätös, joka nyt katso maita kuten Irak, Afganistan ja Somalia ovat turvallisia ja voi palauttaa turvapaikkahakijat kyseisin maahiin. Monet irakilaisia olivat pettyneet tästä päätöksestä. Pakenimme sieltä koska se ei ollut silloin eikä tänäänkään turvallista. En lopeta syömälakkoa ennen kun Maahanmuuttoviranomaiset ovat muuttaneet päätöstään.

Namir al-Azzawi

Katso alkuperänen kirjoitus Migrant Talesissa tästä.

Nameer al-Azzawin syömälakko alkoi tänään Eduskuntatalon ulkopuolella.

Abdirahim “Husu” Hussein resigns from the Center Party of Finland because “he no longer believes in the party’s policies”

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Abdirahim Husu Hussein surprised everyone this week when he announced his resignation from the Center Party. In his words, he resigned from the party he joined 13 years ago because “he no longer believes in the party’s policies,” according to Suomenmaa.

While Husu’s decision was applauded by some, it leaves a sour taste about the state of politics and the role of some leaders of Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society in national politics.

While Husu has taken a leadership role in promoting cultural diversity and good relations among different groups in Finland, he feels that he didn’t have enough support from his former party.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

The latter shouldn’t come to any surprise considering that the Center Party, which shares power with the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party (NCP), comprise one of the country’s most ant-immigration governments in a long time.

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Kolari reception center asylum seeker: Matters have improved because the new manager is very supportive

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Migrant Tales

After a very difficult month, matters are looking up for the asylum seekers of the Kolari reception center, located 214 kilometers north of the city of Kemi. “Matters have improved for us, and the new manager wants to help us,” an asylum seeker told Migrant Tales by phone. “He’s very supportive.”

According to the source, the reception center, which is managed by the Red Cross, no longer charges 10 euros for transportation and other services like gym and swimming hall fees but are now free. Before deputy manager Jari Sillantie was fired, asylum seekers were even charged 0.50 euros for a tomato or onion.

While a reception center can charge for services, used clothes and food, we have to ask if this is ethically correct taking into account that an asylum seeker at Kolari gets a monthly allowance of 92 euros.

The days of the deputy manager were counted after over 120 asylum seekers carried out a peaceful demonstration on May 4 that was reported by Lapin Kansa, a Rovaniemi-based daily. A day after Sillantie gave an interview to Helsingin Sanomat the Red Cross fired him on May 13.

Read full story here.

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“Jari [Sillantie] never resolved any problems for us,” the source said. “He would just wash his hands and say that he couldn’t do anything to help us.”

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