Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 191 of 245

Why are integration programs in Finland doomed to failure?

Posted on November 6, 2015October 24, 2025 by Migrant Tales

Here’s the billion-euro question: Why are integration programs in Finland usually doomed to failure? What can Finland and Europe learn from countries like Canada that have a more successful approach to integration?

One matter is for certain: A big part of the problem resides in between our collective ears. Do we see migrants as a problem or an asset to our society? Certainly factors like human and financial resources play important roles in determining how successful our integration programs are.

You don’t have to search too far to understand the challenges we face in making people feel that Finland is their home and that they’ll be treated with respect and as equal members of society. Even if the answer to the problem sits under our noses the big question is if we want to do anything about it.

Like in any other country, social exclusion in Finland is not only costly to tax payers but for migrants, who are obliged to go through a slow rites of passage, or integration ritual, which doesn’t even assure them of a job after all of their efforts.

Brandy Yanchyk, a Canadian documentary film producer, recently showed her most recent documentary, Finding Edge Road, in Finland.

See Find Edge Road demo here.

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What has the PS given to Finland apart from destroying our international image, labeling migrants and polarizing society?

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are one of the worst surprises that Finland got after 2011. If the latest opinion poll is anything to go by, the nationalist populist party has returned to the minor political leagues, where it was originally from.

While it was relatively easy for the PS to increase its popularity in the opposition with the help of a complacent media and politicians that turned a blind eye, being in government has been a totally different story.

As the polls show, the PS has been a paper tiger all along that believed, after two parliamentary elections, in its self-deception and forget its campaign promises.

One of these continues to be an empty promise that they will fix the Somali and Muslim problem in Finland. Like many of its empty pledges, they never will.

The PS is like cheap fast food. It may taste good after the first bite but the impact on your health is devastating.

Timo Soini and the PS tried to show – and succeeded – with poker faces these past years to defy the laws of politics like gravity and create a political revolution with the help of anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric.

The PS took a risk by joining the coalition government and they near-destroyed themselves in the process. Not only did they cause great harm to themselves, they have put in harm’s way as well Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government and all of Finland.

Due to the PS’ serious woes, it may well be that we may have new elections as early as next spring.

Go to PS website here.

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Finnish PS Kotka counclman under police investigation for ethnic agitation

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Mertsu Merivirta is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party councilman of the southern Finnish city of Kotka. His Facebook wall is full of nationalist anti-immigration posts and sexism. If you’re going to victimize migrants and minorities why not include women as well.

Is it a surprise that Merivirta is a member of the nationalist populist PS?

All of the above is second- and third-hand knowledge about the PS, a party that gets attention and support by spreading bigotry about migrants and minorities.

Merivirta is under police investigation for ethnic agitation for a Facebook post on October 28, which has been removed.

In light of the police investigation, the Kotka city board not only condemned what was published but recommended that the PS city council group suspend Merivirta from taking part in city council meetings until the investigation is over.

City of Kotka councilman Metrsu Merivirta was in “a euphoric” state when he posted this on his Facebook page, which was removed. The post states above the machine gun that soon you’ll have as neighbors “happy migrants.” “Greet them in the traditional way in Finland,” the post adds.

Guess what the answer was from the head of the Kotka PS city council group, Freddy Van Wonterghem, a far right politician who has been sentenced for ethnic agitation as well?

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When Supo labels all asylum seekers and migrants in Finland

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finnish security intelligence police Supo head Antti Pelttari claimed at a press conference Tuesday that there are two terror threats that the country faces: the rise of refugee links to terrorist groups and hate crimes linked to neo-Nazi groups, according to YLE News.

It’s ironic that just before the 8:30 pm TV news broadcast that quoted Supo chief Pelttari, there was aired an anti-labeling commercial with a young boy. On his shirt there were labels like “problem youth,” “loser,” “abandoned,” and “not wanted.”

Reading the mixed statements by the Supo chief, which were echoed in the Finnish media, the child below could have well been an asylum seeker with the same apathetic expression and the following labels on his shirt: “terrorist,” “criminal,” “coward,” “parasite.”

See full commercial (in Finnish) here.

Reading the story in YLE News about the Supo press conference it was difficult to figure out what Pelttari was saying.

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Police College of Finland: Suspected hate crimes retreated a tad in 2014

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The amount of racist and other hate crimes reported to the police in 2014 grew a tad to 822 compared with 833 in the previous year, according to the Police College of Finland. Racist crimes retreated to 678 from 710 suspected cases with other hate crimes rose to 144 from 123.

The Police College of Finland said that the first suspected death as a result of a hate crime was reported.

“The person was a member of an ethnic minority and the victim who was an ethnic Finn and the incident is suspected of being racist,” the statement said.

Suspected hate crimes and racist crimes during 2010-14. The first row reads “racist crimes” and the second one “other hate crimes.” Yhteensä means total. Source: Police College of Finland.

Like in many countries in Europe, hate crimes go underreported and are only the tip of the iceberg, according to a recent shadow report by the NGO European Network Against Racism.

The Finnish criminal code still does not recognize the term “hate crime.”

Perussuomalaiset woes deepen as Sebastian Tynkkynen reelected chairman of the Finnish party’s youth league

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The problems of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party got worse Sunday after its third vice president, Sebastian Tynkkynen, got reelected by a clear majority to head the party’s youth league.

Read full story here.

Tynkkynen got elected with 42 votes against 22 for Sami Vuotila, the PS youth league’s vice president, according to Iltalehti.

Tynkkynen got his membership revoked over a week a go after he unsuccessfully challenged the PS’ leadership demanding that a special congress be convened to debate whether the party should continue in government, according to YLE News.

Considering the sloppy manner in which the PS board revoked Tynkkynen’s membership and that it may have been against the law, it’s clear that the third vice president’s reelection as chairman of the PS’ youth league means more trouble and internal bickering for the anti-immigration party, which has seen its poll ratings nosedive recently.

If Soini and the PS leadership don’t watch out, Tynkkynen may threaten them with their very own Stalingrad, a decisive battle that became a turning point in the war Nazi Germany waged in Russia. If, however, they do succeed in purging Tynkkynen from the party it may well turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. Soini and the PS leadership face a lose-lose situation.

Tynkkynen, who is demanding that Finland close its northern border with Sweden like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did with Serbia and Romania, has built ties with far right groups like the Sweden Democrats.

It’s clear that if the party adopted some of Tynkkynen’s demands it could well mean an early exit from government.

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The PS of Finland is an amateurish party that wants to normalize ignorance and racism

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finns are nice people in general. Some are patient and like to give kooks an opportunity. They do so because they mistrust the establishment or want to confirm that their trust of the establishment is justified.

Let’s be sincere. If the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ever got over 50% of the vote they would turn this country back to the murky days of the 1930s. There would be no press freedom only a charismatic leader that would goose step us to a country that would look like Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.

But thanks to the fact that the PS’ is an amateurish party that is trying unsuccessfully to normalize racism, ultranationalism with the help of ignorance, becoming the biggest party of Finland with over 50% of the votes is a political pipe-dream.

One of the PS’ happy-go-lucky MPs, Teuvo Hakkarainen, who has made many racist comments in the past, claimed recently that international agreements and the constitution hinder the PS from carrying out its policies.

What kind of policies does he mean? He probably doesn’t know but the catchphrase sounds right to incite ultranationalist sentiment.

Yes, right, Hakkarainen is the MP who sent to a woman last year a picture of his phallus by SMS.

You may rightly ask why we are putting up with MPs like Hakkarainen and a party that has little respect for our Nordic values and constitution. Why would some Finns vote for a late PS MP like Tony Halme, who has called former President Tarja Halonen a lesbian and showed his racist machismo in the following quote below?

“I promise here and now to buy gas for each Lada, if the communist traitors to the fatherland drive away forever straight to hell. The only thing that helps is to stick a Balalaika up their asshole and kick them to the border.”

PS MP Kaj Turunen, who used to sell ice cream in Savonlinna before he was elected to parliament in 2011, is another PS lawmaker that doesn’t understand our laws.

Yes, he’s the politician who filed charges in 2014 against Social Democrat chairman Antti Rinne in 2014 for ethnic agitation. Somehow Turunen believes that the PS is an ethnic group, which it isn’t.

After watching Thursday’s A-studio Turunen was at it again with the following tweet: “YLE attacks the PS and the party will attack YLE.”

Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo approached Turunen and asked him about that eerie tweet that is common in countries ruled by dictatorships.

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YLE A-studio: The PS reveals its anti-democratic credentials and loathing of press freedom

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Watching Thursday’s A-Studio talk show gave a very disturbing picture of what the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* think about democracy and the role of the media in society. Researcher Markku Jokisipilä exposed, however, with a diplomatic statement what’s wrong with this country and why a party like the PS has grown to become one of the biggest in Finland.

Even if the party’s third vice president Sebastian Tynkkynen row continued to dominate a part of the program, there were a number of comments that caught my eye.

One of these was how the press officer of the PS, Matti Putkonen, tried to dominate and tell the host what should be debated on the show. Putkonen claimed as well that MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, is “one of Finland’s best authorities on migration.”

Even if Putkonen’s two-minute exit from the talk show surprised a lot of viewers, it was researcher Jokisipilä who shed light on why politicians, the media and public opinion in the country continue to give the benefit of the doubt to a party that is anti-EU, anti-cultural diversity and especially anti-Islam.

“I’m obliged to congratulate the PS for their [historic] election victory of 2011,” he said, “that was an excellent matter from the point of view of Finnish politics and Finnish democracy.”

For whom was the rise of a party that bases its support on labeling and victimizing migrants and minorities as well as fueling nationalist sentiment a good matter? I doubt that many people of our ever-culturally and ethnically diverse Finland would agree that the rise of the PS is a “good” matter.

Is the rise of the Danish People’s Party, Front National of France and other nationalist populist anti-immigration parties a good thing for Europe?

I doubt it.

Watch full A-studio talk show here.

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Timo Soini’s Tynkkynen problem or Sebastian Tynkkynen’s Soini problem

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Sebastian Tynkkynen is third vice president of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and chairman of its youth wing. Recently he’s been in the national spotlight and a thick thorn in Timo Soini’s side and a threat to party unity.

The official reason why Tynkkynen’s party membership was revoked Friday was – according to PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo – because he published a list of the party’s members online to call an emergency meeting to debate if the PS should remain in government.

The way Tynkkynen’s membership was revoked exposes once again that the PS’ real name is TS, or Timo Soini, who rules his party with a mixture of charisma and terror, especially against those who get out of line.

The way Soini keeps the party leadership and MPs on short leashes, coupled by its turncoat policies in government, are certain recipes for disaster. It is ironic that the very people Soini gave a political voice, the racists and far right, are threatening to destroy the party today.

Soini doesn’t accept criticism from within his ranks as the Tynkknynen row shows but he doesn’t have a problem with members who have issues with racism, ethnic agitation convictions, and ties with far right groups.

Even if the media and some politicians are following the row with keen interest, we mustn’t forget that many of Tynkkynen’s opinions of migrants, minorities, cultural diversity and the EU are racist and ultranationalist. They are in the same league as far right parties like the Danish People’s Party and Sweden Democrats.

Should we then feel sorry for Tynkkynen as some media, politicians and law experts have expressed?

Not at all. How could you feel sorry for a member of a party that bases its popularity on xenophobia and victimizing migrants and petty provincialism?

We should, however, thank Tynkkynen for speeding up the eventual demise of the PS that is not only a huge disappointment to those that voted for it but for unmasking the political paper tiger the party is.

*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.

Helsingin Sanomat article on refugees is an exercise in stereotyping

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Migrant Tales

One matter has always surprised me about Finnish journalists is how some of them paint migrants with a single brush and allow their own prejudices get in the way of facts, especially when they write about migrants and minorities. A good example of the latter is a story by Jukka Harju, who not only mistakenly claims that the first refugees came to Finland over 40 years ago, but which national group adapted the best in Finland.

Most of this type of writing is, unfortunately, an exercise in assimilation and the writers prejudices about certain national groups.

As mentioned in an earlier posting, the first large group of refugees numbering 6,500 came from Russia in 1921, not over 40 years ago as the Helsingin Sanomat article incorrectly claims.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

The journalist cites a teacher and school psychologist, Liisa Kosonen, to vouch that the Vietnamese who came in the late 1970s were well-adapted to Finland.

“It worked out well,” she is quoted as saying. “It had in part to do with the Far Eastern character. The Vietnamese adapted well to such a situation, they were cordial. They valued education and their children got a lot of support.”

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