Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 196 of 245

The PS puts a price tag on refugees without putting one on themselves

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

In their never-ending search to prove that immigration and refugees are bad for Finland the Perussuomalaiset (PS) have now a price tag for the cost of each refugee. Not even Hungary, where refugees are kicked at by camerawomen or thrown food at like animals, has published such a cost estimate.

According to calculations by the PS, and with the blessings of Minister of Social Welfare and Health Hanna Mäntylä, the message that the government is giving is that Finland should accept as few as possible refugees because they are costly.

Mäntylä is no friend of Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse community and justifies xenophobia because “white Finns are having it bad.”

The table below is not only disgraceful but another ploy by the PS to save face with their voters after so many turncoat decisions and broken election promises.

One of the biggest question marks about the table is that it assumes a lot of things. And when you assume you end up making an “ass” our of “u” and “me.”

These are estimates made by the PS on how much a refugee costs Finland. According to the anti-immigration party, one person costs 13,200 euros a year, 30,000 persons 396 million and so on.

For one the table assumes that refugees that get asylum in Finland are only a cost. Don’t these people consume? Don’t they go to class to learn Finnish? Aren’t they going to be employed in the future and pay taxes?

Continue reading “The PS puts a price tag on refugees without putting one on themselves”

The Finnish government shrinks in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Europe

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish government is sending mixed messages about its role in the humanitarian crisis that Europe faces today. A good example of the latter is Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s announcement last week when he offered his home to refugees but last Friday the government unveiled plans to demote refugees that get a residence permit to second-class status.

Even if such moves are considered unconstitutional since in Finland everyone is equal before the law, we shouldn’t be surprised at what is happening because we have a populist party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* in government that is trying to save face on the backs of refugees and our culturally diverse community.

Read full story here.

Foreign Minister and PS chairman, Timo Soini, announced Friday that the government is studying the possibility of lowering grants given to asylum seekers by 37% to about 200 euros from 318 euros now.

This move is similar to what Denmark did in August, when approved by a slim vote to cut monthly benefits to refugees and other migrants by 45% from 10,849 krona (1,454 euros) to 5,945 krona (797 eur).

For those who don’t know, the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) is calling the government shots in that country. The DPP is a close political and ideological ally of the PS.

Continue reading “The Finnish government shrinks in the face of the humanitarian crisis in Europe”

Finland says yes to Commission refugee scheme but is still wishy-washy about its role in the crisis

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

While the announcement by Interior Minister Petteri Orpo that Finland will accept 2,400 asylum seekers under a European Commission scheme is a positive step in the right direction, according to YLE in English, what message does it send?

For one, Orpo said that Finland doesn’t support commission plans to have a permanent mechanism to manage the flow of refugees and migrants entering Europe in ever-larger numbers.

While Orpo’s choice of words is a question of semantics, we still don’t have a clear idea what Finland’s role will be in the humanitarian crisis. Is it seeking a European solution or does it want to follow Hungary’s example by treating refugees inhumanely and leaving them out in the cold?

As long as the populist anti-immigration PS is in government we will never know for sure.

Read full story here.

As this government bungles from one crisis to the next, watch closely who makes the announcements.

Timo Soini, PS chairman and foreign minister, naturally spoke to the media about his party’s pet issue: immigrants. He said that the government is studying the possibility of lowering grants given to asylum seekers by 37% to about 200 euros from 318 euros now.

This was exactly what was done in Denmark, where the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party (DPP) is tightening subsidies and immigration policy. The PS and the DPP are close ideological allies.

But that’s not all. The PS is spearheading plans with the government’s blessings to demote asylum seekers that have got residence permits to be treated as second-class members of society.

Soini, who’s been accused of being a turncoat and faces a growing revolt in his party, announced that he wants to de-link funding for asylum-seeker integration programs from the housing benefits system. This means that some migrants will not get the same social welfare benefits as Finns irrespective if they live in Helsinki or Lieksa.

Some analysts believe that such steps are unconstitutional.

* 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.

Hate email to Migrant Tales

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Every now and then we get hate email like the one below. We also get kudos from readers.

I got the email below on September 4 and thought whether I should publish it or not. The person who sent it is most likely a white European and is a good example that some foreigners can be just as racist as the worst Finn.

They have the same ability to make a horse’s ass out of themselves.

_________________

The PS of Finland: Can you teach a bigot new tricks?

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

When the national media gave the racist narrative of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* the benefit of the doubt, Migrant Tales never did and never will. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? If you are naive you probably think you can.

Time magazine quoted Migrant Tales a day after at the 2011 parliamentary elections because we were one of the few who wrote critically about the PS. Time writes in its global briefing page for April 18, 2011:

“We are not extremists so you can sleep safely,” says the head the country’s ascendant ‘True Finns’ party (yes, that’s their real name). Of course, not everybody agrees: Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland, writes Enrique Tessieri.”

Nothing has changed since April 17, 2011 except that the PS has today more power than ever before since it forms part of the government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.

I stand firmly by what I wrote in 2011: The PS is and will continue to be an illness inflicting Finland that has already impoverished the country economically, socially and politically.

Some naively believe that the PS can be transformed into a “normal” party by getting rid of its worst racists like PS MP Olli Immonen, MEP Jussi Halla-aho and many others.

Not a chance. The PS grew from near-obscurity to become the second-biggest party in parliament thanks to its xenophobic rhetoric and promises.

Becoming a “normal” party would be synonymous to committing political hara-kiri for the PS.

Read quotes of the day here.

Continue reading “The PS of Finland: Can you teach a bigot new tricks?”

Kotiutuminen tai kotoutuminen?

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Kuulin tänään 20.30 uutisissa sana kotiutuminen sijasta kotoutuminen. Ei ole ensimmäistä kertaa kun olen kuulut sanaa käytetty väärin toimittajan suusta.

Kotoutuminen on aika uusi sanaa suomen kielessä ja se tarkoitta prosessi jolloin maahanmuuttajia sopeutuu meidän yhteiskuntaan.

Kun olet armeijassa ja palaat siviiliin sitten kotiudut.

Katso 13.29 min. kohdasta uutislähetyksestä jossa toimittaja käyttää kotiutuminen sanaa.

Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Can Europe honestly look at itself in the mirror today and say it is still a beacon of hope, cultural understanding and respect as we bar refugees, permit the children of these people fleeing war to die on our beaches while thousands die trying to reach our shores?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 310,000 refugees have already crossed the Mediterranean compared with 219,000 refugees for the whole of 2014, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

How many more will have to cross and make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean and die before we wake up to the crisis and find effective solutions on a regional EU level?

The chances of finding such solutions and, importantly leadership in today’s Europe, is close to none.

We have lost our way and live in a bubble inflated by so much hubris that we don’t even grasp that it is our bellicose stand and support for wars like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that have led us to this crisis.

Things have gotten so bad in some EU countries that populist anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* quote Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s shameful rhetoric. He’s called Calais a “jungle” and refugees as “swarms of people coming across the Mediterranean.”

And to add more salt to injury and shame, European leaders like Cameron conveniently forget that their country’s wealth was built on the blood of millions of slaves, colonialism and global economic bullying and intimidation.
Continue reading “Europe has been put in harm’s way by Europeans”

Finland’s PM offers his home to refugees – how long will it take for the PS to exit government?

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s announcement Saturday that he’d offer his home to refugees is not only a good attempt by the government to steer Finland back to the direction of other Western European nations in the refugee ongoing crisis but a clear show of leadership that has been lacking.

The decision to offer refugees temporary shelter in his home is a clear snub at its anti-immigration partner, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which would be more than happy lead Finland in the direction of the Baltic States, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the ever-growing humanitarian crisis.

When asked Friday what Europe should do to resolve the refugee crisis, PS chairman and Foreign Minster Timo Soini gave the same answer as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He said that the EU should enforce its border controls and not permit people from entering the EU.

If it was difficult for the PS to approve the bailout package to Greece, how is the anti-immigration party, which has promised to resolve the “Somali and Muslim problem” in Finland, going to explain to its voters that it forms part of a government that let in a record number of refugees?

What excuse, as with the bailout package to Greece, will the PS tell their voters?

Read full story here.

What was the stick the broke the camel’s back or was it broken at all?

Did Sipilä get encouraged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said this week that “there sill be zero tolerance for those who put in question the dignity of other people?”

What exactly made the prime minister make such a pledge?

Was it a subtle way by Sipilä of telling the PS to either shape up or ship out?

Continue reading “Finland’s PM offers his home to refugees – how long will it take for the PS to exit government?”

Tuomas Enbuske says he doesn’t like the term Islamophobia because he considers himself to be one

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Did anyone watch Friday’s Pressiklubi with writer Jari Tervo, Left Alliance MP Silvia Modig and Tuomas Enbuske? Tervo shun with his comments against racism while Enbuske was a flop.

The host, Ruben Stiller, asked all three guests if the’ve ever felt fear or uncomfortable around foreigners.

See full program (in Finnish) here.

Enbuske has hosted twice extremist politicians like former MP James Hirvisaari, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, and advertised on his television show headlines like “Why do Somalis rape?” Continue reading “Tuomas Enbuske says he doesn’t like the term Islamophobia because he considers himself to be one”

Finland is slowly waking up to the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

You know that President Sauli Niinistö said something wrong about the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe if Perussuomalaiset (PS)* spokesperson Matti Putkonen quotes the head of state to reinforce his party’s xenophobic and anti-cultural diversity policies and stand.

Putkonen quoted Niinistö’s statement on the “Years of Danger,” a period in the late-1940s when Finland was close to having a Communist coup, to describe the ongoing humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe, according to YLE in English.

The PS spokesperson said that those “Years of Danger” that Niinistö mentioned where for him “Months of Danger” to describe the present crisis, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has given in the past ambivalent statements concerning the refugee crisis in Europe and about our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

Continue reading “Finland is slowly waking up to the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe”