Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 225 of 245

National Coalition Party and Perussuomalaiset lead anti-immigration drive in Finland

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Migrant Tales

With parliamentary elections nearing in April, topping the anti-immigration rhetoric list are two parties with representatives in parliament: National Coalition Party and who else but the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.

We’ve been reading almost daily about National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma’s crusade against migrant women with baby carriages. The PS are another hostile party to migrants that will feed migrants to the dogs in order to get your vote in April.

While the PS wants to fool voters into believing that their rhetoric against migrants and minorities has something to do with patriotism and defending white Finnish rights, nothing could be further from the truth.

Migrant Tales has never been fooled by this type of chicanery and neither should you.

If there are warning red light over Finland, it’s to warn us of the PS, a party that has ties with extremist groups like Suomen Sisu.

Since the PS has made so many outrageous statements in the past about migrants, minorities and development aid, let’s look at the two most recent ones by MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala and MP Juho Eerola.

If Saarakkala had his way, he’d get rid of dual citizenship and take away a person’s citizenship if he were sentenced for a serious crime like terrorism. Eerola, on the other hand, the MP that admitted liking fascism and Benito Mussolini’s economic policies, wants to scrap the right of migrants to use paid interpreters.

What’s wrong with these two proposals? For one they reveal that Saarakkala and Eerola, both lawmakers, are in the dark about our constitution.

One of the most important rights in our constitution is that everyone, irrespective if the person is a Finn or migrant, has the right to be treated equally before the law.

Here’s a question to Eerola: If you are going to take away the right to use a paid interpreter from migrants, how would that affect minorities such as the Sami, Roma and mutes?

These types of statements made by MPs just to get votes in next year’s election reveal the true face of the PS. It shows a party that is lost but led by the headlights of its opportunism and ignorance. The PS would end up feeding our laws and values to the dogs if it ever got power.

Should migrants, expats and minorities fear the PS? Not at all. We should challenge them and do everything possible to send them them back to where they came from: to the one-digit political minor league.

Let’s hope that this will happen sooner than later.

* 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.

Finland’s parliamentary elections of April 2015 have begun

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Even if parliamentary elections will take place on April 19, 2015, it’s clear that they’ve begun. Rumbles can be already heard from political parties such as the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Muutos 2011 and the National Coalition Party, which are vying for media attention and voters. Who are they targeting? Who else but migrants and minorities.

National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma is the one that claimed on Friday that migrant women were buying new baby carriages with social aid and that migrants were getting more welfare than Finns.

Kauma’s claims, which were based on hearsay, were disproven. Even so, the conservative MP continues to be in the media spotlight.

Any serious student of racism would ask the following question: Why does MP Kauma, who bases her claim on gossip and openly victimizes migrants, controls the narrative on migrants? Why doesn’t Pekka Myrskylä’s blog, which showed that the majority of migrants live in poverty in Finland, wasn’t even mentioned by the Finnish media?

Why in the last parliamentary elections did the media believe the narrative of the PS and politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and others even if it’s clear today that they were spreading lies about migrants?

The answer is in my opinion clear: The Finnish media isn’t only white but too many reporters have a challenging time thinking outside their ethnic box.

Migrants and minorities in this country have memory and we won’t forget. In the meantime as new lies are stacked over old ones by opportunistic politicians, the credibility of our institutions will be undermined. Who would believe in the police if the police are suspicious of you?

What is surprising in the Kauma affair is that not one migrant – except for mothers with baby carriages – were asked what they thought about the MP’s false claims.

On Monday’s A-Studio, a YLE host asked Kauma if she’d apologize for what she said. Social Democrat chairman Antti Rinne had said over the weekend that it’s clear that migrants don’t get more social aid than Finns and therefore talk about baby carriages should end and Kauma should apologize.

The MP said she wouldn’t apologize for bringing up a topic that had gotten the attention of white Finns.

Kauma did, however, apologize to those migrant mothers with baby carriages who have been harassed by Finns because of what she said.

Please read the last sentence again and ask:

Why did she make such claims in the first place if they aren’t true?

Politicians like Kauma and Timo Soini will find themselves in good company with MP James Hirvisaari of Muutos 2011, a xenophobic far-right party that believes racist sound bites to the media will help them get voters.

They are right but in the wrong party because there’s little media interest in Muutos 2011.

Hirvisaari, who got the boot from the PS after he posted a picture on social media of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, is a PS creation. Without the PS, Hirvisaari would have never got elected.

Here MP James Hirvisaari shows his Finnish machoism and narcism with his anti-immigration rhetoric, where he promises to get immigration under control. Social media has created many Frankensteins like Hirvisaari.

It’s highly likely that Hirvisaari will lose his seat in April.

We at Migrant Tales hope that he gets voted out of parliament.

* 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.

Dr Theodoros Fouskas: Nigerian Immigrants in Greece: Low-Status Work, Community, and Decollectivization

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: Dr Theodoros Fouskas, a lecturer at the New York College, Greece, is no stranger to our blog. We’ve published two stories about his research and work. Taking into account the economic and political hardships that Greece faces and how this had impacted migrants, Migrant Tales believes it has a responsibility to show the good work being done by researchers like Dr Fouskas.

We wish him the best luck in the lunching of his latest book below.

__________________

Book Description:
• How does low-status work of Nigerian immigrants affect their organization and representation in immigrant community associations and unions?
• How do Nigerian immigrants perceive and what practices do they develop towards the collective organization, representation and claim of work rights?The sociological research in this book emphasizes that the lack of permanent employment and restriction of immigrants in precarious, low-status/paid occupations distance them from both collectivities and claims. By introducing a new perspective on the investigation of the migration phenomenon in Greece, this book contributes significantly to relative international research and literature. This makes it an extremely useful source for researchers and students, public agencies or bodies and for those dealing with the phenomenon of immigration and immigration policy.

In the first part of the book, the clarification of the theoretical concepts of community, occupational community and low-status work in the migration context is attempted. The impact that low-status/paid work has on immigrant collectivities is analyzed and the types of immigrant community associations and the attitude of the Greek trade unions towards the immigrants are discussed. Moreover, an overview of international empirical research on Nigerian immigrants, as well as on studies that focus on the investigation of immigrant community associations in Greece is endeavored. The second part of the book concentrates on the consequences low-status/paid work has on the collective organization and representation of the immigrant workforce. The micro-sociological research and analysis examines the case of Nigerian immigrants in Greece and how the frame of their work and their employment affects their participation in the immigrant hometown association Nigerian Community in Greece and in Greek trade unions. The results based on in-depth interviews demonstrate that due to the ramifications of their work, Nigerians are cut off, do not claim established workers’ rights and do not seek membership in any community associations or unions. In contrast, Nigerian immigrant workers depend on informal and impersonal social networks in search of solidarity and thus resort to alternative means of ensuring survival in Greek society, choosing individualistic and materialistic perceptions and attitudes of regulating their difficulties and workers’ rights, far from collectivities, often resigning from them completely. (Imprint: Nova)

Table of Contents:
Foreword pp.ix-xiiList of Tables pp.xiii-xiv

List of Figures pp.xv-xvi

About the Author pp.xvii-xviii

Acknowledgments pp.xix-xx

Abbreviations pp.xxi-xxii

Introduction pp.xxiii-xxxv

PART 1. pp.1-2

Chapter 1. Theoretical Clarifications pp.3-28

Chapter 2. International Research on Nigerian Immigrants pp.29-38

Chapter 3. International Research on Immigrant Associations in Greece
pp.39-50
PART 2. pp.51-52

Chapter 4. Research Methodology pp53-62

Chapter 5. Immigrants from Nigeria in Greece pp.63-140

PART 3. pp.141-142

Chapter 6. Epilogue pp.143-158

Appendix: Statistical Data on Nigerians pp.159-166

Bibliography pp.167-238

Index pp.239-251

To order book visit Nova Publishers here.

Muutos 2011 election campaign exposes the contempt and hatred some Finns have for migrants and minorities

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Muutos 2011, which has one MP in parliament, is a good example of a xenophobic party in Finland. They are a good example of the racism, contempt and hatred that some Finns have for migrants and minorities. Behind all the Muutos 2011 rhetoric you will find a hostile message: keep Finland white.

James Hirvisaari, who was ousted from the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* after he posted a picture of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, is its lone MP.

The party gives us a glimpse of what they think of migrants and minorities in their election program:

Muutos always places Finns first in decision-making. Since we Finns are from a global standpoint a small and disappearing minority, we have to defend our language and culture since nobody will do this for us.

We’re not against immigration, but we believe we have a duty to former and future generations to maintain Finland a livable and secure country where Finns can live and practice their culture.

The poster states that Finns must have to right to decide what Finland will look like in the future.

Any sensible person can see what’s wrong with the above statement about immigration. Muutos 2011 sees Finland as a white country while in fact it has always been and will be culturally diverse. In Muutos 2011’s world, migrants would be seen as eternal outsiders that would always be second- and third-class citizens in this country.

The campaign poster above says it all about white privilege and how some Finns dread cultural diversity. Their problem is that Finland is already culturally and ethnically diverse. It’s not as if this will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow. It’s here, now.

Migrant Tales hopes that Muutos 2011 will lose their only seat in the April parliamentary elections.

* 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.

Defining white privilege #10: I can victimize and make up any story I like about migrants because I’m white

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Migrant Tales

National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma has made headlines recently by exploiting people’s suspicion of migrants in general and migrant women in particular for buying new baby carriages with welfare money. Even if her claim is based on hearsay, the MP continues to make headlines.

She doesn’t get noticed for victimizing migrants and basing her claim on gossip, but because what she says appeals to a lot of people in this country. It ironically appeals to those Finns who want to continue seeing see migrants asking for welfare handouts instead of being treated as equal members of society.

Kauma goes further by not only reinforcing urban tales but creating new ones along the way. One of these is that some migrant groups have to buy new baby carriages because a girl cannot use one that was used by a boy.

Total baloney.

MP Pia Kauma gave a boost to her prospects of being re-elected in April by attacking migrant women.

When asked what is the source of her claim about migrants purchasing new baby carriages, Kauma responded on YLE’s A-Studio with a poker face:

”Of course it’s very difficult to get factual information, but I have been in politics for ten years and traveled throughout Finland from time to time and have and got similar comments from many different people. I was contacted about this matter recently.”

Right, Kauma. You base your claim on gossip and were too lazy to get the facts because it would have foiled your plan to get media attention as next year’s parliamentary elections near in April.

___________

Definition #10

The only explanation why Kauma’s victimization of migrant women has received so much attention in Finland is because she’s white and because what she says appeals to many Finns even if it isn’t true.

Kauma’s plan to be in the spotlight has worked magnificently. An urban tales (migrants get more welfare than Finns)* has been reinforced even if it took a few days to disprove it.

The media has played an important role by giving racists inflated importance and respectability.

Disagree?

What would happen if a black Finn would make similar claims as Kauma?

In the first place, such a claim would never see the light of day. If it did it would be ignored or used to attack the person and all migrants in this country with an hostile, “How dare you say that – you aren’t white!”

See also:

*See Pekka Myrskylä’s posting that proves why white Finns get more social welfare than migrants.

Kokoomus MP Pia Kauma continues crusade against baby carriages – now includes Finnish mothers

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Pia Kauma, the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP that pointed the accusing finger at migrants Friday by asking why migrant women get social aid to buy new baby carriages since Finnish mothers buy used ones, wants to do away with social aid to buy baby carriages altogether, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Migrant Tales reported Friday that the finger pointing and victimizing by Kauma is not against migrant women but against all women who need social assistance to buy baby carriages.

It’s clear by the MP’s latest statement on Helsingin Sanomat that this is the case.

Even if Kauma claims that the city of Espoo’s poor economic situation is the reason why such social aid should end, savings would be very small.

Sakari Timonen is one of the best anti-racism bloggers in Finland. He states on a recent blog headlined Crusade against baby carriages that of the city of Espoo’s annual budget of 1.573 billion euros, only 3% (48.146 million) of this sum is allocated for social assistance, which could include the 200 euros for buying baby carriages.

If you want to read a very good blog that unmasks MP Kauma and her disingenuous comments, visit The Black Female Experience blog.

The blog entry, Hei, paljonko vauva maksoi? (Hey, how much your baby costs?), exposes Kauma’s motives in what some have started to call “baby carriagegate” on social media sites.

Read original posting (in Finnish) here.

Baby carriages aren’t the question. They never were. The question is this society’s cancerous racism and the human value of black mothers, who our politicians appear to care very little about.

With elections taking place in April, MP Kauma has got what she wanted: media attention, and lots of it.

Why we should treat Pia Kauma’s apology with tweezers

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Wouldn’t you have known it. After labeling and victimizing migrant women in Finland on Friday, who she claimed were buying new baby carriages with social assistance, the National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma now apologizes for what she said, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Is her apology sincere or a sham?

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

In many countries, anti-immigration politicians first give hostile sound bites to journalists. Whether the journalists find out in a later story that what the politician said was true or not, the message is out there and the damage has been done.

This is exactly the impact of Kauma’s statement: An old urban tale has been reinforced to racists. And there are many out there in this country.

As Migrant Tales correctly pointed out on Friday, there’s always the danger that Kauma’s claim gives ammunition to racists to harass and even physically assault migrant women with baby carriages.

According to Abridrahim “Husu” Hussein, a host of the Ali and Husu radio talk show, said on Helsingin Sanomat that Somalis have become the targets of Kauma’s comments.

“Somalis are responsible for nine out of ten things that involve migrants,” he said. “I have heard from Somali mothers that over the weekend they have been stared at with one being pictured in secret.”

Kauma said that her intention was not to victimize migrant mothers with baby carriages but to bring attention to Espoo’s poor financial situation.

When asked to backup her claim Monday on YLE’s A-Studio, it was clear that her claim was based on hearsay.

”Of course it’s very difficult to get factual information,” she said, “but I have been in politics for ten years and traveled throughout Finland from time to time and have and got similar comments from many different people. I was contacted about this matter recently.”

If Kauma would have got in touch with social workers in Espoo, it would have become clearly evident that there is no preferential treatment of migrants and that assistant for baby carriages amounts to only 200 euros.

Migrant Tales doubts the sincerity of Kauma’s apology.

The MP got what she sought: media attention as parliamentary elections near in April.

* 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.

MP Pia Kauma’s crusade against baby carriages is based on hearsay

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Migrant Tales

National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma has become quite a sensation after she accused migrant women of buying new baby carriages with welfare money. When asked on YLE’s A-Studio where she got such information, her answer was quite startling.

”Of course it’s very difficult to get factual information,” she said on YLE’s A-Studio, “but I have been in politics for ten years and traveled throughout Finland from time to time and have got similar comments from many different people. I was contacted about this matter recently.”

Instead of relying on hearsay, why didn’t Kauma get in touch with social workers of the city of Espoo? One reason why she probably didn’t do this is because they would have proved her claim to be wrong.

A social worker that appeared on the same program as Kauma said that migrants and Finns are only given 200 euros to buy baby carriages.

Good luck if you want to buy a new baby carriage with that sum of money.

The whole affair exposes Kauma’s disingenuous motives and opportunism. She believes it’s perfectly fine to relay on hearsay as long as the ones you are victimizing and labeling are migrants. Add to this nearing parliamentary elections and a clearer picture emerges why she made such a statement in the first place.

Watch YLE’s A-Studio here.

Kauma’s statement is no different from the white racists of the South that loathed black USAmericans for being on welfare. The aim is the same: label and spread hatred.

Migrant Tales hopes that MP Kauma not only gets her fingers burned by what she said but loses her seat in the April elections.

Taking into account the reaction to what she said on many social media forums, this may be possible.

“Fiery soul” Brazilian player could be handed one-way ticket back to his country

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Migrant Tales

A Brazilian player who plays for MP of Mikkeli, a second-division football team, walks out in protest in the middle of a match against FC Myllypuro. His team is trailing 4-5. MP chairman Harri Kivinen and the team manager, Mika Korpela, are outraged and state that the player, Denis, probably won’t play for MP anymore and can go back to his home country.

What would have happened if a Finnish player would have done the same thing as Denis? Certainly you couldn’t send him back to a country because he’s a Finn. But you could slap him with a fine and suspend him from a few practices and matches.

Even if Kivinen and Korpela said that Denis could be handed a one-way ticket to Brazil, the player has a two year contract with MP. Kivinen said that the player could be leased to another club or even be playing for MP next season.

Suggesting that Denis should be given a one-way ticket to Brazil appears harsh. Add to this the fact that the chairman of MP, Kivinen, is a councilman for the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* an anti-immigration party, and some questions arise.

When Kivinen ran for councilman of the Mikkeli city council in October 2012, he “totally agreed” that Finland should tighten immigration policy and funding to immigrants with tax euros.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

If we left Kivinen’s and his party’s anti-immigration views aside, we could ask why he’s making generalizations about foreign players. He claims on Länsi-Savo that they are more temperamental than Finnish ones.

“He’s [Denis] a player with a fiery soul,” he said, “Brazilians have a different mentality than us. They are these type of people, when they don’t get the ball they get angry and show their feelings.”

Kivinen adds that “foreigners show their feelings in a more heated manner than us [Finns]” and that “they over-react more easily than our [Finnish] players.”

I wonder where Kivinen gets his facts. Is there a study that proves that foreign player over-react more than Finnish ones and have fiery souls?

I seriously doubt it.

The only matter that Kivinen’s opinions reveal are his stereotypes.

* 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.

Kokoomus MP Pia Kauma takes a cheap shot against migrants

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Migrant Tales

With parliamentary elections nearing in April 2015, politicians will do almost anything to get attention. We heard Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini state this week that his party’s ass isn’t for sale. National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP and Espoo city councilwoman, Pia Kauma, now joins this questionable group by asking why the municipality should help migrants buy new baby carriages.

Espoo is located next to Helsinki and may face a 60-million-euro deficit in its budget. Kauma apparently believes that forcing migrant women, or women in general, to buy used baby carriages will help city plug its deficit.

Anyone with a little bit of insight, however, can tell that Kauma isn’t attacking migrant women with her statement, but all young mothers who may need social assistance.

Read Sakari Timonen‘s blog for more insight on the issue.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Another problem with what Kauma said is that she’s generalizing. There’s a danger that her victimization of migrant women may lead to violence against them. Racists will certainly get ammunition from the MP’s comment to harass “foreign-looking” women strolling the streets of Espoo with new baby carriages.

What else is wrong with what Kauma said?

It’s evident by her comment that she thinks very lowly of migrants, especially migrant women, and women in general who don’t make enough money to buy new baby carriages.

* 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.