Thanks to Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” we can now get a terrific glimpse of the suffering of asylum seekers who were used as political pawns by Belarus and Poland. Since it would have been impossible to film the movie in Belarus or Poland, Holland created a movie with actors to debict these people’s suffering.
Writes the Guardian: “Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.”
The movie also exposes the hypocrisy and racism of Europe towards such people.
“The end of the film makes the explicit comparison between the two refugee crises,” the daily continued, “and the different receptions granted to Ukrainians and to the much smaller number of darker-skinned refugees from Africa and the Middle East received at the border.”
In Finland, Perussuomalaiset* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen announced a tightening of asylum procedures in Finland by speeding up the process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.
If there is a big divide and mistrust between the media and the Muslim community it was exposed by a scoop the tabloid ilta-Sanomaton a secret “mosque” in a Helsinki nursery. Throughout the years, some Muslim imams and other members of the community have expressed apprehension of the Finnish media.
For those who may not know, Finland has only one mosque built in the 1940s located in Järvenpää, a short drive north of Helsinki. All the rest of these mosques without a minaret are, in fact, prayer rooms.
Finland’s only mosque with a minaret is located in Järvenpää and was built in the 1940s. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.
True, some Muslims call prayer rooms mosques.
While many will disagree with Suomen Muslimifoorumi’s Aladin Maher about his views on gay marriage and the great replacement conspiracy theory, the underlying message of the stories written about the “mosque” reveals a deep-seated mistrust of Muslims that is amplified by politicians from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*and National Coalition Party.
The story about the mosque awoke Finland’s Islamophobic hardliners like Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Minister Wille Rydman, MPs like Atte Kaleva, Joakim Vigelius, never mind the thousands of hostile comments on social media.
All of these politicians and ministers had something bad to say about the mosque and Maher and exposed their hypocrisy.
We shouldn’t be surprised the these hostile comments came mostly from the Islamophobic PS and National Coalition Party.
If the ongoing hostile comments are anything to go by, it shows that any meaningful dialogue between some sectors of Finnish society and the Muslim community is light years away.
Rejection by the media and certain politicians of Muslims ensures that nothing will change.
The impact of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government (Perussuomalaiset PS*, Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats) on Finland will be devastating. It will be a regression into the darkest corners of nationalism, xenophobia, chest-thumping, and bravado.
With the help of these social ills, there are plans to displace Finland’s liberal roots that gained force after it became an EU member in 1995. A lot of good laws were drafted at the end of the 1990s such as the new constitution, which guarantees that everyone, irrespective of their background, are equal before the law.
PS Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen speaking at A-studio, where she wants to give police rights in certain neighborhoods to stop and frisk people even if they are not suspected of crime. The proposal has raised concern about its legal problems. Rantanen states that such a model is being copied from Denmark, which is considered by some the most Islamophobic countries in Europe.
Plans to turn migrants legally into second-class members of society is one of the many threats by the government like paying foreigners less social welfare. There is a concerted plan to disenfranchise migrants.
Apart from the latter, Finland’s most right-wing government since the 1930s will do all it can to erect monuments to forgetting racism and worsening social inequality.
The racism scandals of summer are a case in point. They give us clear insight on how the government white-cleans its past.
A seven-point guide on how to create a new image and appear as a “normal” politician despite your racist background:
It is concerning for migrants and minorities in Finland that we have a government that is openly hostile to them. As in Juha Sipilä’s (2015-2019) government, there was an agreement that migration policy would be handled by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party in exchange for the National Coalition Party (NCP) and Center Partry dictating economic policy.
It is the same situation now: The NCP remains silent on migration policy and the PS is silent on austerity measures in exchange for dictating migration policy.
Looking at the PS’ track record and its use of conspiracy theories to drive home its xenophobic message, one wonders if just erasing previous racist posts is enough to restore credibility in ministers like Mari Rantanen.
“Are you on our side or the other side’s,” asks PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. Source Ville Ranta, Iltalehti.
The question is not far-fetched. The PS is historically the first major contemporary Finnish party to have profited politically by promoting the polarization between different groups by claiming that Muslims, Africans, and other non-EU nationals, as less valuable.
Many of Rantanen’s social media posts before the 4 April election, which were deleted and whitewashed after the elections, were based on conspiracy theories, such as the great replacement. “We shouldn’t be so blue-eyed that soon we won’t be blue-eyed?” is one of his more unusual quotes.
In Finnish, being “blue-eyed” means being naive.
Moreover, even if these types of posts do not increase credulity, how can one even attempt to find a solution to the youth problem in society if Rantanen and her party blame social problems like pinning youth gang violence on ‘harmful migration?
How is it possible that we do not hear a word from the government about three suspects tried on terrorism charges in Lahti. Helsingin Sanomat published an editorial Tuesday about the threat of far-right violence in Finland.
Writes Helsingin Sanomat: “However, the case is a fresh reminder that the extreme right is a real threat to Finland’s security. The assessment made by the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) a couple of years ago is correct; in addition to the terrorist threat from radical Islamists, the terrorist threat from the far right has increased.”
As if trying to divert attention from far-right terrorism, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has preferred to talk about migrant youth gang violence and new questionable methods to give the police more search- and-seizure powers.
For many years, groups like Migrant Tales, historian Oula Silvenoinen, and columnist Saku Timonen have warned about the ties of the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and far-right groups. Is it a surprise that one of the main suspects in the terrorist trial in Lahti is a former PS member Viljam Nyman?
Finnish prosecutors have charged four men in the Lahti terrorism trial that are believed to be able to produce semiautomatic weapons using a 3D printer and attacking critical infrastructure, politicians, anti-racism activists and NGOs. One of the targets was believed to be former prime minister, Sanna Marin.
Finnish news server YLE reported that the four suspects follow neo-Nazi ideology linked to accelerationism, which claims that fundamental societal transformations can be achieved only by accelerating different processes in society.
Hannu Järvinen is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* councilperson from the city of Espoo. One of his big pastimes is speaking badly of immigrants. Like many of his party, xenophobic and especially Islamophobic opinions are his pet topics.
His advice will scare away people from Finland than keep them here.
Järvinen’s solution for migrants: “When you move to live in Finland, you have to learn the language, respect our ways of life and values as well as work for the good of Finland. When you move to Finland, you have to become like a Finn.
While such requests appear outrageous because they have nothing to do with Finland’s official integration program, too many like Järvinen think like him.
In Finland, over 1.2 million people emigrated mainly to North America and Sweden before and after World War 2, respectively, during 1860-1999.
My tweet to Järvinen: “Your point of view shows me that you don’t know anything about immigration. Did you mean that we are supposed to throw away our culture? Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Finns that have moved away from this country.
Here is a good video that shows what Järvinen means and how it is supposed to happen in real life. In the movie Pane e Cioccolata, an Italian migrant becomes Swiss by dying his hair and rooting for the team that is playing against Italy.
“Walking, walking, walking I go looking for freedom, hopefully I will find my way, so I can keep on walking.”
Victor Jara (1932-73), Caminando, caminando
September 11 marks the 50th anniversary of the bloody coup that overthrew Chile’s democratically elected President, Salvador Allende. Finland’s small but active Chilean community has organized a number of events this year to commemorate the day that awakens in many mixed memories.
Angel Barrientos, one of the 182 refugees who came to Finland from Chile in January 10, 1974, is the first friend I made of this group in the early 1980s. His sister, Silvana, who lives in Coquimbo, Chile, is on the front cover of the book, “Whistling under the snow,” published recently about the Chilean diaspora of Finland.
The Chilean community of Finland is remembering the 50th anniversary of the terrible coup that was made possibly by Henry Kissinger and the Nixon Administration. The book, “Whistling under the snow, edited by Adrián Soto, commemorates those difficult years. It is the first one published on the Chilean refugees in Finland.
How do 50 years change a person’s life in a new home country?
“Adapting to my new home country was a long process marked with different phases,” he said. “After all these years, I feel more at home in Finland than in Chile.”
Angel admits that when he visits Chile, he feels a bit out of place.
“I have difficulty understanding what young people are saying,” he continued. “The language changes rapidly and there are new slang words. I speak to youths, and they just look at me perplexed. trying to understand what I am saying.”
First years in Finland
Just like any person who has been torn violently from his home country, the first years of adaption are rarely easy. For example, Angel says that when he arrived in Finland, it was in winter with -15 °C compared with +26-27°C in Chile, where it was summer.
“Our countries are so different,” Angel said. “At first, the food was a shock and the language was difficult. Even so, I felt human warmth at demonstrations by young people where the Chilean flag waved. There was a lot of solidarity for our cause.”
While the following anecdote isn’t mentioned in the book, cultural misunderstandings could be comical. Finland is well known for its “Ykkösolut,” a low-alcohol beer. A group of Chileans at a bar thought it was the strongest because it had the number “one.”
“They drank and drank that beer, but there was no affect,” said Angel many years ago.
Angel Barrientos during younger days at the Turku Museum Center. Photos: Adolfo Vera.
“Finland gave me a lot. I was able to form a family, have four children, and study to become an interior architect. One of the most important things that this country gave me was peace and a safe space. In Chile, there is always that doubt that they would have probably even killed me like they did to so many. My father and sister were arrested by the authorities.”
Angel mentioned that in November 1973 he snuck into the Finnish embassy in Santiago, where there were 24 others seeking refuge. Tapani Brotherus , a hero for many Chileans, was Finnish ambassador to Chile (1971-76).
“Getting into the Finnish embassy grounds was difficult and easy,” Angel continued. “Some of the guards [Carabineros] at the embassy chose to look the other way while other guards were monsters.
He mentioned that those guards that looked the other way probably wanted to help them.
Homesickness
For many, dealing with homesickness forms part of the process of adapting to a new homeland. How hard homesickness hits one depends on the person.
“The first 10-15 years I thought about returning to Chile,” said Angel. “After ten years, such a move is difficult because you have established a family and children are anchors. I went back and stayed six months in Chile, but it was impossible.”
Finding work that paid enough to live off was one factor that shattered Angel’s hopes of living in Chile.
Even if the over 180 Chileans that fled the dictatorship were a heterogeneous group with different political ideologies, Angel admits that everyone attempted to live in harmony.
Kati Vera is one of Angel’s four children. Having lived the first years of her life in Finland, she later ended up in Canada where she studied to become a graphic artist.
“I am very proud of my father and all the Chileans that became refugees [due to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship],” she said. “Being multicultural is a gift that permits you to see the world through different perspectives. For that, I am grateful to my father and mother.”
The Foreign Student experienced life across 11 editions, spanning from January 1981 to January 1982. The newsletter, which was put out by the Foreign Student Club ry of Helsinki, was outspoken on immigrant rights issues. The last issue of the newsletter below, got itself in trouble with the newly elected president of the club, Fadi Kriokorian, who wanted less controversial stories published.
In protest, Enrique Tessieri resigned as editor and that was the end of the newsletter.
The women, who allegedly changed her story and forced an Algerian law student, Adda Lahkar, to be deported from Finland, had changed her story.
During those days, foreigners did not have appeal rights against the decisions of the Aliens Office.
The woman threatened to sue me and the Foreign Student if we did not publish a retraction that “had to be approved by her.”
I told her to go fly a kite and to go ahead and sue me.
The story was originally published on Migrant Tales on June 15, 2016.
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 if it 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 Perón were captured and shot by the military junta’s secret firing squad, after Perón 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.
Can anyone really trust Mari Rantanen, the Interior Minister of Perussuoalaiset (PS)* of Finland? All it took to whitewash her far-right racist views was to take down such posts from her social media sites after the election and claim that she does not believe in conspiracy theories.
What a coward! She spreads all these far-right racist conspiracy theories and then does not have the guts to stand by them.
What does that show?
It reveals moral cowardice and bravado.
One of her many infamous quotes is: “We must not be so blue-eyed that soon we will not be blue-eyed.” “Blue-eyed in Finnish means naive.
She has also wished that asylum seekers drown in Greek waters, Europe will turn into an Africa, and that if steps are not taken to halt non-white migrants, Europe is threatened with civil war.
PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen is proof that far-right racism rooted in conspiracy theories will take you far in politics. Source: X (formerly Twitter).
Looking at Minister Rantanen’s racist track record, it’s clear that she is bankrupt of all credibility. How can you trust a minister who is openly racist and too chicken to stand by her toxic views? How much of an opportunist is she, and how much harm has she inflicted on Finland? A generous amount, I believe.
Her loathing of Muslims and other minorities is clearly evident. Take for example the so-called youth gang “problem,” which is a direct copy from Sweden’s election and helped boost the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, to victory.
