Category: Enrique Tessieri

The Finnish government’s xenophobic knee-jerk response: The asylum seekers are coming! Shut the border”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Purra tweets: “You don’t have to wait for that, as it has happened many times, even to other institutions like the judiciary which is under direct or indirect protection.

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Yle: “Today [Wednesday] about 70 asylum seekers asked for asylum [at the Russian border].”

A-studio: “One hundred thousand people attempt to cross the Mediterranean annually [to enter Europe].”

I’ve been quiet, watching with manifest unease, the actions of the government spearheaded by the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party about the trickle of asylum seekers arriving at the Finnish -Russian border. For the PS, even President Sauli Niinistö, it’s the usual pouring fuel on the xenophobic flames.

Racism and xenophobia are such a powerful political force in Finland these days that it threatens to take Finland to the political backwoods, a stuffy place where we mistrust everyone different from us and win elections and brownie points by spreading hatred and conspiracy theories of minorities like Muslims.

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, who has a dubious history of spreading conspiracy theories and bigotry of Muslims, is one matter, but why is PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra beating viciously the Islamophobic drum?

The answer lies with PS immigration policy and halting Muslims and other asylum seekers from developed countries from coming to Finland.

Purra tweets: “You don’t have to wait for that, as it has happened many times, even to other institutions like the judiciary which is under direct or indirect protection.

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If we replaced the word “Muslim” or other vulnerable minorities with white Finn, it would reveal the toxicity of Jussi Halla-aho’s world

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there is a reminder on how bad Finland’s racism problem has got, take a look at the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party since the 2011 parliamentary election and specifically its main motor, Jussi Halla-aho. Having him treated as “a normal” politician by the media and other politicians makes him look like a wretched politician in an intensive care ward.

His political life-saving support comes from his blog, Scripta, written in the 2000.

For many Finns, it is difficult to weigh how demeaning and racist his writings are and how they paint a capricious and greedy man who is a white supremacist desperately seeking recognition and approval. Halla-aho will never apologize for his racist writings because it would cut off his political life support.

Moreover, playing down and moving forward with a poker face concerning the damage he has caused on Finland and especially on minorities, would not be possible if he apologized for his racist writings.

There are many ways to skin the cat of an old racist who hides behind the cloak of democratic institutions. One of these methods is to reverse the roles of his victims in his writing to grasp how toxic the person is.

Example 1:

“I am thoroughly confused as to why muslims have such a great desire to inflict pain on those who are in a weaker position, such as animals, children and women. I think this pattern is pretty clear. Why do muslims jump around ululating with their dicks hard whenever heads get chopped off or someone gets whipped?

Reversing roles 1:

“I am thoroughly confused as to why muslims white Finns have such a great desire to inflict pain on those who are in a weaker position, such as animals, children and women. I think this pattern is pretty clear. Why do muslims white Finns jump around ululating drunk with their dicks hard limp whenever a Russian’s head gets chopped off or someone gets whipped beaten to a pulp?

Example 2:

“It is hard for me to think about a lower reptile in the universe than a Scandinavian social democrat. The most slimy subscpecies of this reptile is the Swedish social democrat.”

Reversing roles 2:

“It is hard for me to think about a lower reptile in the universe than a Scandinavian social democrat a Finnish Perussuomalaiset. The most slimy subscpecies of this reptile is the Swedish social democrat Sweden Democrat.

Continue reading “If we replaced the word “Muslim” or other vulnerable minorities with white Finn, it would reveal the toxicity of Jussi Halla-aho’s world”

Finland’s long-overdue far-right terrorism conviction

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THE STORY WAS UPDATED

A Päjät-Häme district court sentenced 31 October for the first time in Finland members of the far right with the intent of committing a terrorist act. Even if the case is considered the first in Finnish criminal history, it is long overdue and a stark reckoning that white Finns can commit terrorist crimes.

According to earlier news reports, the three convicted men follow neo-Nazi ideology linked to accelerationism, which claims that fundamental societal transformations can be achieved only by accelerating different processes in society.

The principal convict in the case was Viljam Lauri Antero Nyman, 29, who was sentenced to prison for three years and four months. A second convict born in 1996 was sentenced to a year and nine months in prison. A third member was convicted to 1 seven-month suspended prison sentence for aiding and abetting.

The two convicts were charged with aggravated firearms offenses committed with terrorist intent and training to commit a terrorist act.

Nyman used to be a member of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Youth and a candidate of the radical-right party.

The convict, Viljam Lauri Antero Nyman, was a municipal candidate for the radical-right PS in 2017 for the northern Finnish city of Rovaniemi. Source: Twitter.

The PS forms part of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s right-wing coalition government.

Even if Finland is waking up to its far-right terrorism threat, there is still a disconnect with the PS’ role in spreading far-right ideology.

In a video posted by MTV below, the members of the groups warned of an ensuing “race war.”

Watch the video and read the story (in Finnish) here. Source: MTV.

Migrant Tales has been covering several terrorist-related stories in Finland, like the one in 2021 in the Western Finnish town of Kankaanpää.

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Reports show a rise of racism in Finland and Europe but politicians continue to look the other way

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It isn’t surprising why the government of Petter Orpo has paid so little attention to two reports that continue to shine a dark light on Finland: The 2022 suspected hate crime report by the Police University College of Finland, and Being Black in the EU by the Europen Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).

Migrant Tales view: Like a furious one-two punch, thanks to two reports, Europe and especially Finland continue to see a rise of racism with near-silence and little outrage. Could we call it the Frontex syndrome? We are aware of the problem, but we turn a blind eye because we don’t really care or want to be bothered.
Finland’s hostile government to immigrants, comprising the National Coalition Party, Perussuomalaiset*, Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats, is the least apt to tackle the social ill. Matters can only get worse from here.

In the suspected hate crime report for 2022, the number of suspected hate crimes reported to the police in 2022 rose by 21.3% to 1,245 cases from 1,026 in the previous year. The lion’s share of hate crimes was due to ethnic and national background (74.7%), up by 31.7% to 930 from 706, and religion and belief (9.7%), down to 121 from 133.

Sexual orientation accounted for 8.7% of all suspected hate crimes, rising 11.1% to 140 with disability falling 11.5% to 54 cases.

The Police University College said that those with Russian citizenship experienced the highest frequency of crimes concerning national background. Even so, Somalis and Iraqis continue to rank high in suspected hate-crime statistics. Eleven percent of all offenses were directed at the Romany minority.

Concerning religion or belief, the most common victims, as in previous years, were Muslims.

Being Black in the EU

Like the 2018 report, the latest FRA report continue to offer bad news for countries like Finland, Germany, and Austria, which reported the highest prevalence of racial harassment in the past 12 months by people of African descent (PAD).

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Jussi Halla-aho was an evil clown show then, now, and always

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The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* speaker of parliament, Jussi Halla-aho, is trying his hardest to have his cake and eat it. The trial that led to ethnic agitation conviction and for breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012 rose him to prominence. The very racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and homophobic writings on his Scripta blog in the 2000s brought him a handsome political career.

I wonder what people would think that after not getting elected in 2007, he became speaker of parliament in 2023. His political rise does not only say a lot about him but also about Finland. Many Finns are conservative and racist.

You can read some of his quotes here.

Thanks to Halla-aho’s blog in 2008, it gave me a good reason to continue writing Migrant Tales.I was planning to abandon the blog but thanks to Scripta, and the hostility against my blog, I planned to stick it out. That was almost fifteen years ago.

Left to right: Even if Jussi Halla-aho hopes that people will forget his racist roots, behind the gavel he uses as speaker of parliament, he will always be an evil clown show. Accepting Halla-aho would be saying that all his racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and far-right views are ok and normal. It’s not, even if he is running for president, where he takes the cue from other PS politicians like Laura Huhtasaari who appear abnormally white thanks to makeup and hair dye. Sources: berkeleyside.org, Suomen Kuvalehti, and.PS.

Below is some of the racist filth found on Halla-aho’s blog:

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The Finnish government’s radical immigration policy is inhumane and ruthless

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National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s coalition partner, the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is going all out to make life as miserable as possible for migrants, especially asylum seekers and undocumented migrants.

PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has threatened to take “a radical shift” in asylum policy and undocumented migrants. In her opinion, if an asylum seeker does not get a residence permit, that person must leave the country.

Their policies are based on racist hearsay and their policies are a direct stake to the heart of many migrants aiming to survive in an ever-difficult and hostile Finland.

The story of an Iraqi family who came in 2015 is a case in point.

After waiting for eight years for a residence permit, three of their children, who are now adults, appear to be “safe” since they have studied, graduated, speak Finnish and have employment.

The story is different for their teenage child, mother and father, who haven’t landed a job and speak a little Finnish. All three are in danger of being deported to Iraq.

Source: Google Slides

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The EU’s immigration policy is based on denial, death, and wishful thinking. It is a recipe for disaster and remorse.

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When it comes to migration policy and treating asylum seekers, the EU has three solutions:

  • Sticking one’s head in the sand.
  • Sticking one’s head up the arse.
  • Build high deadly walls with nails of denial.

It is clear that with global warming and democracy under attack, more people will have to abandon their homes and come to regions like Europe. If I were them, I’d do the same.

But the most distressing fact is that Europe is in denial and believes that populism and xenophobia will help keep the people who are knocking at our doors out. No, populism or Frontex will not secure our borders.

Finland’s answer, like that of Europe’s Frontex, to climate refugees is a fence, wishful thinking, and the populist rhetoric of politicians. Source: Kauppalehti.

Europe is walking into a disaster of its own making caused by its colonial legacy, contempt, and racism.

The tightening of Finland’s citizenship law is disenfranchisement and sheer hypocrisy by Interior Minister Mari Rantanen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Listening to the anti-immigration rhetoric of Petteri Orpo’s government and especially of its Perussuomalaiset (PS)* interior minister, Mari Rantanen, on tightening citizenship requirements, two matters come to light: racism and hypocrisy.

The planned changes in the citizenship law include:

  • Raising residence requirements from five to eight years.
  • A person must make a certain amount (sill unspecified) of money and without Kela (Social Insurance Institution of Finland) funds to be eligible for citizenship.
  • A new citizenship test and more rigorous language exams will be introduced.
  • Certain (still unspecified) crimes may make you lose your citizenship.

Rantanen is not only a multiculturally challenged politician but does not practice what she hatefully preaches.

“Finnish citizenship will be a reward for successful integration,” she claimed at a press conference, adding that the changes in the law will “not be unreasonable, though”.

Rantanen’s views and actions against migrants reveal how far out of touch she is with our values.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

With politicians like Rantanen and the hard-right shift in immigration policy in Finland, it shows the real rot that our Nordic values have hidden and protected. Thus with racist rhetoric we can win elections, get a ministerial seat, and claim with a poker face that we are not racists.

If you believe what Rantanen is telling you about why citizenship laws ust be tightened, then, I suspect, you will fall for anything.

Some of Rantanen’s most infamous quotes include her statement about blue eyes and a clear alusion to the great replacement conspiracy theory. “We mustn’t be so naive [naive in Finnish means being ‘blue-eyed’] that soon we won’t be blue-eyed.”

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Finland’s (and the EU’s) answer to the growing number of climate refugees, worsening global warming, and strife are denial and higher walls

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If there is one matter that one can agree with doomsday far-right anti-immigration politicians, it is that Europe and the developed world will be swamped in this century by people fleeing ever-worsening climate disasters, and civil strife.

What is hypocritical, even criminal, about the latter is that Europe and the developed world are responsible for placing people in such peril.

The EU’s answer to such a situation is the usual recipe of denial, building higher walls, more-effective surveillance, and violent pushbacks.

Finland’s answer, like that of Europe’s Frontex, to climate refugees is a fence, wishful thinking, and the populist rhetoric of politicians. Source: Kauppalehti.

With the rise of the far right in Europe and growing suspicion of outsiders gaining strength, it proves that Europe is in a state of flux. It has no answer to the migration crisis except building higher walls and toxic anti-immigration rhetoric. Europe will blame everything on migrants and asylum seekers.

Even so, the disasters suffered by people outside our borders were created for centuries by our greed and short-term answers, starting from our colonial aspirations and destructive wars. We destroy countries in regions like the Middle East and complain why people are fleeing the very homes we helped to destroy.

For those who luckily make it to Europe, are faced with walls of exclusion.

Europe is in a state of denial and our unpreparedness will cost us dearly.

The biggest challenges that Nordic countries like Finland have to challenge their gang violence problem are exceptionalism and denial

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As we mentioned in our report in March, Finland’s youth gang problem is a tool used by the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party to tar-and feather migrants. It is an excellent topic to drive home Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s migration policy that will disenfranchise such people.

In an Ykkösaamu interview Saturday, apart from Interior Minister Mari Rantanen’s occasional awkward giggles, the interview left out one important question: the roots of Sweden’s gang violence problem.

If you ask Rantanen, she will blame the problem on immigration policy and the “wrong” type of migration. She will not mention a word about Sweden’s exclusive and class society and the lack of opportunities for racialized people.

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. Source: Yle

Certainly government programs and making Finland a more inclusive society for everyone would be a difficult question for Rantanen to answer because the government is tightening immigration policy and slashing social welfare and services to migrants.

Her answer is a dog whistle: Blame it all on the wrong kind of migrants.

Some of the tightening of government migration policy include limited three-year use of paid interpreters, and linking your knowledge of Finnish language to getting social welfare, among others.

Rantanen called the latter “incentives” even if they are really ultimatums.

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