Enrique Tessieri Archives - Page 62 of 245

My long journey to Finnish citizenship

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Like many children of Finnish parents, I, too, spent summers in the countryside with my grandparents. During all of these years, I thought, incorrectly, that I was a Finnish citizen or had a right to citizenship. I was wrong.

Until 1984, children of Finnish men had the right to pass on citizenship to their children. Even if women got the right to vote in 1906, it took about 66 years after independence for women to win this right.

This meant, in effect, that I was treated as a foreigner in this country. I had to get residence permits and at one point a work permit for each job I had.

One day, at the Aliens’ Office, I asked one of the employees why I had to apply for a residence permit if I was a Finn because of my mother. The response shocked me to the core.

Being a foreigner in Finland in the 1980s meant a lot of red tape. Residence permits were first granted for six months and a work permit for each job. On top of this, your human rights, which were considered suspect since it spoke out against the former Soviet Union, were violated.

“In our opinion, you are not a Finn,” she snapped.

Back to square one: To hijab or not to hijab?

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Twenty-year-old Fardowsa Mahamoud’s questioning why the hijab, or veil, is not permitted in the Finnish military brought a sense of déjà-vu. About six years ago, Busman Gill Sukhdarshan Singh won after a year-long legal battle to wear a turban at work.

In Finland, Sikh bus drivers won the right to use turbans at work, while in the United Kingdom granted such a right in 1969.

Singh’s struggle and Mahamud’s rejection by the Finnish military are all examples of how some sectors of Finland continue to believe that they are the only one’s living in this country. Even if our official adaption policy is supposed to be a two-way street, it is a one-way process (assimilation), full stop.

Mahamud wanted to enroll in the army to serve later as a peacekeeper, which is her dream. Her efforts came to an abrupt end when an interview with the Karelia Brigade said they did not permit hijabs for safety reasons and that uniforms had to have the same appearance.

“I was disappointed to learn this,” she was quoted as saying in Yle News. “I wouldn’t have applied for service if I didn’t accept what they wear in the army, but the hijab is my choice and decision. It’s important to me.”

Kokoomus and the PS are ready to go to bed after the municipal election

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a far-right and racist party that will fail in the end because its core values are based on malarkey. Parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) that want to form bedroom alliances with the PS will fail as well.

The chairperson of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), Petter Orpo, is well-known as a politician who vacillates on different issues. When it comes to migrants, he tends to blow with the wind.

Orpo has said in autumn that he would not mind forming a government with the PS where its leader, Jussi Halla-aho, would be prime minister. He confirmed his party’s willingness to form a government with the PS in Friday’s Maaseudun Tulevaisuus, a newspaper with ties to the Center Party.

One reader commented on Maaseudun Tulevaisuus about such a government: “I haven’t seen yet such an eerie nightmare where Kokoomus and the Perussuomalaiset are ruling the country.”

**Read the full story (in Finnish) here.**

“If the ruling parties suffer a big defeat [in the municipal election], the least they must do is change the direction of their policies,” Orpo was quoted as saying. “If a party in the government suffers heavily, it may make you wonder if you want to be a member of the government.”

PM Sanna Marin hits back at the PS’ perverted picture of migrants

Posted on May 20, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Prime Minister Sanna Marin fired back at a session of parliament Thursday at the far-right Perussuomaliset (PS)* party. Making Finland an open and safe country is crucial if it wants to attract newcomers to the country.

“Madam Speaker. Violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools are all severe matters, severe matters of which all of us are concerned.

I will now address the Perussuomalaiset point because it also gives a distorted picture of the type of people that live in Finland. It’s not so that every person who has come from elsewhere [to Finland] is a violent criminal, a person who does wrong. In this country, we have numerous groups of people who come from elsewhere and who work tirelessly, raise families, and are concerned about Finland’s future in the same way as people born here.

The phenomenon, violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools is a serious matter that we must address. Still, it is also wrong that we give here [in parliament], the very picture that the Perussuomalaiset spread, that every migrant is a person who does not fit in this society. It isn’t like that at all.”

**Listen to PM Sanna Marin’s comment here.**

The Perussuomalaiset are dismantling our Nordic welfare state for iliberal democracy (Part II)

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Kristian Sheikki Laakso, or Sheikki Laakso, is a Finnish MP for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party who is, as with his 38 PS MP colleagues, is filibustering the EU rescue package. One of the most “interesting” speeches before parliament was by Laakso, who read excerpts of Little Red Riding Hood.

Laakso begins his speech: “Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else. So she was always called Little Red Riding Hood…Oh, grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have. The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply.

The MP, who suffered bankruptcy and ended having 84 foreclosure orders and receivables to the tune of 219,000 euros, cuts short his speech by excusing himself to the madam speaker of the house. “I accidentally read the evening fairy tale to my grandchildren.”

He continues by stating that it is difficult to distinguish between “a fairy tale and reality” concerning the EU rescue package, which would be approved if voted on.

**See the full video here. Source *Yle*.**

The Perussuomalaiset are dismantling our Nordic welfare state for iliberal democracy

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Migrant Tales

What would you say about a party that openly supports former US President Donald Trump, “loves” Poland and Hungary, supports far-right French politician Marine Le Pen among other iliberal and populist malarkey? What about if I told you that that party has one aim: destroy Finland’s Nordic welfare state and democracy?

The filibustering we are seeing in parliament today by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* on the EU stimulus package coupled with recent opinion polls that show the Islamophobic party leading, are indications of our grim future.

Exposed in our lack of leadership as well to confront such anti-democratic forces.

It all boils down to one fact: since Finland is mainly a white society, it trusts nothing will happen to it as our democracy is dismantled and undermined. Dead wrong. After the PS deal with the Muslims and other minorities they hate, the next group they will go after is you.

**Chairperson of the PS parliamentary group Vill Tavio showing his “love” for the iliberal political systems of Poland and Hungary. Source: Twitter.**

The suspects of one of Finland’s worst hate crimes in 2020 may face charges in early June

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Remember the young Muslim who was violently attacked by a gang of white Finns in June in the Western Finnish town of Teuva? According to Fares Al-Obaidi, the police plan to conclude their investigations into the crime in early June.

What happened to Al-Obaidi last year changed his life. He moved away to Espoo to receive professional help to overcome the trauma of what happened. He takes anti-depressants.

“I was a victim of a [violent] crime and it seems that nobody is interested,” he said complaining about the length of the police investigation.

His ordeal began on a Saturday. Fares was first insulted by a group of residents from the town of Teuva and then chased by two cars on the road. Two other cars blocked the road ahead of him and had no choice but to drive the car into a ditch.

Fares tried to run away from his attackers, but it was to no avail. He was beaten so badly by them that he ended up being taken by an ambulance to a hospital in Seinäjoki.

**Fares Al-Obaidi’s car after it was vandalized. The police have not ruled out a hate crime. Source: Facebook**

Racism is treated lightly by the Finnish police, according to Yle

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Migrant Tales

Racist treatment and ethnic profiling are a stain on the police. Worse yet, denial and playing down such serious problems ensure a bigger stain on the police. If you want to know about racism in the Finnish police, why not ask Finland’s Romany minority and other visible minorities like blacks.

The headline by Yle News, “Police rarely punished after complaints over racism,” speaks volumes about the problem. If racism is a problem in the Finnish police, why has so little been done to address this issue?

Certainly, minorities pay taxes and those taxes go to funding the police, who work for such people.

It should not come as a surprise why the credibility of the police among some minorities is low. The more the police deny these problems and do little to nothing about them, the more they will eat away its credibility.

The Perussuomalaiset now call migrants “cheap labor”

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party’s hatred for migrants goes through the same path but the accusations and labeling vary. About ten years ago migrants were rapists, after 2015 when a record number of asylum seekers came to Finland, they were “social welfare surfers.” Today, the PS calls migrants “dumb” who want to work for lower wages.

**Finland’s integration program is full of contradictions.**

As in the previous years, the PS makes up labels constantly. It never has anything positive to say about migrants except to repeat its favorite word: maahanmuuttajat (immigrant), maahanmuuttajat, maahanmuuttajat…

Here is the question: Why would anyone want to get paid lower wages for work? If people are getting paid less, aren’t they possibly being exploited?

Certainly, migrants that move to Finland and enter the labor market must follow the law. Unions have a special role in protecting the rights of these migrants at the workplace.

The problem, however, is that exploitation and crime in Finland pays. Since few are looking after the rights of migrants, never mind the PS, it is a bit similar to throwing these people to their own luck.

In plain English, Finland does too little address the exploitation of migrants in the labor market.

Maybe migrants would learn a thing or two if integration courses would tell them how they are vulnerable to exploitation instead of giving exceptionalist explanations about how Finland is a country of gender equality.

Labeling migrants disrespectfully as “cheap labor” by the PS is placing all the blame on such people and letting underhanded employers off the hook.

The “Anozation” of Rural Finland: populism, white nationalism, white extremism, iliberal democracy, and anti-science

Posted on May 8, 2021 by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

As a person living in the rural South Savo region of Finland, MP Ano Turtiainen of Juva is a warning for Finland. On the one hand, you have big urban centers like Helsinki and surroundings, Turku and Tampere and on the other depopulated and graying rural Finland, where populism, white nationalism, white extremism, iliberal democracy, and anti-science are spreading roots.

Juva is a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants where 32% of the population is over 65 years. On the town’s main street, it isn’t uncommon to see hardly any young people in a backdrop of pensioners walking about with the help of their rollators.

According to Yle, the PS is predicted to have the best showing in municipalities that are losing the demographic vitality, where young people are moving away and in which the population is graying.