Category: Enrique Tessieri

Kotoutuminen* #6: The white Finnish teacher and the migrant adult child. Stop infantilizing!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Red lights should start flashing whenever a person teaching integration 101 to newly arrived migrants states: “These students are my children.”

It is important to note, however, that there are many good and inspiring teachers who do wonders for their students and make them feel welcome.

Schools can be violent places for non-white people as this poster alleges. A THL study showed that first-generation migrants face at school bullying, physical and sexual harassment. Shouldn’t integration courses should also teach newcomers how to challenge such violence, prejudices, and discrimination that are too commonplace?

But for those who see their students as “children,” even if their students are grown-up adults, exposes their cultural arrogance, and racism.

If it were up to these types of teachers to “integrate” and turn these migrants into active members of society, the result is preparing them to become second- and third-class members of society.

Another serious problem is that there are few if any bodies that directly actively evaluate the teacher and his or her prejudices. Usually, white people are doing this type of evaluation if any.

I believe that a teacher aims to offer the best education possible to the students. If I were giving a talk to such teachers, the first thing I’d tell them is to stop underestimating and treating them like children.

I would turn to bodies like the European Network Against Racism to offer anti-racism and cultural diversity courses.

In the meantime, let’s stop infantilizing migrants!

See also:

*Kotoutiminen is the Finnish term for integration.

Moroccan with a serious heart condition: “Thank you for your support,” says his brother

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After Migrant Tales broke the story of Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) asked a divorced Moroccan to leave Finland with a heart condition. Youssef Hemdani’s case has received a lot of support from Morocco and Finland.

“Thank you for your support,” said his brother, Laghdof Hemdari.

Apart from getting a lot of attention on social media, Hemdani has received visits and concern from the Moroccan ambassador to Finland, Mohamed Achgalou, and from Social Democrat MP Hussein al-Taee as well as from Left Alliance Helsinki city councilor, Suldaan Said Ahmed.

There are plans as well to appeal to the district cout Migri’s decision.

Youssef Hamdani has been hospitalized for three months.

Hemdani’s heart condition is serious. The 32-year-old suffers from an enlarged heart and cardiac insufficiency, according to a medical report.

Youssef Hemdani is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and cardiac insufficiency.

Laghdof Hemdari said that so far, there is no pledge from the hospital that his brother will be operated as promised before Migri decided to revoke his residence permit.

“There is no treatment for my brother’s condition in Morocco,” he said. “He isn’t well. Some days he’s better and other days are worse. Sometimes he cannot eat because he feels the food chokes him.”

What is better: Scoring high on the World Press Freedom Index or uncritical reporting?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Finland will wake up too late when incompetent populist parties, their politicians and policies lead us to the doorsteps of hell just like what happened in Germany after 1933.

Even if Finland ranks second in the World Press Freedom Index after Norway, how high does it score when it writes about populism, radical-right nationalism, policies that fuel social exclusion, and racism?

The fact that Finland’s largest daily, Helsingin Sanomat, has not written an editorial denouncing racism and how damaging populism is to the country, tell us of the extent of our denial.

Why have no dailies investigated how Finland’s geopolitical isolation during the Cold War helps the country to fall prey to populist and racist parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*?

Since almost everyone, especially most of the Finnish mainstream media, is fascinated with opinion polls these days, it’s clear that dailies like Helsingin Sanomat will give parties like the PS space and the benefit of the doubt.

A media that turns a blind eye to a threat like the PS is leaving our future to chance. Fortunately, Finland does have – even if only a few – solid columnists like Yrjö Rautio, who offers well-rounded analyses of the PS in his columns.

A recent interview Saturday in Helsingin Sanomat of PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho is a good example of uncritical journalism. Halla-aho built his political career by inciting hatred on groups like Muslims with Islamophobia, homophobia, and racism to name only a few.

In 2012, he was convicted of ethnic agitation and for breaching the sanctity of religion.

You can read some of his most racist quotes in English here.

This list is the DNA of the Perussuomalaiset party but is rarely asked about them.

It is unfortunate for our democracy that the Finnish media doesn’t do more to hold parties like the PS accountable for what they say and do.

A tweet by @TuomoKondie gives us a ten-point list of some questions that Helsingin Sanomat and other media could ask Halla-aho:

  • Racism spread by the PS;
  • Links with neo-Nazi groups;
  • Pipedream [and neo-liberal] economic policies;
  • Why they sympathize with Russian leader Vladimir Putin?
  • Scapegoating migrants for all of Finland’s problems;
  • Systematic lying;
  • Why PS politicians have the most criminal convictions than of any other party?
  • Harassing those that oppose the PS;
  • Climate change denial and naivety;
  • Unqualified politicians.

Here is something that every journalist in Finland should take into account when writing about the PS:

The Perussuomalaiset is not a normal party. It isn’t normal because it built its base on racism, far-right extremism, and neo-liberal economic and social models. It has an utter disrespect for our Nordic values. One of these is Section 6 of the Constitution that states: “No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

Below are more examples and disappointments of how uncritically the Finnish media writes about the PS.

Too few of them put the PS in the hot seat and why they spread and support social discrimination, exclusion, racism, and scapegoat near-constantly migrants for all of the country’s problems.

MP Riikka Purra’s and her Perussuomalaiset party’s trolls and helpers in the postal strike

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The postal strike is over but not the foul Perussuomaaiset (PS)* stench that lingers from the usual scapegoating and lies about migrants.

When the postal strike started, MP Riikka Purra and the PS had nothing better to do but to blame migrants for the labor dispute.

Migrant Tales wrote about Purra’s and her party’s victimization of migrants and how they cooked the facts to serve their argument.

This video is in Finnish.

Her first claim was that even if migrants make up about 20% of Posti’s total workforce, this was apparently a bad matter since foreigners worked and paid taxes.

Posti, the postal company, shot down Purra’s claim.

The PS MP was adamant and went even further to scapegoat foreigners by exaggerating a bogus claim: 98% of employees that carry your post in the early morning are so-called “people of foreign origin.”

She cited as her “source” the management of the Finnish Post and Logistics Union’s (PAU).

Migrant Tales got in touch with PAU, but they did not answer my calls and never confirmed Purra’s claim. The only one that confirmed her claim was herself.

On top of this, Purra’s little trolls and PS helpers came to her rescue.

One of these trolls is Tiina Wiik, who claims that Purra is right and Posti wrong about the amount of foreign postal workers. I asked her partner, Moroccan-born Junnes Lokka, if he considers himself to be a Finn or a person of foreign origin. He never answered my tweet.

As with the previous statement, Posti rejected Purra’s second claim by stating that about 30% of early morning postal workers are Finns. There is a big difference between Purra’s 98% claim and Posti’s 70%.

But this leads us to the most salient question of all: Who gives a flying f**k if there are non-white people working for Posti? Aren’t they offering a service and paying taxes?

In light of the latter, we should ask why is this such a big issue for the PS?

OK, we know the answer to that question.

They hate migrants, especially people of color.

Divorced Moroccan with a heart condition asked to leave Finland within 30 days

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

Youssef Hemdani, a 32-year-old Moroccan national, received a visit on Friday from the police at the hospital where he’s been interned for about three months due to a heart condition. The police told him that he has 30 days to leave the country.

According to a hospital diagnosis, Hemdani suffers from an enlarged heart (dilatoiva kardiomyopetia) and cardiac insufficiency.

Hemdani’s diagnosis and condition, according to his medical report. He suffers from an enlarged heart and cardiac insufficiency.

The decision to not renew Hemdani’s residence permit, after living four years in Finland, was apparently made after he divorced his wife a year go.

They have no children.

The police gave him the following reason why he had to leave Finland: “The Finnish Immigration Service cancels the residence permit, because the grounds on which your residence permit was granted no longer exist

In protest, Hemdani decided to go on a hunger strike from Wednesday evening but his brother Laghdof Hemdari talked him out it on Thursday.

“Before the cancellation of the residence permit, the hospital said that they would operate,” said his brother, who lives in Spain. “This is what we want to find out [why they now changed their minds about the operation]. This is not humanity. This is not Finland.”

Hamdani has been interned in the hospital for about three months due to a heart condition.
The official document from the police states: “The Finnish Immigration Service cancels the residence permit, because the grounds on which your residence permit was granted no longer exist.

Migrant Tales will follow Hemdani’s case and write updates.

Dedicated to all the Finnish and EU let-them-drown politicians

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales will not remain silent concerning those shameful let-them-drown politicians from Finland and the EU, which are an example of the very worse in us.

In May, four let-them-drown MEPs from Finland were elected: Teuvo Hakkarainen, Laura Huhtasaari, Petri Sarvamaa, and Henna Virkkunen.

In October, the European Parliament rejected Thursday a plan to step-up search and rescue operations for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean with 290 votes narrowly defeated the motion against 288 in favor.

I encourage MEPs and politicians to watch this video to get a taste of what it is like to rescue survivors in the Mediterranean.

So far this year, over 1,000 lives have been lost while crossing the Mediterranean. Since 1993, UNITED for Intercultural Action has documented “more than 36,570” deaths of people who died in an attempt to enter Fortress Europe.

Finland: The high democratic and social price of being too alike

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When the media turns a blind eye to racism, prejudice, and social exclusion, when politicians suck up to those very policies that reinforce such social ills, it is time to take a long look in the mirror.

What would we see?

A country still in the trenches of World War 2 (not the Continuation War), a country that is by its own making near-sighted, a country that is still obsessed with blood and race.

After the Second World War, and in the 1970s and 1980s, the undercurrent of racism was strong in Finland. The only reason why it hadn’t shown its ogre face as today is because of the then underwhelming size of the country’s foreign population.

In 1970, the number of foreign nationals in Finland totaled a mere 5,483, according to the Migration Institute of Finland.

Despite social policy experts like Heikki Waris of the 1960s, who infamously claimed that “racial prejudice and discrimination are nonexistent” in Finland because there were “no racial minorities,” present-day Finland has proven him wrong. Racism has always been alive and kicking in this country.

As more foreigners started to move to Finland in the 1990s, especially from outside Europe like the Somalis, there was a racist and even violent knee-jerk reaction from white Finns.

See the original story here.

The suffering and raw racism that groups like the Somalis continue to endure is well-documented and a permanent stain on our society.

If we do not watch out, the very racism we were spoon-fed at school and by society is the poison that can destroy all our social and democratic gains. The shadow of Hungary hangs deep over Finland as the populist radical right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* lead in opinion polls.

Our social rights and democracy can be forfeited in a day if we aren’t careful.

Fascism and all the racism that characterizes it is knocking at Finland’s door again.

If we let the beast in through the ajar door, we will only have ourselves to blame. Possibly some feel comfortable with their eyes closed. They may naively believe that fascism won’t affect them because they’re white.

Wrong.

What will emerge from it is not disastrous to some parts of the population like minorities, but be a wrecking ball that will destroy our sense of social fairness, democracy, and institutions.

Riikka Purra: Oletko ihan varma, että 98% pääkaupunkiseudun varhaisjakajista ovat maahanmuuttajataustaisia?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Liar, liar pants on fire. You know your nose is longer than a telephone wire.

The Castaways, Liar, Liar (1965)

Perussuomalaiset ja erityisesti kansanedustaja Riikka Purra liiottelee ja vääristele kun asia koske heidän lempiaihetta: maahanmuuttajia.

Tällä viikolla Purra kärähti vääristelystä kun Migrant Tales otti selvää seuraavasta väitteistä ja totesi, että suuri osa postinjakaijista pääkaupunkiseudulla ovat suomalaisia, eikä maahanmuuttajia.

Purra on taas levittänyt uutta väitettä, joka ei myöskään pidä paikkansa (katso twiiiti).

Lue myös: Perussuomalaiset: Onko suurin osa postinjakajista, etenkin pääkaupunkiseudulla, ulkomaalaisia?

Migrant Tales on ottanut yhteytä @PAU_liitto’n tästä asiasta eivätkä he ole vahvistaneet Purran väitettä.

Puhuuko Purra totta tai tarua?

Posti vastasi näin: “[Purran] väite ei pidä paikkaansa, esimerkiksi PK-seudun varhaisjakajista yli 30 % on suomalaisia.”

Milloin suomen lehdistö alkaa jakamaan Pinokkiota poliitikoille kuten tekee Washington Post?

Virkaastuaisissa, Trump on tehnyt yli 13 430 valheita. Se on aika paljon Pinokkioita.

Kuinka paljon väriä väitteitä ovat Perussuomalaiset levittäneet erityisesti maahanmuuttajista?

Helsingin Sanomat is still a predominantly white newspaper with a white slant on things

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Helsingin Sanomat, the country’s biggest daily, celebrated its 130th anniversary on Saturday. Congratulations on your important anniversary but the picture below reinforces what I knew about the daily and Finnish mainstream media in general: It’s too white.

Considering that Helsingin Sanomat is the newspaper of Finland’s capital Helsinki, it is surprising that there are no visible minorities in the picture, considering that 9.4% (59,779 persons) of the city’s total population of 635,181 in 2016/2017 are foreign citizens, according to Helsingin väestö vuodenvaihteessa 2016/2017 ja väestönmuutokset vuonna 2016.

The percentage is even higher if look at people who speak another language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue (93,214/14.7%) and who were not born in Finland (86,998/13.6%).

Can you spot a minority? Read the full story (in Finnis) here.

One of the problems of Finland’s ongoing debate on its ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society is that the predominantly white media give a lopsided – usually inaccurate – account of our communities.

One good way of challenging the present situation is to encourage more non-white Finns to become journalists and writers and, importantly, encourage them to write courageously about our communities and realities.

Kotoutuminen #5: Perpetuating the Ulysses syndrome, a chronic stress disorder of refugees

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

You ask me my name. I shall tell you. My name is nobody and nobody is what everyone calls me.

Odyssey, Song IX

If a refugee suffers from fear, loneliness, enforced separation, a sense of despair and is struggling to survive in his new homeland, more salt is thrown on their wounds by the hateful rhetoric of Islamophobic and racist parties.

One of these in Finland is the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, which labels such people “harmful” to our society while claiming that they don’t “integrate” into Finnish society.

But not only do anti-immigration parties make the lives of asylum seekers and migrants difficult, but government immigration policy is another culprit.

A new report by the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights reports that the integration of young refugees isn’t doing very well. It warns that there is a risk of creating a lost generation.

Do you see the problem? The PS tries to destroy their credibility and tear down that important shred of humanity in us.

Unfortunately, those who help and educate migrants to become members of our society have never heard of the Ulysses syndrome.

Since they have not heard of this disorder, some rely on simplistic answers to integration: learn the language and read the Kaleva.

While I’m facetious, the expectations that some of these educators have on their pupils, especially vulnerable ones fleeing war and failed states in the Middle East and Africa, are ineffective in their jobs.

When you ask such a person to assimilate (one-way integration) into our culture, it is like asking a person to stand upright after he or she broke his or her leg.

Ignorance is not the only matter that causes the integration process of a migrant to fail in Finland but standing on a high horse. The view that some have of the migrant is racist in the same way as colonial powers saw and exploited their subjects.

The Ulysses syndrome should be required reading for any person working with refugees and migrants.

See also:

*Kotoutiminen is the Finnish term for integration.