Category: Enrique

Suspected hate crimes in Finland fall by 20.6% in 2012

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Suspected hate crimes in 2012 totaled 732, which is a 20.6% fall from 918 cases in the previous year, according to YLE in English. Of the total hate crimes reported to the police last year, 641 cases were classified as racist. 

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Read full story here.

According to YLE in English, the most common offense investigated by the police was “inciting ethnic hatred.” 

The majority of the suspects were white Finns, but there were three cases where the suspect belonged to a minority. 

While it is welcome news that hate crimes are on the retreat in Finland, how credible are these figures? Should we accept them at face value or treat them with tweezers? 

Last month, Tarja Mankkinen, internal security secretariat head, said that many racist crimes in Finland go unreported.

As long as Finland gives political space to intolerance in any shape or form, which encourages hate crimes to happen, these types of statistics should be taken with a grain of salt. At the best, the police should encourage immigrants and visible minorities to report hate crimes.

As Migrant Tales has written previously, reporting racist harassment to the police is easier said than done.

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 The first line reads “racist crimes” (rasistiset rikokset) and the second one “other hate crimes” (muut viharikokset). This table has two discrepancies with earlier figures published by the Police College of Finland. In 2008 the corresponding figure was 859 and in 2011 918. Source: Police College of Finland.

Like in other parts of Europe, a Race Council Cymru study of Wales revealed how racism goes  “underreported,” according to a story published by the BBC,

Factors like language barriers, fear of reprisals and lack of trust in the police are some reasons why racist crimes continue to be underreported in Wales.

The same factors must play a role in Finland as well.

Do “mamu” an “maahanmuuttajataustainen” downgrade people in Finland into “us” and “them?”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There are two words I’d be very careful with in Finland: mamu and maahanmuuttajataustainen especially at schools to single out third-culture children. The first label is the shortened word for maahanmuuttaja, or immigrant, while the second one means person with immigrant background. 

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Migrant Tales has written previously about the use of mamu like this blog entry above.

Both of these labels were devised by the majority population to single out immigrants and minorities from the rest of the population.

If we are serious about inclusion and promoting mutual acceptance and respect in this country, labels such as mamu and maahanmuuttajataustainen encourage the opposite.

In order to call somebody an ethnic name you have to know the person pretty well and then proceed with caution. If Finns call immigrants mamu is it then ok in the media for men to call women gimma and women call men, äijä? In certain special cases it may be ok but rarely.

Since ethnic and group labels have a strong impact on how we perceive other groups, we should be careful how we use them. One good question we could ask is if the label promotes social equality or inequality? Does it encourage inclusion or exclusion?

In my opinion, labels like mamu and especially maahanmuuttajataustainen at schools don’t promote social equality and exclusion but exactly the opposite.

These terms exist and are used because their aim is to divide others into “us” and “them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pressiklubi exposes MP James Hirvisaari’s fabricated lies and ignorance of immigrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

MP James Hirvisaari, who got expelled from the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party last week, appeared on Ruben Stiller’s Pressiklubi Friday. Compared with his appearance on Enbuske & Linnanahde Crew’s talk show the previous day, the new Muutos 2011 MP’s fabricated lies and ignorance were exposed in the raw.

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See full program (in Finnish) here.

Just like the many urban tales spread by anti-immigration politicians like Hirvisaari, one of their favorite deceptions is to portray themselves as champions of free speech. In the case of Hirvisaari, it’s the state prosecutor and hazy ethnic agitation laws that attempt to limit his freedom of expression.

If we look at what Hirvisaari has written before about immigrants and Muslims, we’d notice that the MP has had a lot of freedom to insult and victimize other minorities in order to further his political career.

The fact that racist Islamophobic diatribe has found a home in Finland through the writings of people like Hirvisaari, reveals that this country has serious intolerance issues to deal with.

Before the historic 2011 elections, in which the PS won 39 seats versus  5 in the previous election, far-right voices like Hirvisaari were elected to parliament thanks to their fear-mongering and lynch-mob style writings, which spread like wildfire thanks to the social media and national media.

Pressiklubi did a good job at exposing Hirvisaari’s exaggerations and outright lies. Johanna Korhonen asked the MP if he could give one concrete example how his right to express himself about Islam was limited.

Hirvisaari didn’t answer the question because it would have exposed the secret of his fabricated lies and exaggerations.

Another fast one pulled by Hirvisaari on the show was claiming that criticizing multiculturalism was forbidden in this country. If this is true, why is their so much intolerance and criticism of cultural diversity on many social media websites and forums in Finland?  

When the media and the general public understand that intolerance, racism and victimization of immigrants and minorities have nothing to do with our national interests but are harmful to our society, it will be easier to nip characters like Hirvisaari in the bud before they sprout into political Frankensteins.

How the Finnish media flirts with disgraced former PS MP James Hirvisaari

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why would a Finnish talk show like Enbuske & Linnanahde Crew want to interview a disgraced MP like James Hirvisaari, who got kicked out of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party last week for taking a picture of a person making a Nazi salute in parliament? One of the guests of the show, actress Krista Kosonen, wrapped up Hirvisaari’s thoughts and writings in one word: Crap!

Even if Tuomas Enbuske tries to make smart questions to understand the mind of Hirvisaari, it is another sad example of the how the media continues to flirt with far-right politicians whose only merits are spreading hatred.

Is the interview with Hirvisaari another sad example of how the Finnish media gives racists inflated respectability and importance?

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Read full story here.

What’s the point of interviewing a convicted MP for ethnic agitation? What value does he bring the debate? Does his presence in the program reveal something about Tuomas Enbuske’s and Aki Linnanahde? Thanks to Kosonen, however, and contrary to Enbuske, who tried to understand Hirvisaari’s worldview, the Muutos2011 MP got a taste of her medicine. 

“Hirvisaari says that he doesn’t fear anything,” Kosonen said on the show and was quoted on Ilta-Snomat. “But that is what it actually is: fear. Living in a small bubble…We have to think how immigrants should adapt to society not fear, how clitorises are slashed fifteen years from now.”

This is the second time Tuomas Enbuske has invited Hirvisaari to his show. 

 

 

Jussi Halla-aho appointed as vice member of Finland’s delegation to the Council of Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The anti-immigration and anti-EU Perussuomalaiset party nominated MP Jussi Halla-aho as vice member of Finland’s delegation to the Council of Europe, reports YLE in English. The controversial nomination of Halla-aho, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion, prompted the parliamentary leaders of seven parties to express regret in a joint statement for the appointment. 

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Read full story here.

“We find it regrettable that the Finns Party named as their representative a MP convicted of breaching the sanctity of religion and for inciting ethnic hatred,” the joint statement said. “Despite repeated appeals, the Finns Party did not want to change their candidate for delegation vice member.”

Halla-aho was quoted as saying on Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat that picking on one MP by “demonizing and humiliating” him year after year was “personally unpleasant and embarrassing from the point of view of parliament.”

One of the roles of the Council of Europe is to watch over and promote human rights. The parliamentary group leaders that signed the joint statement correctly felt that Halla-aho’s appointment was in conflict with his ethnic agitation sentences he got last year.

Not only do his sentences cast a question mark over his appointment, but his far-right, racist and Islamophobic views.

Migrant Tales associate editor Justice Demon believes, however, that the appointment may be good for Halla-aho.

”The Council of Europe represents the progressive values and culture that Halal-höpö publicly despises,” he wrote in an email, “but this did not stop him from running to the Court of Human Rights [a Council of Europe organ] when he felt that it would be in his interests to do so.”

Paljastattu.: Uudet ajat puhaltavat Suomen yllä

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

Kansanedustaja James Hirvisaaren episodi tällä viikolla nostaa pöydälle yhden mielenkiintoisen kysymyksen: onko se ensimmäinen näkyvä halkeama perussuomalaisten hajoamisesta? 

Vaikka on liian aikaista sanoo kuinka Hirvisaaren potkut perussuomalaisista tulee horjuttamaan puoluetta, Timo Soini tulee varmasti vakuuttamaan ulospäin ettei puolueelle ole mitään hätää ja oma pesä on nyt kunnossa.

Onko niin?

Hirvisaaren tapausta huolimatta, ei se merkitse, että puolue on ratkaisu äärioikeistolaisen ja rasistisen ongelmaan. Perussuomalaisia yhä yhdistä samat populistiset arvot:  EU-, maahanmuutto- ja erityisesti islamvastaiset mielipiteet.

Miksi ihmeessä kansanedustaja Hirvisaari otti kuva ystävästä eduskunnassa tekemässä natsitervehdys? Paitsi erittäin huono arviointikyky seurauksista, paljastuu myös raasti Hirvisaaren äärioikeistolainen ja vainoharhainen maailmaa.

Yksi syy miksi natsismi, äärioikeistolaisuus ja kovat arvot ovat nostaneet päätään Suomessa ja Euroopassa tänä päivänä voidaan selittää yksinkertaisesti sillä, että monet ovat unhottanet omaan maan historiansa.

Talvisota oli tärkein syy miksi liitouitumme Hitlerin Saksan kanssa jatkosodan aikaan. Silloin yhteinen vihollinen oli Neuvostoliitto. Samat perustellut olla kansallismielinen populisti, äärioikeistolainen, Natsi tai rasisti pätee yhä. koska vihollinen on Muslimit ja maahanmuuttajia.

Perussuomalainen kansanedustaja Juho Eerola on erinomainen esimerkki siitä kuinka fasismi on pääsyt Eduskuntaan ja on muuttunut salonkikelpoiseksi. Muistaako kukaan mitä Eerola kirjoitti Hommaforumin seinällä vuonna 2010? Hän kirjoitti: ”Itseäni viehättää fasismi ja erityisesti Benito Mussolinin harjoittama talouspolitiikka. Yrittäjyyteen kannustettiin, se oli tiukasti valtion kontrollissa…”

Vaikka Eerolan avustaja Ulla Pyysalon nimi löytyy vuonna 2011 uusnatsi Kansallinen vastarinnan listalta, hän ei nähnyt siinä mitään väärä. Ei ihme.

Eerolan, Halla-ahon, Immosen ja Hirvisaaren maahanmuuttovastainen ja ksenofobinen linja ei pelkästään paljasta suvaitsemattomuutta ja rasismia, siinä on reilu annos tietämättömyyttä sekoitettu vainoharhaisen ideologian kanssa. Vaikka Halla-aholle on tohtori tutkinto, ei se merkitse mitään. Natsi-Saksan aikana paljon tiedemiehiä ja tohtoreita  murhasivat juutalaisia, vähemmistöjä ja viattomia sivilejä.

Suomi oli viime vuosisadalla hyvin suljettu maa. Kuten Mussoliniin Italiassa, ulkomaalaisomistus oli vähäistä ja tärkeämmät taloussektorit, kuten mm. metsäteollisuus ja kaivosteollisuus,  suljettiin ulkomaalaisomistuksista. Suomen maahanmuuttajia väestö oli silloin hyvin pieni melkein olematon (1970 asui 5 483 ulkomaalaisia). Vasta 1990-luvulla, asiat muuttuivat kun tulimme EU-jäseneksi.

Miksi Suomi oli hyvin suljettu maa viime vuosisadalla? Koska silloin tehtiin kaikki mahdollinen rajoittaa maahanmuutto ja ulkomaalaissijoituksia tänne. Kenties tämä selittää miksi Suomessa maahanmuuttovastaisuus on nostanut päätään voimakasti.

Suomi elää tänään uuttaa aika. Jollekin se on hyvin vaikea ja toiselle se on helpompaa omaksua.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Helsingin Sanomat’s Cold War policy towards immigrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Immigrants, expats and Finns marched on October 19, 1982 to demand their rights. The march started from Helsinki University’s Porthania building to Parliament. One of the comments that caught my attention on that chilly Tuesday, was that Helsingin Sanomat made a big exception about writing about the march since it did not publish as a rule stories about foreigners living in Finland. 

I understood that affirmation to mean that Finland’s largest daily wasn’t interested in Finland’s tiny immigrant community, which numbered back then about 12,000.

Apart from marching for the passage of the country’s first-ever aliens act, which came into force the following year sixty-five years after Finland gained independence, immigrants wanted the right to appeal deportations and be protected by habeas corpus.

Immigrants, which were officially called “aliens” back then by the authorities, couldn’t own land, publish newspapers never mind organize marches like the one we did in 1982. Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat ran a story the previous day claiming that those foreigners that took part in the march ran the danger of being thrown in jail.

None of us were thrown in jail but such rumors must have scared away a lot of foreigners from taking part in that historic march.

The silence of dailies like Helsingin Sanomat about the plight of Soviet refugees in Finland and the tiny immigrant community, sheds light on how the national media writes about immigrants and refugees today. If much of the media didn’t get it back then, why would they today?

In 1989, the honorary consul of Mali called a friend who worked at the Finnish secret police, Supo. The person was suspicious and wanted to know who I was. The Supo agent called back and told what was written in my Interpol file. One of the matters that Supo had written was that I organized the march and was interested in human rights. 

 

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 Helsingin Sanomat wrote about Finland’s then largest-ever march in which foreigners took part in 1982. Finland’s first march by foreigners was organized by East Pakistanis (Bangladesh) in the 1970s.

 

 

 

Is it ok to be a closet fascist, Nazi and racist in the PS after the Hirvisaari scandal?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In an A-studio talk show Monday, Perussuomalaiset (PS) third vice-president, Juho Eerola, was asked what was the underlying message of MP James Hirvisaari’s expulsion to members of the party. The PS MP said that “playing with issues like National Socialism and misanthropy” are unacceptable in the PS.

The person making such a claim, Eerola, wrote in 2010 that he was attracted to fascism and Benito Mussolini’s economic policies.

This is the same PS MP who forgot to mention that his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, was found in the end of 2011 on a list applying for membership in Kansallinen Vastarinta, a neo-Nazi group that openly supports National Socialism.

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Pyysalo was elected last year to the Taipalsaari town council last year and her views of immigrants are in the Hirvisaari league.

On a thread on Facebook last year with TU tennis, Ulla Pyysalo compared immigrants to animals and plants. “Yes, transplanting animals or plants in a new environment has always ended in failure…I heard just recently that hunters are encouraged to kill these raccoon dogs. God dang it how racist and terrible. Eeek help! :D DDDD,” she wrote.

The PS third vice-president admitted that he and those who signed the anti-immigration Nuiva Manifesto haven’t turned their backs on Hirvisaari irrespective of what happened last week.

Eerola tried to correct the A-studio journalist by stating that there isn’t an anti-immigration wing in the PS. He said that all of the candidates that ran for office in the 2011 election supported the party’s immigration policy, which is based on the Nuiva Manifesto.

The Nuiva Manifesto is hostile to immigrants because it seeks one-way integration, loathes cultural diversity, and aims to curtail Muslims and visible immigrants from outside the EU from moving to this country.

If by Eerola’s logic all of the PS MPs gave their backing to the Nuiva Manifesto in 2011, then it means that all of the PS MP belong to the anti-immigration camp or are Nuiva Manifesto supporters.

 

Why does the Finnish media give so much attention to anti-immigration politicians and parties?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I was invited on Tuesday to speak at a seminar on immigration* for YLE journalists. One of the questions I asked was why do Finnish journalists give so much space and attention to far-right anti-immigration politicians? Why do some give racists inflated respectability and importance?

A recent story about Finland accepting 500 refugees from war-torn Syria is a good example. In my opinion, the story has been blown way out of proportion.

Even if we’re speaking of a tiny number of refugees, 500 souls, who are in danger of dying, some media appears to think that the number one story is what Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs Jussi Halla-aho and Vesa-Matti Saarakkala think about the matter.

Both MPs are radical anti-immigration politicians who have made their political careers by spreading intolerance against immigrants and minorities. Halla-aho was sentenced for ethnic agitation.

A journalist who writes about immigration must spot the red herrings when writing the news.

Let’s take the news concerning the small number of refugees from Syria and ask what could be the top news:

  • Is it Halla-aho telling us once again that he loathes Muslim refugees?
  • Is it his argument, that saving a few from the clutches of war and destruction is useless?
  • Is it the parliamentary question which he sent with Vesa-Matti Saarakkala that has no chance of passing?
  • Is it that we are taking too few refugees when compared with Sweden, which has given asylum to 15,000 Syrians?
  • None of the above.

In the same way that Halla-aho and Saarakkala argue that it makes no difference to accept a few hundred from war-ravaged Syria, we could ask why Raoul Wallenberg or Oscar Schindler saved tens of thousands of Jews if millions were murdered in Nazi concentration camps?

Uusi Suomi is one disgraceful example of how bigotry has spread in Finland and helped politicians like James Hirvisaari to become household names. The Finnish media is definitely part of the problem when it comes to racism in Finland.

Even if parties like the PS and groups like the Youth League of the National Coalition Party believe it’s fine to take shots at immigrants and minorities, in many cases with the help of the media, the question we should ask is why we give so much attention and space to racism and intolerance?

Does it reveal something about our own attitudes?

Migrant Tales has grown rapidly thanks to the one-sided coverage by the media of immigrant and cultural diversity affairs in this country. The Finnish media leaves a lot of news out of the picture because it rarely takes into account the opinion of immigrants and members of the visible minority community.

In order to become a good beat reporter, an authority in a particular area, you need to be well-informed and know the issues. Patronizing and publishing anti-immigration sound bites won’t help your career but spells mediocre and shoddy journalism.

If journalists did their jobs when covering the news by taking into account the views of immigrants and members of the visible minority community, we would deal a fatal blow to one-sided journalism on cultural diversity.

Finland’s media plays an important role in preserving our Nordic values and everyone’s right, irrespective of his or her background, to be treated equally and with respect.  

If we lose sight of these values because the media is lazy and racist as those spreading intolerance in our country, we’ll lose more as a society than we ever imagined in our most dreadful nightmares.

*The seminar was hosted by Abdirahim Hussein of YLE and attended by Nora Kajantie, Camila Haavisto, Maryan Abdulkarim, Hanna Kautto and Iken Iduozee.

Two important stories this week that may have far-reaching implications for Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This week was marked by two important news stories that will could have far-reaching consequences on our country: Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s expulsion from the anti-immigration and anti-EU party, and positive words about immigration by Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen. 

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Verkkouutiset is published by the National Coalition Party. See full story here.

While the first news about Hirvisaari dominated this week’s headlines, it was interesting to note how this far-right anti-immigration MP has been turned into a scapegoat by Timo Soini and his party.

Hirvisaari was sacked because he took a picture of his guest, Seppo Lehto, making a Nazi salute in parliament. It wasn’t because of his conviction for ethnic agitation or for all the racist and far-right statements he’s made in the past. Moreover, we shouldn’t forget that Soini accepted Hirvisaari’s candidacy (and his anti-immigration rhetoric and lunacy).

Even if the PS wants to convince us that “its racism problem is over,” think twice because it is far from over. With or without Hirvisaari, the PS continues to be an anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party that aims to keep Finland white at all costs.

You don’t have to look too far in the PS to find the likes of Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and a long list of others to understand that the party’s racism problem is still a festering issue.

Why is it ok for an MP like Juho Eerola to admit being attracted to fascism and why didn’t his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, get expelled after her name was found on a neo-Nazi associaton list?

Remember City Councilman Risto Helin who gave a Hitler clock to a neo-Nazi club in Vaasa? Why wasn’t he sacked from the party?

Doe the Hirvisaari incident tell us that it’s perfectly fine to house fascist, Nazi ideas in the PS and be a racist but a no-no to make a Nazi salute in parliament or with a Hitler mask?   

The expulsion of one far-right anti-immigration hothead like Hirvisaari is not enough. We need leadership and a shift in attitudes and values that will help Finland steer a new course on the intolerance front.

The second important piece of news this week was by Interior Minister Räsänen, who is no friend of gays, immigrants and immigration. She did, however, speak in a positive manner of the important role that Finland’s immigrants should be allowed play in this country’s development in this century.

The main point Räsänen made was that immigrants bring more money than take from society. Contrary to what politicians like Hirvisaari say, immigrants foster economic growth.

”Taking advantage of the skills of immigrants is vital to Finland’s well being,” she was quoted as saying on Verkkouutiset. ”Those that come [to Finland] from elsewhere should be seen as involved and active participants [in society]…”

If immigration is an important pillar of economic growth for many countries, why do some still believe that it is an economic and social burden? Why does the interior ministry have to tell us something so obvious, that immigration fosters economic growth?

The answer is simple: Because the debate on immigration, immigrants and our ever-growing cultural diversity has been hijacked by the likes of politicians like Hirvisaari and others  thanks to our silence. We are still taught at schools and at home that foreigners are a threat and should be eyed with suspicion.

Taking into account our aging population and the social and economic deterioration we face as a nation in this century if we persist to believe our urban tales about immigrants, it would be suicidal today not to challenge intolerance, prejudice and racism in Finland.