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No cliffhangers in today presidential election in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Finns go to the polls today vote elect their next president. Opinion polls reveal that Kokoomus’ Sauli Niinistö is the front-runner followed by a close neck-and-neck race between Pekka Haavisto of the Greens and Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party.

The second group that are fighting it out for fourth spot according to a YLE poll are Perussuomalaiset (PS) party hopeful Timo Soini, Left Alliances’ Paavo Arhimäki and Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democratic Party.

After the PS historic election victory on April 17, falling behind Arhimäki or Lipponen would be seen as a big loss for Soini. It would reinforce the wear-and-tear that the PS has suffered nine months after the election due to numerous scandals that have exposed the racism, homophobia and anti-democratic credentials of some of its MPs.

There was as well the hacked neo-Nazi Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV) membership that revealed two PS  members.  Both are still working for the party as if nothing had happened.

One of the biggest disappointments of the presidential campaign has been tackling and debating the hard challenges that Finland faces: budget cuts and the future of the welfare state, growing income and social inequality, racism and the polarization of Finnish society.

One of the matters that concerned me in particular about the front-runner Niinistö was his view that the far right did not pose a threat to Finland, according to an MTV3 poll of the candidates.

After 8pm local time we’ll be a bit wiser about who are the victors and losers of the presidential election.

One matter is for certain, however: the election will not be a cliffhanger like last year’s parliamentary election.

Let's keep Finland a good country to live in

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

When I grew up in Finland during part of my childhood and adolescence one matter became clear: I wanted to move here permanently when I became an adult. How did I succeed at making a living in Finland back in the 1980s and beyond? 

Adapting to a country like Finland felt sometimes like sojourning on a long and winding path. Despite the many curves and uncertainties, the right people appeared at the right time. Without them, I would be most likely writing this blog entry from California.

When I moved back to Finland in December 1978, one of the matters that struck me wasn’t the freezing temperatures but how few foreigners lived in the country. At the time there were under 10,000. Many of them weren’t what we’d call “real” foreigners since they were native Finns who had become naturalized citizens of another country.

I had many personal reasons for moving back. One of these was to live in a country that was at peace with itself and wasn’t waging war against other nations. My country of birth, Argentina, wasn’t a very promising prospect to build a home and family since it was ruled at the time by a ruthless military regime that had no respect for human rights. Probably the most important reason of all for moving back here was those wonderful summers I spent in Eastern Finland with my grandparents.

Those two-and-a-half months I spent with my grandparents were like entering a totally different world compared with the mad rush of Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. In summertime near Mikkeli, time nearly stopped amid those dreamy lazy summertime landscapes.

While I could not place my finger on it, there was something that bothered and concerned me about my new home. Many years later I figured out what it was.  It was the near-total disregard by some Finns, the authorities and laws for my fragmented Finnish ancestry. The law determined that only the children of Finnish fathers had citizenship rights.

You could have probably guessed that my first big disappointment took place at the Finnish Immigration Service, which was then called the Aliens’ Office. A cantankerous official snapped back at me for asking her why I had to go through so much red tape to get a residence permit if my mother was Finnish.

“In our opinion, you are not a Finn,” she said with all the weight of the law. “We are not interested if you are engaged to a Finnish woman. What counts is your mother, who is a Finnish citizen.”

It was a devastating knock-out blow by the official that not only left me in pieces but raised questions about my Finnish identity. Was I a Finn?

Even if things have changed for the better, there are some important questions that remain unanswered:  Are those critical pathways to acceptance that encourage integration closing or widening today?

Compared with the past, immigrants, Finns with international backgrounds and most importantly common Finns have shown through Facebook sites like My Finland is International that they are a growing force to be reckoned with.

Finland is a good country to live in but we must defend our good country every day. Despite much of the rhetoric and fear-mongering out there, what threatens our society does not come from abroad but from within.

We must strive to build and most importantly defend a society based on mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities for all those that live here.

 

guardian.co.uk: Australia set to recognise Aborigines as first people of continent*

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  As Migrant Tales bloggers know, Australia is one of the three countries that have multiculturalism as an official social policy. The other two countries are Canada and United Kingdom. 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that constitutional amendments could be put to the Australian people in a referendum that finally recognizes Aborigines as the country’s original inhabitants. Constitutional reform plans to strike off the last clauses of state-sanctioned racial discrimination. 

Writes the guardian.co.uk:  “Section 25 of the constitution recognises that states can disqualify people, such as Aborigines, from voting. Section 51 says federal parliament can make laws based upon a person’s race. Both were put in the constitution in 1901 to prevent certain races from living in areas reserved for white people or from taking up certain occupations.”

Gillard said that “we are big enough and it is the right time” to say yes to accepting our understanding of Australia’s past and constitutional reform.  She said that such actions would foster a more united and reconciled Australia than ever before. 

Do you agree with Australia’s constitutional reform? Should Finland take similar steps to reconcile relations with ethnic groups like the Saami and Romany minority?

*Thank you JusticeDemon for the heads up!

____________

Alison Rourke

Australia is poised to make historic changes to its constitution, recognising Aborigines as the country’s original inhabitants and removing the last clauses of state-sanctioned racial discrimination.

Read whole story.

We must fight for greater cultural diversity representation in our democracy and society

Posted on by Migrant Tales

When I grew up in the United States, most if not all of our most popular television series kept us doped in a fantasy world where the only people that counted were white Europeans who spoke English. We read history as well but there was too little about the “other” USAmericans: immigrants, Latinos, blacks, Native Americans and a long list of others that built the United States. 

Like democracy, the cultural diversity of a society should have representation.

If cultural diversity were used as a yardstick to measure our level of respect for different ethnic groups and their participation in our society, most of the countries of the world would be run by despotic regimes were the voices of these  groups are either underrepresented or neglected.

A question: Why do ethnic groups exist? Why are they more marked in some societies and less in other ones? Is group privilege the real culprit?

We have seen throughout time many battles won by minorities over unjust political systems that scorn and exclude such groups. One of the most powerful forces that has, however, challenged such segregated systems and succeeded is the power love.  

It’s incredible to note that only 45 years ago there were still laws in the United States that prohibited in 16 states people of different ethnic groups marrying. In the landmark Loving versus Virginia case, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a ban on interethnic marriages. Mildred Delores Jester Loving and Richard Perry Loving were criminally charged in Virginia, where interethnic marriages were banned.

Loving: Grey Villet's photograph captures Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088040/Photographs-Lovings-interracial-marriage-time-banned-16-states.
Loving: Grey Villet's photograph captures Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work in King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965. Source: Daily Mail. *

Despite laws that prohibit people of different ethnic origins from marrying or, worse ones like apartheid in white-ruled South Africa until 1990, some unwritten laws by society are far more sinister. Such written or unwritten laws that exclude and keep different groups apart are nothing more the fruits of the arrogance that racism gives others to justify their domination of political power and society’s wealth.

Those people who marry outside their group are bonded through love. These types of marriages and unions have advanced humankind  or “Scientific Adam and Eve” by diversifying the gene pool of future generations. They constantly remind us that culture and ethnicity change.

Could it be that naive view of the world depicted with the help of our subjective history, ethnic view of ourselves and all-white television series reveal what is terribly wrong with us? If we read history and watched more shows that encouraged mutual acceptance, respect and good relations between different ethnic groups in the United States and elsewhere, would we spend less of our energies supporting our simplistic views of the world through war and more on building a more just and democratic society?

The situation in the United States as well as in other parts of the developed world like Europe are equally worrying these days. Some openly confess wanting to return to a fantasy world that was only possible through racism and forced or encouraged segregation of different ethnic groups.

Even in countries like Finland, where an anti-immigration populist party like the Perussuomalaiset won 19.1% of the votes from 4.05% in the previous election, are doing everything possible to portray their society as white as possible at the cost of excluding others.

Greater cultural diversity representation in our society and democratic system are the best way of avoiding the perilous mistakes of our war- and violence-ridden past.

* Thank you Mixed American Life for the heads-up! 

    

The "Winter War" that visible minorities face in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Even if we speak proudly about the heroism of the men and women who fought against a formidable foe in the Winter (1939-40) and questionable Continuation War (1941-44), many Finns with culturally diverse backgrounds are facing today a different yet similar kind of war on a daily basis. One of these “veterans” is fourteen-year-old Rebecka Holm, who published her moving story on Swedish-language daily HBL.

If Migrant Tales could, it would offer an award highlighting the adolescent’s bravery to speak out against racism. She doesn’t speak out for herself but for many others who are the silent daily victims of such harassment.

The racist bullying that Holm has faced publicly is a shameful realty and unacceptable. It still happens too often because too many of us approve this type of anti-social behavior willingly or unwillingly with our silence.

In many respects those that go around insulting Finns who are visible minorities and immigrants are no worse than autocratic governments that trample on people’s rights. They carry out their abuse and hostility because they  can do it with impunity.

Holm writes: “I did not want to change schools [in Helsinki] when I started third grade we moved [to another neighborhood]…It was then [on the Helsinki metro to the Herttoniemi Station] that the racist comments and attacks began. I could sit quietly in the metro when some stranger would tell me that I should go back to where I came from. After that, I have been called many things, including mutanaama (mud face), n-word, monkey. And the worst thing of all has always been the silence of the adult passengers when I was verbally attacked.”

Like the costly wars that our country fought in World War 2, many visible minorities are veterans of a very different yet similarly sinister war.

Like these wars it was all about survival but most importantly for acceptance and respect.

Who remembers Ulla Pyysalo and her links to the neo-Nazi PVL?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

By Enrique Tessieri

Remember Ulla Pyysalo, Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP Juho Eerola’s aide? She’s the one who got her fingers burned when her name appeared on a hacked membership list of the neo-Nazi Pohjoismaisen vastarintaliike (PVL).  Pyysalo said that she would resign if she found a new job by the end of last year. Well, folks, surprise, surprise… My sources in parliament tell me that Pyysalo is still working for Eerola.

The Pyysalo affair demonstrates beyond any doubt that it is perfectly fine to be a PS member and belong to a neo-Nazi association like PVL as long as you were drunk while applying for membership or didn’t quite know what you were doing but thought it was a patriotic act.

What is not acceptable to the PS, however, is to threaten people’s lives.  Hemmo Koskiniemi was informed by Soini that he did not want the Rovaniemi city councilman to run for the party in the October 28 municipal election.

Prior to the death threat, Soini appears not to be worried at all by the racism and xenophobia spread in Koskiniemi’s writings.

Migrant Tales had got in touch with Uusi Suomi, the City of Rovaniemi and Council for Mass Media in Finland (JSN) about a blog Koskiniemi blog entry published on June 7, 2011.

Thus if you are a PS member, it is perfectly fine to get fined for hate speech, spread urban myths about immigrants, pile racist rhetoric deep and high, belong to a neo-Nazi association as long as you are drunk  but don’t threaten people’s lives!

Is full integration and ethnic equality possible in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

What would happen if different ethnic groups switched their roles in society and promoted their history and justification of the domination of other groups? Below is a satirical video clip about that switched view  of white Australia’s ongoing program of racism and oppression of black indigenous people.

Setting satire aside for a moment, is the fear that those who oppress us driven by ignorance or by a stark fact: If people ever woke up and understood how they’ve been exploited and deprived, would that lead to a revolution?

A 1960s black activist from Harlem, Elder Lewis Michaux, raises some serious questions even about our integration program in Finland. He said about the black man’s and woman’s plight in the United States: “Integration will never happen. You will never, as long as you live, integrate into the white man’s system.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uyEYqb7L48o#!]

Is Finland’s integration program really serious about raising the immigrant, never mind their children and grandchildren, to the same status as white Finns? When can they remove the “immigrant background label” off and be accepted as Finns on their own ethnic and cultural terms?

Here, I believe, we have to look at expectations versus reality. Expectations are noble but the results are so far dismal. The rise of a populist anti-immigration party in April like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) raises a lot of questions not only about where Finland is heading but how passionate we are about ethnic and minority equality in this country.

If you are an optimist you may believe that Finland’s noble social welfare system and the values that give it its reason for being will promote and encourage even ethnic equality. If you are a pessimist, however, you may believe that the social welfare system is only an effective way of brushing the sticky issue of equal rights under the rug.

In order for this society to take that giant first step towards ethnic and social equality, we must have mutual acceptance. How many politicians use the term acceptance in their daily speech?

Is full integration and ethnic equality possible in Finland?

At this point we are pretty far from that ideal.

Colorlines: How to Be a Racial Justice Hero, on MLK Day and All Year Long

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Like many who lived in the 1960s, MLK and the Civil Rights Movement he led in the 1950s and 1960s continues to inspire many like me today. 

I still remember the day when in junior high school in Hollywood we were told that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.  It was in the afternoon in California since King Jr. was killed at 6:01 pm at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.  Of that day I remember two things: a sense of despair since, like the John F. Kennedy assassination, another great man had been killed; a white man on the radio said that he was happy that King Jr. had been killed. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eD_joYaasM&feature=youtu.be]

What can we learn in Finland about MLK and others that fought for social justice at the time like Malcolm X?

The most important lesson is that we can change and make history. 

_______________

by Hatty Lee, Terry Keleher

As we celebrate a new year and another Martin Luther King holiday, it’s a good time to reflect on how you can be part of some positive change in the year ahead. Rather than the typical resolutions, which can get a bit self-absorbed, why not resolve to step up your game in making social change? The good news is that you already have everything you need, just as you are, to become a powerful force for racial justice. You can be a Racial Transformer. 

What’s that, you ask?

Read whole story.

Immigrant employment: Pessi Ilmari, job hunting & a possible future in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: I got to know about Steverp’s blog thanks to @raitapaita. There is a moving blog entry below that Steve gave us permission to publish on Migrant Tales.

Can anyone offer Steve some advice? He’s looking for a job in Finland from London. His child and wife live in Finland. 

Migrant Tales would be more than happy to publish these types of stories on the blog. If you are interested, inquire at [email protected].

__________________

By Steverp

So, another one. This seems almost therapeutic at the moment, so am going to carry on while I still have the impetus to do so. I was going to do a separate job-hunting & Finland blog, but as they are kind of inter-linked it makes sense to combine them in to one.

As previously mentioned, I’m currently looking at moving to Finland. People that don’t know me are always taken a-back by this, but there’s one very simple reason for wanting this move – my son.

As I alluded to in my previous blog, when things ended The Ex was pregnant & went back to Finland. Things didn’t end that well, so for a long, long time I was in two minds as to what to do in regards to involvement with my boy. Now, I’d never just walk away, but things were very difficult for a while & it was an option that was honestly considered. Every decision tore at my heart & I really didn’t know what to do with myself.

I had to be there for the lil’ man & once he was born & I saw his face (on Skype at first) I knew I had to do everything I could to be as close as possible to him. The initial plan was to move to London (more money & easier to travel abroad) & go over as often as possible. But after my first visit I knew that this wouldn’t suffice. Logistically it was also going to be a pain. It would be a struggle financially no matter where I was living, so after first holding him in my arms I knew I had to start making a ‘plan’ to be with him.

Our first meeting <3

Pessi Ilmari was born on 25th October 2010. I had originally planned to be there when he was due, but the plans fell through, so I travelled over as soon as I could which was a few weeks in to November. When I first walked in & saw him laying there I had to hold back the tears. He was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.

It was then that I decided I had to start planning on what to do with myself & my life. I wanted to be as involved as possible, but it would be difficult being in the UK. My plan was pretty basic – three steps.

  • Step 1 – move to London. Moving straight to Finland wasn’t practical at the time, so London would be my first destination. It would hopefully provide me with a bit more money (it hasn’t, by the way!) & would reduce travel time & costs when going to Finland. It also adds massive weight to a CV to have the head-quarters of an internationally recognised organisation on there.
  • Step 2 – Find/secure a job in Finland. The most sensible thing to do in my situation is wait to secure a role before I move. This has its pros & cons, but is the best option under the circumstances.
  • Step 3 – move to Finland. London was my middle point, Finland was my final destination (& still is). I’m now doing everything to find & secure a role over there.

The move to London has been quite stressful at times – trying to find a place to live while living over 100 miles away is not easy & mainly because of work messing up my salary & onboarding once I did secure a role & move up. I’m here now though, but as with Australia, I don’t feel 100% settled as I know there is now a further step to work towards. If you read my Tweets you’ll also see that my current living situation doesn’t help matters either (more to do with who I’m living with than anything else).

So, hunting for a job in Finland …… it’s been difficult & after a year is still ongoing. When based in Poole, applications to Finland were tentative, now I’m on a mission & I spend a large part of the week trawling the internet for roles & applying for pretty much anything & everything.

There are a couple of fundamental problems with trying to find a job in Finland when you’re not Finnish –

  1. The language. I’ve tried self-teaching via CDs, books, online etc, but where I don’t ever get to practice it, a lot of it tends to go in one ear & out the other. I had hoped to enrol in a language course in London, but with my salary only slightly increasing & my basic cost of living rocketing it hasn’t really been an option.
  2. Attitudes towards foreigners. All of the Finns I know & converse with are lovely people, but the country itself & it’s mindset are quite “old school”. Because of this there still seems a reluctance to hire foreigners (perpetuated by the current economic climate). I’ve chatted to quite a few expats over there as well as Finnish agencies & HR people, & the one thing I’ve been told more than any other is that as a Brit I’ll struggle to find a job when so many Finns are also looking. By & large, Finnish companies would rather employ a slightly under-qualified Finnish person (who would take longer to learn the role etc), than employ a qualified/experienced Brit. I can kind of understand this to a certain extent – in a country with a small population you want to do your best for your fellow Finns & see your own people prosper ….. but this isn’t always great business sense. It makes looking for a job, & ultimately securing one, that much harder for myself.  But as we’ve come in to the new year & companies have new financial budgets & are especially looking at international revenue streams, I’ve had a bit more luck & it seems that some companies are wising up to this.

Since mid-December I’ve had a real interest from an agency (have completed a telephone interview, personality test, motivation test, practical problem-solving test, provided two references from colleagues – shout out to Ricky & Phil – & a final 30-odd question sheet). Another consulting company have also been in touch & I recently had an initial interview via Skype. I’m hoping to hear back from both in the next week or two. In the meantime I’ll continue trawling through all the usual sites, applying for pretty much anything that I think I could do a decent job at – be that bar work, an office job, a Business Analyst, or HesBurger – whatever it takes & as long as it pays enough to cover my rent & let me look after & provide for my boy I don’t really care!

I could/would flip burgers ….. maybe……

So for now, the search continues. I’ll be back on Monster etc tomorrow (in between writing the final two blogs, hopefully – maybe). Again, if anyone reads this & can offer any advice or contacts (whether it’s work, places to live, anything really), please do feel free to get in touch – any info/help is alwaysmuch appreciated. & a BIG ‘thank you‘ to those that have offered advice/help so far!

Just on a final note, & to put a smile on my own face, here’s the lil’ man today – causing trouble, as he seems to be doing more often now…..

No more emails….

Finland and the far-right threat posed by Halla-aho and Niinistö

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Social Democrat Party presidential hopeful, Paavo Lipponen, has been the most outspoken candidate about the threat of the far right in Finland. On a television debate Thursday, he accused Perussuomalaiset (PS) party far-right MPs like Jussi Halla-aho and Jussi Niinistö of hiding behind Timo Soini of boosting the PS leader’s as well as the party’s popularity.  

Setting aside his Islamophobic rhetoric, Halla-aho suggested recently that the Greek military should overthrow the elected government. Contrarily Niinistö  is on another crusade to weaken the role of the Swedish-speaking minority in this country.

Niinstö’s far-right credentials come from his association with Suomalaisuuden liitto (Association of Finnish Culture), where he is a board member. Suomalaisuuden liitto is an association that was founded in 1906 but is today firmly under the control of the PS. One of its board members is Teemu Lahtinen, a PS member who belongs to IKL, a fascist party founded in the early 1930s.

Believe it or not, both Halla-aho and Niinstö chair the all-important administrative and defense committee of parliament.

Below is a joint campaign ad for the April 17 election by Halla-aho and Lahtinen. The Hindi turban used on the potato shows the extent of their ignorance. I apologize for the racist nature of the video clip.

It would be naive, even reckless, to think that the PS in general and some of its members in particular are not flirting and promoting far-right ideology.

Niinstö’s political colors became evident on September 12, when he stated in parliament Nazi playwright Hans Johst’s Schlageter, “Wenn ich Kultur höre … entsichere ich meinen Browning” (“Whenever I hear of culture… I release the safety-catch of my Browning”). 

Niinstö substituted the word “culture” in Johst’s play for parliamentarism.

Certainly Niinstö never mind Soini will never admit they are promoting far-right nationalism at the cost of minorities and our noble Nordic social welfare democracy.  If you ask them, they will tell you with a poker face that they are fighting for your rights. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is one quote by Adolf Hitler and another one by Hermann Göring that help shed light on the sad state of Finland and Europe today. The first one by Hitler is how far-right groups spread urban myths about immigrants and minorities today: Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.

The second one by Göring shows how the far right lures new followers:  The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.