I once had the opportunity to write a rebuttal in the Helsinki Times to Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Ville Tavio. In his usual far-right fiery language, he suggested outright that Finland must treat migrants as second-class members of society.
He suggested in an op-ed piece in Uusi Suomi that the Finnish Constitution should be amended to give Finns priority over foreigners.
Tavio has had many racist outbursts before. His most recent one was a parliamentary question asking why Muslim women should be allowed to use burkinis at public swimming halls. He now sounds the alarm that millions of asylum seekers will soon stream to Europe as a result of Turkey’s military action in Syria.
He tweets: “Turkey is threatening to spark a new immigration crisis. If the [mass] migration of people begins, is the Finnish army ready this time to stop foreign hordes at the border? What does defense minister @anttikaikkonen say? The fate of the nation rests on this question.”
Excuse me, Tavio, are you suggesting that we should start to deploy the army at our border because you are apparently hallucinating asylum seekers coming from the Middle East?
Ville Tavio’s Facebook wall: “Be a brave Finn.” Be brave and hate Muslims and asylum seekers is what he is really saying.
Tavio is a lawyer and he should supposedly know better and how to choose his words.
Believe it or not, he is a product of Finland’s world-class education system.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Migrant Tales launches a new series called kotoutuminen, or integration. Readers are encouraged to send their personal experiences, comments on integration programs, and policies.
Kotoutuminen, or integration, functions in many ways like white fragility. It is a weapon and tool to subjugate newcomers and migrants who have lived in Finland for a long time.
Robin Diangelo describes as white fragility in her best-selling book, “White Fragility.” She states that most white people “are absolutely not receptive to finding out their impact on other people.” She also mentions that the reaction caused by white fragility is nothing fragile but hostile.
A good example of how even governments use kotoutuminen as a tool to control people is their hysterical and politically opportunistic response to the sexual assault cases of Oulu.
In this particular case, the former government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä blamed the integration program for the sexual assault cases. Then Interior Minister Kai Mykkänen even threatened to give newcomers tests to determine if they are a danger to society.
Any sensible person can see that these types of political soundbites were made for public consumption before the April parliamentary elections. Aren’t people innocent before they are proven guilty? Isn’t Mykkänen’s disregard for this human right worrying?
The use of integration programs to control migrants is another example of why such programs face challenges.
Migrant Tales launches a new series called kotoutuminen, or integration. Readers are encouraged to send their personal experiences, comments on integration programs, and policies.
A suitable synonym for kotoutuminen is structural racism. In the process of integrating into Finnish society, newcomers are rarely taught the racism and discrimination they may face and, importantly, how to challenge such social ills.
Here is a good example of how stereotypes and prejudices of Finnish culture are taught to students at some integration classes. Yes, believe it or not, these types of silly cartoons are shown to newcomers to help them understand Finnish culture. Aren’t they learning to understand the cartoonist’s prejudices and stereotypes? The cartoonist is Karolina Korhonen.
In other words, kotoutuminen is another form of reinforcing structural racism and also Finnish exceptionalism. You are taught about how you are expected to adapt but never how to challenge those structures that may relegate you to second-class members of society.
The situation is further muddled that such classes or courses are usually taught by unqualified teachers who lack the tools to question their own prejudices and racism.
*Kotoutiminen is the Finnish term for integration.
A 53-year-old white Finnish male fatally shot his African wife in Lahti on Sunday, according to tabloidIlta-Sanomat. The couple had been separated and were at fighting in court over legal custody of their only child. The woman was 38.
The couple got married in northern Finland in 2016 but moved to the south of the country. They separated with the man living in Kouvola and the deceased woman in Lahti, located 64 kilometers.
Tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat, which have not apologized for their racist reporting of migrants like Somalis since the 1990s, and other media are quick to racialize gender-based violence.
Should we call this terrible act in Lahti a “crime of passion” since it involves a white man killing a black woman? If it were a Muslim killing his white Finnish wife, could it be called an “honor crime?”
Honor crime or crime of passion boil down to one matter: gender-based violence.
There is no “honor” or “passion” in killing women. It’s the same crime, and the killer is usually a man.
I would rather be a little nobody than to be an evil somebody. Anonymous
Perussuomalaiset MPs Ville Tavio and Riikka Purra are a bunch of bullies because they pick on some of the most vulnerable people of our society, in this case, Muslim women who want to wear burkinis.
Migrant Tales is not a vulnerable group, and we will say it in plain English: Both Tavio and Purra are Islamophobic opportunists.
Both of these far-right hotheads post on their Facebook wall that they have sent a written question to parliament complaining why the burkini is now at public swimming halls.
The written question comes from a non-discrimination ombudsman decision that deemed burkini prohibition at swimming halls discriminatory.
Both Tavio and Purra are sad examples of what is wrong with Finland.
Despite their kicking and bitching about migrants, and especially people of color, there is nothing that they can do to stop Finland from becoming ever-culturally diverse.
We will not forget their hateful language and we will ensure that our children and grandchildren never forget as well.
*A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
The saying in Latin, To set a wolf to guard sheep, raises the right question about a YLE news story on a hate speech study and how it intimidates politicians from expressing their opinions.
The study reveals that 75% of the messages come from anti-immigration groups, with the rest coming from left-liberal circles, according to Helsingin Sanomat, which quotes the study’s findings.
Forty percent of all politicians in the study admitted that they were intimidated by the hate speech. The party least affected by hate speech was the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, according to Iltalehti.
The study looked at 375,000 messages between March and August. Of these, 5,500 were hate messages from 2,200 accounts, of which 200 were the most active. Fifteen politicians received over 100 hate messages. These were PS chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, Green Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo, Prime Minister Antti Rinne, National Coalition Party head Petteri Orpo and Education Minister Li Andersson.
The study blames social media platforms like Twitter for allowing these types of hate messages to be sent to politicians even if they are against their community standards.
We could take the question a bit further: Why don’t the Finnish authorities, namely the police, openly demand social media platforms to follow their community standards?
Moreover, there are too few police, at the most 10, monitoring hate speech, according toan earlier Yle story. Last year, a mere 31 ethnic agitation cases ended up in, according to Migrant Tales, citing the justice ministry.
Going back to the wolf guarding the sheep, Yle interviews two MPs for the story that was aired Friday. They are PS MP Riikka Purra, who built her political career on Islamophobic soundbites, and Anna Kontula of the Left Alliance.
One does not need rocket science to discern that Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities and growing hate speech derives from mainly one party: the PS.
Reija Härkonen asks the right question about the Yle story: “The Perussuomalaiset don’t consider hate speech a problem. Seventy-five percent [of hate messages] come from anti-immigration groups. Isn’t it really interesting that Yle‘s news chose to show how the Perussuomaliset party suffers [from hate messages]. According to Iltalehti, very few PS politicians said they were intimidated by hate speech.
Purra, who usually doesn’t speak anything more than bad about migrants, especially people of color, claiming they are unemployable freeloaders, and blasting black rapists as “human scum,” is the wolf guarding the sheep in the Yle story.
As she is interviewed by the reporter, Purra sheds crocodile tears to the camera about how she is a victim of hate.
“Today I received a letter from a person in Kuopio,” she said with a poker face, “where the person hopes that I die of cancer or get run over by a car. I’m told that I am a terrible person and that this curse will happen.”
Some friendly advice to Purra and her party: Stop victimizing migrants, stop your cooperation with neo-Nazis, and other Islamophobic far-right groups. Stop spreading hate.
It’s high time that Finland and the government start dealing with hate speech and racism.
This is not a request, but a demand.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Leaving one’s first home country, one acquaints herself and himself to new worlds and ways of thinking. For a writer and artist, this source can be used to give new perspectives and meaning. Both Shashank Mane and Hope Nwosu write about their experiences and the challenges that migrants face when they move to a new country.
Shirlene Green Newball charla con el músico y artista Rami Thawi que ha vivido en países como Venezuela, Siria y hoy en Finlandia. ¿Qué le inspira a componer música y ser de muchos lugares simultáneamente? Las canciones de Rami tienen mucha fuerza y trae a la luz los desafíos y hermosura de pertenecer a muchas culturas.
Shirlene Green Newball talks with Rami Thawi, a musician who has lived in many countries from Venezuela to Syria to Finland now. What inspires him to compose music and be from many places simultaneously. Rami songs are full of power and expose the challenges and power of being from many places.
