It isn’t surprising why the government of Petter Orpo has paid so little attention to two reports that continue to shine a dark light on Finland: The 2022 suspected hate crime report by the Police University College of Finland, and Being Black in the EU by the Europen Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Migrant…
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The “Denmarkization” of Finland’s immigration and asylum policy
The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has had a long love affair with Denmark’s anti-Muslim immigration policy, one of the toughest in Europe. With loaded guns in government, the PS must be happy that they can adopt, with the blessings of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the two minor coalition partners, the…
Finland’s new Interior Minister Mari Rantanen “comes out” with her racism and far-right views
Finland’s new interior minister, Mari Rantanen of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, wrote on her webpage before the April general election: “We mustn’t be so naive [naive in Finnish means being ‘blue-eyed’] that soon we won’t be blue-eyed.” The posting can no longer be found on her webpage. In a recent interview with Iltalehti, Rantanen, who…
Finland’s new government: No evil can last 100 years – but it can, possibly, last for four years
Finland’s next government will likely comprise of four parties: National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Swedish People’s Party, and Christian Democrats, according to Helsingin Sanomat. Even if the makeup of the government was pretty clear at the onset, many questions remain. One is Finland’s chronic labor shortage and PS opposition to asylum seekers and labor…
Migrant Tales Media Monitoring: Don’t cry Finland if you don’t like migrants
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulation daily, writes in an editorial about why the country needs labor migrants to secure economic growth and services offered by the welfare state. We are at a critical crossroads: It is the first time in history that more people die than there are newborns. While the editorial invites debate on Finland’s…
Twitter (Jani Mäkelä): Selling Finland down the river to Trump-backing politicians
US Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced that he would vote against Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in Nato. Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Jani Mäkelä pleaded with him to change his mind. Good luck. The January 6 hearing last week made a horse’s ass of Hawley, one of former President Donal Trump’s avid followers who believes…
When countries become nationalism addicts and junkies
Xenophobia tends to pile up. Like blacks in the United States, Finland’s “black” problem is Russia, and from the 1990s, Muslims. In the 1980s, when I lived permanently in Finland, and about 12,000 foreign nationals were living in the country, the racist undercurrent that flowed like a mighty river was ever-present. It reminded you whenever…
(Racism Review) Swedish racism: Engineering a false image of democratic solidarity
When I, Masoud Kamali, arrived to Sweden as a political refugee from Iran in 1987, I had heard a lot about Sweden. While serving time as a political prisoner in Iran, one of my first images of Sweden came from an article that I had read in the Iranian Iran’s major newspaper, Keyhan. when I was in jail in Iran in late 1970s. It was about the Swedish Sweden’s charismatic Prime Minister Olof Palme. The article contained a picture of Palme walking his bicycle on the grounds of Stockholm’s famous Citadel and gathering money for the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. As a leftist believing in a socialist revolution at that time, my prison-mates and I were very impressed by a country in which the Prime Minister dared openly support a leftist/Marxist movement.
Anti-refugee sentiment in Finland and politicians who capitalize on fear and racism
A new survey by PEW Research Center shows that there is wide support in several EU countries for taking in refugees. The report shows that Spain is the most welcoming while Poland and Hungary are the least responsive.
Finnish municipal elections: Greens make big gains, Perussuomalaiset are the biggest losers
The result of Sunday’s municipal elections were especially good news especially for migrants and minorities, who have been a target of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party chiefly after the parliamentary elections of 2011, when it won 39 seats (19.05%) from 5 MPs (4.05%) in the previous elections.