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Continue reading “ELGS Migration Summer School 2019 22-27 July 2019 in Sounion, Greece”
Suva: A poster that says everyhing about xenophobia
Editor’s note: On behalf of Migrant Tales, I would like to welcome Suva to our blog community. His creativeness won’t abandon you. After seeing his work, you may feel like being part of a large community made up of Others. His artwork is powerful. It has such an impact on some that they crave to see more of his work.
Enrique Tessieri, editor
Suva writes the following about who he is:
“He is a Multi-Disciplinary Artist. His academic experience encircles in the discipline of visual art and performance art. He completed his MA degree in Visual Arts from Delhi College of Arts affiliated to Delhi University, India, specializing in Sculpture (2004). He received his MA degree in Live Arts and Performance Studies from Uniarts, Theater Academy (2015). Recently he was one of the Performance Artists in the 7th International Performance Festival, LAPSody, TeaK (21-22 February 2019) under the theme – Signatures. In this festival his performance piece had the title – The Other is not The One. He worked with an individual concept with the title – Log drum communication Project in 4 cities of Finland (2018) with Taike artist working grant. He works with the concept called “Public Anatomy” which means making and doing something with the public He did several community projects, workshops and performances in India and Finland. His independent works are based on his thesis with the title – The Other in the space of An-Other, dealing with issues of xenophobia, racism and problematics of community building.”
A second deportation attemp from Finland to Mauritania
The desperation and anguish in a woman’s voice are present as she pleads for help for her Mauritanian husband, 45, who was deported on March 27. It was the second time that the police had tried to deport her husband after the first attempt, on March 19, on Turkish Airlines failed.
Both have been married for three years.
Source: worldatlast.com.
“You must help me,” she said. “I’m suffering from depression and feel very bad about what happened. He is a good man and has a job. Why did Migri [Finnish Immigration Service] deport him?”
Her story and that of her husband’s is another sad chapter in the inhumane manner that the Finnish Immigration Service and the police treat some migrants, especially those from Muslim-majority countries.
His wife sends us the following email from his husband:
“At 5 am on Wednesday 27.3, the staff of the Metsälä detention unit [immigration removal center] woke me up and said that the police were waiting for me downstairs in the cellar. I went out of my room to meet them wearing a pajama. They were six police offices who Immediately escorted me to their police car. They frisked me and then placed a thick belt around my waist that they tightened from my back.
A prisoner ransport belt. Source: hiverminer.com.
Next, they cuffed my legs as well and proceeded to drive me to the airport…At the airport, they parked the [police] car next to the back entrance of the plane. One of them [the police] wrapped his right arm around my neck almost chocking me while his left hand covered my nose and mouth and [then] laid me [by force] across three seats; the other police officers sat on top of me focing my arms behind my back. They kept me in that positiion until I passed out. I felt the armrests [of the seat] stab my body. I woke up after some time and found myself in the middle seat with two police officers at my sides and a third one holding my head [down]. There were few passengers on the flight. In Paris, I was locked up in an isolated room for three hours until the next flight [to Noukchott, Mauritania]. They were worried that somebody would notice me.”
Continue reading “A second deportation attemp from Finland to Mauritania”
MTV Finland: Framing women with niqabs with Islamophobia and dislike
A court of appeal slapped on Tuesday the manager of the Euro Super store of Helsinki with a 1,995-euro fine for discrimination after he asked a woman to remove her niqab so her face would be exposed. The incident took place in spring 2016, according to MTV.
The owner of the store asked the woman to take off her niqab if she wanted to buy something. The women did not comply with the request and called the police after leaving the premises.
The owner denied that he had discriminated against the woman due to her religion and stated that he asked to see her face for security reasons.
The court did not buy the manager’s defense argument and ruled that the woman did not pose a threat to the store and there was as aresult no reason for her to remove her niqab.
Even if this is an open-and-shut case, one wonders why MTV frames the woman in the story as black and from Denmark. This type of framing is, in our opinion, not only poor journalism but Islamophobic.
The caption reads: A woman wearing a similar niqab at a demonstration in Denmark. The woman in the picture is not related to the court of appeal case.
Finland has been regressing into a false hole of provincialism and xenophobia
Should we be surprised by the results of a recent opinion poll, which showed the rise of an Islamophobic populist party to third place after the Social Democrats and National Coalition Party? As Léo Custódio put it: “Racist party 3rd in polls in world’s happiest country.”
Those who are surprised by the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, could be those politicians and civic leaders who have played down, even flirted, with anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment for their own opportunistic aims.
How many leaders of the same caliber as former President Tarja Halonen do we have today in government? Very few if any. Apart from Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, who isn’t a statesman but a business leader with an international background, all the rest in his government are politicians who feel comfortable in a provincial mindset and “us” and “them” world.
Even so, the most important fact the polls show is that the country has a leadership crisis of people who can see past the end of their noses. When a politician suffers from social shortsightedness as we are witnessing now, this paves the way to reinforcing and maintaining a hostile environment against migrants, minorities and anyone different from the white male norm.
If we lack the ability to see the future and how to build a society where social equality is the norm for everyone irrespective of their cultural and ethnic background, we end up putting our country’s future in harm’s way.
By promoting negative narratives about migrants and minorities, by spreading half-truths about them, such politicians have not only declared war on Finland’s Other but have planted the seeds of present and future strife.
Not being able to see past one’s nose will mean a lot of hardship for white Finns as well: the image of the country will suffer and so will its economy. Why would any foreigner in his right mind want to move and raise his and/or her children here? Wouldn’t the hostile environment scare them off?
Just like the politicians, the police are years behind and playing catchup with our ever-growing culturally and diverse community. While the police want more minorities to join the police service, why has this process moved at snail’s pace?
Is it because we don’t understand that our society has changed and that there are Others living here?
If we look at the actions of the police and media on how they have framed the sexual abuse cases of Oulu, it shows greater preoccupation in racializing crime than eradicating it.
With respect to the media, there is little balance never mind fairness in Yle’s reporting of the sexual assault cases of Oulu. Yle is like a giant using a bazooka to kill an ant.
During November 27 to February 13, Yle published a whopping 77 stories on the sexual abuse cases of Oulu. This is not counting all the other stories that the tabloids and other print media published during that period. On January 14 alone, Yle published 13 stories about the topic!
The police do not receive high marks either in helping us to see past our noses as a society. Taking into account that a poll showed that 25.1% and 24.4% of the police surveyed in 2016 voted for the National Coalition Party and Islamophobic PS, respectively, did the police frame the crimes that happened in Oulu to suit their prejudices and benefit their two favorite parties in the upcoming elections?
Finland’s hostile environment, shortsightedness, lack of leadership and willingness to continue relegating migrants and minorities to second- and third-class member status in society, are some of the greatest threats facing Finland today that is impacting us politically, socially and economically.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.
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.
Facebook Léo Custódio: Racist party in Finland and the world’s happiest country
Migrant Tales insight: Remember when Finland was named the happiest country in the world by the the global happiness index? I am certain that factors like income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity may contribute to people’s well-being. Even so, Léo Custódio, a researcher, asks an important question in light of the latest opinion polls: A party that openly victimizes and socially excludes migrants from being equal members of society is today the third-biggest in the “world’s happiest country.”
Afghan asylum seeker: Begging for food from other asylum seekers
Based on the Finnish Immigration Service webpage (Living in a reception center), there are different kinds of reception centers in Finland. The first type offers meals and in the second type, the asylum seekers cook their own meals.
In both cases, each resident has access to social and health services, to interpreters, different work and study activities. While each asylum seeker is given spending money each month, it is a different story for some Afghan asylum seekers. Most of these types of services are nonesxistent as well.
Said an Afghan asylum seeker, who spoke on condition of anonymity: “I was working part-time in the Uusimaa region for two years. The reception center did not pay me any spending money while working that I was entitled to receive based on Migri [the Finnish Immigration Service] guidelines.”
The asylum seeker said that he had only worked one month since November and received 1,500 euros from his last job.
“But I spent all that money,” he continued. “I have no job and no money since January 2019 because the reception center does not want to pay me for the five months I did not get paid.”
The asylum seeker said that he had the right to a free meal at the Vantaa reception center but after being transferred to Kajaani, located 548km north of Vantaa, he has had “to beg” for food from other asylum seekers.
“I have asked an employee of the reception center why they don’t pay me for the five months they owe me?” he said. “’You will get paid the next month,’ the employee answered. Both reception centers are sweeping the problem under the rug.”
The asylum seeker said that begging for food at the reception center was a breach of his basic rights in Finland.
Jussi Halla-aho reinforced in today’s Yle interview why the Perussuomalaiset is a xenophobic populist far right party
Thursday evening Yle interviewed Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Hallo-aho, a candidate for MP in next month’s elections and who built his political career on racism and Islamophobia. His performance was poor but it proved once again why the PS is a far-right party.
Even if Halla-aho didn’t directly admit it, the PS supports and gets followers from its white nationalist message.
One of the main arguments and foundations of white nationalism is demographic replacement, which is a common theme used by many PS politicians like Laura Huhtasaari, Olli Immonen and others.
It explains as well why Halla-aho sees immigration, especially from non-EU countries, as a threat. The PS leader did not have any concrete solutions on how to raise low childbirth rates in Finland but still saw immigration as a threat.
It’s been almost forty years when the first Somalis arrived to Finland. Since then, our media and politicians have fed the public with xenophobia and Islamophobia for a very long time.
In Finland, it is a recurring theme and explains why there is today such a surge in Islamophobia.
Below are some comments about tonight’s interview with Halla-aho.
Ozan Yanar, who is a Green League MP, questioned Halla-aho’s statement that the PS isn’t an anti-immigration party. He asks in his tweet where such a notion has come from.
In the following tweet by academic researcher Oula Silvennoinen, who is running for parliament for the same party as Yanar, responded sarcastically that he had no idea why anyone would call the PS an anti-immigration party.
Finland should put aside its racism, prejudices, hypocrisy and challenge seriously social ills like pedophilia and sexaual abuse
The lifesaver that was supposed to propel the Perussuomalaiset* (PS) to new heights in the polls, suffered another setback Wednesday when the National Bureau of Investigations arrested five white Finnish suspects implicated in violent child sexual abuse. The other blows that stole the PS of its Islamophobic thunder were the elderly care scadal and the Christchurch atrocity where 50 Muslims were killed.
Writes Yle News: “A special feature [of the case] has been violence and child harm, which has played a central role [in the material]. Although we are investigating sexual offences, this is a case of violence, its glorification and receiving sexual gratification from it,” said lead investigator Sanna Springare.
In light of the hysteria that the Oulu sexual abuse cases have caused, do you agree with the following tweet below?
When we lose sight of the ball because we are too busy labelling and victimizing certain migrant groups, we lose sight of how to effectively challenge a social disease like pedophilia and sexual abuse.
Yle’s coverage of the Oulu sexual assault cases could be at its best described as overkill, even unethical. It is like using a bazooka to kill an ant. There is little balance never mind fairness in Yle’s reporting of the topic.
During November 27 to February 13, Yle published a whopping 77 stories on the sexual abuse cases of Oulu. This is not counting all the other stories that the tabloids and other print media published during that period. On January 14 alone, Yle published 13 stories about the topic!
The police do not receive high marks either by racializing the sexual abuse cases. Considering that a poll showed that 25.1% and 24.4% of the police surveyed in 2016 voted for the National Coalition Party and Islamophobic PS, respectively, it is a valid question to ask if the police framed the crimes to suit their prejudices and benefit as a result those two parties in the upcoming elections.
Atte Kaleva is a populist who spreads and dwells in Islamophobic soundbites
Politicians who spread fear and suspicion of migrants are those that will never give power and a voice to migrants. Some good examples of groups that are Islamophobic are parties like the Perussuomalaiset* and leading Islamophobes like Jussi Halla-aho and Atte Kaleva.
National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP candidate Atte Kaleva, who has overtaken Wille Rydman as the Halla-aho of his party, held a talk on March 15 in East Helsinki on “why multiculturalism doesn’t work.”
The timing of the talk was not the most appropriate since on the same day we learned about the atrocities in New Zealand when a far-right Australian extremist killed in cold blood 50 Muslims and wounded others in two mosques of Christchurch.
For anyone familiar with the topic of multiculturalism, Kaleva’s topic choice exposes who he is: a populist giving soundbites to the media and followers at the cost of minorities and groups like Muslims.
Some of Kaleva’s acquaintances include Jussi Halla-aho, convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion. Kaleva appears proud of this picture. I think it is shameful. Thank you Christin Bergström for helping me find this Instagram posting with Kaleva and Halla-aho.
When the National Coalition Party candidate claims that multiculturalism does not work, we have no idea what he actually means.
Is he implying that cultural diversity is not possible because it always fails? Does he mean that white Finnish society is “perfect” while culturally diverse societies are flawed? Is he saying that countries like Canada, Australia, Argentina, the United States, and others are good examples where multiculturalism has failed?
Is he denying European history, which is and was historically always culturally and ethnically diverse?
Continue reading “Atte Kaleva is a populist who spreads and dwells in Islamophobic soundbites”