Migrant Tales got a new layout look today. We hope you like it!
Enrique Tessieri, editor
PS’ Timo Soini claims he’s “surprised” that not more immigrants want to move to Finland
Politicians sometimes say pretty incredible things. What do you think if the leader of Finland’s biggest anti-immigration party in parliament states that he’s surprised that not more immigrants move to Finland? And then the leader of this party, Timo Soini, puts the icing on the cake and is quoted on YLE in English as saying that Finland “is one of the least-immigrated countries in the world.”
Come again, Soini, what did you just say?! You wonder why so few immigrants move to Finland. Well we wonder why the PS is the third-biggest party in parliament if there are so few migrants in Finland.
Migrant Tales has written a number of times about the perils of anti-immigration rhetoric and how it scares away skilled immigrants and foreign investment.
We published in 2012 a blog entry on such preposterous views of the PS headlined, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, the super immigrant [3]. Continue reading “PS’ Timo Soini claims he’s “surprised” that not more immigrants want to move to Finland”
Being responsible in debates about immigration and extremism
Extremism almost never sees itself as ‘extreme’
When I was young I studied ‘brainwashing’ as part of my studies in psychology. One feature that constantly emerged was how ‘extreme’ interpretations of events typically took a grain of truth and wrapped it up in a generalisation such that it would act as a shield to any criticism, especially convincing and obvious counterarguments that threatened to unravel the persons’ warped world-view.
This is always tricky ground, for several reasons. This bias is something we all share to different degrees, and so it’s easy to reverse the argument if you start trying to point it out. Being ‘brainwashed’ is to an extent common, we even have an everyday term for it – we call people ‘opinionated’. Brainwashing is, in essence, accepting information as true without fully assimilating it as an independently thinking, critical and empathic individual. In the context of racism debates today, we might talk of pathological bias. Continue reading “Being responsible in debates about immigration and extremism”
UPDATE (Feb. 27): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism
Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.
Feb. 27
Rasistinen vai ei? Oikeusoppineet arvioivat perussuomalaisten maahanmuutto-ohjelma (YLE Kioski)
What’s wrong with this story? A story published by YLE Kioski asked a number of law professors if the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party program on immigration is racist. While the answers from five professors affirmed that the PS program was racist and/or unconstitutional, not a single non-Finnish professor was approached by YLE Kioski. One professor that could have given “a migrant view” is Jeremy Gould of Jyväskylä University. The fact that representatives of the majority culture, in this case white Finnish professors, are giving their expert opinions about what impacts migrants and minorities is nothing new. Too often migrants and minorities aren’t approached by the media in such cases. One of the journalists who did the story is Sean Ricks. The story mistakenly states that Veronika Honkasalo is an MP for the Left Alliance. She is a Helsinki city councilwoman who is running for parliament. Continue reading “UPDATE (Feb. 27): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism”
Migrants’ Rights Network: Is the penny finally dropping? – Migration is a sign of how normal a society is, rather than a threat to its existence
Don Flynn*
The fact that the government failed to reach its target for reducing net migration is bad news for them, but rather good news when considered as an indication of an economy not still mired in deepest recession.
Read full blog entry here.
Sending Finland to a retirement home
Parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and anti-immigration politicians like MEP Jussi Halla-aho should be thankful to migrants and multicultural Finns. Where would these anti-immigration populists be today without their near-constant attacks against our ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society?
Source: theinspirationroom.com.
While anti-immigration rhetoric has poisoned the air and made life difficult for some migrants, it has likewise awoken many to a social ill like intolerance. A good example of the latter is Migrant Tales as well as numerous other anti-racism blogs that have appeared in recent years.
Xenophobia and intolerance are extremely harmful and toxic social ills for any country. Finland is no exception. If few people have found their way to Finland in the past and made it their home, anti-immigration parties like the PS and the silence of other ones have made it an even less attractive destination for migrants.
It’s clear that we are paying a high price for not challenging intolerance and for promoting our own urban tales about ourselves and other groups.
What future awaits us if we don’t change course? Is it further graying of the population, rocketing health-care costs to serve an ever-growing aging population, lower tax revenues and productivity as well as greater anti-immigration/anti-cultural diversity sentiment?
Finland is a country that has faced great hardships in its history and overcome them.
None of them, however, are so perilous and far-reaching than the ones it faces today.
Intolerance is like a vampire that sucks the life out of a nation. It quenches its thirst by impoverishing and stagnating a country.
Don’t send Finland but the anti-immigration populist to a retirement home.
* The English name of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is officially the Finns Party. The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.
UPDATE (Mar. 1): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism
Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.
Mar. 1
Surmatut ja epäilty ovat ulkomaalaistaustaisia, mutta asuneet Suomessa pitkään (MTV3)
What’s wrong with the headline? Three migrants were killed by another foreigner on Sunday in the small town of Laukaa, located near Jyväskylä. While the victims and the suspect are non-Finns, MTV3 makes a distinction in the headline about this fact. It states that those killed and the suspect are foreigners “but have lived a long time in Finland.” While the headline was brought to my attention by a post on Facebook, there is an obvious question: What is the difference if the “foreigners” had lived a long time or not in Finland? Are they suggesting that foreigners that have lived a shorter time in Finland are more prone to be killed or be suspected killers? Makes you wonder.
Amnesty International cites (again) Finland’s human rights violations against refugee, migrant and transgender rights
Amnesty International criticized Finland in a 2014-15 country report on human rights violations for its treatment of asylum seekers, migrants, transgender people and conscientious objectors, according to YLE in English. It said that police inaction agains women and girls was another cause for concern.
Should we be surprised? Not really. Finland has had a poor human rights track record with asylum seekers, migrants and conscientious objectors.
It wasn’t too long ago when Finland returned Soviet citizens who asked for asylum to the former USSR.
After over 20 years of searching, Migrant Tales made contact with Aleksandr Shatravka in 2009 thanks to this blog.
One of the saddest cases that Amnesty International documented was that of Vyacheslav N. Cherapanov, who was forcibly returned in July 1980 to the USSR after he had allegedly been beaten by Finnish police in Ilomantsi. This was done after Finland had pledged to respect the human rights of asylum seekers after it hosted and signed the Helsinki Accords of 1975.
The human rights situation under Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen has deteriorated. Amnesty International had launched a petition against the imprisonment of asylum seekers who are children.
According to Amnesty International, the government of Finland promised in 2011 to forbid the detention of unaccompanied children and to develop alternatives to detention. The promise was written in the government’s program, but it has not been fulfilled. Alternatives to detention have not yet been developed and children are still detained.
Read full report here.
Writes Yle in English:
A new addition this year to the [Amnesty International] list of complaints concerning Finland was discrimination against transgender individuals. AI says that the law on obtaining legal gender recognition is too onerous, requiring lengthy medical studies, sterilisation or a mental disorder diagnosis, and proof of single status.
Female residents of Finland, meanwhile, are all too often subject to sexual violence, according to the report. It cites a 2014 survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, which indicates that nearly half of women in the country had experienced physical or sexual violence since the age of 15. However only one in 10 victims has contacted police, even in serious cases of violence.
Some Finns are still scratching their heads about the surge of intolerance in Finland and why an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* became the country’s third-largest in parliament in 2011.
As long as Finland does little to nothing to improve the human rights of groups like asylum seekers, migrants, transgender people and women, it continues to fuel a climate of intolerance that has been with us for decades.
* The English name of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is officially the Finns Party. The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.
UPDATE (Feb. 26): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism
Migrant Tales’2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.
Feb. 26
Koraaninluku radiossa nosti raivon – “Sotkee nuorten päät ja vihasoppa on valmis” (Helsingin Uutiset)
What’s wrong with this story? Helsingin Uutiset is a community paper that is distributed for free to Helsinki residents. One of the unfortunate qualities of Helsingin Uutiset is that it is known for its anti-immigration stand. The story below about the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) beginning to read the Koran on air has raised a lot of opposition, which Helsingin Uutiset writes a story about based on anonymous comments on its website, some of which are hostile and Islamophobic. One comment claims that the program “mixes young people’s head and ensures a hate brew to be concocted” while another one says it promotes terrorism. The paper asks its readers to vote if they think it is a good idea to read the Koran on radio. About 80% say it’s a bad idea. Since when were anonymous comments credible? Poor opinionated journalism at its worst.
Where to catch up on news about immigration, immigrants and cultural diversity
Where does Migrant Tales get its information? Apart from getting tip-offs from readers, another important source is Uutiskynnys as well as other social media sites like Facebook (Rasmus and others) and Twitter. We only read racist diatribe on Facebook instead of following hate sites like Hommaforum and Scripta.
Following the latter sites as well as other ones like James Hirvisaari is an absolute waste of time because what they put out only confirms what you read about them over five years ago.
I used to visit Mediaseuranta but stopped going there after it became clear that the editor appears to be connected to the Hommaforum network. We recommend a thousand times Uutiskynnys over Mediaseuranta.
One of the best blogs on cultural diversity in Finland is Uuninpankkopoika Saku Tiimonen, Reija Härkönen, Marian Abdulkarim and Zuzeeko. There are many others that I read like Abdirahim Husu Hussein and Anna Gutiérrez Sorainen.
A “new” blogger on the block is Ozan Yanar, who knows his stuff and writes well.
It’s great to see today that the ongoing debate on our ever-growing cultural diversity is no longer controlled by anti-immigration bloggers. This has been the case for some time but matters are changing.
Other good sites include I Care, which gives you a good picture of what is happening in other countries.
Being informed and having a good network to access and double check information is crucial if you want to take part in the ongoing debate on immigration, immigrants and cultural diversity.
When it comes to the Finnish media, only a few publications get it right most of the time when it comes to migration and cultural diversity. Some of these include Karjalainen, Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat, Hämen Kaiku and Kansan Uutiset.