Migrant tales - Page 32 of 536

A letter to Interior Minister Mari Rantanen

Posted on April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen of the Perussuomalaiset party*,

Since the Finnish media won’t ask you critical questions about the tightening of migration policy, I’d like to ask you why are you tightening the screws. Finland needs migrants and, as you know, we are up sh*t creek due to the graying of our population and its cost.

Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen.

Many parts of your migration policy show the worst of Finland. Take for instance changes in the naturalization law, where you are requiring people to live in Finland eight years from the five required now. What about human rights? Aren’t you planning to undermine such a right in the new refoulement law?

I moved to Finland in December 1978. As many children of Finnish parents, I spent my summers with my grandparents. I am grateful for those summers and the opportunity I had to experience the magical summers of Finland.

Compared with the smog and heat of Los Angeles, nothing could compare with those summers.

During that time, I grew up believing that I was a Finn and my plan was to move to this country after completing my university. I even went to the Finnish army about doing my conscription.

One day, however, after returning to live in Finland, I wondered why I had to apply for residence permits periodically. I asked the lady at the aliens’ office, yes, that was what it was called back then, why I had to apply for a residence permit periodically if I was a Finn.

Finland’s oppressive immigration policy is like shooting oneself in the leg

Posted on April 18, 2024April 19, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Perusuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen held a press conference today and outlined how the present government is going to tighten migration policy. There was nothing new in what Rantanen said. We know about plans to tighten the citizenship law, family reunification, speed up deportations, and making it harder to get a residence permit. All of these measures begged for a question: Why?

Finland is already suffering from an unprecedented demographic crisis that has hit its economy hard. So many people are retiring that the country cannot plug such a shortage. An article in Helsingin Sanomat, predicted that the drop in people of Finnish origin would plummet to just above one million in 90 years from 5.6 million now.

In bravado fashion, the PS states: “If you don’t have a residence permit, the starting point is that you will return to your country or will be forced to return.” A statement like this is like a shot in the leg. Thank you Rantanen and the whole PS and National Coalition Party gang in government for bringing Finns closer to extinction and further economic decline.

As our migration policy speeds up the process of becoming extinct or a country with a tiny population, the PS and the National Coalition Party can rejoice that at least those that are being extinct are white Finns.

Why doesn’t the media and politicians say it out loud: The reason for our economy tanking is the lack of foreign labor.

Statements by the government and xenophobes like Rantanen are the real culprits for our demographic and economic problems and demise.

The Finnish police can remove a hijab by force if you are an asylum seeker

Posted on April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 by Migrant Tales

A Turku Court of Apeal dropped all charges on 23.3 against seven police and security guards who removed a hijab by force from two asylum seekers in 2017. Apart from the long path of due justice, the case is unsettling because it raises the following question: why is it that a Muslim woman can use the hijab in a passport picture if she has a residence permit but not if she is an asylum seeker?

The ruling, in my opinion, is shameful and shows how little regard the police have for religious freedom of Muslims. Moreover, the five-year wait for the case to be finally decided by the Court of Appeal is a blow to trust of Finland’s legal system.

In an email dated 29.10.2022, prosecutor Heidi Suvirinne, told Migrant Tales that the Court of Appeal will not look at at the case if the police had the right to use force to remove the hijabs.

“I look at the case from a legal point of view, and the important thing is that the Court of Appeal will decide whether the police had the right to use force and whether the use of force was in concordance with the law; if not, assault [committed by the acquitted suspects).”

What is your opinion about this case?

Please send your replies to [email protected].

Read the full story here.Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

Further reading:

The tailspin of the Finnish economy – it’s the immigration, stupid!

Posted on April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 by Migrant Tales

The growth of Finland’s economy in the past fifteen years has been disappointing with our indebtedness growing at an alarming rate totaling today about 75% of GDP, according to Yle. If we were to point to the elephant in the Finnish room, it’s clear that our rapidly aging population and too few immigrants are the culprits.

To top it off, when Finland’s debt-to-GDP ratio started to rise worryingly in the early 2010s, Finland was hit politically by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which made it to the major political league in the 2011 election, when its numbers rose to 39 MPs from 5 MPs previously.

During the past decade, Finland needed to attract labor immigrants in a big way but chose instead to spread populist xenophobia. Today the PS together with the National Coalition Party (NCP), and its minor partners, the Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats, are planning to significantly tighten immigration policy.

You don’t need to be a sociologist to understand that the whole concept of immigration and how it is supposed to work is tainted by racism and discrimination thanks to the PS and its obeient partners, the NCP. The government is doing everyting possible to keep Finland white and non-Muslim.

Read the full story in Finnish here.

Today’s A-studio talk concerning the pushback law was an insult to one’s intelligence

Posted on April 11, 2024April 12, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Today’s A-studio with Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Mauri Peltokangas, head of the administration committee, and MP Tytti Tupparainen of the Social Democratic Party was disappointing when they spoke of the law on “refoulement,” also popularly known as the “pushback law.”

Source: Google

Even if Tupparainen said that human rights were a cornerstone of Finland’s rule of law, Peltokangas was willing to throw Finland’s human rights commitments under the bus because “national security overrode everything.”

Using the excuse of “national security” to trash human rights, internaiontal rights and the rule of law, is a flimsy argument. The media, and journalists like host Marja Sannikka, who treat this question as a given fact, is dangerous and irresponsible. Many dictatorships in have used the “national security” argument to undermine civil rights.

Apart from the Finnish-Russian border crisis, Finland is in deep demographic difficulties. An article in Helsingin Sanomat said that low birth rates would force Finland’s population to plummet in 90 years to just over a million from 5.6 million now.

Finland’s pushback law will cause death, suffering, and loss of face

Posted on April 7, 2024April 7, 2024 by Migrant Tales

National Coalition Party Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government is drafting a new pushback law that permits Finland to subvert human rights, international law, and the rights enshrined in its constitution. Even if the law gets approval from parliament, it will not solve but worsen the problem at the Finnish-Russian border.

Considering that Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has a notorious record as an Islamophobe, expect the worst from Finland’s tightening of immigration and asylum policy. Why would you trust a person like Rantanen when it comes to migration unless you believe in fairy-tale solutions?

Even President Aleksander Stubb, who is supposed to speak for everyone in Finland, gave the thumbs up to sending back people at the Finnish-Russian border. Shameful exemplifying his moral fiber.

The actions of Stubb and the government tell us that during difficult times we will not respect our commitments. We’ll instead scapegoat the problem on Russia.

Apart from being a cowardly act, Internior Minister Rantanen and the government believes that passing a law in parliemant will magically cause the problem to go away. It will not solve any problems. On the contrary, the new law will bring death and terrible suffering as we have seen at a number of EU border crossings.

Apart from being legally liable, the suffering that we’ll see is that the Finnish border guards will have to live with themselves after sending people back. That was the case in Poland as shown eloquently in the Green Wall movie.

Just like many Polish citizens including doctors, lawyers, and activists who came to help the refugees and who were against a similar xenophobic Polish government at the time. The same may occur in Finland. This movie should be seen by everyone in Finland, especially those who are gun-ho about breaching international law.

Wtires the Hollywood Reporter about the Green Border that could be a prelude to what will happen at the Finnish-Russian border:

MTV Finland: Shoddy journalism at its shoddiest

Posted on April 5, 2024May 10, 2024 by Migrant Tales

MTV is at it again, depicting migrants as a threat to society and feeding into its own and some of its viewer’s racist inclinations. The interview of Perusuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen by Ivan Puopolo, notorious for his biased views, shows us how low Finland’s largest privately owned television station can stoop.

The reporting and interview by Puopolo is an exercise in stenography journalism.

One of the questions that Puopolo asks Rantanen is one of her favorite questions about why the integration program has failed.

“I suppose you could take it as a sign that the integration program has failed and I would say common sense would tell you that,” Rantanen said. “If we have people in Finland who don’t know the language who are outside society, how can they help their children to integrate into society?

Rantanen then gets excited and states that the government program has a solution to the problem.

According to her, integration will be lowered from four to three years for quota refugees and from three to two years for asylum seekers.

Here the interview here. Source MTV

Being a Russian minority in an ever-hostile Finland

Posted on April 3, 2024April 4, 2024 by Migrant Tales

The Eastern Finnish cities of Joensuu, Imatra and Lappeenranta are aiming to shut down Russian-language schools which has led to an intense debate about the future of such institutions. While some argue about economic factors and lack of demand for the closure of such schools, others point the finger at anti-Russian and anti-foreign sentiment.

Katja Marova, a local politician of Lappeenranta for the Left Alliance who has lived in Finland for 14 years, is concerned by the rising anti-Russian atmosphere in Finland.

Katja Marova speaking at a recent Aleksanteriliitto event.

“Of course, I am concerned about the [xenophobia] situation [in Finland],” she said. “What will our situation be [in the future] as a minority in Finland?”

Russian speakers, who number about 72,000, are by far the biggest language group in Finland after Finnish- and Swedish-speakers.

The war in Ukraine and the Finnish-Russian border crisis have not only fueled discrimination of Russians but have led to calls to question dual Finnish citizenship rights. President Aleksander Stubb, who recently visited Eatern Finland, did not mention once about the rising hostility against Finland’s Russian community.

President Stubb did, however, give his support for the so-called pushback law that would allow Finland to breach the human rights of asylum seekers.

A recent article published by Yle is a case in point on how some of the media writes about the Russian minority. For one, not one member of the Russian-speaking community is interviewed in the story. Marova said that there were mistakes in the reporting that Yle corrected.

“If the parents had not asked for the corrections, nothing would have happened,” she said. “The article gives the impression that Russian-language schools are not needed and are a waste of money, especially during these difficult economic times.”

Paco Diop on UN Anti-Racism Day

Posted on March 30, 2024March 31, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Writes Ahti Tolvanen, Migrant Tales board member: Paco Diop, a Senegalese Finnish kindergarten teacher who is running for Member of the European Parliament (Left Alliance), spoke at the demonstration in front of the Finnish Parliament on UN Anti-Racism Day March 21st organized by AFARS r.y. (Africans in Finland Against Racism ry).

“Dear listeners,

It’s time to talk about an important issue that deeply affects our values: human rights violations during the current Finnish government’s time.

If Finland was once known worldwide as a strong supporter of human rights, democracy, and equality, the current government has unfortunately weakened this reputation.

Lately, we have seen worrying trends that need our immediate attention and action.

The foreign policy of this government has been poor and dangerous for Finland from the start, even though they selfishly and falsely claim otherwise.

We know who represents Finland at the UN and in foreign policy arenas, and they have betrayed the trust of the Finnish people and those living in Finland.

It’s shameful that Finland has chosen to abstain in situations that require a clear stance, like the severe actions in Gaza by Israel or issues related to the criminalization of Islamophobia.

This raises questions:

Is this government supporting genocide? The answer is yes.

Is our current government against Islamophobia? The answer is no.

Friends, personally, I have not seen any real action that shows the government’s opposition to genocide, Islamophobia, racism, or any other discrimination.

Instead, this government has only strengthened its support for the far-right and Zionist political agenda. The government has not taken actions against racism in this country.

The Finnish media and its stenography journalism on writing about migrants and asylum seekers

Posted on March 30, 2024April 1, 2024 by Migrant Tales

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

Malcolm X

Day in and day out I see nothing more these days than hostile and negative news about migrants, especially asylum seekers, who are wrongly called “illegal” migrants. These news stories appear a lot in Yle, the state-owned broadcaster.

Even positive news, like the call from church leaders of the Finnish evangelical Lthern Church, Catcholic Church, Orthodox Church and others called for a more humane migration policy.

The call was criticized by government representatives of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party. One of these, Joakim Wigelius of the PS, accused the church leaders of “left-wing policies” and for being “naive.”

A question: When did Yle publish something positive about migrants and asylum seekers? In Finland, xenophobia has poisoned perceptions to the extent that we are ready to ditch our human rights and rule of law obligations to satisfy our racist and myopic world view.

Looking at how much xenophobia has overtaken Finland, it is easy to understand how this country went to bed with Nazi Germany in World War 2.

Today, at the Mikkelin Klubi of Mikkeli, you can still find a picture of Heinrich Himmler and Marshal Karl Mannerheim drinking a schnapps together.

While the picture may portray “history” for some, it does so without context and without reminding us of the crimes against humanity carried out by Himmler and the Nazi regime. Himmler is the very person that set up the death camps for the total annihilation of the Jews and other enemies.

Mannerheim and Himmler at the Mikkeli Klubi, which sees this picture as “history.”

The picture was one of the main reasons why I resigned my membership from the Mikkelin Klubi.