Finnish anti-immigration sound bites + near-silence of society = peril

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some soap operas are so sweet and melodramatic that they form cavities in your brain. In the same way, the message of anti-immigration and xenophobic parties is so outrageous that they leave a whole in your head.

 

Timo Soini and the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which became Finland’s third-largest parliamentary bloc in 2011, are appealing to voters on two crucial issues in next April’s elections: migration and development aid, which they claim are costing Finland 2.7 billion euros, according to the PS. 

While it’s not surprising that a party that promotes xenophobia and has its roots in far-right ideology is targeting migrants and development aid, what is a continuing mystery is how they arrived at such calculations.

The figures were given at a press conference on Friday where PS’ chairman Soini, party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and Matti Putkonen were present.

While there were other topics discussed at the press conference by the PS members, it is surprising that not one journalist asked how they arrived at such costs (1.5 billion euros for migration and 1.2 billion euros for development aid). The latter figures were given as a solution on how to cut Finland’s budget deficit and spur economic growth.

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Read full story here. Eastern European migrants in Britain added 5 billion pounds to the economy, according to another BBC story.

 

With such figures and with such a xenophobic message, the PS is back to its favorite political fix: scapegoating.

What remains unclear is how attacking and scapegoating migrants is going to actually help Finland raise itself from its present economic slump. Some economist claim that it would do just the opposite: deepen our economic woes.

Certainly it’s difficult for a party that still believes in Social Darwinism to see migration and cultural diversity in a positive light. If i would have been present at the press conference, I would have asked Soini or Slunga-Poutsalo to name one country where migration has failed and been costly.

Just like adding 1 + 1 = 2, it’s clear that migration fuels growth as this BBC article shows. There was also a recent study by the OECD that revealed that migration had boosted growth in 2011 by 0.16% including pensions.

So why is the PS saying that migration is a burden for Finland? While in a different historical context, their aim is no different to what the Nazis did in the 1920s. They saw great potential in capitalizing on racial anti-Semitism as a mass political force.

When the PS scapegoats migrants, development aid, the public sector, the Greens and environmental policy, it not only shows its anti-Keynes side, but its similarity to parties like the ultra-conservative Tea Party as well as Thatcherism and Reaganomics.

John Maynard Keynes, who was one of the most influential economists in the past and even the present century, believed that during economic slumps it was the government that should step in and restore confidence in markets even if it meant increasing  budget deficits.  Austerity would only worsen matters.

It’s clear that the PS proposal to lower the cost of migration and development aid is meant for populist public consumption but also to help maintain a climate of suspicion and mistrust of  migrants and minorities. Certainly sensible Finns, who are the majority in this country, don’t want to follow the PS’s xenophobic path.

Finns and especially migrants and minorities should not stand idle in the face of such xenophobic sound bytes by parties like the PS but openly challenge them.

Certainly if we want to go down a ruinous path that will cause extreme hardships on Finland, the PS may be the party you are seeking to vote for in the April 2015 elections.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

 

 

Finnish NCP youth league gives thumbs down to cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember the proposals that the Youth League of the National Coalition Party (NCP) made last year concerning the type of society they’d like Finland to be in the future? Some of the many proposals that raised eyebrows and created quite a media storm back then included plans to scrap the Ombudsman for Minorities as well as ethnic agitation laws.

If last year’s proposals got them in hot water, their latest “wish list” could be criticized for what has been omitted or doesn’t say. For example, there is no mention whatsoever about Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity but it does favor plans to undermine religious freedom. If the youth league had its way, it would drop religion classes for migrants and concentrate more on teaching Finnish at schools.

Isn’t that what happens today?

 

Näyttökuva 2014-10-24 kello 11.17.38

Read full NCP youth league program (in Finnish) here.

 

It is odd that those that drafted these proposals believe that by not teaching a non-Lutheran religion at school will automatically enhance these migrants’ and minorities’ chances of speaking Finnish.

There’s nothing new in this proposal. Youth Wing NCP former head, Wille Rydman, said the same thing when he suggested that multiculturalism should be substituted for Finnish-language courses.

Another proposal by the youth league is to deport those migrants who have been sentenced for a crime and that the government should do everything possible to invite skilled labor to Finland.

What the Youth Wing of the NCP means by inviting skilled labor to this country is that labor markets should give employers better opportunities to hire cheap labor.

It shouldn’t come to any surprise that the Youth Wing of the NCP has striking ideological similarities with the Perussuomalaiset.*

Both are in the business of coercion and domination of migrants by encouraging future Uncle Toms, or mamus.

 

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

Nura Farah: A blooming flower with a pen that many aimed to destroy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is an interesting interview of Nura Farah, Finland’s first Somali-born writer, who speaks openly about growing up as a black person in this country from the 1990s, when even middle-school teachers took part in the racist bullying of non-white Finns.

Racist bullying and racism are white privilege weapons used by this society to destroy another person by wiping out his or her self-esteem.

Migrant Tales has published a number of stories about racist bullying at Finnish schools. While it’s clear that some Finnish teachers didn’t take part in this type of school vigilante behavior, those who did are a shame to our school system and society, especially those who remained silent.

One of the problems of the 1990s concerning racism and racist bullying was that it wasn’t even seen as a problem at schools. If it occurred, it was given low priority by the teacher, school and society.

A story by YLE (in Finnish) tells about how hostile this society was to some non-white Finns and migrants during the 1990s, when our migrant population started to grow rapidly.

Racist bullying doesn’t end after you leave the school but can continue in the town where the victim grew up. And why shouldn’t racist bullying continue to be a problem at our schools and society? Aren’t National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma and Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Tom Packalén unfortunate recent examples of this type of behavior?

It should be made clear that racism and racist bullying at school are hostile acts that aim to destroy the victim’s self-esteem and shatter him or her into tiny pieces. You’re not supposed to ever pick up those pieces of your shattered self.

But you can be defiant and strong and do something bold like accepting yourself.

This is what Farah did when she was 20.

 

Näyttökuva 2014-10-21 kello 8.21.18

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

 

Farah’s family moved to the eastern Helsinki neighborhood of Kontula in the 1990s. She was 13 years old.

According to her, racism in the 1990s was terrible. Even some middle-school teachers took part in the bullying using the n-word freely and even asking in class why don’t Somalis go back to where they came from.

Somalia has been gripped by a terrible civil war since 1991, when then de facto President Siad Barre was toppled and fled the country.

Another very important message that Farah gives is that children born in Finland, irrespective if they come from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds,  shouldn’t be made to feel like outsiders. She said that the most important matter for third-culture children is to learn the language well and to get involved.

One important step in the latter direction is, in my opinion, to stop using terms like ‘pupil with migrant background,’ or maahanmuuttajataustainen,  to label non-white or third-culture students at school. In today’s strong anti-Otherness context, such labels have a tendency to remind the pupil that he or she is an outsider.

It’s clear that with writers like Farah we’re taking those first important steps in ensuring that our children and grandchildren don’t get treated in the same way as some of us did at school.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

Migrants’ Rights Network: Eurosceptics make all the noise, but the real case for free movement and migration has yet to be made

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Don Flynn*

David Cameron’s vow last week to have ‘one last go’ at changing EU migration rules have dominated discussion in recent days. Commission president Manuel Jose Barroso’s comments are welcome, but the positive case for free movement needs to be made by principled politicians as well as EU officials.

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Read full posting here.

 

The crisis on the centre-right of UK politics, provoked by the rise of Nigel Farage’s UKIP, ratcheted up another notch last week. David Cameron pledged to have ‘one last go’ at limiting the right of citizens to free movement within the EU.

Mr Cameron made the promise during a visit to Kent, where local politics is gearing itself for a by-election in the Rochester and Strood constituency next month.  The contest was triggered by the defection of Tory MP Mark Reckless to UKIP at the beginning of October.

The exact demand the prime minister is putting together on EU migration is not yet known, though there has been speculation that it might comprise a new numerical limit affecting the numbers of EU nationals allowed to stay and work in the UK.  According to the Sunday Times, Cameron is planning to achieve this by withholding the issue of national insurance numbers to EU immigrants with low skills.

This turn of events seems to have excited hard-line Eurosceptics in all parties. One prominent politician, who happens to be the coalition Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, interpreted the PM’s words as‘lighting a fire’ under the EU.  UKIP leader Nigel Farage declared the promise to bring down migration to be ‘vacuous’, arguing that this could never be done whilst the UK remains a part of the EU.

Mr Cameron faces a real problem here. He now needs to curtail the insurgency on the right wing of his party, whilst coming up with a more realistic list of demands for EU reform.

Jose Manuel Barroso

In the past the outgoing president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has enjoyed a degree of support amongst prominent European leaders and officials for some reform of free movement rules.  Back in May 2011, he was prepared to consider a power to allow EU free movement to be temporarily suspended in emergencies. However, his willingness to consider changes of this sort seems to have sapped away in recent months.

During his current visit to the UK, Barroso has signalled his frustration with the direction of travel within the Conservative party. In the past considered a strong anglophile, Barroso has made it clear that limiting the rights of EU nationals to seek work in the UK would directly contravene basic EU laws.

Speaking on the BBC Andrew Marr Show on Sunday Barroso said, “I cannot comment on specific suggestions that have not yet been presented. What I can tell you is that any kind of arbitrary cap seems to be not in conformity with Europeans laws. For us it is very important – the principle of non-discrimination.”

Already there are signs that Mr Cameron’s plans have been thrown into disarray by Barroso’s comments.  The Conservative party had previously indicated that we could expect a major speech by the PM before Christmas, which would lay out his proposed EU migration reforms. However, the party is now briefing that this may not take place and that Cameron’s pitch to EU government for reforms could be kept under wraps for the time being.

Case for migration

Political games of this sort will have consequences for migrant communities across the UK.  Though it seems clear that freedom of movement is continuing to aid a tentative and fragile recovery from the recession without hampering the employment prospects of native workers, the government has still not worked out how to translate this into a ‘feel good’ factor for voters about EU migration.

Whilst the Conservative party leadership’s proposals remain unclear, we can expect Eurosceptic camps across the parties will continue to ramp up their anti-immigration rhetoric in the run-up to the next election. But beyond the centre right, no other significant players within mainstream politics seem to be making the case for EU free movement rights.

There are plenty of arguments to be made here. Both economic pragmatism and political principle suggest that migration from the EU is beneficial and ought to command the support of at least a significant proportion of voters.

The best that can be hoped for from the current situation is that it might finally provoke a reaction from those who support EU free movement. We are long overdue hearing from politicians across all the parties who have properly examined the facts on immigration and who know that it plays a critically role in the UK.  Will they at last come up with a principled defence of the right of people coming to the country to work and contribute?

If so, we expect they will offer up messages that will quickly be taken up and amplified by organisations, interest groups and individual citizens who know that immigration is an essential component of life in the modern world – these perspectives could yet win the day when it comes to voting in the general election in May 2015.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

*Don Flynn, the MRN Director, leads the organisation’s strategic development and coordinates MRN’s policy and project work. He is a regular and sought-after speaker at conferences, seminars and lectures on behalf of MRN.

Turning a blind eye to racism is feeding Finland to the dogs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Do you want the secret to tame dog, destroy anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and challenge the deep prejudices in other political parties and society? The answer is to bust wide open the urban tales that are living off the fat of our prejudices. 

Apart from being illegal, a social ill like racism is destroying the future of Finland today. Ever since the 1970s, when Finland decided not to pursue an active immigration policy to invite skilled laborers to the country since so many Finns had emigrated to Sweden, we’ve been on denial mode for a very long time.

strange-days-dog

 

From Strange Days (1984). Cartoon by Rabbah Boussira.

 

We have denied for decades that we don’t need migrants in Finland because we are obsessed with self-reliance and our prejudices that feed that latter. We are suspicious of cultural diversity because we’ve been wrongly taught that the only Finn is a white Finn.

We need racism and social exclusion in this country like a hole in the head. The best we can do in the face of these challenges is to show our suspicion, even hostility, towards migrants and especially asylum seekers.

Allowing our prejudices to get the best of us is creating a society that lives in moral compromise with its own values.

Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987), one of the founders of Sweden’s Nordic welfare state authored The American Dilemma, a book that looked at how much in conflict Jim Crow laws of the 1940s were with their country’s Enlightenment ideals enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

He writes:

Thus, the very fact that there is economic discrimination constitutes an added motive for every individual white group to maintain such discriminatory practices. Discrimination breeds discrimination.

In the same way, our prejudice and social exclusion of migrants and ethnic minorities in Finland through institutionalized racism, and the simple solutions given by anti-immigration groups to latter social ills, feed the prejudices of white Finns about non-white Finns.

Pekka Myrsklä claims that about 60% of migrants in this country live in poverty. Why aren’t we discussing this problem, which should definitely include a social issue like ever-growing poverty in Finland?

Urban tales, and those who put forth simple remedies for complex problems, run so deep in this society that we should be especially concerned about how gullible we are. Our prejudices have made us so unsuspecting that we can be told almost any wise tale about migrants and minorities and we’ll believe them to be true.

Politicians like Tom Packalén, Pia Kauma, Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and a very long list of others are good examples of the latter. They have made a name for themselves with this formula: urban tales + our ignorance = political career and/or job.

One way of challenging urban tales is questioning those who spread them and, most importantly, tell them in a civil manner: I disagree. Let’s talk about this.

Why is it important to challenge social ills like intolerance, which feed our prejudices?

Because we don’t want to see Finland fed to the dogs those who would care less about this country.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

Finnish appeals court upholds earlier anti-Semitic court ruling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An appeals court has upheld a Ylivieska-Raahe court ethnic agitation ruling Friday against Juha Kärkkäinen for publishing anti-Semitic opinion pieces on Magneettimedia, reports YLE. Kärkkäinen was fined last fall 45,000 euros for publishing anti-Semitic writings of Adrian Salbuch, Ted Pike, David Duke and others as well as cartoons that bear a striking resemblance to the former Nazi tabloid, Der Strümer (1923-45).

Apart from the anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi and xenophobic opinion pieces and articles published by Magneettimedia, one of the witnesses that Kärkkäinen brought to court to speak in his defense is the leader and website editor of the the neo-Nazi association, Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta, according to Oulu-based Kaleva.

Kärkkäinen is owner of a company that bares his name and which is based in Ylivieska. He owns shopping center in the cities of Lahti and Oulu.

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Magneettimedia is rife with anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Nazi glorification.

 

The Kärkkäinen case raises a lot of disturbing questions about anti-Semitism in Finland. For one, it casts a strange light on Islamophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and Muutos 2011, which claim to be on Israel’s side but have not raised a whisper about Kärkkäinen and Magneettimedia’s anti-Semitic writings.

Muutos 2011 MP James Hirvisaari, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation and sacked from the PS after he posted on social media a picture he took a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, commonly speaks out against halal meat used by Muslims but never speaks of banning kosher meat used by Jews.

The appeals court ruling requires Magneettimedia to take down its anti-Semitic writings but the publication is defiant, pledging to continue the same editorial line without specifying what this means.

In September, the city of Ylivieska awarded Kärkkäinen the Pro Ylivieska distinction, which is given to a person or association that has distinguished himself or herself in the community and nationally.

In September an Ylivieska official who spoke to Migrant Tales said that the award had nothing to do with his opinions. “What he thinks [about Jews] is his personal opinion and we have nothing to do with that,” the official said.

A news story by the Finnish News Agency (STT) that appeared in Mikkeli-based daily Länsi-Savo Saturday interviewed the chairman of the Ylivieska city council, Juha Pylväs, who didn’t see any problems with awarding Kärkkäinen the Pro Ylivieksa distinction.

When asked if the city has got feedback as a result of the award given to Kärkkäinen, Pylväs said that they had got a lot of positive feedback since it was given to a person who had helped develop the city.

Pylväs admits that there was “some criticism” but feedback has been mostly positive.

See also:

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

 

Missä luuraavat kansanedustajat Kauma ja Packalén?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Olen kärsivällisesti odottanut kaksi vahvistusta: kansanedustajan Pia Kauman väite, että maahanmuuttaja naiset ostavat uusia lastenvaunuja sossun rahoilla ja kansanedustaja Tom Packalénin väite, että vain maahanmuuttaja jengit hyökkäävät kantasuomalaisia vastaan ja heidän motiivi on rasistinen, koska he haluavat vahingoittaa valkoisia suomalaisia.  

apujallu

Missä luraa vastaukset? Lahde: www.apu.fi

 

Molempien väite yhdistä vahvasti ”me” vastaan ”he”.

Miksi Kauma on niin hiljaa?

Miksi Packalén vaikene lähteistä?

Vastaus on selvää: molemmat ovat keksineet väitteet ja ”ongelmat?”

Miten tämä on mahdollista?

Poliitikot osaavat ratsastaa omien ja ihmisten ennakkoluulijalla ja rasismilla.

Näin on elämää ollut Suomessa valitettavasti pitkään.

The PS of Finland: When a morally bankrupt party crosses the line

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Tom Packalén case is not only a reminder of what Finland can expect if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* ever get into government, there is the real threat that we are in danger of forfeiting our successful Nordic welfare state for populism, nativist nationalism and xenophobia. In the face of this threat, it is the near-silence of our society in the face of this threat is a cause for serious concern. 

Where are the moral leaders of this country? The politicians? The Media? Why is President Sauli Niinistö so quiet? And what about the church, the artists and celebrities?

How many editorials have been written by Helsingin Sanomat or other dailies about the Packalén case, where he treats a social problem like youth gangs and marginalization as the “ripening fruits” of immigration policy? That his clarion call has encouraged street patrols by neo-Nazi groups and members of his party?

Why isn’t their outrage in the media about a statement by PS MP Olli Immonen, who warned that “if officials don’t have the will or resources to protect the security of its citizens,” Suomen Sisu will take matters into its hands?

The complacency of the politicians and the media must hinge on the general perception that populism and racism are given the benefit of doubt in this country.

Not taking a stand against a politician who labels whole vulnerable groups, in this case marginalized Finns and Finnish minority youths, is the crux of the problem. The same silence we are witnessing today by the complacent media is what permitted the PS to become the third-largest party in parliament in the 2011 elections.

It’s clear that when an MP from an anti-EU, anti-immigration and homophobic party like the PS mixes immigration policy and marginalized youth you are going to have an explosive brew. The exact purpose of Packalén’s blog was just that: to arouse and fuel suspicion of Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society.

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Despite what PS MP Tom Packalén claimed, the police said that there aren’t street gangs in Helsinki and there aren’t street gangs that are causing a crime wave. Read full story in Finnish here.

The PS is today a morally bankrupt party that has nothing to offer to Finland except for a polarized society, anti-immigration, nativist nationalistic and xenophobic rhetoric. For some white Finns this may be difficult to comprehend, but for migrants and other minorities the message is clear: the PS is a hostile and dangerous party to them.

The irony of the ongoing one-sided debate on our ever-growing cultural diversity is that the “ripening fruits” of the PS and anti-immigration sentiment are creating the problems that such parties warn us of. Social exclusion is costly to taxpayers.

Considering that about 60% of migrants live in poverty in this country speaks volumes about how we are not dealing with the issue. We are not tackling these problems because it is in the interest of parties like the PS to turn them into worse problems. It’s the way they get votes and forms part of a general scheme to keep Finland white.

Building a Finland based on social inequality, social exclusion and prejudice will end up destroying the very successful society we built after World War 2.

It took Finland about 27 years of bitter strife and devastation in the form of civil war, the rise of fascism in the 1930s and three terrible wars (Winter War, Continuation War and the Lapland War against Nazi German) to finally get it right and build a society based on our Nordic welfare state values like social equality, education and equal opportunity.

The undeclared “war” against our culturally diversity by parties like the PS resembles that Finland before 1945.

The PS is a morally bankrupt party because they have nothing to offer to this country except a ruinous recipe for failure.

 

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

PS MP of Finland ready to patrol streets and take law into his own hands

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Remember what people said when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* won their historic election victory in 2011? ”Nothing is going to happen you’ll see…they’ll soon implode like the Rural Party did in the 1970s…” some said playing down the whole matter. After almost four years, the PS continues to polarize society by instilling fear and fueling racism but has now opened a new terrifying chapter in its strategy to gain power: mob rule. 

PS MP Tom Packalén, who falsely claimed on a blog entry that only migrant youth gangs in East Helsinki attack white Finns, has unleashed the darkest and most racist side of Finland.  Not only are MP Pakclaén’s claims false, they have been disproven by the police.

And let’s not forget the publication, Uusi Suomi, where MP Packalén’s blog entry and many others by the PS have been published. They are just as responsible as the PS for spreading racism in Finland.

In this latest bout of xenophobia in Finland, it’s the silence of the political parties and the media that doesn’t surprises us once again.

Making racist claims and victimizing migrants and minorities has become such a “normal” activity in this country that not even the PS leadership cares what some of their members say or will do.

Valkoinen valta-2_edited-1

The aim of parties like the PS and far-right associations like Suomen Sisu is to keep Finland white like the graffiti above that reads “white power.”

 

Suomen Sisu is a far-right association chaired by PS MP Olli Immonen whose aim is to keep Finland white. In a statement, Immonen warned that “if officials don’t have the will or resources to protect the security of its citizens,” Suomen Sisu will take matters into its hands.

Yes, no translation mistake since what you read is correct. A PS MP, a lawmaker, of a far-right association is ready to patrol Helsinki’s streets against real or imagined youth gangs.

While the PS has always shown its ugly and hostile side to migrants and minorities, the suggestion by one of its MPs to patrol streets with others like neo-Nazi Kansallinen Vastarinta and other PS members, which MP Packalén’s blog entry has encouraged, is totally unacceptable in a democracy such as Finland and should be condemned.

The blog entry by MP Packalén shows the desperate state of the party, which needs a big boost to come close to their 2011 election victory since the last three elections have been disappointing.

Finland needs the PS, the silence of other parties and a media that is blind because it is white like a hole in the head. The lack of leadership that we are witnessing today in the face of such racism and hostility is shameful.

Far-right and nationalistic parties in Finland, as is Europe, have become a grave threat to democracy and to the right of minorities to live in peace. It’s clear that matters will get worse as these parties, like the PS, get more power since the scapegoating won’t stop but get worse. Such intolerance has the danger of destroying our society.

We must do everything to stop the menace that is placing Finland in harm’s way and that danger is the PS and our shameful silence.

Leadership is needed more than ever now.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.Thank you Pia Grochowski for the heads up! 

Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just like his colleague Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, MP Tom Packalén is another good example of white Finnish privilege. His example is in the same questionable league as National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma, who falsely accused migrant mothers of buying new baby carriages with social aid while Finnish mothers buy used ones. 

If you are a white Finn, an MP of an anti-immigration party like the PS and a former policeman, you have in Finland a lot of clout to say almost anything you want about migrants and minorities and put them in harm’s way, even if what you say is outright sinister because it promotes hatred and suspicion of other groups.

Packalén debated today with Marian Abdulkarim on Helsinki Radio. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen somebody in this country ask the right questions. The PS MP was on the defensive with Abdulkarim because he was forced to stay on the topic.

Some of the things that white Finnish privilege permits you to say is a ludicrous statement like ‘we’re not allowed to debate this topic,’ which Packalén has been doing all along as well as a long list of other anti-immigration politicians.

Here’s what Packalén wrote on his blog on Uusi Suomi : He claimed that a youth gang made up of only migrants is terrorizing East Helsinki and that one of its members said that their motive for hurting white Finns is racist.

The police has denied what Packalén claimed and have assured residents that there is no crime wave in East Helsinki.

Another ludicrous statement by the PS MP is that these youth gang member are the “ripening fruits” of our failed immigration and integration policy.

If Packalén had his way, he’d change our “failed” immigration and integration policy in such a way that it would be harder for asylum seekers and non-Europeans to come to Finland. Why? Because the PS and Packalén loath cultural diversity. They want to keep Finland white.

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Listen to radio program (in Finnish) here.

 

Packalén, like too many members of his party, aren’t only blinded by their white nationalism but by their ignorance about immigration.

Their claim that immigration and integration policy have failed is a myth they like to spread like most of the things they say and claim.

Näyttökuva 2014-10-14 kello 1.35.37

This comment on Packalén’s Facebook wall gives an idea of how the PS MP has invigorated and fueled racist comments. This one by Carl Bauer, who compares blacks, which he calls the n-word, to half-monkeys hang on trees with their genitals. No racism in Finland? Think twice. And while you think about this type of blatant racism, ask why a PS MP allows it to happen on his Facebook page.  Thank you Sakari Timonen for the heads-up.

 

Certainly there are many things that could be improved in our immigration and integration policy, but not in the way that the PS wants.

If Abdulkarim gave Packalén a lesson on what racism is, I would tell him about Finnish emigration between 1860 and 1999, when over 1.2 million Finns left this country.

The Finns that moved to other countries founded associations, newspapers and were proud of their Finnish background and roots. In Argentina, where I have studied Finnish colonization for many years,  the Finns founded a colony in the middle of the subtropical jungle in order to live amongst themselves.

Packalén can refresh his memory as well about section 17 of our Constitution, which gives us rights to our language and culture.

Definition #12

White Finnish privilege means in the case of PS MP Packalén that I can make up stories about migrants  and put them in harm’s way.

Even if tabloids are writing sensationalist stories about youth gangs, spread fear and even get neo-Nazis to patrol streets, I’m not accountable for what I said.

See also:

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.