Migrant tales - Page 339 of 536

Remiel: Is Finland suffering from an identity crisis?

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Migrant Tales

By Remiel*

Since social media is out there today and everybody is connecting with everybody all over the world, is Finland afraid of losing its identity to other cultures? Is this why there is so much hatred and prejudice towards immigrants in this country?

Remiel asks if Finland is suffering from an identity crisis. Is this the reason why there is so much racism in Finland?

I remember when I lived in a neighborhood of Helsinki. My immigrant friends’ apartment kept getting harassed by thugs, who sprayed on the door swastikas and the n-word. They even yelled at him when he was going back home from school.

I have to say there’s no future in a welfare country where the government is giving its inhabitants cash that people don’t appreciate. The whole situation feeds low self-esteem. If you have a child you’re not going to give him or her candy everyday, right?

Finland is suffering from a new economic crisis in 2014 and we’re going to be 90 billion euros in debt. This is easy money, it’s lent money. When I was younger, I was taught that I had to earn money if I wanted to have it. In my opinion this is still true. Finland needs change but who’s going to save you from yourself?

Nokia went down and Finland needs urgently an atmosphere and culture that supports entrepreneurs. The “candy” money and good education we get for free, and which pampered my generation, isn’t going to do it.

Back in the days when I grew up in the 1990s, people in Finland had principles back then. Our youth doesn’t have any or the courage. This country needs actions not words if it wants save itself from its economic crisis and ever-growing debt. People need to start to change.

We Finnish citizens need to change as well. As citizens we need to be united and we can start from our apartment building where we live. In Finland, there is a culture of code of silence and too much reminiscing of the past. We don’t talk openly many times about the underlying issues.

Finland as a beautiful nation, which rose up from practically nothing after World War 2 and still managed to pay their debt to the United States before that, didn’t lose back then its independence even if we lent money from abroad.

We shouldn’t forget this important lesson and where you came from. You people begin to appreciate your past and your marvelous unique history for what is and what made you who you are today.

As a nation, we need to stop dwelling on those past scars and show the world what we’re made of. Rising from the poorest countries in Europe to one of the best in Europe with the best educational system is quite a feat.

I personally don’t know of any country that can beat that.

* Remiel is a Finnish citizen with an immigrant background. He needs to write anonymously because, according to him, there is discrimination in Finland.

Jussi Halla-aho: Of human value

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: We get a lot of email and tip-offs from our readers. The latest one we got is of three blog entry translations in English of Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who was convicted for ethnic agitation. This first one, Of human value, was published in Scripta on April 13, 2005.

Apart from understanding how racism in Finland thrives and which arguments are used to spread hatred of other groups, one matter is clear from all three writings: They are repulsive and we apologize if anyone is offended by them. The writings have nothing to do with a PhD’s critical thinking; they are simply urban tales and prejudices that have been piled high and deep.

Another important aspect that we must acknowledge about these writings is that they are hostile towards migrants and intended for gullible Finns. They are hateful writings that fuel prejudice, which in turn fuels social exclusion.

Acceptance of these two anti-immigration parties this week in the ECR with “MEPs with criminal records,” proves that shoplifting is a worse offense for a politician today than being sentenced for ethnic agitation. It sadly exposes as well why racism has grown in Europe and why mainstream politicians and the media have helped fuel such intolerance.

Our only motive for publishing these blog entries is so that other Europeans who don’t speak Finnish can read what kind of a politician Halla-aho is.

For more insight into the PS, take a look Far-right and anti-immigration quotes in English by the PS.

Migrant Tales will publish Sunday France the football giant (2006) and on Monday, Do not tolerate the intolerant one (2007).

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). 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.

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An axiom is a claim that is so obviously true that it doesn’t need to be backed up. It’s probably axiomatical (pun intended), that when granting a claim the status of an axiom, we should be especially careful. The claim should preferably be such, that it can be proven to be and have been true everywhere and always.

One of our modern axioms is that all people share a human value, and said human value is of equal size for every person. Even the worst racists and anti-egalitarians try to fit the human value axiom into their own theoretical formulas. Denial of the axiom is altogether politically incorrect.

If we claim that everyone is of equal worth, we also claim that we know the value of a human being and that it can be measured. If it cannot be measured, we cannot prove how much each individual has it. Human value can’t be anything that comes from outside us (from Heaven), or at least it can’t be proven as such, because it’s not written in the stars, waters or rocks. Actually, nothing points to equal human value (or human value in general) being anything else but a convention and a statement typical for our age, like past axioms: ”The Sun revolves around the Earth” ”The Pope is infallible”, ”A woman has no soul”, or ”Masturbation leads to near-sightedness”. They used to be believed in as blindly as human equality is believed in now. There’s been as much measurable evidence to support them as there is for human equality. Because they couldn’t be proven, they were declared axioms that didn’t have to be proven.

The only human value that can be measured and therefore exists beyond all doubt is the instrumental value of an individual. Individuals can be set to a hierarchy based how much the community would weaken were their abilities and functions removed. A farmer, a breeder of edible animals and a construction engineer are more valuable than others, because without them the community would die of starvation and cold. On the other hand, they would survive even if everyone else were removed. An individual using a weapon is the next most valuable member of society, because he protects the food supply and houses from beasts and enemies and keeps community members from responding to their primitive urges and annihilating each other.

An artesan (and his modern variations) is valuable in the sense that his products and inventions make life easier for everyone hierarchically above and below him. Natural scientists (especially physicists and chemists) are valuable, because they produce knowledge, which both the artesan, soldier, construction engineer and food producer put into practice. It’s possible to survive without basic research, but it’s uncomfortable. A doctor is valuable, because he makes our lives last longer and increases our quality of life. Necessary he of course isn’t, because the large majority of people would survive to breeding age without him. Breeding is the primary function of all species that everything else leads to.

The people listed above pretty much materially produce the society in which we live. These professions make free time and the existential thoughts that follow it possible, which includes most of astronomical and even more so all humanistic sciences. They separate us from monkeys, but are in no way necessary. Although it has to be said, that behavioral sciences have perhaps made us less likely to kill each other. Then again, wartime increases cohesion within groups and almost always leads to technological breakthroughs.

Artists, priests and politicians are basically worthless. Any community would perform its functions well enough without them, and everything that they do is possible only because of the actions of others. Artists especially are plagued by bitterness towards science, but no painting would be painted without the chemical industry, which is natural science in effect. The meaninglessness of these professions to the rest of the community is manifested by them surviving on alms and handouts alone (which are called state grants).

Intelligence, when it is not used for something necessary, is of subjective value, but a few will deny that reading a good book or listening to someone talking sense stimulates the intellect and puts you in a good mood. I consider it absolutely bizarre and insulting to think that Esko Valtaoja wouldn’t be more valuable than Juha Valjakkala, Helena Lindgren or an immigrant leaning on a wall at the Helsinki railway station.

Based on what I’ve said above and until someone explains me proper how come everyone is of equal worth, I am of the opinion that difference means difference of worth and everyone is of unequal value. However, unlike egalitarians imagine, unequal value doesn’t lead to gassing of those of lesser worth, unless there is no other valid reason for said gassing. I consider myself more valuable than a mouse carcass lying on a forest path, but I won’t tear the carcass to pieces because of that. I enjoy the world more with art and linguistic studies in it (I’m not all that certain about religions and the Parliament). But if the boat starts leaking, I consider it clear that the less valuable cargo goes overboard first, in this case artists and linguists.

Egalitarian nonsense is brought about by having too many people with enormous energy but nothing sensible to do. Karmela Liebkind, Rosa Meriläinen and Mikko Puumalainen as Finnish examples. Like people from any era, we are also blind to ourselves and our thoughts being just a momentary flash, soon to disappear in the endless tide of time. Upcoming generations will spit on our graves and guffaw and fart at what we consider meaningful. There is no reason to believe that ”equality”, ”tolerance”, and other things important to us will end up in the long list of nonsense from a bygone world. Alongside the Sun revolving around the Earth, infallibility of the Pope, the soullessness of a woman and near-sightedness as a result of masturbation.

The PS of Finland makes its post-election debut in the European media with labels like “xenophobic,” “far right” and “MEPs with criminal records”

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Migrant Tales

It has been quite a rough two weeks for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party after the May 25 EU parliamentary elections: accusations of being far-right in the company of neo-Nazi parties like the Golden Dawn of Greece; and speculation by a senior Finnish official in the Financial Times that it was unlikely that the PS would join the European Conservatives and Reformists group of the European parliament because the party is xenophobic.

To add to the PS’ image problem, the Financial Times headlined the following story on Wednesday: “MEPs with criminal records join Tories’ euroceptic group.”

The two MEPs with criminal records are PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho and Morten Messerschmidt of the Danish People’s Party, who was convicted in 2002 for claiming that cultural diversity was linked to rape, violence and forced marriages.

The membership of the PS and DPP in the ECR reveals that UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his fellow conservative apparently consider shoplifting a worst crime to have on your political record than ethnic agitation.

Certainly the PS, which has tried its hardest to change its anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam image, wasn’t too happy about what the foreign media wrote and launched on Friday a witch-hunt to find the anonymous senior official that was quoted on the Financial Times.

PS party secretary, Riikka Slunga-Pitsalo, gave an ultimatum in a statement: “We expect an answer and clarification [from the ministry for foreign affairs] by Monday. We’ll consider what steps will take after that. The smear campaign of Finland’s third-largest party by the foreign media must end.”

Intended for mass consumption and portray the party once again as being unfairly victimized by the media, it’s clear that the anonymous source that the PS wants to lynch in public will never be uncovered.

Another interesting matter to watch after the EU elections is whether Marine Le Pen’s National Front will succeed in forming a new group in the European parliament. For that, the National Front needs at least 25 MEPs from 7 countries.

Members of the far right are, however, optimistic that they’ll succeed at forming a new far right anti-EU group, the European Alliance for Freedom.

“We hope to get more than seven member parties,” a source was quoted anonymously by EurActive.com. “This would reduce the pressure, for instance, if one party leaves. We’re soliciting the same MEPs or parties as the Europe for Freedom and Democracy [EFD] and even the European Conservatives and Reformists group.”

Another interesting group to watch from the anti-immigration and anti-EU perspective is if UKIP can get enough members to form the EFD.

The former home of the PS, the EFD, looks like a sinking ship with former members defecting to the ECR or EAF camp. Read full story here.

Even if the PS has tried to make itself appear more “mainstream” by toning down its anti-immigration rhetoric, voters should not forget that it was anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam rhetoric that the party used shamelessly to lure voters.

We don’t have to waste our time accusing individual politicians of being racists. What should be done is never to forget the racist comments they’ve made in the past. That is evidence that will follow and haunt them throughout their lives.

Another matter we shouldn’t forget is that the PS can, like the UKIP did in the EU elections, metamorphose into a ever-hostile anti-immigration party. Considering their ability to ditch their campaign promises depending on the political winds that are blowing at the time, it would be wishful thinking to believe that the party wouldn’t ratchet its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric to secure votes.

In my opinion, it is the disgraceful political record and the PS’ chicanery that has estranged many voters from politics.

The PS of Finland launches witch-hunt against the anonymous senior official who said it was a xenophobic party

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have launched a witch-hunt against an anonymous senior official who said on the Financial Times that it was unlikely that the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group would want to team up with the PS because it is a”xenophobic and backward-looking 1980s nostalgia [party].”

Said the senior official: “I find it very difficult to believe that [David] Cameron’s Conservatives, with whom we work closely to promote innovative, open and competitive societies, would team up with the True Finns whose rise to large extent is on xenophobia and backward-looking 1980s nostalgia.”

PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo expressed rage in a statement for what the senior official said.

“We expect an answer and clarification [from the ministry for foreign affairs] by Monday. We’ll consider what steps will take after that. The smear campaign of Finland’s third-largest party by the foreign media must end.”

Minister for foreign affairs, Erkki Tuomioja, questioned on YLE if the senior official that was quoted by the Financial Times even worked at the ministry.

While the media has the right to quote anonymous officials, plans to find such a source by the PS reveals how little respect and ignorance of the party for press freedom and how the media works.

Read full statement (in Finnish) here.

One of the most incredible statements that Slunga-Poutsalo makes in the statement is that the PS isn’t a far-right party but one that is center left.

Last week, the Huffington Post, news agency AFP, PolicyMic and others labelled the PS a far-right party in the company of neo-Nazi groups like Greece’s Golden Dawn and Jobbik of Hungary.

If the PS is center left, why did the PS team up with the ECR, which are pretty close to the Youth Wing of the National Coalition Party?

The Youth League of the National Coalition Party made 150 proposals last year that, if implemented, would turn Finland into a U.S.-modeled country where money is king. Some of the proposals made by the group are racist and xenophobic and in line with the most far right representatives of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party.

The youth wings of the PS and National Coalition Party have lobbied to demote the Swedish language to elective status in schools.

The political record and chicanery of the PS of Finland is what has estranged so many voters from politics

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Migrant Tales

While some are still scratching their heads about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* joining the European parliament’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group this week, it shows why so many voters have become estranged from politics.

Read full story here.

Before the historic 2011 parliamentary elections for the PS, when 39 of its MPs got elected from 5MPs previously, the party had a solid anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam message.

It’s party leader, Timo Soini, watered down the PS’ stand on Europe recently by stating that he’s now against Finland leaving the EU. While its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric are still strong and lurking in the sidelines patiently waiting to stir voter emotions, its most outspoken enemies these days are homosexuals and gay marriage.

Hoping to become the biggest party in Finland after next year’s parliamentary elections, the PS has, however, tried to give a more moderate and mainstream image of itself. This is understandable considering that it wants to be a member of the next government and the disappointing showing of the party in the presidential, municipal and euro elections.

In all three elections, the PS hasn’t come even close to its 19.1% showing of 2011.

But after criticizing and riding the wave of voter discontent and mistrust of mainstream parties, the PS is trying to look more like them. Is this a good matter or is it another trick by the party to lure voters?

While at Migrant Tales we have spoken out repeatedly against the PS’ racism, provincialism and nativist nationalism, what is happening inside the party resembles the pigs in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

The last paragraph of Orwell’s book says it all with respect to the revolution at Manor Farm and what the PS did in 2011:

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Green Party politician Ozan Yanar asks a very valid question on his Facebook page. He states with evident dismay that here’s the “labor party without socialism” that has joined David Cameron’s conservatives in the European parliament. The absurdity of the situation is further highlighted by the fact that AKP, the political moderate voice of Islam in Turkey, joined the ECR [through the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists], according to him.

Moreover, the ECR is in favor of Turkey’s membership in the EU. PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who has declared war on Islam in the same way as the worst Islamophobes in Europe, is now a member of a political group that approves Turkey’s membership in the EU.

In anyone’s book a criminal record isn’t a good matter to have in your records. Even so, and in the conservative spirit, where social and economic inequality are acceptable because people aren’t equal, the membership of the PS and Danish People’s Party in the ECR proves that it’s politically worse getting arrested for shoplifting than ethnic agitation.

UK Prime Minister Cameron, the leader of the ECR, isn’t too bothered by racism and prejudice since it was his government that launched the “Go Home” campaign against undocumented immigrants and spread fear to Britons that the country will be overrun by swarms of Romanians and Bulgarians on January 1.

Cameron has been playing political catchup with dismal luck against his rival Nigel Farage of the UKIP. If the UK prime minister would have taken the time to see what happened in Finland when mainstream political parties started to flirt with the anti-immigration message of the PS before the 2011 elections, he would have learned an important lesson: Don’t try to compete against xenophobic parties because you give legitimacy to them.

While the PS’ leader Timo Soini wants to show that his party is “normal” and “mainstream” these days, we should never forget what the party said and did to get where it is today.

In that message and in their actions is concentrated the poison that has estranged so many Europeans from politics.

* 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.

What does PS membership in the European Conservatives and Reformists group reveal about the Finnish populist party?

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Migrant Tales

One of the matters that one notices about the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is how it has metamorphosed and continues to do so. Even so, its stand on our social welfare state isn’t clear never mind what it thinks about EU membership, even if its leader, Timo Soini, now says that the party wants Finland to continue being a member of the EU. The party’s entry into the Europe of Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is highly revealing, since it reinforces what we’ve known a long time about the PS.

One matter it reveals is that the PS is an opportunistic party that doesn’t really have a clear stand on anything except that it polarizes instead of unites, speaks and stresses “us” and “them” in its rhetoric. Deep inside its reason for being hinges on anti-EU, anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam stands.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

A way to understand the PS stand on many issues is to check what the ECR stands for. Below are some of the principles that the European parliamentary group supports, according to Wikipedia:

Free enterprise, free and fair trade and competition, minimal regulation, lower taxation, and small government as the ultimate catalysts for individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
Freedom of the individual, more personal responsibility and greater democratic accountability.
Sustainable, clean energy supply with an emphasis on energy security.
The importance of the family as the bedrock of society.
The sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to EU federalism and a renewed respect for true subsidiarity.
The overriding value of the transatlantic security relationship in a revitalized NATO, and support for young democracies across Europe.
Effectively controlled immigration and an end to abuse of asylum procedures
Efficient and modern public services and sensitivity to the needs of both rural and urban communities.
An end to waste and excessive bureaucracy and a commitment to greater transparency and probity in the EU institutions and use of EU funds.
Respect and equitable treatment for all EU countries, new and old, large and small.

In many respects, the PS stand on many of these issues is similar to the Youth League of the National Coalition Party, which is in favor of “streamlining” the welfare state.

The youth wings of the PS and National Coalition Party have lobbied to demote the Swedish language to elective status in schools.

Financial Times: Finnish and Danish MEPs “with criminal records” join Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s group

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Migrant Tales

While some speculated that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and the Danish People’s Party (DPP), both with MEPs with criminal records, would be given the cold shoulder by UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, the opposite happened, writes the Financial Times.

The two MEPs with criminal records are PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho and DPP’s Morten Messerschmidt, who was convicted in 2002 for claiming that cultural diversity was linked to rape, violence and forced marriages.

Writes the Financial Times quoting Mats Persson of the Open Europe think-tank said:

This will raise the eyebrows of many in Europe who thought the Danish People’s party in particular wouldn’t pass the Tory party’s blush test…The good news for the Tories is that they’re on course to become the third largest party in the European Parliament. The risk however is that they drive reform-minded liberal parties straight into the arms of the big federalist block in the EP [European parliament].

PS chairman Timo Soini expressed satisfaction about being accepted into the ECR.

“Fifty-five MEPs have joined so far this group [ECR],” Soini was quoted as saying on YLE. “This group is in practice bigger than the Left and Green group [European United Left-Nordic Green Left].”

The PS and DPP used to belong to the Europe for Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, with far-right parties like the Slovak National Party, whose leader said that the best policy for dealing with the Roma is “a long whip in a small yard.”

With parties like the Lega Nord – formerly an EFD member – joining Marine Le Pen and the PS and DPP the ECR, the interesting matter to watch is if UKIP’s Nigel Farage will be able to get the seven parties and 27 MEPs are needed to form a group in the European parliament.

Read full story here.

Another interesting question to ask is why Cameron permitted two anti-immigration parties with MEPs with criminal records to join the ECR?

One answer is that Cameron and his fellow conservatives in the group don’t care too much if a politician has been sentenced for ethnic agitation or has issues with racism. Taking into account the Tories’ anti-immigration rhetoric that has grown recently due to the growth of the UKIP, this is nothing strange.

The PS’ entry into the ECR puts the party well into the conservative, populist and far-right camp.

Der Spiegel International interviews National Front leader Marine Le Pen

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Der Spiegel International published an interview with Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front. While her views on the EU and cultural diversity don’t surprise us, what she says should concern us. One matter shines through in Le Pen’s message: France must leave the EU and stop immigration to realize her greatness as a nation.

Read full interview here.

The same logic that Le Pen uses was used by many autocratic nations like Nazi Germany, which blamed the Jews and other minorities that lived in the country for keeping Germans from becoming the “super race.”

While in a different context, Le Pen is basically saying the same thing: France has been destroyed by the EU, immigration and minorities.

One has only to look at Berlin in April-May 1945 to understand the destruction and terror that the Nazi regime brought on Europe came back like a boomerang to its doorsteps. In today’s world, you don’t build greatness with racism and nativist nationalism. You do it with global integration and values that promote cultural diversity through mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.

Some of her answers dodge the question completely, like the one when the reporter asks her about xenophobia. Her answer: “Xenophobia is the hatred of foreigners. I don’t hate anyone.”

If you read some of the statements she’s made against Muslims and migrants, we could easily argue the contrary. She’s no friend of Muslims, migrants and minorities like gays.

As you read the interview, pay special attention if she offers viable solutions to issues like unemployment, competitiveness and global-EU integration. What you’ll see is a lot of scapegoating without any credible solutions except for leave the EU and stop immigration to France.

It’s too bad that the reporter didn’t ask Le Pen what she’d do with the millions of migrants and visible minorities living in France. Would she make a similar promise like Geert Wilders did in spring, when the Dutch politician said he’d reduce the number of Moroccans in Holland?

Read full interview here.

Migrants’ Rights Network: Is a new Immigration Bill to be announced in the Queen’s Speech?

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: Events in the United Kingdom resemble a self-fulfilling prophesy for white English and an ever-worsening and ever-hostile place for migrants and visible minorities. The treatment and approach to immigration of Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is shameful. It reveals more cowardice than sound judgement.

The worst matter in the United Kingdom isn’t migration, but parties like the UKIP, Conservatives and Labor that feed the country’s self-fulfilling prophesy. Scapegoating is easier than sound leadership.

________________

Awale Olad*

The ‘hostile’ Immigration Act 2014 was indeed a flagship piece of legislation and we are, it seems, set to see a second tough immigration bill announced in the Queen’s Speech this coming Wednesday.

The first Immigration Bill, which became an act in May 2014 after a long battle with Conservative Backbenchers who believed it was not tough enough on EU migrants, introduced new measures that reduced the appeal rights for migrants, access to private housing, ability to access driving licenses and bank accounts, and new powers to strip the citizenships of migrants the Home Secretary deems unworthy of British citizenship.

Now, however, rumours are circulating that Iain Duncan Smith, the Work & Pensions Secretary, will team up with Home Secretary Theresa May, to introduce a short new bill that aims to respond to the United Kingdom Independence Party’s (UKIP) recent popularity in the European and Local Elections, where they topped the vote in the UK.

According to the Telegraph, the new measures in the bill will include extending powers on deportation and targeting EU nationals who are not employed, discouraging businesses from solely employing EU migrants, reducing the ability of unemployed EU migrants claiming benefits, and a new ‘wealth test’ that will ban migrants from new poorer EU accession states from entering the UK.

Theresa May is also set to lock horns with David Willetts, the Conservative universities minister, as further measures in the upcoming bill continue to drip out into mainstream media. May wants to stop international students reuniting with foreign spouses/partners in the UK, moreover, the Home Secretary will introduce greater sanctions on universities whose foreign students disappear, and allow for immigration officers to have greater access to universities who they suspect to have bogus students.

The last Immigration Bill was meant to be the most accelerated piece of legislation since the Coalition came to power in 2010. Starting its Commons stage in October 2013, the Bill was meant to receive Royal Assent by the beginning of this year but was slowed down by Nigel Mills’s amendment to stop Bulgarians and Romanians from entering the UK in 2014. The amendment received almost one hundred Tory backbench backers and stalled the legislation’s progress in parliament.

Given the scare UKIP delivered to the mainstream parties at last week’s local elections by campaigning primarily on the impacts of EU migration in the UK, a response from the Conservative Party would seem apposite. However, Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and their current election coordinator, has said that the Liberal Democrats will block the bill if it is not to their taste.

This new bill will certainly have EU leaders looking closely at the proposed measures although the government will be at pains to point out that the proposals are consistent with German legislation. The crucial obstacle for May and her colleagues is whether this bill meets the demands of despairing Tory backbenchers who are under threat from a UKIP surge.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

*Awale Olad is the Public & Parliamentary Affairs Officer at MRN, coordinating the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, supporting parliamentarians and policy makers on establishing a cross-party consensus on immigration policy.

Otavan Sanomat: Pakolaisena pienessä kunnassa

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Ali Hossein Mir Ali*

Minä olen kiintiöpakolainen. Olen afganistanilainen, mutta olen asunut Iranissa pakolaisena melkein koko ikäni. Tulin Suomeen ja Hirvensalmelle vähän yli kaksi vuotta sitten. Silloin oli keskitalvi, oli pimeää ja todella kylmää. Olihan se hurjan iso elämänmuutos.

Suomi on muiden EU-maiden tavoin sitoutunut ottamaan vastaan vuodessa 750 kiintiöpakolaista, jotka ovat joutuneet lähtemään kotimaastaan toiseen maahan mm. sodan takia. Vaikka Suomi on sitoutunut ottamaan vastaan 750 pakolaista, vuodesta 2003 lähtien näin ei ole toimittu. Tänä vuonna Suomi ottaa vastaan yli tuhat kiintiöpakolaisia, joista 500 tulee Syyriasta.

Asumme Hirvensalmen keskustassa. Se on pieni kylä, jossa tapahtuu aika vähän. Onneksi siellä on edes kauppa ja pankki. Ei tarvitse lähteä Mikkeliin joka asian takia. Ja sitten kotikylällä on nuorisotalo, jossa on tosi hyvä kuntosali. Meidän perheelle ja äidille on iso asia, että elämä on turvallista. Ei tarvitse pelätä, että joutuu lähtemään. Ja jos tulee kipeäksi, voi mennä terveyskeskukseen tai lääkärille

Yleinen uskomus on, että pakolaiset eivät viihdy pitkään pienillä paikkakunnilla ja muuttavat isompiin kaupunkeihin. Totta kai tätäkin tapahtuu, mutta se ei ole välttämättömyys. Kunnat tarvitsevat nuoria, maahanmuuttajat ovat siinä hyvä apu. Iso kysymys pikku kunnille on, miten saada nuoret jäämään kuntaan ja myöhemmin myös mukaan työelämään.

Uskon, että pienillä paikkakunnilla pakolaisten on helpompi kasvaa suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan kuin kaupungeissa. Myös yhteiskunnalle ja monikulttuuriselle Suomelle on parempi, että uudet suomalaiset asuvat koko maassa, eivätkä keskity vaikkapa Helsinkiin. Ei ole hyvä asia kenellekään, jos maahanmuuttajat tai vaikkapa suomalaiset eristäytyvät omiksi porukoikseen.

Yläsavolainen Sonkajärvi on hyvä esimerkki kunnasta, jossa pakolaiset on otettu hyvin vastaan. Paikallisessa Punaisen Ristin ensiapuryhmässä on mukana viisi afganistanilais-sonkajärveläistä. Ryhmä on mukana kunnan valmiussuunnitelmassa. Samoin siellä on alettu kehittäa omaishoitaja- ja ystävätoimintaa, jossa pakolaiset ovat muiden vapaaehtoisten kanssa mukana. Samanlaista vapaaehtoistyötä yhdessä pakolaisten kanssa kannattaisi kehittää myös muissa pikku kunnissa, joissa ei ole tarpeeksi työntekijöitä auttamaan vanhuksia.

Kielen oppiminen on tärkein taito, joka auttaa pääsemään mukaan suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan. Luulen, että suomen kielen oppiminen on nopeampaa pinessa kuin isossa kunnassa. Täällä on pakko puhua muidenkin kuin omakielisten kanssa. Mielestäni ennakkoluulot meitä pakolaisia kohtaan ovat Hirvensalmella vähentyneet. Toivon, että löytäisimme lisää keinoja, joilla voisimme tutustua toisiin.

Perusasiat maalla ovat kunnossa, mutta sitten tulevat ne pienen paikkakunnan ongelmat. Suurimpana puutteena omassa kotikunnassani on, että samanikäisiin suomalaisiin on vaikeaa saada kontaktia. En halua sanoa, että vika on hirvensaamelaisissa, meidänkin pitää olla aktiivisempia ja mennä sanomaan, että haluamme olla mukana samoissa harrastuksissa muiden nuorten kanssa. Esimerkkejä voisivat Hirvensalmella olla VPK:n ja autourheilijoiden toiminaan mukana pääseminen. Tyttöjä ei myöskään saa unohtaa, heille on yhtä tärkeää löytää suomalaisten kanssa yhteisiä harrastuksia.

Kun asuin pakolaisena Iranissa, minulla ei ollut lupaa käydä koulua ja työtä oli pakko löytää, muusta kuin työstä ei perheelle tullut rahaa. Ainoa velvollisuus oli oma ja perheen selviäminen. Yhteiskunta oli muita varten. Suomessa on toisin, yhteiskunta kohtelee meitä aivan samoilla säännöillä kuin omia kansalaisiaan.

Mielestäni olisi kaikkien edun mukaista kannustaa Suomen uudet asukkaat osallistumaan yhteiskuntaan ja sijoittamaan osan heistä pieniin kuntiin.

*Ali Hossein Mir Ali on monikulttuurisen peruskoululinjan opiskelija 2013-2014. Otavan Sanomat on Otavan Opiston opiskelijoiden lehtiprojektin tuotos.