Migrant tales - Page 346 of 535

Institute of Race Relations: How the Swedish media bought into the myth-making of the far Right

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Migrant Tales

The leader of the far-Right Sweden Democrats wants to portray himself as the victim of anti-white racism.

Read full story here.

A televised interview on 23 February with Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the far-Right Sweden Democrats (SD), has generated much controversy over the alleged claims made by Åkesson with regards to his childhood in Sölvesborg. The interview is part of a series called ’Nyfiken på partiledaren’ (’Curious about the party-leader’), which is broadcast on SVT (the Swedish equivalent of the BBC), and focuses on getting to know the leaders of the main political parties in Sweden ahead of the National elections in September this year. The idea of the format of the programme is to see a different side of the politicians, away from public opinion and political events. According to Åkesson, his experiences as a teenager of segregation and failed multiculturalism led him to become a member of the Sweden Democrats as a way of supporting Swedish nationalism. Åkesson describes his adolescence as a struggle between him and immigrant-gangs that beat up him and his friends. This picture paints Åkesson as a brave nationalist whose main goal has always been to protect Sweden, his beloved country, from the threat of the ’Other’.

However, these suggestions have subsequently been refuted by a large number of people who grew up with Åkesson and who worked at his old school. Major Swedish newspapers, television and radio have reported on the inaccuracies in Åkesson’s story and he has, consequently, been accused of distorting the reality of immigration in Sweden for political gain and legitimacy. Åkesson’s former head teacher has refuted the claims saying that there were no gangs made up of immigrants at all, nor were there any particular individuals who acted in a threatening way towards other children. Another of his former teachers suggests that Åkesson has a bizarre view on the history of immigration in Sölvesborg. This claim is supported by the statistics from SCB (Statistiska Centralbyrån/Statistics Sweden) that paint a very different picture than that of Åkesson. According to this statistic, there were 24 new immigrants in Sölvesborg in 1985 and although the number rose there were never more than 200 new immigrants per year. Furthermore, this does not take into account migrants who left Sölvesborg. This is but another insight into the strange workings of SD, who has had its fair share of scandals since 2010, but it also tells us something important about the role of media in creating and sustaining the myths of the nationalist far-right.

Arguably, the flux of information has radically changed with the power of internet and social media. There have been previous reports on how Germany’s new extreme right have been using social media to attract, notably younger, supporters through parties, gigs and under-18 events. Similarly, any news-search on google, relating to the far-right or racism violence, generates nationalist websites that blame everything on left-wing multi-culturalists. It cannot, thus, be argued that the far-right lacks a platform for its freedom of speech. The issue is when national media lowers itself that same level, prioritising everyone’s right to be heard and seen rather than taking responsibility for whatever consequences their reporting might have.

The issue of using freedom of speech as an excuse for people to vent extremist opinions has been highlighted by the IRR before. It is undeniable that certain individuals and groups take advantage of the laws on freedom of press and speech, however there are other instances which show the complexity of these issues. There were those who criticised the laissez faire style used in Åkesson’s interview, arguing that it portrayed media as serving as an uncritical forum where anyone can say anything. But after the programme was broadcast, other authentic voices were given space to refute Åkesson’s myth-making, and their statements were reported as facts. This gives hope for a return to reporting with a critical edge.

Read original story here.

This piece was reprinted by Migrant Tales with permission.

Acceptance and respect of cultural diversity is very similar to the gay rights struggles of the past

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Migrant Tales

It wasn’t too long ago in Europe and countries like the United States, Argentina and Australia that being gay was seen as a psychological disorder that could even be cured. Acceptance of cultural diversity, the right to be treated with respect irrespective of your background, is undergoing the same struggles that gays faced as they sought greater rights.

Cultural and ethnic diversity is like a forest. The more detail we can see, the greater strength and beauty if offers.

In many respects, the same attitudes that forced people into thinking heterosexuality was the only right sexuality, is being promoted today by those who don’t accept cultural diversity and somehow believe that a person who is other can be “cured.”

If the gay person was sent to a psychiatrist in the past, the same cure is being collectively prescribed to migrants and minorities. We’ll show you how to meet our expectations – they claim – even if they have no effective answer since their prejudices are the problem.

I believe that cultural diversity will gain greater acceptance and become the more the norm in the future just like gay rights did.

That is why gay rights is so interlinked with minority rights.

Romany minority discrimination case sparks government outrage in Sweden

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Migrant Tales

The Swedish government has called a crisis meeting due to a discrimination case of a Roma woman at Stockholm’s Sheraton Hotel, reports Helsingin Sanomat. The woman, who was invited by the government to speak at a seminar on discrimination of the Roma in Sweden’s capital, was escorted with her traditional dress out of the hotel’s breakfast room.

The government published at the seminar a white paper on the abuses and rights violations of the Roma in the last century.

The incident has received wide media coverage in Sweden.

The woman, Diana Nyman, is a native Finn who lives in Sweden.

“I felt so disgraced,” she was quoted as saying to Swedish news agency TT. “It was so embarrassing at the breakfast room where there were a lot of people who didn’t understand why I was being discriminated.”

Nyman said that as she while she was escorted out of the room, people must have thought she wanted to eat breakfast without paying.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Sweden’s integration minister, Erik Ullenhag, said that Nyman’s case shows that discrimination happens daily in Sweden and that there is a need to debate the issue.

One positive matter about Sweden is that the government does take a stand against discrimination and shuns the xenophobic and far-right Sweden Democrats.

Finland could learn a lot from Sweden on how to combat intolerance and discrimination.

MPs in Finland should not seek populistic and quick fixes to issues like poverty

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Is it a coincidence that MPs of Finland’s four largest parties aim to pass anti-begging legislation in the face of ever-growing poverty in this country as a survey by YLE showed? Aren’t the four MPs, who claim the bill has the backing of 102 lawmakers, concerned that the anti-begging motion is a copy from Norway, which came into force thanks to the anti-immigration Progress Party in government?

Mass killer Anders Breivik was temporarily a member of the Progress Party before he murdered 77 people on 22/7.

The MPs, Arto Satonen of the National Coalition Party, Social Democrat Kari Rajamäki, Center Party’s Antti Rantakangas and Reijo Tossavainen of the Perussuomalaiset party, can’t be serious. It appears they are since the Euro MP elections near on May 25 and want to show how tough they and their parties are against Europe’s most oppressed minority.

Is this the best these MPs can do? Is this how they plan to eradicate the problem of a minority like the Roma by sweeping the issue under the carpet?

The other question that this new bill brings to light is why is it so important for these lawmakers? Finland isn’t being invaded by thousands of Roma panhandlers. According to the MPs that drafted the law, an estimated 300-500 came to Finland last year from countries like Romania and Bulgaria, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

So what gives? Satonen claims that a register would permit the police to determine if the panhandlers are victims of human trafficking or organized criminals. This is an odd excuse considering that the police stated in July 2013 that these Roma beggars aren’t victims of human trafficking or linked to organized crime.

The anti-begging legislation is in my opinion racist because it singles out a single group, the Roma, as the culprits.

Read full story here.

The survey by YLE interviewed 48 welfare and religious leaders as well as charity and social workers in Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa Oulu and Turku. A clear majority of them, or 42, agreed that poverty has increased under the present government’s mandate.

In 2012, 18.3% of Tampere residents were low-income earners, while in Helsinki those receiving income subsidy rose to 65,000 in 2013 from 60,000 in 2010, reports YLE in English.

Matters are not expected to get better. Statistics Finland announced today that unemployment rose to 9.1% in February from 8.7% a year ago.

Even if dark clouds have gathered over the Finnish economy and there is every indication that poverty will grow instead of retreat for the time being, one matter is for certain: We shouldn’t succumb to populism and simple solutions and fixes to a social ill like poverty.

People like the Roma should be helped, not victimized.

Finland ponders whether to forbid the Summer Hymn at schools

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish suvivirsi, or Summer Hymn, may be forbidden at schools for having religious overtones, according to YLE in English. Such plans, which are under review by the national board of education, have raised stiff opposition from Finland’s most conservative and nationalistic politicians like Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen and anti-immigration Perussuomlaiset (PS) chairman, Timo Soini.

Read full story here.

Deputy Chancellor of Justice Mikko Puumalainen called on the Board of Education to see if the suvivirsi runs counter to religious freedom, equality and neutrality at Finnish schools.

In order to understand this debate, we’d have to look at it from Räsänen’s and Soini’s perspective.

Räsänen, who is a member of the Christian Democratic party and who considers homosexuality to be a sin, said that the board of education and schools should not under any circumstances forbid the suvivirsi. “…the best practices and traditions inherent in Finnish culture are weighed again in very conflictive interpretations,” she wrote on her Uusi Suomi blog.

Soini, who is a staunch Catholic that opposes abortion and gay marriage, is naturally against forbidding the singing of the suvivirsi at schools. “It a part of Finland’s spiritual landscape and cultural traditions,” he was quoted as saying on Ilta-Sanomat. “This is totally incomprehensible.”

Räsänen and Soini represent, in my opinion, a Finland that still believes that our society must not change even if our society becomes ever-culturally and ethnically diverse.

The fact that our society is more diverse today puts under scrutiny some of our traditions like the suvivirsi.

Instead of attacking minorities and migrants in this country for putting the suvivirsi under the spotlight, we should ask why schools should be secular institutions and the role of religious freedom in our society, which is not under question.

Helsinki District Court fines clothing store managers for firing Muslim woman

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Migrant Tales

The managers of Guess, a Helsinki clothing store, have been fined for firing a Muslim woman for wearing a headscarf to work, reports YLE in English. It is the first case ever decided by the Helsinki District Court, according to YLE.

Read full story here.

Reports YLE in English: “Helsinki District court has fined managers at a Helsinki clothing retailer for discriminating an employee on the basis of religion. They receive 20 day-fines for sacking a Muslim worker who was told she should not wear a headscarf.”

The new worker was fired on the first day of work.

The Guess store managers denied that their decision to fire the worker was discriminatory. They claimed that the headscarf did not fit the company’s brand.

Finnish skier rudely shows her ethnic privilege over the Saami

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Migrant Tales

When I saw last week Finnish alpine skier Tanja Poutiainen put on a Saami costume to crown her career, I knew she was heading for trouble unless she was a member of that ethnic group. In countries like the United States, dressing up as a member of another culture is considered racist and a rude way to show your ethnic privilege.

Bitchmedia puts it in the following terms: “Not only does it lead to offensive, inaccurate, and stereotypical portrayals of other people’s culture, but is also an act of appropriation in which someone who does not experience that oppression is able to ‘play,’ temporarily, and ‘exotic’ other…”

There hasn’t been any official statement by Poutiainen apologizing for the incident.

Alpine skier Tanja Poutiainen is from the region of Lapland but is not a member of the Saami community. Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Saami youth president Anna-Maria Magga asked why Poutiainen didn’t wear a Finnish national costume if she was so interested in showing her Nordic roots.

“If we look at the costume, it’s a salad of different things,” said Magga. “It’s not a woman’s costume but it’s not either one for men…[Wearing such a costume] is immoral [and] against indigenous people.”

Thanks to the reaction that Poutiainen received, the retired Alpine skier will most likely think twice before she wears a Saami costume in public.

Cultural and ethnic diversity are who we are

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Migrant Tales

When you do everything possible to undermine diversity you end up letting out the genie out of the bottle.

If we look at the political climate in Finland today with the rise of an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) in 2011, it’s clear that the genie that came out of the bottle is out for blood.

Despite the hostility of some Finns and Europeans to our ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse societies, the million-euro question is how to we challenge those very values that are stoking and fanning hatred?

Is the answer in educating present and future generations on how culturally and ethnically diverse we Europeans have always been?

Finland is a culturally and ethnically diverse society. For one, over 1.2 million Finns emigrated from this land between 1860 and 1999. Moreover, we all came from somewhere else. Some of us have been longer and others a shorter time in Finland.

We are all, however, Finns of different backgrounds and orientations. Most importantly we live in a society that permits us to determine our identity and lifestyles.

The interesting question to ask is why some Finns, or why our official history, still speaks of Finns in terms of one group if there are many?

We all came from somewhere else. Why did it take me so many decades to uncover the Jewish side of my family? Why did many of my relatives rarely bring this up? Why was it swept under the carpet for so many decades?

All Finns, like all Europeans, have a fascinating history to tell but which has been intimidated by intolerance, nationalism, war and a deep suspicion for cultural and ethnic diversity that still exists today.

As we race deeper into the new century, we should take bolder steps to teach present and future generations about the our cultural and ethnic diversity and, most importantly, that we should respect such an order of things.

Geert Wilders crosses line, highlights European anti-immigration politicians’ master plan

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Migrant Tales

We’ve seen a lot of xenophobia and anti-immigration rhetoric thrown at us in the past by politicians like Geert Wilders, who likes to test the waters of hate to see if he can take another step towards his grand plan, which is to make Holland white again.

Wilders’ plan against cultural and ethnic diversity is a recurring message we read over again from anti-immigration politicians. In plain English it means that we must do everything possible to stop the growth of cultural and ethnic diversity.

An interesting question we could ask is what does “white” mean? Sensible people understand that Europe has always been ethically and culturally diverse so what does “white” mean in the anti-immigration context? Coming from the mouths of politicians like Wilders, it’s a declaration of war against migrants and minorities.

The “everything possible” to keep our society white poses a scary question. How far will politicians like Wilders and others go to make their society white? If Wilders’ party or that of the Perussuomalaiset of Finland get enough support, what will they mutate to?

Many far-right anti-immigration politicians, however, won’t reveal their master plan for fear of losing and outraging voters.

That is exactly what Wilders did this week when he crossed the line and ensured a group of supporters that there would be fewer Moroccans in Holland, reports The Guardian.

Read full story here.

Wilders’ comment not only sheds light on such a politician’s Islamophobia, it is the penultimate step on a slippery slope.

Wilders isn’t the only anti-immigration politicians who plays with fire. Marine Le Pen, Pia Kjærsgaard, Timo Soini, Nigel Farage and many others play the same dangerous game.

Racism and intolerance know no master. It might serve you and you may keep it on a short leash. But the truth is that it can bite back and hard as we saw on 22/7 in Norway, the former Yugoslavia of the 1990s and in the extermination camps of Nazi Germany.

The racism and intolerance we are seeing today across Europe didn’t come recently but has always been with us. It has taken many forms and has its roots in European colonialism and imperialism from 1492.

Keeping a society white is not only a pipe dream but a racist ideal based on hocus-pocus myths.

The answer against such intolerance in acceptance, respect and equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of their background.

It’s all about respect and inclusion – not exclusion or spreading ethnic hatred.

European Network Against Racism report highlights Finland’s racism and discrimination challenges

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Migrant Tales

Shadow reports on racism in Europe by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) reveals something we’ve not known and written about on Migrant Tales for a long time. Apart from racism and discrimination happening in employment, the question behind the question is why is this still an issue? Why are governments still doing too little?

Read full report here.

Unemployment in Finland is three times higher than the national average, which stood at 8.5% in January, according to Statistics Finland. Even so, you rarely if ever hear politicians or the media bring this fact to public attention. Certainly some do but to show how much of a problem and burden migrants are to our society.

While there are some bold moves to change the current situation like the municipality of Helsinki, which is trying out job applications from anonymous job applications, too little is being done.

The Social Democratic Party of Finland is calling that anonymous applications for state and municipal jobs should be standard practice throughout Finland.

While anonymous job applications clearly show that the migrant unemployment problem may reside with the employer’s prejudices when hiring, one of the key arguments used not to hire migrants and visible minorities is poor Finnish- language skills.

While this may be in some cases, too many Finns, like Finnish-language teachers, place too much emphasis on language. While learning Finnish or Swedish is crucial, it’s not a panacea.

One has only to go to Spain, where there are large Latin American migrant groups who speak Spanish as their native language and are even Catholics. Despite having the same language and religion, discrimination and racism still take place. It shows that adaption and integration are a complex process that hinges on many factors.

Simplifying a social ill like exclusion, racism and discrimination waters down our response to challenge such issues because we lose sight of the other culprits that play equally important roles in the problem.

Just like the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, improving employment among migrants and minorities should be a key priority. It should also be a clarion call of migrants and minorities in Finland and Europe.

So what does the ENAR shadow report on Finland, which cites Migrant Tales as a source, say?

Below are some of its recommendations in the 2013 report:

There should be a concerted campaign through for, instance, diversity training and race awareness education to counter Finnish employers’ prejudice towards hiring migrants and ethnic minorities.
Migrants and ethnic minorities should be encouraged to report discrimination and discriminatory practices at work. They need to be assured by, for example, by NGOS and employment protection bodies such as the Regional State Administrative Agencies about the safeguards against victimisation and harassment prescribed in Finnish legislation.
Recruitment regulations should be clear and straightforward, and enshrined in law, with clear penalties and sanctions for violating them.
Finnish anti-discrimination legislation should be streamlined, and being able to file complaints under it should be made easier for migrants and other ethnic minorities. At the moment, there are diverse provisions of anti-discrimination legislation, which makes it difficult for migrants and even representatives of the native population to understand them.
As a result of the dismantling of the labour offices, which were part of a nationwide reform, such offices should again be available to all unemployed migrants and ethnic minorities.
The labour offices should be structured to cater for the employment needs of migrants and ethnic minorities.
Trade unions and other non-governmental organizations should be more active in fighting labour market discrimination and promote multiculturalism.

If the gay person was sent to a psychiatrist in the past, the same cure is being collectively prescribed to migrants and minorities. We’ll show you how to meet our expectations – they claim – even if they have no effective answer since their prejudices are the problem.

Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Is this the best these MPs can do? Is this how they plan to eradicate the problem of a minority like the Roma by sweeping the issue under the carpet?

Read full story here.

Read full story here.

In order to understand this debate, we’d have to look at it from Räsänen’s and Soini’s perspective.

Read full story here.

Reports YLE in English: “Helsinki District court has fined managers at a Helsinki clothing retailer for discriminating an employee on the basis of religion. They receive 20 day-fines for sacking a Muslim worker who was told she should not wear a headscarf.”

Alpine skier Tanja Poutiainen is from the region of Lapland but is not a member of the Saami community. Read full story (in Finnish) here.

“If we look at the costume, it’s a salad of different things,” said Magga. “It’s not a woman’s costume but it’s not either one for men…[Wearing such a costume] is immoral [and] against indigenous people.”

The interesting question to ask is why some Finns, or why our official history, still speaks of Finns in terms of one group if there are many?

Read full story here.

Racism and intolerance know no master. It might serve you and you may keep it on a short leash. But the truth is that it can bite back and hard as we saw on 22/7 in Norway, the former Yugoslavia of the 1990s and in the extermination camps of Nazi Germany.

Read full report here.

Simplifying a social ill like exclusion, racism and discrimination waters down our response to challenge such issues because we lose sight of the other culprits that play equally important roles in the problem.