YLE in English: Three Afghani asylum seekers continue hunger strike

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Three Afghani asylum seekers been on hunger strike since September 10 after their applications for asylum were rejected by the authorities, writes YLE in English. The three asylum seekers have appealed  the Finnish Immigration Service decision to the administrative court. 

One of the asylum seekers, Abdullahi Gulamesdiq, said that he fears for his life in Afghanistan because he was active in politics in the war-torn country.

”If I have to go back, my life is in danger,” he was quoted as saying on YLE in English. ”We undertook a hunger strike because the decision by the Finnish Immigration Service is inhumane.”

Another Afghani asylum seeker on hunger strike said that Afghanistan isn’t a safe place to live.

“How could we live safely in Afghanistan if even the president of the country and his relatives are in constant danger?” said Golkhan.

The Free Movement Network (Vapaa liikkuvuus -verkosto) and the Federation of Iraqi Refugees organized on Friday a demonstration in support of the asylum seekers who are camped in front of parliament. Some 100 people took part in the march.

Europe and the West have to take a long and hard look at themselves. First we attack and wreak havoc in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, then we oblige these people to stay put and live in these war-ravaged countries.

Thank you Sini Savolainen @xRebelGrrrlx  for bringing this story to Migrant Tales’ attention.  

 

Finnish Lutheran Church says family reunification from Africa is costly and dangerous

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Archbishop Kari Mäkinen said that family reunification of Africans with their families in Finland is not only costly but dangerous, reports YLE. Since Finland does not have an embassy in war-ravaged Somalia, Somalis are required to apply for residence permits in neighboring Ethiopia or Kenya. 

The Finnish Immigration Service has a backlog of about 10,000 family reunification applications. Most of them are from Somalia.

Family reunification is a normal part of immigration. Finns who emigrated to the North America from the 1860s not only encouraged their relatives to follow them but their neighbors and friends as well.

Migrant Tales has written about the expensive ordeal that Somalis have to endure when applying for a residence permit in Ethiopia or Kenya.

The first blog entry, The long and costly ordeal of family reunification from Somalia to Finland, revealed that a two-and-a-half year wait in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, can cost a family of  six between $9,000 and $12,000.

The second blog entry,  Feeding Somalis and poor immigrants to the loan sharks of Finland, showed how some immigrants in Finland have to turn to loan sharks in order to help their relatives finance their residence applications from the Finnish embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

If the aim of Finnish immigration officials is to make family reunification as difficult as possible for some immigrants, then they are doing an effective job. It explains why the whole process takes so long, is expensive and even dangerous.

 

An interesting discussion with some PS members about Finnish identity

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I had an interesting discussion on Saturday with a Perussuomalaiset (PS) candidate for Mikkeli city council. The woman, who claimed that her mother is Russian, stressed that the PS strives to look after everyone’s interests in Finland, including that of immigrants. 

Good news.

Even if such views are hard to find in the PS, they do exist. Migrant Tales wrote in November about Jukka Kotimäki, a PS secretary of Siilimäki near Kuopio, who said that he doesn’t want racists in the party.

Others that have voiced objections to the PS’ hardline racists is MP Pirkko Mattila.

These faint voices within the PS are a positive sign and should be applauded. Even so, they are steamrolled by the party’s inflexible Counterjihadists, populist radical right members and shameless racists.

The discussion I had with another member of the local PS party on Saturday revealed the central issue concerning the problematic view the party has of immigrants and visible minorities.

”You speak Finnish well,” the PS member said.

“But I am Finnish.”

After telling him my family history in two seconds, he stated that I’m ”half” Finnish.

”I’m not half of anything,” I responded. ”I’m Finnish.”

I continued: “There are many types of Finns these days:  Muslims, blacks, browns, Catholics.”

The discussion came to an abrupt halt.

Why do some Finns still believe that one has to be white to be Finnish? It’s incredible that a country that saw 1.2 million people emigrate between 1860 and 1999 and whose population is becoming more culturally diverse still claims that one must be white and speak the langauge perfectly to be accepted as a “full” Finn.

Is this what is taught at our schools? Is it what a model Nordic welfare society teaches and reinforces: You don’t fit the ethnic bill if you aren’t white enough?

The good news is that our view of ourselves as a group will change radically during this century.

 

 

La prórroga: Valiente el que vuelve a su país

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Zulma Sierra

Después de la presentación del corto ‘Viaje de vuelta’ en Casa América Catalunya, se generó un debate interesante sobre elretorno de los migrantes a sus países de origen.

¿Es una respuesta fácil a la crisis económica de España? ¿Son cobardes o son valientes los retornados? ¿Y por qué no se plantea un documental sobre los migrantes que aún sobreviven en España?

Público asistente a Casa América para la presentación de “Viaje de vuelta”

Todas las preguntas resultaban fascinantes.

En primer lugar, estuvimos de acuerdo en que no es fácil, ni remotamente, empacar diez o quince años de tu vida en dos maletas y regresar a tu país. Alguien dirá: bueno, ésa es tu tierra, allí está tu familia, tus amigos, todos entenderán tu lenguaje, te sentirás acogido… etc, etc, etc. Y yo le diré: “sí, pero no.”

Cuando vuelves te das cuenta de que has cambiado mucho, pero también ha cambiado el país que recordabas, la familia y los amigos que amabas. Es difícil adaptarse a los cambios y más cuando se trata de lugares y personas que terminaste idealizando. Te cuesta entender que muchos defectos de tu ciudad sigan ahí, cuando hay tantas formas de resolverlos; te dan rabia cosas que creías soportar como el desorden vial, el incivismo, la inexistencia de horarios para casi todo, la corruptela rampante pero tolerada, la resignación social, la apatía política… ¡En fin!

Y no es que llegues con las ínfulas de primer mundo a flor de piel sino que has aprendido que hay mejores formas de sobrellevar la convivencia urbana y te duele que hayan pasado los años y muchas cosas sigan tan mal como las dejaste.

Todo eso sin contar con que muchos de tus amigos ya no están, no tienes historia laboral ni ingresos a la vista ni perro que te ladre. Por tener, sólo tienes tus maletas y, por supuesto, a tus incondicionales (familiares, ex jefes o ex algo que están listos para ayudarte).

¿Son cobardes o valientes los retornados? Pues yo me atrevería a decir que más valientes por reemprender su vida nuevamente en otro país. ¿Que se deberían quedar en España remando hasta que el barco salga a flote? Pues no estoy tan segura. Sin trabajo no hay horizonte y lo peor es que los años han pasado y seguramente será igual de difícil encontrar empleo en el país de origen, pero tal vez se lleven nuevos conocimientos que permitan reinventarse.

¿Y por qué no se plantea un documental sobre los migrantes que aún sobreviven en España? ¡Eso! ¿Y por qué no? Aquí seguimos aguantando mucho y no somos ni mejores ni peores que los que se han ido. ¡A ver cuándo nos reunimos y nos contamos nuestras propias historias!

Pinchar aquí si quieres leer la nota original.

YLE poll: PS seen as big winner of the Finnish municipal elections

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YLE’s latest poll published Thursday shows the Perussuomalaiset  (PS) Party will be the biggest winner of the October 29 municipal elections. The poll sees the PS getting 17.2% of the votes versus 5.4% in 2008.

The poll predicts the Center Party as the biggest loser of the election with 15.9% versus 20.1%.

The National Coalition Party and Social Democrats are both vying for top spot with 21.5% (23.5%) and 19.9% (21.2%),  respectively.

How should we interpret this latest poll? Does it mean that the PS’ anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam message has got a strong foothold in mainstream Finnish politics? Is it a death knell to the Center Party?

All of these are good questions but one matter is for certain: Finland is becoming a more polarizied society as the euro crisis rages on.

PS candidate: Vote for me and I will solve the refugee problem from Africa with rice

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“Stereotypes have some truth to them” has some truth to it but not in the way people think. That truth is not about the stereotyped but the stereotyper.

Julian Abagond

Migrant Tales has warned about how anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) have launched a vicious campaign against immigrants and visible minorities. The attacks are getting stronger and louder as the municipal elections of October near. 

We have read and heard scores of racist blog entries and comments by a number of PS candidates in the past. One of these by Kai Haavisto, a candidate for Espoo city council, stands out like a sore thumb.

His most recent blog on Uusi Suomi offers a solution to Finland’s “refugee problem.” According to him, we should start exporting rice to Africa.

Here are three points he makes on his blog entry:

  • He claims (no sources) that with one refugee Finland could purchase annually 300,000 kilos of rice. Instead of paying refugees welfare, use the money to purchase and export rice to Africa. Refugee problem solved.
  • Haavisto claims that African men sit under the shade and drink rice wine, play cards and take sun all day. “Women do all the hard work like bring water, firewood, make food and wash clothes,” according to him.
  • Refugees should be forced to work. Does Haavisto support slave labor?

Don’t forget to vote for Kai Haavisto!

Thank you Heli Kontio for bringing up this blog entry to my attention again. 

Double standards and press freedom in Europe hinge on which group you belong to

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What difference is there in banning paparazzi pictures of Prince William’s wife Catherine sunbathing topless in the south of France and cartoons insulting Muhammed? Certainly, some may argue that Catherine will be the next queen of England, right? 

Wrong.

Why the double standards? Is it because Catherine is a white European belonging to the royal family and Mohammed a Muslim prophet? Aren’t we at war with the Muslims after 9/11 and hasn’t this expensive crusade lined with Pyrrhic victories brought out our ugliest side in the form of racism and Islamophobia?

As a journalist, I have always avoided sensational paparazzi-type journalism. The closest I ever got to that type of journalism  was when I was ordered to do a story on Ana Risquet, the late Urho Leppänen’s Cuban wife.

Swedish magazine Se&hör, Se og Hör of Denmark and Finland’s 7 päivää published this week those banned pictures of Catherine.

The pictures of a topless Catherine have been widely distributed on the Internet. The first ones to publish them were Closer magazine of France, Ireland’s Daily Star and Italian magazine Chi.

The latest scandal follows William’s brother Harry, who was pictured nude during a wild night in Las Vegas.

 

Feeding Somalis and poor immigrants to the loan sharks of Finland

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Migrant Tales wrote in May about the high cost, hassle and red tape some Somalis face to bring their relatives to Finland. Since it appears that the aim of the immigration authorities and politicians is to make family reunification as expensive and difficult as possible, some immigrants are being fed to the loan sharks as a result. 

Migrant Tales wrote that a two-and-half year wait in the Ethiopian capital to bring your family to Finland can cost between $9,000 and $12,000.  That’s a lot of money taking into account that annual income in Somalia is about $600, according to the CIA Factbook.

“I don’t have any work so I was forced to turn to these loan [shark] companies,” said a Somali, whose wife and brother are applying to come to Finland from the Finnish Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. “I went to my bank but they wouldn’t give me a loan because I don’t have a job.”

The young man hasn’t seen his wife for three years. Many immigrants in Finland have lived separated from their children for years.

In order to bring his wife and brother to Finland, the Somali was forced to take three costly loans that amounted to 1,000 euros.  As a result, the man will end up paying 294.63 euros on the loans as interest and expenses! Payback time is two months for a total of 1,294.63 euros.

One of the bills of the three loans. Expenses amount to a hefty 75.47 euros! 

Taking into account Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen makes over 12,000 euros a month, it’s clear that a well-paid minister or politicians would care little about the plight of Somalis and other poor immigrants in Finland struggling to bring their loved ones to the country.

If there is a tragedy to be told in Finland about immigrants, family reunification is certainly one of them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How offensive is “Innocence of Muslims?”

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A few scenes from Innocence of Muslims was enough for me to understand that free speech not only gives you the opportunity to make a horse’s ass out of yourself, but declare war on a religious group that ended costing the lives of USAmerican citizens in Libya.  

The stance of the Finnish Islamic Council (SINE) concerning the fourteen-minute film must be commended. In a common statement, SINE condemned both the film that offends the Prophet Mohammed and the violence that it sparked. ”The sacred values of Muslims are constantly targets of attacks in the West,” the statement declares.

There is little sympathy for “Sam Bacile tirade.

One of these is Salman Rushdie, the author of the Satanic Verses, which caused outrage from conservative Muslims for blasphemy and mocking their faith.

Reporter: Do you feel that that person has done something terribly wrong? 

Salman Rushdie: I think he [Bacile] has done something malicious. That’s a very different thing from writing a serious novel. He’s clearly set out to provoke and he has obviously unleashed a much bigger reaction than he hoped for, and one of the problems of free speech is that you often have to defend people who are outrageous, unpleasant and disgusting. 

Reporter:  So when you saw that man taken in for questioning over the weekend  completely shrouded to mask his appearance any level of sympathy there? 

SR:  Not really. 

Reporter: Why not? 

SR:  He did it on purpose and he set out to create a response and he got it in spades. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9PpAxX6MHI

These types of movies that aim to insult other groups are no different from the Islamophobic hate speech we are seeing in Europe these days.

The last matter that these extremists are interested in is free speech.

Free speech is only a catchword they use to eventually limit such an inalienable right.

Journalistiliitto: Maahanmuutto, media ja monikulttuurisuus -seminaari 12.10.2012

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Aika: 12.10.2012

Paikka: Helsinki

Osoite: Takniskan Salit, Eerikinkatu 2, 6.krs, 00100 Helsinki

Miten uussuomalaiset journalistit työllistyvät suomalaiseen mediaan? Millaisia hankkeita on kehitetty ja mitä uutta on vireillä? Miten toimitusten pomot suhtautuvat monikulttuurisuuteen ja uussuomalaisten journalistien työllistämiseen? Maahanmuuttovirasto – edestä ja takaa!

Näitäkin aiheita pohditaan SJL:n seminaarissa, jonka alustajiksi ovat tähän mennessä lupautuneet Polina Kopylova (Suomen Venäjänkielisten Yhdistysten Liitto), Shakiba Adil ja Anne Hyvönen (Verkkolehti www.baabeli.fi ),Asta Rajala (www.correspondents.fi), Carlos Marroquin (Kotomedia), Shahin Doagu (Keskisuomalaisen verkkolehti), Enrique Tessieri (Otavan opisto ja www.migranttales.net ), Marita Rainbird (Icebreaker Productions) Jussi Förbom (toimittaja) ja Arno Tanner (Maahanmuuttoviraston Maapalvelun johtaja).

Tilaisuus on ilmainen uussuomalaisille journalisteille ja aihepiiristä kiinnostuneille suomalaistoimittajille. Myös alan järjestöjen sekä virkakunnan edustajia tulee mukaan.

Alustava ohjelma tulee liiton nettisivuille syyskuun puolivälissä.

Ilmoittautumiset alla olevalla lomakkeella viimeistään 30.9.2012.

Lisätietoja Jarmo Häkkiseltä [email protected]

Tässä on linkki.