If Finland is serious about stamping out racism…

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

If our society is a model of social justice for other countries to emulate, why would we tolerate discrimination and all types of racism? Which group are the biggest threat to our society: immigrants or anti-immigration groups?

Contrary to the far-right wing of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party led by Jussi Halla-aho and his cronies, which claim that “multiculturalism” (a policy that permits Muslims and Africans from moving to this country) is one of the greatest threats to our society, I would claim that these types of groups pose the greatest threat to Finland.

Despite the spectacular rise of those that want to keep this country “white,” there are encouraging signs that we will not tolerate a society of hostile “us” against “enemy them.”

Even so, there are still out there too many groups, like the PS and others, who aim to create a society where immigrants do not have the same civil rights as the Finns.

It’s exactly these groups, and how they want to change our society, that is scary and what we should adamantly oppose.

Their picture of Finland is the following: Immigrants and minorities would be constantly under suspicion. Using the argument of “free speech,” these groups could say anything they wish and continue spreading outrageous urban myths. These myths would reinforce racism, prejudice and suspicion.

One will find these questionable views of Finnish society in the PS’ Nuiva manifesto.

The message coming from us should be clear: Finland is an open society for those who come here in good faith.  It is a successful and forward-looking society with a strong sense of social justice. These values are important if we want to stamp out racism, one of the biggest threats to Finland today.

Who we are as a nation must be always based on mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities for all.

Finland sees a 15% fall in hate crimes in 2010

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

There were a total of 860 hate crimes reported in 2010, which is a 15% fall from 1,007 cases in the previous year, according to the Police College of Finland.

Ministry of interior official Ritva Viljanen says that the report sends a mixed signal. “It is a good matter that the total amount of hate crimes has fallen,” she said. “What is of concern is that the number of hate crimes has grown during a longer period.”

The police have registered hate crimes for the past ten years.

As we know, reporting a hate crime by an immigrant may be difficult for a number of reasons, according to a Migrant Blog entry Thursday.

What would the 2011 figures show taking into account the election victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party and the ever-worsening atmosphere in Finland for immigrants and minorities?

We’ll find out next year.

What to do if you are harassed in public in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales wrote back in May about how policemen in Pieksämäki and Mikkeli recommended against reporting racist harassment incidents in public to the authorities. The Ombudsman for Minorities was in the dark as well about what to do but called the next day and said that harassment cases should be reported to the police. 

An African was shoved and hit on the back by a young Finnish man on a bus in Jyväskylä. Nobody reacted, not even the drive. The African walked away from the incident evidently shaken by what happened.

What should one do if somebody begins to harass you in public because of your ethnic background, shoves and hits you?

A policeman from Mikkeli, who came to speak to a group of students from different countries, said that racist harassment in public should not be reported to the authorities.

Another policeman from Pieksämäki gave the same advice to Migrant Tales: ”I have been on the force for 35 years and my advice is to walk away. It’s not worth (reporting the crime)  because we’ll never catch the person. My advice? Just walk away.”

Even though I agree that the safety of the victim is the first priority, it is a different matter whether not the incident should be reported to the police.  If you do, at least it will show in police statistics revealing a wider problem that isn’t addressed enough by the authorities and community.

The response by the policemen is a disappointment and shows that they aren’t apparently too concerned by this type of harassment. The silence of the authorities on this front could shed light on a wider problem concerning police relations and immigrants.

Reporting harassment cases to the police can turn into a challenge for the victim. If you do it by phone, get ready to be put on hold indefinitely in some cases. Add to this the lack of communication skills, cultural differences and mistrust of the police, and we see how difficult it may be for an immigrant to report such cases.

Visiting the police station may be a faster and more effective way of reporting such a crime.

One problem with reporting harassment and hate crimes in Finland is the lack of clear standard procedures that are readily understood by all immigrants. In the harassment cases it isn’t  clear and their are conflicting opinions on what one should do.

Contrary to the policemen’s advice from Pieksämäki and Mikkeli, however, the Ombudsman for Minorities recommended: ”It (harassment) should be reported to the police because they may catch the suspect one day (because the person may be caught and identified).”

What should a person do if the policeman says not to bother but the Ombudsman’s office says you should?

Here lies the problem: What to do and whom to believe.

Turun Sanomat: Osa turvapaikanhakijoista maksaa salakuljetuksensa sosiaalituella

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Citing an undisclosed study by officials, Turun Sanomat claims some refugees use social welfare subsidy to pay back people that brought them to Finland under shady conditions. While we know the cost to be 10,000 euros per person, according to the Turku-based daily, nowhere are we told if this is a widespread problem never mind the source(s) of the study. 

Certainly it is a serious problem if one has to pay someone to leave a war-zone. If I were living in such a country, I’d do everything possible to leave and relocate elsewhere, even pay money, than live in a  place where my family could be put in harm’s way. 

Apart from showing the ordeal and suffering that some asylum seekers and refugees face in Europe, what does the Turun Sanomat article want to convey? In light of the present negative atmosphere in Finland, such a story does not invite constructive debate on an issue but reinforces instead the notion that asylum seekers are dishonest or “welfare shoppers”  

Do you agree?

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Osa Suomeen salakuljetetuista turvapaikanhakijoista maksaa matkansa sosiaalituellaan. Viranomaisilla on runsaasti viitteitä salakuljetuksen ostamisesta velaksi. –?Tutkimuksissa on selvinnyt, että rahamaksuja välitetään lähtömaihin. Heti kun turvapaikanhakija saa toimeentulotukea, hän lähettää säännöllisesti rahaa Western Unionin tai Forexin kautta kotimaahansa, Länsi-Suomen merivartioston rikostorjuntayksikön tutkinnanjohtaja Matti Hägerström kertoo.

Read whole story.

Separating urban myths from facts in the Finnish immigration debate (Part 2)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Staying on the topic of urban myths, other ones that we could mention are: immigrants do not want to integrate, immigrants live off social welfare and are lazy. Politicians such as Angela Merkel and David Cameron reinforce these types of urban myths by pinning their countries’ integration policy failures unfairly on immigrants. 

Any serious student of society knows that humans are social animals. Since we survive in groups, our main aim is to adapt. Some of us learn this skill better and faster than others.

Believing a stereotype like “immigrants live off welfare” is illogical. Why would people travel thousands of kilometers to live off social welfare?

Immigrants are ambitious people. Some are so determined to seek out opportunity and a better life that they are willing to sacrifice everything to start life anew in a new country.

If adaption is an important skill learned and reinforced during our childhood and formative years, what logic is there in not adapting to a new society?

In order for any integration program to be successful in Finland or elsewhere, it must have a clear vision of the role that newcomers and their children in the society. Is the host society hostile or receptive to them? Are newcomers and their children doomed to be eternal outsiders? Does society envisage a place for them?

In the same way that society creates pathways to integration for its own people, how well do they work for other groups? Are immigrants or the host society to blame, or both?

If we want to start on the right foot in Finland concerning our ambitious integration program, the first and foremost matter we should do is truly embrace cultural diversity as an important value.

Compared with the last century, Finland has made important progress on this front but a lot of work must be still done to weed out the ignorance and urban myths out there.

If we could get politicians to address proactively an issue relating to immigrants rather than pin the blame and failures “of multiculturalism,” we’d do our society a service rather than cause it harm.

The following words should always ring out when building our society in the new century: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.

PS will not take any disciplinary action against MP Teuvo Hakkarainen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

What kind of a message does the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party send to their supporters and Finland when they decide that it’s OK to turn a blind eye to one of their many controversial MPs, Teuvo Hakkarainen, who publicly insults homosexuals, lesbians and Somalis? Hakkarainen was quoted as saying on tabloid Ilta-Sanomat that these types of minorities should be relocated to the Åland Islands.

Is this what Timo Soini recently meant by the “PS not hating anyone?” OK, maybe the PS doesn’t “hate” but it sure has a lot of serious issues.

Even though PS MP Hakkarainen meant his Åland Island comment to be a “joke,” it shows that his sense of humor and that of the PS’ is out of line with the majority of the country.  I am certain that most children in Finnish elementary school could tell us that it’s wrong to insult people because of their background.

I see Hakkarainen’s comment and the PS’ inaction as a direct slap in the face of Finland’s good name. For some it may even bring eerie memories of how “undesirable” people, like the Jews and Romany minorities of Nazi Germany, were packed and sent in box cars to concentration camps.

If Finnish voters seriously believe that a party like the PS still has the credibility and vision to change Finland, they should think twice and hard. One only has to look at the already-long list of  racist and anti-democratic “jokes” made by a number of PS MPs.

What kind of a Finland does the PS wish for our children and grandchildren? The answer is simple: A highly polarized nation where politicians cultivate a culture of hatred.

On a more light-hearted note, YLE reported that Swedish People’s Party MP Elisabeth Nauclér has sent an invitation to Hakkarainen to visit the Åland Islands, her home province.

“Åland is home to 92 nationalities,” Nauclér was quoted as saying on Tuesday’s Iltalehti,  “even Hakkarainen is welcome.”

Green Party presidential hopeful, Pekka Haavisto, who is gay, commented on Hakkarainen’s gaffes on Wednesday’s Iltalehti.

YLE in English: Immigration rules to be tightened

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Am I surprised? No way. Christian Democrat Minister Päivi Räsänen was chosen to head the interior ministry after the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party won an impressive election victory on April 17. If her views on homosexuality are applied to immigration, it suggests that matters will get worse for the immigrant community before they improve. 

Tightening immigration policy and making family reunification more difficult is another example of how the PS is breathing down the neck of the government. 

Reports YLE: “At present, the large number of applications for immigrant status under the rules of family reunification has led to a backlog in processing. Officials have around 10,000 applications on file, most from Somalis.”

The key word in the paragraph above is “Somalis.” Finnish immigration authorities are speculated to be doing everything possible to hinder family reunification especially from countries like Somalia. 

A plan to tighten immigration policy reveals as well that the government, like most of Finland, is still pretty much in the dark about what immigration is and what should its role be in this country. 

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Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen has told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that she considers Finland’s practice in the reunification of the families of immigrants to be less strict than that of other countries. She added that while a review of immigration has only started, Finland will be imposing tougher criteria.

Read whole story.

HS.fi: CITY LIMITS: Pillars of salt at McDonald’s in Helsinki

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a very unfortunate case where a one- and four-year-old child got a taste of racism at a MacDonald’s fast-food chain in downtown Helsinki. HS.fi reports that a Finnish woman did not apparently like the family next to her table to speak in a strange language. Her reaction was totally out of line as she began to shout and hurl abusive language at the family. 

It is a positive matter that cases like these are reported and published in the media. 

In May, an African student got harassed publicly and hit by a Finn on the bus in Jyväskylä. While some customers slowly started to react to the enraged woman’s remarks at MacDonald’s, nobody stood up for the African on the bus. 

We called the police and after many phone calls we were able to speak to a policeman in Pieksamäki, who said that if you are harassed on the street you should not call the police but look the other way. The Ombudsman for Minorities had a different opinion than the police and recommended that the incident be reported.

Migrant Tales believes that that type of a response by the police shows that they do not take hate crimes seriously.  

One important matter that the police could so is state clearly what one must do if you are harassed publicly. That would be a good step in the right direction. 

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Pauliina Grönholm 

A father of immigrant origin and his two little sons were eating at McDonald’s in Helsinki’s district of Hakaniemi two weeks ago, early on a Friday evening. The boys were excited about their new Happy Meal Smurf toys. They were being a little noisy, as one- and four-year-old children are often wont to be. A woman sitting at the next table did not like to hear the family speaking a strange tongue. She began to shout at them, using abusive language.

Read whole story.

Separating urban myths from facts in the Finnish immigration debate

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

To confirm whether anti-immigrant politicians are spreading urban myths or not, I recommend taking a look at the 2010 Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) annual report. What you may find may startle, even anger you.

I’m not speaking specifically of Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MPs like Teuvo Hakkarainen, who are walking political time bombs packed with ignorance. The source of your irritation may be more credible politicians who should know better but are spreading and enforcing urban myths about immigrants in their opportunistic bid to gain votes.

There is nothing “patriotic” about spreading urban myths about immigrants because great harm is done to Finland economically, socially and politically.

If you look at last year’s FIS report, we will see some startling facts that blow the cover off the urban myths that are fed like “facts” to the public by some politicians. Here it is (and it does not harm to repeat this fact over again): The main reason why foreigners moved to Finland in 2010 was for family reasons (31%), study (25%) and work (17%). Asylum seekers accounted for  only 10%.

While these figures attempt to give a clean-cut division of the reasons for coming to Finland, the issue is a bit more complex. Just because a person come to Finland due to family reasons, he can end up employed like the ones that came for work.

What does a mere 17% (3,030 people) of foreigners who got work permits last year on the grounds of employment and self-employment tell us?

For one, it reveals that too few skilled people move on their own will to Finland for work. It tells us as well another disturbing fact: We are far behind other countries in attracting skilled labor as our ever-growing army of pensioners swells this decade and the next.

While some politicians warned us in 2006 that the entire Estonian workforce, or half a million people, was ready to invade Finland, the truth is that we are no magnet for skilled labor.

Why would a skilled immigrant move with his or her family to Finland if there are easier and friendlier countries in Europe? Why would they move to a country where a right-wing populist anti-immigration party, the PS, gained 19.1% of the votes in April from 4.05% in 2007?

Why would a foreign company invest in this country and create more jobs?

While the recession may be an important factor why there were 25.2% less permits given to foreigners compared with 2009 for work and self-employment, other factors like the weather, high taxation, language certainly play a role.

What to do?

Send each politician an electronic copy of the FIS annual report and ask them why they distort the facts in order to hide the real issues, which is dealing with our ever-growing demographic challenges.

Note: There are other urban myths that I could have brought up. These can be discussed as well.

Digital Journal: Swiss Government Bans Video On Execution-Style Deportation

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Ever thought what it feels to be caught and deported from a country as an undocumented immigrant? The reconstruction of how people are deported from Switzerland these days was made by humanitarian group Augenauf (Open Your Eyes). The video clip was shortly banned after it was broadcast on Swiss television, according to Digital journal. 

After passage of a referendum in November, Swiss authorities can deport today foreigners if they are undocumented immigrants or foreign residents convicted of certain offenses. 

The humiliating way people are deported from Switzerland looks like a convict who placed on an electric chair. The Digital Journal continues:  “The procedure involves the shackling and gagging of deportees, presumably to prevent any effort to escape or protest or to make it as unpleasant as possible to return to Switzerland.”

 Augenauf claims that a Nigerian refugee died of heart attack when he was shackled. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16He1I274Xk&feature=player_embedded]

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Digital Journal: Swiss Government Bans Video On Execution-Style Deportation

A documentary by humanitarian organisation Augenauf was banned shortly after it was broadcast on Swiss television. It depicts a reconstruction of the execution-style deportation practiced by Swiss Government.

Read whole story.