Salon Seudun Sanomat: Maahanmuuttajan talkkariksi palkannut Salon omakotiyhdistys joutui peräytymään

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a good example of how prejudice and racism work together in Finland. An odd-job man that worked for Salon Omakotiyhtistys was given the boot because clients complained that he was not only an immigrant but black as well. This happened in the city of Salo, located near Turku.

Imagine being hired to do a job and then your boss tells you that you have the wrong skin color and/or ethnic background.

I hope that victim gets hold of a good lawyer and sues the company for discrimination.

Do you agree?

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Salon omakotiyhdistyksen palkkaama maahanmuuttajataustainen talkkari ei kelvannut kaikille yhdistyksen jäsenille. He antoivat aiheesta palautetta myös puheenjohtajalleen Jaakko Korpelalle. Korpela sanoo suoraan, että asiakkaat eivät ottaneet talkkarin palveluja, kun kuulivat, että hän on maahanmuuttaja ja musta.

Read whole story.

guardian.co.uk: A world without borders makes economic sense

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is a good question: Why do we restrict immigration? Who does the present system benefit? These are some of the questions that Michael A Clemens looks at in the guardian.co.uk story below.

He writes:  “Large numbers of people wish to move permanently to another country – more than 40% of adults in the poorest quarter of nations. But most of them are either ineligible for any form of legal movement or face waiting lists of a decade or more. Those giant walls are a human creation, but cause more than just human harm: they hobble the global economy, costing the world roughly half its potential economic product.”

And continues: “Many people fear that even a minor increase in international migration will wreck their own economies and societies. Those fears deserve a hearing. They are old fears, of the kind that filled US newspapers a century ago. The US population subsequently quadrupled, largely through immigration to already-settled areas. Today, even in crisis, America is the richest country in the world. History, too, deserves a hearing.”

Do you agree?

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By Michael A Clemens

What is the biggest single drag on the beleaguered global economy? Opponents of globalisation might point to the current crisis, which shrank the world economy by about 5%. Proponents of globalisation might point to the remaining barriers to international flows of goods and capital, which also serve to shrink the world economy by approximately 5%. That sounds like a lot.

Read whole story.

Jari Tervo: “Finland is a totally racist country”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Jari Tervo, one of Finland’s most successful writers and personalities, said in tabloid Ilta-Sanomat that Finland is a totally racist country. Tervo’s statement comes after writer Sofi Oksanen made waves shortly after the April election by stating in Rome-based daily La Repubblica that the ideology of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party has its roots in Nazi Germany.

“Finns get offended when I said that this is a racist country,” Tervo was quoted as saying in Ilta-Sanomat. “Everyone who has visited at least one chat site knows that Finland is a totally racist country.”

I met Tervo in the late-1980s at the Helsinki Press Club. Back then I was a regular columnist for Apu magazine. Our first meeting didn’t hit it off quite on the right foot.

“How’s it going mutakuono (mud face)!” Tervo said to my amazement in front of other journalists. It really pissed me off and we never spoke to each other after that event.

Even though we were not on speaking terms after that incident, he may have thought that calling me mutakuono was the same as two blacks calling each other the n-word. Whatever the intention was, it was highly insulting to me.

Whatever the case, I am happy that Tervo has become outspoken against one of the greatest threats to our society: racism and prejudice.

Rosa Parks and Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) is not only a symbol of the US civil rights movement but of countries like Finland as well. In order for history to change you don’t need a lot of firepower but people who lead by example. Rosa Parks is one of these we should not forget as Multicultural Finns and other minorities struggle for greater acceptance recognition in Finland.

                                                                                                             US civil rights activist  Rosa Parks.

One cannot change the world but one can with his or her example impact those that live around them. That is in a sense the story of Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.  Contrary to other brave blacks who had refused to give up their seat to a white person, Parks’ arrest sparked a bus boycott in Montgomery.

What is even more important was that Parks’ civil disobedience turned into an important symbol of the civil rights movement and against racial segregation.

Blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses in Montgomery and if the bus was full they were required to give up their seat to a white.

Even if this type of racial segregation does not exist in countries like Finland, there are more ingenious ways of forcing people to sit in back of the bus of society.  Just like blacks were forced to give up their seats to whites on buses, immigrants and minorities in Finland are the last ones to get employed and the first ones to be laid off.

The ways racism is practiced may have changed but it is still the same ogre that segregated blacks in the United States but created one of its greatest symbols.

The magic word is acceptance, acceptance and mutual acceptance!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A crucial term like acceptance is still very little used in Finland when debating about our culturally diverse society. Another key term is equal opportunity.Politicians, public officials, the general public, including immigrants, should use these terms in everyday speech when speaking about our society.

Former President Martti Ahtisaari suggested on Thursday that those Finns should invite immigrants to a cup of coffee. This is a very nice gesture. Culturally it would be the Finnish way to accept another person.

The coffee-drinking ritual in Finland rarely if ever is done between people who dislike each other. When we drink coffee together we strengthen our friendship and knowledge of each other through casual talk.

Since integration and acceptance are a two-way process, all of us have to tame our prejudices and do our part in being more acceptant of others. This is important because it helps create a better-functioning society.

When we are acceptant of others we cease to be the problem arising from our own racism and prejudice.

Three important key words are needed to be heard more in Finnish society: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities.


Finland’s long-overdue issue with the cold war

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Every country has its silent minority or majority and Finland is no different in this respect. The victory of the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party in April raises a lot of questions: Have the ghosts of Finlandization and the Continuation War (1941-44) been resurrected? 

When future historians write about the post-April era in Finland, when the PS gained a historic victory in the election, they will uncover many things that have their roots in our history.

Seeing a country like Finland jump into the arms of populism and xenophobia is a tragedy indeed.  Seeing the country slide into social and economic poverty as a result is even sadder.

While some analysts may be scratching their heads why a significant part of Finland’s population wants to turn its back to the outside world, it should not come to any surprise because it was already written in the sand a long time ago. The isolation we suffered during the cold war for decades still dictates how we see ourselves in relation to the outside world.

One of the biggest casualties of the Winter War (1939-40), Continuation War and cold war era was the blow to our cultural diversity. We encouraged ethnic purity at the cost of cultural diversity.  By 1970, for example, there were only 7,000 foreigners living in the country. The biggest national group back then were Finns who were naturalized Swedes.

When diversity is almost blown off the face of the map and replaced by cultural myths like ethnic “purity,” it is clear that we lack the resources today to tackle many problems facing the country, especially those that address our cultural diversity. We speak and look so much alike that we all agree with each other. The immigration debate is a classic example. Debate is one-sided and poor because mostly Finns, not immigrants or Multicultural Finns, are taking part in the debate.

Our lack of cultural diversity has impoverished us as a nation in many ways. The rise of the PS in April is one of many examples of what our past geopolitical isolation has brought on our doorstep today.

Moreover, we never  even debated in earnest our geopolitical isolation from the world and how relations with the former Soviet Union changed our mindset.

We chose, instead, to live off myths about ourselves and put off and leave our future to chance.

YLE: Rasismin lisääntyminen huolestuttaa Iisalmessa

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: The racism that has raised its head in Iisalmi, a city located 480km north of Helsinki with 200 immigrants, is a case in point what is wrong with some parts of this country.

According to YLE, the problem in Iisalmi appears as racist “graffiti on walls, social media, yelling and even physical violence.”  In August, two local inhabitants attacked with a steel rod a foreign woman.

Some may continue to deny that racism is a problem in Finland. Apart from being a serious social ill, it will impoverish Finland economically and socially.

Helsingin Sanomat recently reported about the rise of racism in Savo and Karelia.

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Rasismi on nostanut päätään Iisalmessa. Maahanmuuttajia on Iisalmessa alle 200 ja heistä suurin osa Virosta ja Venäjältä. Kohteeksi joutuvat lähinnä ihonväriltään kantasuomalaisista poikkeavat ihmiset, vaikka he olisivat syntyperältään suomalaisia.

Read whole story.

YLE in English: Roma evicted from Kalasatama camp assemble at Senate Square

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: This is an ongoing story that has no end. Most of the time when the politicians and city authorities attempt to find a solution to the problem of how to deal with a few Roma that have set up camp in Helsinki, the more lost they become. This should not surprise us, however, because it is has been the  way that the Finnish authorities and public have treated the Romany question in Finland for centuries.

Some of the most incredible measures that politicians tried to impose on this group of Romany was to prohibit begging in public. Even if they made a few euros a day begging in the streets of Helsinki, some had the nerve to claim that they were working for organized crime. 

The handling by the police and authorities of the foreign Roma in Helsinki is unfortunate and reveals a wider problem in Europe on how we deal with minority issues and poverty.

The treatment of these people should inspire others, like especially the Finnish Romany, to stand up and begin asking for their long-overdue acceptance by Finnish society.

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About 40 police officers descended on the Kalasatama area in Helsinki to evict a camp of itinerant foreign Roma. The operation came at the request of the Helsinki City Public Works Department. In the evening, dozens of Roma who had been forced to leave Kalasatama, and a number of local supporters assembled at Senate Square in the centre of the city.

Read whole story.

Finnish hate blogs’ toilet graffiti attack (or toilet democracy)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

It is a positive sign that more politicians and organizations like the Council for Mass Media (JSN) are finally taking a strong stance against hate speech and racism that is rife on the net. These types of opinions, usually done anonymously and on sites like Hommaforum, Scripta and others, resemble racist peeping Toms writing graffiti on public toilet walls.

Some guidelines have to be put in place but the question is if they will bite. The JSN will make public its new recommendations on September 5.

“Hate speech was included in the guidelines, ” said JSN chairperson Risto Uimonen. “It would have been odd after what happened in Norway if we would not have done so.”

For too long the Finnish media, too many politicians and the public at large have shown a remarkable lack of leadership with respect to the rising hate speech and popularity of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).  It seems that the majority of our best leaders and most enlightened citizens are ready to forfeit our values for hate speech.

Why have politicians reacted so late? Have they become more tolerant to immigrants or does it only hinge on Norway and how mass killer Anders Breivik was  a serious wakeup call?

Migrant Tales predicted after the tragic events that gripped Norway at the hands of a mass killer on July 22 that a major watershed was crossed.  The new JSN guidelines and less tolerance for hate speech have put parties like the PS on the defensive.  The Norwegian Labor Party, for example,  is expected to make big gains in next month’s the municipal election at the cost of the anti-immigration Fremskrittspartiet, of which Anders Breivik was a member.

A social ill like racism is no light matter. If it were up to the likes of PS MP Halla-aho and his cronies, immigrants would suffer the same exclusion that the Romany have endured in Finland for hundreds of years.

We cannot let something like that to happen ever again.

The sooner Finns can distinguish between racism and constructive criticism on issues like immigration policy, the faster we will be able to put this social ill on the defensive.