Finland’s Hommaforum fuels much of the anti-immigration sentiment on the net

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

On Friday’s Pressiklubi hosted by Ruben Stiller there was an interesting talk on the rise of racism in Finland. Columnist Kaarina Hazard and Saska Saarikoski, the head of Helsingin Sanomat’s culture section, threw some hard questions at Matias Turkkila, head of Homma ry and PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s campaign manager. 

When looking at the rerun, see how Turkkila looks and feels uncomfortable as he is slouches in the seat throughout the show. Even his hand movements express edginess.

Some consider Homma ry a place where stereotypes and suspicion of immigrants and refugees have a home.  For me it is like a sprinkler that waters much of the racism we find on different chat and websites in Finland.

Some of the posts on Migrant Tales have been debated, or discected,  on Hommaforum.

Scripta, Halla-aho’s blog like Hommaforum, operate as an army of faithful bloggers that would attack other sites if they did not like what they were reading.  One of of these was Migrant Tales’ in September 2008, which got over 800 hits from Scripta.

Turkkila claimed on the show that Homma ry represents 60% of the Finns’ opinion of immigration and immigrants.

While Turkkila is stretching it quite a bit with such a claim, the website is the humble servant of the hostile message to immigrants and refugees of politicians like Halla-aho.

One of the matters that surprised me most on the talk show was his explanation why Homma ry was born. According to Turkkila, the media always exaggerated and glorified immigrant but never bothered to report on the negative matters.

I have lived in Finland on and off for over thirty years and there has been very little of what Turkkila states of the Finnish media. If there have been human-interest stories on immigrants it has been more on what a great country Finland is to live in.  Rarely have they treated seriously the social problems and exclusion that some immigrants may suffer in this country.

If immigrants were “glorified” as Turkkila wants us to believe, why are so few taking part in the ongoing immigration debate in this country?

One of the biggest problems with websites like Hommaforum is that most of those giving their opinions of immigrants are Finns. It’s like a groups of only male chauvinists giving their unchallenged views on women.

Post-April 17 Finland: A protest vote against whom?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

One reads and hears less these days about the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS) scored such a big election victory in April. While casting a protest vote is a positive signs that our democracy functions, what did the voters actually contend? Political corruption? Immigration? Refugees? Mandatory Swedish? Ever-growing income gaps and social inequality?  

Since politicians and political parties have the most to gain from an election and the voters the least, some campaigns are carried out like aggressive used-car salesmen. The newer the party the more exaggerated its promises, while the more traditional ones give different sales pitches.

The PS, which is the new kid on the big party block, did a good job because it instilled fear and awoke passions so you’d buy its used car.

What the PS salesman won’t tell you are the real problems of the vehicle you purchased. Some of these are that the car has had ten owners, the mileage meter has been tampered, sawdust has been mixed with the oil and that he is charging you 80% more than the real price of the car.

Apart from the anti-EU, anti-immigration and anti-Islam sales pitch of many PS MP candidates, some voters are already noticing that they purchased a lemon.

One does not have to be a political scientist to understand that Finland will never find effective solutions to its challenges in Timo Soini’s simplistic sound bites and by polarizing our society between “true Finns” and “untrue Finns.”

Like a person that attracts bad company, the most unfortunate and questionable side of Soini’s PS has been its far-right wing led by MPs who are members of Suomen Sisu. Almost every week there is a worrisome revelation by the media about Jussi Halla-aho, who we now know disliked human rights in 2001 because they encouraged tolerance between black and white people.

The worst lemons of the PS are Halla-aho and his PS MP followers like James Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen, Juho Erola and others. They are selling you a car that runs on the ideology of Nazi war criminal Alfred Rosenberg, David Duke, former head of the Klu Klux Klan, and Michael Levin. All this, of course, in an early twenty-first century Finnish context.

If Soini’s party was incapable of capitalizing on such a big election victory by entering government it is doubtful that they’ll be given a second chance by the voters.

Voters do protest but they want results as well.

MTV3: Seiska: Raittiuttaan mainostanut kansanedustaja umpihumalassa

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Perussuomalaiset MP Eero Hakkarainen, who became a household name during his first week in parliament by insulting blacks and Muslims, is getting more publicity but for all the wrong reasons.

The latest revelation about him was made by 7 päivää-lehti, which wrote that Hakkarainen drinks and has been known to be drunk by the locals in Viitasaari despite his claim of being a teetotaler for 20 years.

Hakkarainen is also highly critical of the EU but a sawmill owned by his family has received 460,000 euros in subsidies from Brussels.

Hakkarainen is one of the actors in the PS´tragic-comic play that began after April 17.

What other skeletons will the media uncover about him and the PS? 

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Raittiudestaan avoimesti kertonut perussuomalaisten kansanedustaja Teuvo Hakkarainen oli tavattu humalassa vesantolaisessa ravintolassa. Asiasta kertoo kuvien kera uusin 7 päivää -lehti.

Read whole story.

A voice was sounding: This Finland is your Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A few weeks before the election in April, I visited a group of second-graders at a local elementary school in eastern Finland. Like many schools in this country, the class was made up of a few kids with African, Middle Eastern and other European backgrounds.

One girl sitting in front of the class surprised me with an emphatic statement:  “I don’t want to be a Finn because I’m Arabic.”

A boy sitting a row from the girl gave a knee-jerk response: “I don’t like where you’re from!”

The argument between the two started to gain momentum until it came to an abrupt end. I told the class that an important lesson could be learned from the incident: The importance of acceptance.

I tried my best to tell the class that some of us are fortunate because we have two home countries. Accepting one does not wear off your feelings for the other.

On that day I noticed something else missing at Finnish elementary schools. There weren’t any songs where everyone, irrespective of their background, could feel included in Finnish society.

I told them about Woody Guthrie’s song, This land is your land.

“This is a nice song we used to sing at my elementary school when I was a kid in the United States,” I said. “Why would a song claim that this is your land and this is my land if everyone knows that Finland is our land?”

I explained to the class that the United States is a country that has a lot of immigrants and people of different ethnic backgrounds. Some of them feel excluded from society. That’s why Guthrie’s song was sung at our school so people from all walks of life could feel at home.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE]

One worrisome questions that the April 17 election has raised is whether Finland will become a more hostile country to visible newcomers, minorities and multicultural Finns?

Apart from greater euroskepticism, one of the most regrettable consequences of the election is growing nationalism, anti-immigration and anti-refugee sentiment in Finland.

While it would be unfair to claim that all Perussuomalaiset are against immigration and accepting our ever-growing cultural diversity as a society, some don’t hesitate to make a case about how “white” Finland is coming under threat. Immigrants and multicultural Finns are not the only ones feeling the adversity but our Swedish-speaking minority as well.

It is surprising, if not shocking, that in 2011 some politicians are making a case for racial “hygiene” in Finland, a concept that was prominent in the Europe of the 1930s and with the rise of fascism. It was the smoking gun that unleashed World War 2.

Those that make such a ludicrous case conveniently forget our history and that over a million Finns emigrated to other lands in the last two centuries. Those that left these shores have prospered as well as mixed with other cultures and people in many forms and ways. Thanks to them Finnish culture is more diverse today.

Talk of tougher immigration laws, fuelling myths and suspicion of immigrants, refugees and minorities rarely affect those that may want to move to Finland. It spills over like poison on the whole community.

I sometimes think about that Arabic girl in the class who was adamant about not wanting to be a Finn. Was it because she felt unwelcome?

No child or person who comes to our country should ever feel unwelcome by our society because it’s not the way we treat our own.

Taking into account the election result, Finland needs today more than ever its version of Guthrie’s famous song.

Suomenmaa: Lapsellista sensuurihenkeä

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Comment: Here is a bit more about how some Perussuomalaiset like none other than MP James Hirvisaari and his wife have filed a complaint to the Council for Mass Media (JSN), according to Suomenmaa, a Center Party daily.  The complaint stems from the usage of the term “persu” by the media, which Hirvisaari claims is being used in a derogatory fashion against the PS.

This complaint follows PS MP Jussi Halla-aho’s decision to boycott Aamulehti because he did not like the pictures that the Tampere-based daily publishes of him.

Halla-aho stated that “cooperation” with Aaamulehti would end as a result. Newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti wrote in a column that they did not know that a large daily like Aamulehti had a cooperation agreement with Halla-aho.

As we have mentioned earlier, it is surreal that of all people Hirvisaari is the one trying to tell the media its job. Moreover Hirvisaari and Halla-aho belong to Suomen Sisu, a Nazi-spirited association, according to the Finnish Criminal Police (KRP) and Supo.

Does a member of such a questionable organization can give advice to Finland’s media?

Suomenmaa doesn’t spare the Hirvisaari couple any mercy: “The MPs behavior (to complain to the JSN) is childish and the way censorship enforced in the worst dictatorships.”

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Kansanedustaja James Hirvisaaren (ps.) puoliso Merja Hirvisaari on kannellut Julkisen Sanan neuvostoon median suhtautumisesta perussuomalaisiin. Hirvisaaren mielestä tiedotusvälineet yrittivät vaalien alla muokata kansalaisten mielipiteitä perussuomalaisia vastaan. Erityisen törkeänä esimerkkinä hän pitää persu-sanaa, jota hänen mukaansa käytettiin ”halventavana, pilkkaavana ja valheellisena mitätöinnin työkaluna.”

Read whole story.

open Democracy: The undesirables of the world and how universality changed camp

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: According to Ash Amin, Europe has gone within a space of a few years from 85% acceptance rate for asylum seekers in the 1990s to 85% rejection by the end of the last decade. 

He continues: “The West, which had endorsed the posture of the free world, wanted to become a place of welcome for all the people sent packing from the Soviet Bloc or who had managed to escape. The occidental world, with the United States and Europe as its leaders, declared themselves the bearers of the notion of universality. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the need for a universality rhetoric has dissolved or changed camp, showing the subjective and relative nature of universality itself.”

After the fall of the Berlin Wall refugee and migrant status was no longer a universal right because it was a “matter for negotiation,” according to him. 

Probably this gray zone that Amin writes about could shed light on the moral state of Europe these days with respect to refugees and the rise of right-wing populist parties. There is no clear enemy like the Soviet Union as before so its ok to bend some of our civil right laws as we have seen happening in the United States.

If we speak of justice on the one hand but send refugees without thinking twice to be killed, persecuted or tortured in the countries they came from, are we not eroding those very values that hold us together as a society?

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Ash Amin

Within the space of a few years, Europe has gone from an 85% acceptance rate for asylum seekers in the 90’s to an 85% rejection rate by the end of the 2000’s.

Read whole story.

Thank to @refugeevoice for the heads up.

Helsingin Sanomat: Kaksi kertaa muita rikkaampi

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Comment: Coming from three cultural backgrounds, I personally feel comfortable with an identity like “multicultural Finn” in this country. This is ok as long as I am in Finland but things change if I go to the United States and Argentina, where there is no need to have multicultural before the name of the country. 

Melissa Heikkilä’s column sheds light on the ever-growing number of multicultural Finns that are coming out and who are proud of their background. Some of them grew up in Finland while other ones came here when they were adults. One matter unites all of them: at least one of their parents are immigrants.

If you want to castrate a person spiritually, one sure way of doing it is by forcing the person to deny a part of his or her identity. This is why assimilation cannot and should never be a part of our integration program in Finland.

The good news is that it’s never too late to bring out that other side. In my case it happened when I met a beautiful girl from Colombia at high school. She opened up a dormant world that took me back to one of the places I was once from.

If you accept who you are you will feel new power and strength. That is why those who are critical of multiculturalisn fear us so much.

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Melissa Heikkilä

Asun alueella, joka on tunnettu värikkäästä kansallisuuksien kirjosta. Yhdessä kerrostalorapussa voi asua koko maailma. Vieri vieressä ruskeiden ovien postiluukkujen takana elävät harmoniassa Virtaset, Smithit, Nguyenit, Hosseinit ja Rodriguezit.

Read whole story.

Xenophobia and racism are the poverty of Finland today

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Some claim that ever-growing poverty and social inequality in Finland were the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset scored such a big election victory in April. We read in the media about ever-growing bread lines and how it has become more difficult for some people to make it through the month economically.  Even so, does this justify growing xenophobia and racism in our society?

Some cast their only vote in April in the belief that our most pressing problems would be solved by voting for an anti-immigration candidate of the PS.

Voting for such a candidate, however,  is like calling a pyromaniac to turn off a raging fire. You need qualified firemen to deal with that kind of threat in the same way that Finland needs today leaders and politicians who have political experience and a strong background in economics, globalization and sociology.

Poverty is unacceptable in any society. In some parts of the world it means living off $1 a day, or even less. It means making hard decisions: I will not eat today in order to feed my children.

I remember a documentary I saw in university a long time ago about a poor family in the US Appalachia Mountains. “IN the same way that some rich folks may be proud of being rich,” the young father said standing next to his wife, “I’m also proud of being poor.”

The couple didn’t apparently have enough money to buy milk so they fed their baby gravy from a bottle.

I am certain that when Finnish politicians and policy-makers speak of poverty they don’t mean living off $1 a day or having to feed your baby gravy (läskisoosi).

Poverty means different things in affluent countries like Finland and in the developing world. Poverty teaches some of us two important lessons:  our insignificance in society and that nothing is permanent. If there is some wisdom we can learn, probably it is treating people nicely even during bad times because we never know when we’ll need their help.

The rise of racism and right-wing populism in Finland and Europe are proof that these lessons are not even being acknowledged by some. Moreover, the arrogance of some politicians is like adding salt to the open wound of Finland’s polarized society.

The more we boast our racism and suspicion of minorities in public and in private, the more our society will continue to slip into a more devastating type of poverty. We will not throw extra weight overboard to slow our downward spiral but instead our most inalienable values like social equality for all.

Xenophobia and racism are the real poverty facing Finland today.

guardian.co.uk: While the European left dithers, the right marches menacingly on

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: There are many factors that are fueling the rise of nativist right-wing populist parties in Europe. One of these is the global economic recession after September 2008, which was triggered by the bankruptcy of US banking group Lehman Brothers. Another factor has been the lack of any effective opposition to a message that aims to polarize society further.

The rise of xenophobia in Finland, for example, has been fueled by the Perussuomalaiset and little to no opposition by the media to their xenophobic message, according to a doctoral dissertation by Camila Haavisto.

Wilt Hutton’s column below attempts to answer the main challenges facing Europe on the right-wing populist front. He writes: “The trouble is that the longer the left’s response is confused, the more the populist right has begun to make anti-immigrant attitudes culturally acceptable (in Europe).”

Probably the first question we should ask is why the message of right-wing populist parties, which the PS is a part of, are unacceptable in today’s Europe?

Like much of the ongoing debate, your view depends on where you stand: Are you a target or the one attacking immigrants? Are you white or black? Muslim or Christian?

How do you think Europeans should address the right-wing populist message and challenge?

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Wilt Hutton

Immigration: The longer the left’s response is confused, the more the populist right begins to make xenophobia acceptable.  It is hard not to be very uneasy. Every month, there is another milestone passed in the ever onward march of Europe’s populist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, nativist right.

Read whole story.

Here is a comprehensive story by HBL (in Swedish) on the rise of right-wing populism in Europe.

Suomen Kuvalehti: Professori Vesa Kanniainen: Jokainen on rasisti

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: Here is another column that will add to Mark’s good contribution on what is racism. 

This column below is by Vesa Kanniainen, a professor of economics at Helsinki University. When reading opinion-pieces on immigration in Finland and elsewhere it is important to find out who the writer is and what may be his motives for writing on the topic.

We at Migrant Tales don’t hide the fact that we aim to be a blog that debates some of the salient issues facing the immigrant and minority community in Finland. It aims to be a voice for those whose views and situation are understood poorly and heard faintly by the media, politicians and public.

In my opinion, Kanniainen’s column is a borderline case justifying racism on the one hand and giving it the thumbs down on the other.  He attempts to defend how we are all racists deep inside and that this hinges on our genes. Why doesn’t he speak how nationalism, instead of genes, fuels racism?

Some believe that the flip side of nationalism is always racism. according to Chris Hedges.

A lot of people who play down racism in Finland do so because they are white and are not immigrants.  The issue affects them in another way as opposed to a person who may have a multicultural background.

If racism is learned it can be unlearned. How much we want to unlearn racism is, I believe, the big question that Kanniainen should address.

He concludes: “As an economist I know that Finland needs immigrants. Finns still have the right to not accept the values that many immigrants represent. This isn’t racism. ”

What does this statement tell us? What does it imply about immigrants? Is it for acceptance of minorities or under certain conditions?

True,  Finns (no pun intended) do not have to accept the values of some immigrant groups in the same way that immigrants are not obliged to accept the values that some Finns have. By values I do not mean being against the UN Declaration of Human Rights but permitting people in our society to make choices about their lifestyles. This is a human right.

Kanniainen’s column is a good example of the undercurrents found in today’s debate over Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity. We state that we want to accept immigrants but the conditions are quite rigorous and narrow. These conditions are generally being made by white Finns.

What makes these conditions suspect, however, is that they’d never be suggested to members of our own group. 

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Vesa Kanniainen

YK:n yleissopimuksen mukaan rasismilla tarkoitetaan rotuun, ihonväriin, syntyperään tai kansalliseen tai etniseen alkuperään perustuvaa erottelua, poissulkemista. Koko elämän mysteeri on kuitenkin rasistinen.

Read whole story.