Arsonists attack Buddhist temple in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The attack by arsonists on Friday of a Buddhist temple in Turku’s Moisio’s district is another worrisome sign of how a deranged group of people can undermine Finland’s good name. If there is any finger-pointing for what happened, it should be at some Finnish politicians who, owing to the April 2011 elections, have fuelled such acts by their populist statements and shameful lack of leadership.

Immigrants who live in Finland and those that will come to work here are being singled out by some opportunist politicians as scapegoats for the country’s economic woes. Social Democrat MP Eero Heinäluoma and MP Kari Rajamäki are good examples of how their anti-immigrant statements spill over into racism.

Heinäluoma, for example, made the incredible remark recently that immigrants will fuel racism because they will take jobs away from Finns.  Rajamäki likes to call asylum-seeker to Finland “refugee shoppers.”

Why haven’t Heinäluoma and Rajamäki condemned acts of racism in Finland forcefully? The answer is disturbingly obvious.

These politicians should not forget SDP’s roots and how the party thanks to Väinö Tanner (1881-1966) played a critical role in not permitting Finnish Jews to be deported to Nazi concentration camps during World War 2.

The vice president of the Vietnamese Buddhist Community in Finland, Ari Vuokko, told Finnish Broadcast Company (YLE) that it wasn’t the first time Buddhist families in this country have been the target of attacks by racists.

Swastika signs had been sprayed on traffic signs near the temple.

“This is shocking and worrisome,” he said. “Do worshippers dare use this temple, can people practice their faith in Finland?”

Finland was recently named by Newsweek as the best country in the world in terms of health, economic dynamism, or openness of its economy and the breadth of its corporate sector, education, political environment, and quality of life.

With attacks of the Buddhist temple serving as a rude reminder of what racism can do to a minority community and society, we should ask Newsweek to include in their survey how open a society is to cultural diversity.

The ceiling of the Buddhist temple that was attacked Friday night by Arsonists. Photo: YLE The ceiling of the Buddhist temple after it was attacked by arsonists. Damages are estimated in the tens of thousands of euros. YLE

Immigration reveals what Finnish political parties are made of

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The political field is pretty lopsided in this country these days: left-wing parties that were “progressive” in their approach to society have now become conservative and those that were on the “right” appear to be more open to the outside world.

If one looks at the recent statements on immigration by Social Democratic Party MP Eero Heinäluoma and  Kokoomus’ Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb one can conclude that the ideological tables have turned quite radically.

Even the Center Party, which has tradictionally been nationalistic and conservative in its view of the outside world, has under the leadership of Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi become a more middle-of-the-road party.

Even though the Social Democrats have open-minded people such as Liisa Jaakonsaari and Erkki Tuomioja, the anti-immigrant hardliners like MP Kari Rajamäki spoil the day. Rajamäki’s stance on immigrants and refugees is on the same wave length as the True Finns.

Certainly one cannot conclude that all of the members of Kokoomus want to make immigration work for Finland.  Wille Rydman and Kai Pönttinen are sore examples of how  some politicians want to use the immigration card for political gain.

How exploited are immigrants in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I spoke with an SDP MP recently about how Finland had turned into a two-tier market, where small- and medium-sized companies were allegedly exploiting on a grand scale immigrant employees by overworking and grossly underpaying them.

I asked why there haven’t been any big cases in the media about this type of exploitation and why the SDP is so passionate about the matter before  elections? There has been some news in the media about how some fast-food establishments do underpay and overwork immigrants but it does not suggest a national trend.

An important question that one should ask is how widespread it is and why the authorities have done so little? If it is widespread, it is further proof of how disenfranchised immigrants are in this country.

I say if because I have not seen many cases published in the media only the concern of the Social Democrats, who point the finger accusingly more at immigrants than employers.

Do you know of any cases of immigrants being exploited by employers in Finland?

The mea culpa of a former Finnish immigrant basher

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There was a very interesting interview of former anti-immigration Muutos 2011 president, Juha Mäki-Ketelä, in Suomen Kuvalehti, who surprisingly resigned from his post in July. Muutos 2011 is close to registering as a political party to take part in the April 2011 election. Its campaign platform is strongly based on the usual anti-immigration rhetoric found in similar xenophobic and ultra-nationalist parties in Europe.

Even though the interview sounds like a mea culpa by Mäki-Ketelä, one gets the impression that his hardline stance against immigrants scared him because of the  people that rallied around Muutos 2011’s cause.

The Suomen Kuvalehti journalist asks Mäki-Ketelä if he was surprsied that ”racist-oriented” people were attracted to his party.

“Yes…  I did not understand how many crazy people gathered (around the party),” he said, adding that he was ignorant of ultra-nationalistic groups like Suomen Sisu and admitted having read a few times Jussi Halla-aho’s blog.

Muutos 2011, which has effectively imploded, is a good example of how the majority of Finns don’t want to join the let’s-bash-immigrants bandwagon.

Muutos 2011 aims to win three seats to Parliament in next year’s election.

A disfavor to Finland’s future

Posted on by Migrant Tales

With the April 2011 election approaching, parties in Finland are feverishly scrambling on ways to lure voters. One campaign issue that has the ability to move voters and inflame passions is immigration.

One important matter to keep in mind in the ongoing debate on immigration is to understand its parts: immigrants living in Finland, labor immigrants from the EU and elsewhere, and refugees (quota and asylum-seekers). When political parties and their representatives debate immigration, try to find out which of these groups they are talking about.

Which parties are using the immigrant-bashing card to lure votes? Of the one’s that have MPs in parliament, the True Finns are the main culprits. Their party’s position on immigration is pretty clear: xenophobic, ethnocentric and off the wall. Other parties like the Social Democrats aren’t too far off; in all parties you will find people who have anti-immigration stances.

Here are some points that should help you figure out the double-talk and baloney that some parties put out concerning the subject:

(1) We want to do away with multiculturalism (True Finns). Political parties use this term multiculturalism to mean a society with many cultures. When they state that they want to do away with multiculturalism, what do they mean? Kick out all the foreigners in Finland? Kick out the foreigners who are different from us? Close our borders and don’t allow immigrants to move to our country? Ask dark-skinned immigrants to dye their hair and get plastic surgery?

(2) The state should not finance multiculturalism in order to speed integration (Wille Rydman, Kokoomus). This is one of the best examples of double-talk I have seen by a Finnish politician. Rydman is suggesting that we should not allow immigrants to cherish their identity and background since he thinks that this will speed their integration into Finnish society. Rydman should look at studies on the subject that show the total opposite. He should visit Amerindian reservations in the United States that tragically show what consequences ripping a person’s culture and identity have.”

I could go on with a long list of other incredulous affirmations that will knock you on your back.

One important matter to keep in mind: Immigration is a political issue. Some groups, like the True Finns, may place ludicrous expectations of how immigrants are supposed to adapt to our society. The question, however, is if such expectations are realistic.

Having a successful immigration policy requires a long-term perspective so that immigrants may become productive and dynamic members of our society. Being only focused on the 2011 election is doing Finland a disfavor.

If I were an ultra-nationalist immigrant basher in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If I were an ultra nationalist and enjoyed bashing immigrants for fun and political profit, Finland is the country to be in today.

I could open my mouth and say almost anything I please no matter how offensive and absurd my statements would be to other cultures and groups. Nobody can call me a racist because I am only exercising my right to free speech and being “critical” of immigrants and immigration to this country.

In the process of  “defending free speech” and requiring immigrants to follow new xenophobic  laws, which I would never dare enforce on myself never mind my constituents, my popularity would soar to stellar heights. I could get a lot of votes by spreading distrust and hatred of people who are different from me.

There are so few immigrants in Finland, never mind Muslims and Roma from Romania and Bulgaria, that I can actually name those that I am bashing. The countries biggest dailies allow me to print my xenophobic statements because some of them stand behind, albeit silently, with what I say.

Yes, it is an excellent time to be an ultra-nationalist immigrant basher in Europe!

Don’t let the “critics” hijack the immigration debate in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We would be in a lot of trouble if the one-sided immigration debate in Finland was left to a certain group of people. Those that I am referring to call themselves “critical of immigration,” maahanmuuttokriittinen. It is a funny term used to describe groups that are in fact hostile to immigration.

More people in Finland are beginning to understand the difference between racism and sensible debate.

One of these is Center Party Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi. She recently labeled SDP MP and anti-immigration hardliner Eero Heinäluoma’s statements as “flirting with racism.” Naturally Heinäluoma does not consider his statements racist at all. One of the many incredulous affirmations he has made is that immigrants will fuel racism because they will take jobs away from Finns.

The argument is a bit like the man who raped a woman and then claims that it was the victim’s fault because she was wearing a mini skirt.

There are countless of other examples of anti-immigration groups like the True Finns who claim not to be racist but in truth some are. You can find, unfortunately, these types of people in all of Finland’s political parties.

Since ignorance is not an excuse for breaking the law, it should not be one for insulting other ethnic groups. Even so, some of the views that some Finnish politicians have of immigrants and immigration dates back to the murky 1930s.

Even though not everything that is debated can be slammed as racist, it shows how much in diapers the immigration debate is in Finland. Some do not even know the difference (or pretend not to know) between what is appropriate and racist.

I have said on numerous occasions that you do not need to pass new laws for immigrants in Finland. The only thing we have to do is apply those we have in force today.

A good rule of thumb when speaking of immigrants in Finland is to ask if you would ever make such a statement about your own group or voters. If not, stay clear from them.

One of the pet topics of the far-right in Finland is speaking about social security fraud. The only problem with the debate is that the  only culprits  are foreigners. Supposedly Finns are honest and therefore do not take advantage of the social security system.

Why aren’t any politicians making a big deal about social security fraud in general, or among Finns in particular? Because it is a hyper-sensitive political issue. They would not touch it with a ten-foot pole especially with elections approaching in April 2011.

Bashing foreigners and over-exaggerating social security fraud among immigrants brings more votes and political mileage.

True Finns’ immigration manifesto is full of holes and question marks

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A group of anti-immigration True Finns members published over the weekend their recipe to correct Finland’s “wayward” immigration policy. As I wrote on June 20, their new immigration policy stance will not surprise anyone since their negative and hard-line stances are well known.

Some of the recommendations in the so-called Nuiva Manifesto are full of contradictions that reveal that the True Finns are very much in the dark about how a successful immigration policy should be managed.

Let’s look at some of the manifesto’s main points:

1. Finland should abandon its multicultural policy copied from Sweden.

I never knew that Sweden was officially a multicultural country. It is a country with many immigrants but it is not officially a multicultural nation. There are only three countries in the world that are officially multicultural: Canada, Australia and England. We do not know whether they refer to multiculturalism as the Canadian social policy or that it is a demographic phenomenon.

2. But they give a quasi-definition of multiculturalism. They state that abandoning multiculturalism means that the state should not finance immigrant groups’ culture, language, identity and religion.

What does this mean in practice? First-, second- and third-generation immigrants do not have any financial support and recognition by the state to maintain their cultural heritage. The manifest does not conveniently mention if the state should end all financial support to the Swedish-speaking minority, Sami and Roma.

This part of the True Finns’ manifest is an excellent example of the double-talk on  how they plans to breach and/or water down the Constitution and Non-Discrimination Act by treating minorities unequally.

They naturally deny this and state, emphatically, that they favor a society based on equality for all.

The manifest is full of these types of contradictory political statements that make no sense and are meant to give you a generous snow job.

3. One of my favorites is the manifest’s prescription on how to keep neighborhoods from becoming ghettos.  If the True Finns had their way, they would prohibit immigrants/refugees from moving to neighborhoods where the state or municipality finances their rent.

They don’t explain if these immigrants/refugees should live in tents or tepees instead.

4. One of the terms that the True Finns love to use is “uncontrolled” immigration and talk about the Winter War. All of these True Finns that signed the manifest haven’t seen a day of war and were brought up thanks to the social welfare state.

They recommend that social aid to new immigrants should last a year maximum on moving to the country.

They don’t mention if their should be social-welfare-benefit limits to Finns. This is another excellent example of the inequality that the True Finns want but do not state aloud.

5. Those immigrants/refuges that break the law constantly will be deported from Finland irrespective of the human rights situation of their country of origin. Immigrants who have been granted a residence permit on humanitarian grounds will have their permit revoked if they go on holiday or fight in their home country.

Don’t people have the human right of freedom of movement if they HAVE a residence permit?

6. The xenophobia of this group shines through when they propose that citizenship should be granted on a conditional basis for ten years. Conditional citizenship would grant all rights to the person but it could be revoked.

Again they do not mention which types of “crimes” a person would have to be sentenced for citizenship to be revoked.

7. The True Finns top it off by stating that Finland wants immigrants that will not be “negative” to society. It supports immigrants whose impact on society will be “neutral or positive.”

What does “negative” mean and which group/institution decides to give the thumbs up or down concerning the latter?

Anti-Immigrant: calling a spade a spade in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The use of the term maahanmuuttokriittinen, or immigration critic, reveals what some journalists think about immigration to or in Finland. It can very well reveal that the journalist may hold the same opinions of anti-immigration groups.

The odd term immigration critic, which has been used to refer to groups such as Muutos 2011, True Finns and Hommaforum, has a basic message: keep Finland white. We don’t want people who are different from us.

Can we call a political group that openly insults immigrants through their ignorance and political opportunism “critical” of something? I don’t think so.

Better names for such groups could be populist, anti-immigration/xenophobic group,  or ultra-nationalistic. Since in Finland we haven’t seen many far-right wing groups until the early 1930s like the Lapua Movement, it will be interesting to see what their real colors are.

What would you call a party or movement that has the following agenda:

(1) Change the Constitution and shelve the Non-Discrimination Act;
(2) Treat different groups in society unequally;
(3) Ethnocentric and racist;
(4) Pass policy on minorities that would never be accepted by their group;
(5) Fear everyone that is different and make a big deal about it;
(6) Bow-tie racism (smiling cordially and denying that they taking away your civil rights).

Would you call such a group that has such aims simply  “immigrant critical?”

No way!

I would call it populist, anti-immigration/xenophobic group,  or ultra-nationalistic.

Note:  You can check out the Finnish-langauge verison of this post on Uusi Suomi.

True Finns to announce official stance on immigration policy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The anti-immigration True Finns will make public their official stand on immigration on Saturday, July 24. Should we now hold our collective breaths?

According to Verkkouutiset, the True Finns’ immigration policy has been drafted by Jussi Halla-aho, who enjoys bashing Muslims for fun and political profit, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, the True Finn’s youth leader and Vantaa city council member, Johannes Nieminen.

I had the opportunity to sit next to Saarakkala at a panel in October on immigration. The first matter he mentioned about immigrants  in Finland was that Muslims were “demanding” that mosques be built without paying any taxes.

I asked Saarakkala if he Finns were protected by one set of laws  and that these did not apply to immigrants? I asked him if he wanted to change the Constitution and the Non-Discrimination Act. He never answered my questions.

Nieminen said that the aim of the document is to “speak out on the problems of immigration” because present  policy will prove “fatal for Finland.”

One of the biggest flaws of parties like the True Finns is that they see immigration as a threat. Leaving immigration policy to these people would be like allowing a child to play with nuclear weapons.

Taking into account Saarakkala’s and Halla-aho’s past statements on immigration tell me that nothing constructive will come out of the announcement on Saturday.

It will be nothing more than an opportunistic statement to lure votes with the April 2011 elections in mind.