More anti-immigration “goodies” from the Social Democrats

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If you want to look for some of the mentors of the Social Democratic Party’s anti-immigration wing providing sound-bite goodies to the media, MP Kari Rajamäki is one of them. Contrary to MP Eero Heinäluoma and SDP chairperson, Jutta Urpilainen, Rajamäki has a long track record of seeing immigration as a threat.

Rajamäki was interior minister in 2003-07.

Even though one would think that a left-wing party like the SDP should have a more favorable view of downtrodden classes like immigrants, in Finland it does not work that way. Setting aside a few nuances, the anti-immigrant wing of the SDP is very similar to the ultra-nationalist True Finns’ immigration policy.

In a letter to the editor in Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest daily, Rajamäki upholds and continues to spread the myth that we are being “invaded” by hordes of illegal workers/refugees and therefore we must suspect every foreigner that enters the country.  In the letter to Helsingin Sanomat, he incites fear and anti-immigrant rhetoric by stating foreign workers are a problem because they work illegally and do not pay taxes.

It would be great that the SDP, instead of vilifying foreign workers, would actually give us some concrete cases of the “worrying” trend of illegal immigrants in the country. One of the saddest aspects of the SDP’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is that it helps maintain the present abuse and discrimination in the Finnish labor market.

Local government minister, Mari Kiviniemi of the Center Party, was spot on in her May Day speech when she said that Heinäluoma and company want to capitalize politically on people’s stereotypes of foreigners.

Certainly we should find and expose companies that break the law instead of labelling every foreigner in this country as a potential tax evader. (See Are You a Target of Racism question number 5).

Have we seen any concrete visible cases of wrongdoing of illegal workers and tax evaders? No. Why? Because it is a probably nothing more than a ploy by the SDP to bash immigrants  and keep public opinion hostile to foreigners as the 2011 parliamentary elections near.

Fallacies of Finland’s immigration-refugee debate

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If we look at the ongoing immigration-refugee debate in Finland, there are six seven fallacies that one should look at critically in order to understand the debate. I have compiled a list of the top six seven claims that I consider the most absurd and politically questionable but are used constantly in the ongoing debate:

1. The SDP “love it (or leave it)” or “In Rome do as the Romans do” (maassa maan tavalla) stand on immigration. This rhetoric is nothing more than a good-cop-bad-cop tactic to bash immigrants while saying that the SDP party “welcomes newcomers.” Have you noticed that nowhere in the statements of SDP chairperson Jutta Urpilainen and MP Eero Heinäluoma do they tell you how many immigrants they are speaking of and from where? Last year some 4,000 immigrants got residence permits from outside the EU. Both Heinäluoma and Juttilainen speak as if Finland were not an EU member where people can work freely in different member-state countries.

2. SDP MP Eero Heinäluoma: “immigrants will fuel racism.”  This statement was made in the Swedish-language daily HBL. The MP does not consider racism a problem in Finland since it is the immigrants’ fault. They “will take jobs away from Finns,”according to him.  Heinäluoma’s argument is as ludicrous as those given by some sexual offenders,  who claim that “the devil made them do it” because the woman looked so sexy and therefore it was her fault she got raped.

3. Finns fear being labelled racists and therefore don’t speak freely enough about immigration issues. All one has to do is check the media in Finland to see that there is a very lively and passionate debate on immigration and refugees. Those who disagree are anti-immigration groups like the True Finns, Hommaforum, and Jussi Halla-aho, who would inflame discussion by fuelling it with more nationalism and racism.

4. True Finns: We are defending Western values. Since when was spreading hatred and populism defending modern Western values? I am certain that the National Socialist Party of Germany in the early 1930s used the same arguments to seize power. If parties like the PS and others would get in power, their aim would be to undermine civil liberties and create a many-tier society where anything different from their point of view would be seen as a threat. The first civil liberties that would fly out of the window are acceptance of diversity, freedom of speech and equality. Like the Nazis and other ultra-nationalist groups, they would argue that diversity is bad and therefore we have the right to kick out everyone who we do not like from the country (see Lebensraum). If you ever meet a representative from an anti-immigration group, ask him/her what should be done to people they consider “threats” to our values. You will get back as an answer a modern version of Lebensraum.

5. “We aren’t racists.” Too many speak about racism in Finland without being a minority nor having an adequate background to understand the social ill. Just because one has an academic degree is no guarantee that they understand racism. Some of the big deficiencies in Finland concerning the integration program is that it takes too little into account what immigrants want and need. Racist groups use the argument “we aren’t racists” to maintain a hate discourse in public. When you threaten to sue them for slander, they argue that their freedom-of-speech right has been violated. In English we call that type of defense a generous dose of phony baloney.

6. Being “critical on immigration.” This is a funny term made up by the anti-immigration groups that do not want to be labelled racists. Thus we are critical NOT racists when we bash immigrants and refugees with colorful adjectives. If one studied what they are actually saying, it would be easy to conclude that their “critique” of immigrants and refugees is a gross understatement. It is only a flowery diplomatic term that hides their real agenda, which is not acceptance of other cultures in our society.

7. Foreign workers are being abused and working illegally. This is favorite of the Social Democratic Party. If we were to believe them, the majority of the foreign workers in Finland are working in the black for slave wages. If this is the case, why aren’t we hearing of any huge busts in the media or of officials clamping down on the serous problem? The answer is simple: It is a scare tactic by the SDP to spread and maintain a climate of racism in Finland.  The last thing that the likes of Heinäluoma and others are worried about are working conditions and discrimination that immigrants face on a daily basis.

SDP-Heinäluoma anti-immigration drama: How many are threatening Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After one wing of the Social Democratic Party notched closer to the anti-immigration True Finns, one should quietly ask what’s all the fuss about? SDP MP Eero Heinäluoma stated in an interview with Swedish daily HBL that Finland should not encourage labor immigrants because there are 300,000 unemployed. Fair enough, then he goes on and blames immigrants for spreading racism because “they will take jobs from Finns.”

But let’s ask how many workers came from outside the EU to Finland last year. Are you ready for this: 4,000, according SDP MP Susanna Huovinen. Yes, that’s right: 4,000 people are threatening Finland!

The second intentionally unanswered question by Heinäluoma is from where are these non-EU workers going to come from? The Ukraine? Belarus?

Apart from inciting nationalist sentiment at the expense of the immigrant community, Heinäluoma and SDP chairperson Jutta Urpilainen are examples of people that give politics  a bad name. Some will sell their souls and ideals wholesale to further their careers.

SDP veteran politician Erkki Tuomioja is another party member who has given the thumbs down to Heinäluoma’s populist anti-immigration rhetoric. In his blog he accuses the SDP MP of making unfounded statements like “immigrants take jobs from Finns.” Tuomioja continues: “This argument (used by Heinäluoma) only happens in a stagnant and lifeless economy where workers are regulated.”

It is evident that Heinäluoma and Urpilainen are opporunistically using immigrants to further their party’s chances in the 2011 elections. The collateral damage their stances have caused on the immigrant community has come in the form of bolstered racism and suspicion in this country.

¿Eres una víctima del racismo en Finlandia?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

El exámen original lo publiqué en inglés y ha recibido ya más de 10 200 visitas y 1 080 comentarios (abril de 2010). El racismo es un mal social que no se puede condonar en ninguna sociedad.

Este es un pequeño examen para extranjeros para saber si eres una víctima de la discriminación en Finlandia:

1) Soy autónomo (para algunos es la única manera de conseguir empleo)
2) Estoy desempleado (25% de los inmigrantes en Finlandia están sin trabajo)
3) Los finlandeses me miran como un bicho raro
4) Empleados públicos, como la policía, toman su tiempo conmigo
5) La policía me considera culpable antes de que yo compruebe que soy inocente
6) Algunos finlandeses me tratan demasiado bien
7) Los finlandeses desconfían de mí
8)Tengo que ser dos veces mejor que un finlandés en el trabajo
9) Si me equivoco, es un “escandalo” más grande que normal
Diez)En un debate, siempre sé menos que un finlandés.
11) Me atacan con comentarios hostiles en mi blog porque denuncio el racismo.

Si respondiste “sí” a dos de los casos, es posible que eres una víctima del racismo en Finlandia pero si fue afrimativo en tres o más casos tu respuesta, eres definitivamente una víctima de la discriminación.

Finnish immigration-refugee debate food for thought: the future and present

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Have you noticed how different politicians speak of multiculturalism, immigrants, immigration, a- and b-class workers in the future tense?

Since they speak in the future tense, it means that there aren’t any immigrants nor any a- and b-class workers in Finland. These politicians, like from the Social Democratic Party and others that support a tougher anti-immigration policy, try to sell to us the idea that they are SAVING us and the country from these matters.

Disproving them is easy.  All you have to do is to take a walk to the center of any Finnish city. You will see people from different cultures, globalization, immigrants, unemployed,  a-, b- and even c-class workers.

When you read the next comment by a politician on immigration, check to see if he speaks in the present or future tense.

Forging healthy ethnic relations in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The ongoing debate on labor immigrants and refugees goes much further into the schizophrenic relationship that some Finns have of the outside world and diversity.On the one side, you have people who have no issues with cultural and ethnic diversity because Finland is already such a country. It is a normal and welcome characteristic of our society. But then you have others that see themselves as the last Mohicans defending “Finnish values and race.”

Here is a list of observations I have made during the past months concerning the ongoing immigration-refugee debate:

(1)Debating openly the role of immigration and refugees is healthy. When has Finland debated so openly issues like racism and diversity? Despite all the hysteria and xenophobia, some believed that racism did not exist or was a minor issue. Today we know that it is a visible  sore spot of our society.

(2) The core of the debate and the schizophrenic view of other cultures offers us a good opportunity to attack such deficiencies at schools. Our educational system has failed because it has never paid enough attention to what diversity means in our society. In 1870, 15% of the population of Helsinki was foreign-born. Why have we intentionally forgotten such facts about ourselves and that we are officially a bilingual country? How many of us come from other cultures? Why do we sidestep such historical facts about Finland?  ANSWER: It isn’t mentioned enough because some, intentionally or unintentionally, have pretty closed and racist views of the outside world.

(3) Change in our educational system will come when immigrants and their children have decision-making power and influence over how things are taught and what values are strengthened at school and in society generally.  This is what we call equal opportunity in the labor market and participatory democracy.

(4) We need new historians to take a fresh look at Finland and to not echo what has been taught and continues to strengthen stereotypes and old suspicions of others.  For example, the Russians are “bad” people because they attacked us in 1939. True, it was the Communist government, but that was over 80 years ago!

(5) Our perception of ourselves as a nation is outdated as well and seated in many respects in the 1930s, when eugenics helped find our identity through race. In most of the Western world, these types of “theories” have been disproven and are nothing more than boloney. This type of education is crucial since the immigrant population is growing. Some 4% of people who live here come from other cultures.

(6) Since some of us don’t have a clue what racism and discrimination is because they feel that they can treat newcomers anyway they wish, we defend such questionable values by portraying some ethnic groups like demons. Education should stress and encourage healthy ethnic relations among people who live in this country.  The ongoing debate and Finland’s stance on immigrants, which has changed slowly, reveals that too many Finns have no idea what it means to live in a society with people from other cultures.

(7) The aim of this country in this century should be to create healthy ethnic relations and pathways of incorporation into our society. Today, unfortunately, some of us are busy building walls on those pathways.  The road to good ethnic relations is a two-way street, where there is a generous amount of give-and-take on all sides.

Take two of the SDP-Heinäluoma anti-immigration saga

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Social Democrat MP Eero Heinäluoma, who outraged a number of politicians, some Finns and immigrants over the weekend in an HBL interview on Saturday over his statements on labor immigration, incredulously states in the Social Democratic Party daily Demari that the party’s immigration policy has not stiffened.

Taking into account the reaction and the editorials in some of Finland’s major dailies on Monday, it seems that Heinäluoma is the only person who does not yet know that the SDP’s immigration policy has taken a sharp turn to the populist right.

(UPDATED 26.4) Moreover, the reckless path that Heinäluoma and Urpilainen have taken the SDP threatens to split the party in two.  Either way, the SDP will lose if their election-campaign gamble backfires or pays off. If it does not work, guess whose heads will roll and if it pays off, they will have to put into practice their populist immigration policy.

As a rude insult to all those immigrants working and living in this country, he suggests that foreigners that come to Finland are apparently too dumb to learn the Finnish language and therefore will be condemned to earning slave wages. “Those foreigners that come here with deficient language skills and knowledge of Finnish culture can be used to work for lower wages,” he said.

This argument and spreading the stereotype that “immigrants only work for slave wages” appears to be a new trick by some SDP members to incite nationalist sentiment against foreign workers. I wonder if he has not, with his populist statement, contributed to greater discrimination of immigrants in the job market?

If I had the opportunity to face Heinäluoma and the SDP chairperson, Jutta Urpilainen, I would tell them in plain and clear Finnish:  Everything has its limit. Stop using immigrants for your opportunistic political goals!

(Updated 26.4) Heinaluoma is “concerned” over the labor situation

Heinäluoma said he is concerned about the labor situation in Finland but has not raised a finger, never mind not even made a suggestion, how he plans to resolve what he calls “a- and b-class employees.” Probably somebody should tell him that those types of wage-earners exist in Finland today.

Taking into account official 26% unemployment among immigrants in Finland, I have yet to hear from Heinäluoma how he plans to further  equal opportunity for all in this country.

The reason why these issues have not been addressed is because Heinäluoma is not interested in improving the lot of immigrant workers in Finland. He finds it easier to maintain a climate of distrust than take concrete steps to help Finland’s ever-growing immigrant community.

Väyrynen backs SDP’s Heinäluoma’s anti-immigration rhetoric

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Foreign trade and development mininster, Paavo Väyrynen (Center Party), who served as foreign minister during 1977-1993 under President Urho Kekkonen (1956-82) and Mauno Koivsto (1982-94), Finland’s last cold war president, supported in Ilta-Sanomat Eero Heinäluoma’s stance on immigration.

The Social Democrat MP was quoted in Saturday’s HBL as stating that Finland should not encourage labor immigrants from coming to Finland because of high unemployment. He even incredulously suggested that immigrants would be responsible for inciting racism because they would take jobs from Finns.

Väyrynen, who is vying for the party chair in June, took distance from his rivals Mauri Pekkarinen, Mari Kiviniemi and Timo Kaunisto, who denounced  Heinäluoma’s statements as being populist.

“In a situation where we have high unemployment, we have to restrain foreign labor (from coming to Finland). I don’t think his statement were disagreeable or populist,” Väyrynen was quoted as saying in Ilta-Sanomat.

Despite Väyrynen’s long political career, here is a politician who was responsible for the country’s foreign policy during 1977-94, when Finland had little respect for human rights never mind immigrants and returned Soviet refugees back to the USSR. Väyrynen was one of the architects of our cold war policy with Moscow. During that period foreign investment to Finland was miniscule and our immigrant population numbered a few thousand in the 1970s.

So it is nothing unusual that he “understands” Heinäluoma’s “concern.”

SDP Heinäluoma’s populist anti-immigrant “roll”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Social Democrats are on the populist anti-immigrant roll: SDP strongman Eero Heinäluoma stirred passions on Saturday in an HBL interview (in Swedish) by stating that Finland should not be too enthusiastic about bringing labor immigrants due to high unemployment among Finns. UPDATED (25.4.) Some dailies such as Ilta-Sanomat asked if Heinäluoma believes that immigrants will take “our women” as well.

Heinäluoma’s comments have been condemned not only by Center Party Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, but by the chairman of the Young Social Democrats, Teemu Hirvonen, who is concerned by the party’s ever-growing populist stand.

Echoing fears that part of the Social Democratic leaders have stiffened their stances on immigration to get votes in the 2011 elections, Hirvonen said that the party should stick to its values and not allow anti-immigrant groups like the True Finns to control the ongoing debate.

UPDATE (25.4) Another incredible snow job hurled at the public by Heinäluoma is that since labor immigrants “will take away jobs from Finns,” this will lead to racism. So, in essence, Heinäluoma is telling us that it is ok to be racist because “foreigners are taking away our jobs.”

This low ebb in SDP politics in Finland is a slap in the face to those immigrants who have lived in this country for years, paid taxes and work hard to make a living. Heinäluoma doesn’t appear to care about them because it is not the example he wants to give about immigrants. It won’t win his party a lot of votes.

If we did not know that Heinäluoma is a Social Democrat, some of us would think he belongs to an anti-immigrant party like the True Finns. And, please, who says that more immigrants will fuel racism? Aren’t they offering a service to this society? Doesn’t their work and tax-euros count? Is Heinäluoma afraid that his party is having the same problems adapting to the real world as the Center Party did before EU membership in 1995 with respect to the agricultural sector?

Some believe that one of the mentors behind the anti-immigration wing of the SDP party is former interior minister, Kari Rajamäki. I once attended a panel in October with him and guess what: The True Finn representative and Rajamäki were in full agreement about “the threat of refugees” to Finland.

Taking into account that EU citizens have the right to work in any member country, what did Heinäluoma mean by his statement? (Updated 27.4)  Who ARE those foreign workers that Heinäluoma warns us of? It seems pretty incredible that he does not even give us a clue of where the “threat” is coming from.

Was it another xenophobic trick by the SDP to lure voters from the True Finns?

True Finns’ chairman, Timo Soini, thinks so. He was quoted in Helsingin Sanomat as stating that the SDP adopted the True Finns’ policy labor immigration.

Folks, the show will turn more tragic-comic when the SDP and True Finns start to fight each other in public to prove which party has the toughest stand against immigrants.

Racism in Finland and elsewhere

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Every society has its racists but the question is where we draw the line. For a country like Finland, the problem of drawing a clear line hinges on the fact that there are still too few immigrant and ethnic groups living in this country, amounting for 2.7% of the population (143,256).

Even though foreigners in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century had a big impact on Finland (Stockmann, Fazer, Rettig, Paulig, Finnlayson and others), our view of cultural diversity as a normal characteristic of  society is mixed. Some Finns don’t have any qualms with this while for others it is a life-and-death issue.

If we look at the laws, educational system and the ideals we want to pass on to our children, however, it is easy to conclude that immigrant-and-refugee hate groups in Finland are a minority whose presence and arguments are storms in a tea-cup.

A good example is the present one-sided immigration-refugee debate. While the anti-diversity-and-populist True Finns, and to many sad respects the Social Democratic party under chairman Jutta Urpilainen, have not seen their popularity soar in the polls despite their stiffening rhetoric  on immigrantion and refugees.

If we look at the definition of racism and agree that it means “discrimination or prejudice based on ethnic background,” we still have to look at the specific society where this type of social ill is taking place. How do people discriminate in Finland, how do we define racism and what does the law say? The Equality Act, for example, gives clear definitions of discrimination and harassment.

In my opinion, an excellent example of discrimination in this country is high immigrant unemployment. Since racism attempts to exclude and keep other groups from realizing their potential in society, high immigrant unemployment serves this purpose and shows where we have a lot more work to do. Immigrant unemployment in Finland at the end of 2009 stood officially at 26%(!) compared with 9.2% nationally.

Even though anti-immigrant-and-refugee groups in Finland attempt to change the ongoing debate and their hate agendas with funny catchwords like “immigrant-critic,” and “freedom of speech/democracy,” we must draw the line as a society and call a spade a spade.

What would we say if there were anti-women’s-rights groups that used the same arguments to justify oppression of women in public as they do when stereotyping immigrants and refugees?

I am certain that many of us would be outraged.