Ever wondered the source of the strong undercurrent of xenophobia in present-day Finland? The answer is in its history. During independence, Finland has been quite an unfriendly country towards foreigners. The Restricting Act of 1939 speaks volumes. Did you know that Finland passed its first immigration act in 1983 or about 66 years after gaining independence?
The prevailing xenophobic attitude and suspicion of foreigners reveal a lot of things like the rise of the far-right Perussuomnalaiset (PS)*.
It also explains why the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) interviewed every candidate who applied before for Finnish citizenship. I was one of them.
My interview with Supo took over two hours, and the first question that asked was, “why are you applying for Finnish citizenship?”
My answer was straightforward: “Because it’s my right.”
A tabloid Ilta-Sanomat billboard from 1992. Much of the hostility that people of color faced in the 1990s was by the media. Here, the tabloid states that Somalis conned the authorities to get asylum in Finland.
Behind that response, because it’s my right, came from my insistence that since my mother was Finnish, I too should be considered a Finn. Even if Finnish women had the right to vote from 1906, they weren’t trusted until 1984 to give Finnish citizenship to their children. Only Finnish men could do that.
Prior to the interview with Supo, I had some issues with the honorary consul of Mali in Helsinki called Jalkanen. When I went to visit him to get a visa to that West African country, he appeared inebriated and was very suspicious about me visiting Mali.
At the time I worked for Apu magazine, and wanted to do a travel piece on Mali and Niger.
At the meeting with Jalkanen, his suspicion grew as we spoke. He then called a friend of his who was a Supo agent. He asked him to pry into my secret Interpol files to make a background check. His Supo friend called back quite rapidly.
Jalkanen started to speak after hanging up the phone with his friend.
Like many children of Finnish parents, I, too, spent summers in the countryside with my grandparents. During all of these years, I thought, incorrectly, that I was a Finnish citizen or had a right to citizenship. I was wrong.
Until 1984, children of Finnish men had the right to pass on citizenship to their children. Even if women got the right to vote in 1906, it took about 66 years after independence for women to win this right.
This meant, in effect, that I was treated as a foreigner in this country. I had to get residence permits and at one point a work permit for each job I had.
One day, at the Aliens’ Office, I asked one of the employees why I had to apply for a residence permit if I was a Finn because of my mother. The response shocked me to the core.
Being a foreigner in Finland in the 1980s meant a lot of red tape. Residence permits were first granted for six months and a work permit for each job. On top of this, your human rights, which were considered suspect since it spoke out against the former Soviet Union, were violated.
“In our opinion, you are not a Finn,” she snapped.
Twenty-year-old Fardowsa Mahamoud’s questioning why the hijab, or veil, is not permitted in the Finnish military brought a sense of déjà-vu. About six years ago, Busman Gill Sukhdarshan Singh won after a year-long legal battle to wear a turban at work.
In Finland, Sikh bus drivers won the right to use turbans at work, while in the United Kingdom granted such a right in 1969.
Singh’s struggle and Mahamud’s rejection by the Finnish military are all examples of how some sectors of Finland continue to believe that they are the only one’s living in this country. Even if our official adaption policy is supposed to be a two-way street, it is a one-way process (assimilation), full stop.
Mahamud wanted to enroll in the army to serve later as a peacekeeper, which is her dream. Her efforts came to an abrupt end when an interview with the Karelia Brigade said they did not permit hijabs for safety reasons and that uniforms had to have the same appearance.
“I was disappointed to learn this,” she was quoted as saying in Yle News. “I wouldn’t have applied for service if I didn’t accept what they wear in the army, but the hijab is my choice and decision. It’s important to me.”
Finland is a cowardly and paranoic country that does not believe in humanity. But I respect humanity because GOD is the great Creator of man, and all of God’s creatures are important and valuable to me. Man is a creature of God. I am a disciple of truth, and the truth is my power.
Through this blog, I declare my readiness for the whole world and the universe. Declare readiness to rescue and release Finnish women and their children held captive by ISIS in Syria at the Al-Hol Camp!
A lot has been written in the Finnish media on the repatriation of Finnish women and their children to Finland. In Norway, there was a government crisis in January 2020 after an alleged Norwegian woman was repatriated to the country allegedly linked with Isis and her five-year-old child who needed medical treatment. Denmark, one of Europe’s most Islamophobic country announced that it plans to repatriate 22 Danish women and their children, according to Reuters.
These are Finnish women at the camp. Finland has a legal and moral duty to save them. But Finland is a cowardly, paranoic, and dishonest country and unwilling to show mercy to its children.
But I am an Iranian, a zealous Iranian zealous for months. I have been expressing my desire to save these innocent children and their poor mothers. Still, everyone says to me: No, this is not possible. We should not bring ISIS children to Finland. They are Muslims and are dangerous. Several people, all Finnish, even said to me: Do you know their fathers? Are you related to them?
These are horrible and extremely unfair questions. I have no racial or family relationship with them. I have never seen any of them. But my relationship with them is a human relationship. I hear the heartbeat of these poor women, and Ifeel the cries of their innocent children in the dust. They run in the soil and grow up in a fanatical environment. I do not know who their fathers are. I just want to save the women and children because their cries have deafened my ears.
I am the only one who announces such readiness. I’m the only one who wants to do that. I am the first person to make this request. I register my name, Dana, through this blog, and God and Enrique Tessieri plus Migrant Tales and the universe are my witnesses.
I wisely want to help these mothers and their children and bring them back to Finland.
The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is a far-right and racist party that will fail in the end because its core values are based on malarkey. Parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) that want to form bedroom alliances with the PS will fail as well.
The chairperson of the National Coalition Party(Kokoomus), Petter Orpo, is well-known as a politician who vacillates on different issues. When it comes to migrants, he tends to blow with the wind.
Orpo has said in autumn that he would not mind forming a government with the PS where its leader, Jussi Halla-aho, would be prime minister. He confirmed his party’s willingness to form a government with the PS in Friday’s Maaseudun Tulevaisuus, a newspaper with ties to the Center Party.
One reader commented on Maaseudun Tulevaisuus about such a government: “I haven’t seen yet such an eerie nightmare where Kokoomus and the Perussuomalaiset are ruling the country.”
“If the ruling parties suffer a big defeat [in the municipal election], the least they must do is change the direction of their policies,” Orpo was quoted as saying. “If a party in the government suffers heavily, it may make you wonder if you want to be a member of the government.”
MAY 19: Yesterday, in front of the Alppikulma gate, more than 10 homeless people were waiting at 5 o’clock to enter the building. A foreigner from an African country who shaves his head is under so much pressure that he does strange things. But I will only describe his work yesterday.
He has to carry a large bag of his belongings, including clothes, shoes, and other necessities. We are all like that. Because in Alppikulma, we are not allowed to keep anything. Several times my belongings were dumped in the dirty water of the hallway floor, and my belongings were dumped on the floor in my room so that I could be punished and not keep anything in my room anymore. They said it was the cleaners’ job. Yes, that’s right. But the cleaners also said it was the workers’ order, and the workers said the managers and managers said the order came from Helsinki Kaupunki. (Helsinki city…)
Carrying a big bag on my back is painful. I always have back pain. Sometimes my shoulders hurt so much that I do not sleep until morning. But I have strongly protested. I have always defended the rights of the homeless, and I have achieved some successes.
Alppikulma is a temporary shelter for the homeless. Photo: Dana
I arranged the breakfast program for these poor people since I complained about the boiling water and the homeless problems (for about 7 months) … but I do not eat breakfast myself, and I have good reasons not to touch it. One of my reasons is the many insults inflicted on me just because of the demand for boiling water … let alone a painful and long story. But let’s talk about a foreign man who has been in Finland for many years and his Finnish language is good enough.
His name begins with the letter S.
S is a skinny African with a shaved head who is completely anxious and worried. He drinks a lot of beer, and by no means can he sit still. He runs, gets barefoot, puts his shoes on, and insinuates to himself that the street is his home. He takes his clothes out of his bag and reassures himself that yes, I live too. The man is harmless. He has not insulted me even once. But he is so anxious that he makes everyone laugh.
Yesterday, he threw the beer bottle at another man from a distance of 12 meters. The one could not take it, the bottle fell to the ground, and the beer came out like a firecracker. The poor Finnish man opened it and drank it, but he came quickly, took the bottle, drank some of it, threw it on the grass behind the wall, and started running on the grass with shouts of joy. … and then he ran in the courtyard of Alppikulma …. Finally, he sat down with a few men and drank his beer in peace for a few minutes … He put his clothes on the ground and walked beside them…
Prime Minister Sanna Marin fired back at a session of parliament Thursday at the far-right Perussuomaliset (PS)* party. Making Finland an open and safe country is crucial if it wants to attract newcomers to the country.
“Madam Speaker. Violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools are all severe matters, severe matters of which all of us are concerned.
I will now address the Perussuomalaiset point because it also gives a distorted picture of the type of people that live in Finland. It’s not so that every person who has come from elsewhere [to Finland] is a violent criminal, a person who does wrong. In this country, we have numerous groups of people who come from elsewhere and who work tirelessly, raise families, and are concerned about Finland’s future in the same way as people born here.
The phenomenon, violence on streets, violence at homes, violence at schools is a serious matter that we must address. Still, it is also wrong that we give here [in parliament], the very picture that the Perussuomalaiset spread, that every migrant is a person who does not fit in this society. It isn’t like that at all.”
Migrant Tales comment: Our longtime editor, Dana, has promised to update a diary of her life in Alppikulma, a shelter for the homeless. We publish this for others to know what a special woman Dana is but to get an insight into the lives of the homeless.
Today, 18. May. 2021 was a rainy day, and it was dark and cold for me because I have been homeless for 6 years. I trembled. And I have been living in an addicts’ shelter for a year now. The racist government and system of Finland oppressed me in the best possible way and put me in the depths of humiliation and insult to break me. Still, I have broken the recession, I have broken the enemy’s horn, the rotten horn of the racists has crumbled to ashes under my feet… I am alive, and I am still struggling, every day and even night, with the pen that God has given me. A magical and exceptional pen that God has made for me with His own hands.
Today, as usual, at 4 o’clock, I stood in line behind the closed door of Alppikulma, it opens at 5 o’clock, my legs hurt a lot, my back was dry, I was shivering from the cold, but I was comforting myself. It was just the foreign man and me. Later 3 other homeless Finnish men came … I feel very sorry for this foreigner. He is a heartbroken man…The Finnish wife took his children from him and sent him to the streets. In these 6 years, I have seen many foreign men, even from Europe and Scandinavia, who have been caught in this tragic fate after marrying a Finnish woman and living for many years. And in all cases, Finnish law gives oppressive women the right. In my opinion, a woman should irrigate her family with love. My mother always drowns me in love even though she does not live on Earth.
Fortunately, there were no bullies today, they try to hide in the corners of the city when it rains, but this is fifty-fifty, and maybe they will come and bombard me with vulgar obscenities, the stench of alcohol, and cigarette smoke. Thank God they were not here tonight.
I am in room 10, my room above is on the third floor, number 18. When men and women get drunk, this room becomes a war room, and noises come to my room, and I can’t sleep until morning, they swear until morning, and sometimes they beat each other. This is a gambling house. I do not know how to get into it, insecurity or under the bombardment of obscene prostitution. Rarely, yes, I seldom enter the building in peace. Tonight was a rare night. But it is not clear whether it will be a quiet night or a war night. But only God has kept me here so far.
The empty room bothers me a lot. I miss our Iranian carpets, family photos, and even my clothes. I have been going to the city every day for a year in the clothes I wore yesterday. During this year, several of my clothes were torn due to excessive wearing and washing, and I went to the warehouse and found some clothes for myself with difficulty. I do not even have the key to the warehouse. To remove something from the warehouse, I have to beg and beg several people in a few days for someone to come and open the warehouse for me. The warehouse is not here. It is somewhere else.
I’m just praying for a restful night now. I need to sleep. But my brain is full of poetry—full of words. But I’m tired. I write by force: original Iranian music and Rumi’s poetry. My friend, I listen to my cave, my love, my thorn liver. I do not want to hear the sound of traffic and screams. I want silence.
Good night universe. Sing aloud, O angels, lest I hear the sound of fighting and shouting.
God take my hand. My feet hurt, I had pain in my feet last night until morning, my toes hurt a lot. God, I miss the colors. I am tired of the shelter blankets that are white and colorless. I am tired of plastic spoons and forks and black plastic plates. I gave all my life and belongings to the people and the church … Now I need a spoon. I do not have a knife. I wish I had access to my belongings in the warehouse.
My brain is full of poetry, oh my God, how can I write, my eyelids…
19.5.2021
This morning again a female worker opened the door of my room.
They treated me like an animal most of the time here in Alppikulma. They open the doors and inform the homeless that it is morning and get ready to leave. But I have been here for a year, and everyone knows that Dana is never late, and Dena always leaves the building very soon. I have protested many times. I have strongly protested. But it did not work. Before, they used to open the door of my room every day, yes, every single day… Different workers. I was given racist insults. And even when I was in bed, I was treated violently. I was thrown out in the middle of the night in wet clothes and by the bullying of a guard because I did not want an addicted woman to enter my room. Because I protested. Because addicts attacked me in my sleep or many other things happened.
This is Alcatraz prison Alppikulma Prison yes Alppikulma prison Alcatraz prison, sigh. Today the worker wanted to make me angry for she hates me.
They want to make sure I am afraid of them. I have always assured everyone that I am not afraid of anyone, and I have been imprisoned precisely because of my courage and freedom. But in any case, they ruined my morning. I left the building quickly and, of course, went downstairs as usual and expressed my dissatisfaction, but I encountered disrespect and humiliation. These things have become normal for me in Finland and Alppikulma and Diakonialaitos.
Finland is a country of addiction, alcohol, and drugs, but there are no facts in its newspapers.
Finland is a land of garbage and cigarette butts and spit; the streets are full of cigarette butts and spit and feces and piss of dogs. But no one cares. There is no smoking only in front of the Parliament and the Presidential Palace.
Finland is anti-Muslim, anti-religious, anti-African, anti-Bulgarian, stateless, and anti-Roma within Finland, immigrants, and the poor.
In Finland, Romanians are called thieves, and Muslims are called terrorists and aggressors.
Finland is a holiday country, and Finland has thousands of holiday excuses, useful work is not done except by low-wage foreigners.
Finland is a country of lies, a clear example of the Asylum Office, which is that the Immigration Office deceives all foreigners, even Europeans, and survives by fraud.
Finland is a country of poverty, a country of homeless people, a country of drunken men and women who urinate and inject injections behind its walls and at car parks, parks, streets, and tram stations.
Finland is a country where teenagers and children smoke and use drugs.
Kristian Sheikki Laakso, or Sheikki Laakso, is a Finnish MP for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party who is, as with his 38 PS MP colleagues, is filibustering the EU rescue package. One of the most “interesting” speeches before parliament was by Laakso, who read excerpts of Little Red Riding Hood.
Laakso begins his speech: “Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else. So she was always called Little Red Riding Hood…Oh, grandmother,” she said, “what big ears you have. The better to hear you with, my child,” was the reply.
The MP, who suffered bankruptcy and ended having 84 foreclosure orders and receivables to the tune of 219,000 euros, cuts short his speech by excusing himself to the madam speaker of the house. “I accidentally read the evening fairy tale to my grandchildren.”
He continues by stating that it is difficult to distinguish between “a fairy tale and reality” concerning the EU rescue package, which would be approved if voted on.
