anti-immigration Archives - Page 4 of 10

Post-Brexit Europe: There is a connection between scapegoating and hate crime

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Is there a connection between scapegoating migrants, minorities as well as Others and hate crime? If you look at what has happened after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom it’s clear that there is a connection.

Victimizing and promoting suspicion of migrant and minority groups is one matter but the most worrisome issue that should concern us is indifference.

How low can you stoop? Too many politicians and the media blame migrants, minorities and the EU for the problems they have caused and inflicted.

The late Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner who passed away Saturday, pinpoints the problem in the quote: below:

“Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.”

Just like with the alarming rise of xenophobia in the United Kingdom after the Brexit vote, the same is happening in other European countries like Finland that have anti-immigration parties that provoke open conflict with migrants and minorities.

Right after the 2011 parliamentary elections, some Finns saw the victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party as a green light to attack migrants, minorities, and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. Membres of the Somali community, one of the favorite scapegoats of the PS, were targetted.

Below is a comment Migrant Tales got from a visitor who believed that we’d be out of business because we would stop getting funding [1] from Kepa, an organisation that represents Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) that work in development cooperation.

Migrant Tales has received its fair share of attacks by people who want to keep Finland white.

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Oikeus elää – A Right to live ???? ????? demonstration tomorrow at 4:00 pm in Helsinki (Narikkantori, Kamppi)

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has done everything possible to make asylum seekers feel unwelcome in Finland. On Friday, they tightened family reunification guidelines and recently did away with giving residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

The new family reunification law makes it virtually impossible for an asylum seeker who gets a residence permit to bring his or her family from abroad.

Asylum seekers and Finns will demonstrate against an assessment by the government that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are safe to return asylum seekers.

“We hope the government will change the decision [on Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia],” said an Iraqi asylum seeker who plans to attend Monday’s demonstration. “We didn’t come to Finland to live off your social welfare.”

What is grotesque about the new law is that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, with the support of their government partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP), want to reassure their voters that they are as xenophobic as before even if their support in the polls has plummeted.

The Center Party and NCP have struck a deal with the PS: You have carte blanche to spread anti-immigration rhetoric and we’ll support the tightening of immigration policy as long as you support our massive budget cuts, which will hit pensioners, low-income and middle-class families.

After Sipilä’s government laid thorns on the path of asylum seekers in Finland, there is one matter that they can’t do anything about: Extinguish their hope.

That’s why tomorrow’s demonstration at 4:00pm in Helsinki (Kamppi) is one of the last chances that asylum seekers and concerned Finns have to show that they won’t be bullied by one of the country’s most anti-immigration governments seen in a long time.

Visit Facebook site here.

Continue reading “Oikeus elää – A Right to live ???? ????? demonstration tomorrow at 4:00 pm in Helsinki (Narikkantori, Kamppi)”

White Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Migrant Tales

There has been a lot of debate about the present government tightening further family reunification laws. It shouldn’t come to any surprise that such measures not only reveal hostility towards asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities but are an example of white Finnish privilege in its most extreme forms.

Even if the Constitution guarantees that everyone in Finland is equal before the law, the truth is that you’re not. If you have Finnish citizenship your ok but if you are a foreigner or an asylum seeker that got a residence permit, it’ll be virtually impossible and costly to bring your wife and kids to this country.

Why?

Because this government, which comprises of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Center Party and National Coalition Party, is openly hostile to Others.

We’ve known it all along that even naturalized Finns aren’t equal before the law because they’re not considered “real” Finns but are people with “foreign backgrounds.”

If the government has its way with the passage of the new law, a person has to make 2,600 euros a month after taxes if he wants to bring his spouse and two children.

Even if the government states that such laws are important because they discourage asylum seekers from coming to Finland, it is just another PS anti-immigration ploy with the support of the Center Party and NCP to keep Finland white.

See full program here.

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What former Kolari asylum reception center deputy manager “likes” on Facebook (and it’s not pretty)

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Finland was hard pressed to set up reception centers last year to house some 32,500 asylum seekers. In that quest, it’s understandable that some mistakes were made when hiring staff. What is commendable is that the Finnish Immigration Service succeeded at finding a reception center place for each of the asylum seekers.

Even if the challenges were formidable, there were mistakes made in the rush to establish these reception centers and to hire people. Migrant Tales has written a lot of stories about such challenges at Luona-run reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Hyvinkää.

On Thursday, YLE reported that the deputy manager of the Kolar asylum reception center, Jari Sillantie, was relieved of his duties because “he wasn’t suited for the job,” according to Helsingin Sanomat, which quotes the Red Cross.

Is Sillantie suitable for the job?

Continue reading “What former Kolari asylum reception center deputy manager “likes” on Facebook (and it’s not pretty)”

Racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, neo-Nazism are nothing more than ourselves staring back at us from a mirror

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Why aren’t we surprised and shocked by what we see today in Europe? Populism, racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, isolationism, and fascism spread thanks to the media and the tacit support of many who nod in approval and silence. Colonialism, wars, and exploitation of non-white Europeans through slavery are some of the windfall profits that gave us our present standard of living that is guarded by populism, fascism and bigotry.

We shouldn’t bite the hand that has fed us for so many centuries, right?

Our implicit gratefulness to slavery and colonialism for our high standard of living today exposes why racism and bigotry in Europe and elsewhere remain largely unchallenged.

A story by Helsingin Sanomat about the Estonian members of the Soldiers of Odin in Finland is a good example of how the media gives tacit support to white privilege, or doesn’t challenge it strongly enough.

While the reporting appears sound, there is one problem with the story. Helsingin Sanomat doesn’t follow up the article with an editorial.

Too often the Finnish media may write about a far-right group like the Soldiers of Odin. It may express some objection but we don’t see often enough editorials condemning such groups and how they pose a threat to our society.

How many editorials have you read about the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and how it threatens our Nordic welfare state?

The classic pipedream in Finland is that somehow racists and fascists can “debate” and come to an agreement about “the problem.” Certainly white people debating between themselves could do that but it’s more complex if you included migrants and minorities in the debate.

And have you ever seen a visible migrant or visible minority being interviewed by the media about the Soldiers of Odin?

Should we be surprised that reporting by the Finnish media of far-right vigilante and anti-immigration groups is so selective and one-sided?

If we went to a mirror as a society what would we see staring back at us? That would be far-right and right-wing anti-immigration populism, fascism, ultranationalism, racism and bigotry to name a few.

The fact that we live in denial about our history and the present is the fuel that feeds our selective and bigoted worldview.

Continue reading “Racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, neo-Nazism are nothing more than ourselves staring back at us from a mirror”

A formal complaint by five asylum seeker at Luona’s reception center sheds light on alleged “gross abuses”

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Abuses at the asylum reception centers run by Luona have come to light from the occupants who consider their alleged treatment by the staff of the private company as “gross abuses” and a breach of their “human dignity” and “rights.”

The disturbing revelations in the complaint below show that Finland and especially Luona has failed these people miserably. The fact that we have an anti-immigration party in government and two other ones that turn a blind eye to such abuses and rising xenophobia in Finland is shameful.

Let’s hope that the Finnish Immigration Service and others resolve these injustices.

The complaint below is dated February 14, 2016:

(The names of the asylum seekers have been omitted).

Continue reading “A formal complaint by five asylum seeker at Luona’s reception center sheds light on alleged “gross abuses””

Roble Bashir: Why does the Perussuomalaiset party of Finland back vigilante gangs?

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

What’s in it for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party when they back these notorious vigilante gangs? The whole concept of vigilante gangs emerged due to fear of immigrants by some Finns. These gangs have spread instead fear among immigrants.

Some of my Somali and African friends asked me how is this possible that there are now vigilante gangs in Finland.

It may be a politicized issue but when we see how some ministers came out with wishy-washy statements about the whole affair some of us started to worry.

What’s in it for the PS and why do they support this notorious idea? Is it because they need desperately an issue to raise their poll standings, which have plummeted recently?

These vigilante gangs are the stuff of lawless states and weak governments that exist in insecure and violent countries but not of modern and peaceful ones like Finland.

The PS is the only party that mostly support anti-immigrant issues. In the last elections, the PS promised their followers that they will run a tight ship when it comes to immigration. Even so, refugees have flooded Finland during their watch in government.

Continue reading “Roble Bashir: Why does the Perussuomalaiset party of Finland back vigilante gangs?”

The Finnish government’s eighty-point tightening of immigration policy is all politics and saving face, nothing more

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä announced Tuesday an eighty-point tightening of Finnish immigration policy, according to YLE News. The new plan by the government means very bad news for asylum seekers and refugees living in Finland.

Some of the areas where immigration policy will be tightening family reunifications, implement fast-track deportations, grant bare-minimum financial aid to people awaiting decisions on their asylum status, even terminate a refugee’s residence permit if the situation in his or her home country improves considerably.

All these measures reveal one shameful matter about the present government: They want as many asylum seekers as possible to leave the country. This xenophobic attitude has been reinforced by scores of politicians, the police service, public officials and especially the media, which see these people with suspicion and manifest unease.

One may ask why the government of Prime Minister Sipilä, who offered his home to refugees in early September, is now tightening immigration policy even more?

Continue reading “The Finnish government’s eighty-point tightening of immigration policy is all politics and saving face, nothing more”

A cartoon by Ville Ranta that exposes the real face of anti-immigration groups and parties

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The cartoon below, “After the attack,” shows a member of an anti-immigration group drinking the blood of a victim of the Paris terrorist attack on Friday the 13th of November.

In my opinion, the cartoon below by Ville Ranta shows to a tee how members of anti-immigration groups and parties reacted to the Paris terrorist attacks.

What’s your opinion?

The first group that was present after the terrorist attacks of Paris were members of anti-immigration groups.

UPDATE (November 20): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link.

November 20

Aukeavatko suvakin silmät? – (Tamperelainen)

What’s wrong with this community paper editorial? Community papers like Helsingin Uutiset and Vantaa Sanomat are just as bad as other media in spreading bigotry and urban tales about immigrants. They do this for two reasons: they don’t know better and because it’s a good way of boosting their advertising revenues. The editorial by the latest Tamperelainen spewed some pretty harsh rhetoric about asylum seekers. It claimed, among other things, that some asylum seekers are swindlers and that Europe should take a tougher stance against such people. The editorial by the paper’s editor, Karri Kannala, headlined “When will Kumbaya multiculturalists open their eyes,” claims the following: “Speaking of migration is racism, promoting Finnish identity is fascism. You can only talk about multiculturalism if you are a kumbaya multiculturalist, other opinions aren’t welcome.” Bigotry, racism and prejudice still attract big crowds in Finland. They are used by community papers as well and are an example of the worse type of journalism that you can find.

Tag: anti-immigration