Tag: discrimination

How a ban on asylum seekers visiting schools/childcare centers in Oulu, Finland, should work in order for it not to be illegal

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

One interesting question about the ban on asylum seekers visiting schools and childcare centers is if it is legal. Even if this only applies to guided tours, it does raise some problematic questions about discrimination. 

Migrant Tales has heard from sources in Oulu that the ban on asylum seekers also includes public swimming halls of that city. The City of Oulu denies that the ban on asylum seekers applies to public swimming halls.

Section 6 of the Constitution states the following:  “Everyone is equal before the law. No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

This is pretty clear, right?

Can somebody find the statement by the City of Oulu about the ban on asylum seekers? The city never put out a statement about their plans to ban asylum seekers from visiting schools and childcare centers.

What does Section 6 mean? It means that if there is a ban, like the one in Oulu, it must apply to everyone.

Continue reading “How a ban on asylum seekers visiting schools/childcare centers in Oulu, Finland, should work in order for it not to be illegal”

Esperi Care reveals a wider problem: Lack of effective regulation and political will

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED.

What does scandal surrounding Esperi Care tell us about problems plaguing private elderly homes in Finland and how regulators don’t their jobs? This, I believe, is not a problem that just faces the nursing home sector, but the whole of Finnish society. 

Matters are in a pretty dire state at Esperi Care as well as at Attendo and Mehiläinen, which also run elderly homes.

Writes Yle News: “According to the Regional State Administrative Agencies for Southern and Western Finland, Esperi Care staff members without medical licenses have administered medicine; the company’s nursing homes have been dirty and in disrepair; and nurses have even abused their elderly customers by arbitrarily commanding them to bed or not letting them visit the outdoors.”

Read the full story here.

The Esperi Care case boils down to insufficient regulation. Regulators, who should regulate, don’t and lack political backing.

Possibly the problem lies in our wrong sense of exceptionalism and in those dumb studies that claim that we are the happiest nation in the world.

Since we are the happiest nation in the world, there is nothing to worry about in our society, right?

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How widespread is discrimination in Finland? The answer: are you unemployed and do you get paid the same as Finns?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland’s Nobel Prize in economics, Bengt Holmström, said that white Finns must not share power and privileges with migrants and their children. In other words, they should get lower salaries social security benefits – are you ready for this?! – so that it does not irritate Finns.

A Migrant Tales reader wrote today what an employer told him a few years ago when he went for a job interview: “That guy’s exact words were that the other Finnish workers would get upset if I was paid the same as them……for doing the same job!!!!!

If Finland treats racism and discrimination with kid gloves, a social movement can help

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Isn’t it sad to note how the Finnish media now discovers that migrants get paid less and have lower social security benefits than Finns?  Some, even union leaders like Sture Fjäder of Akava, go as far to state that unskilled migrants should get paid less. He later apologized for such a statement but won a confidence vote to keep his job. 

Even Finland’s Nobel Prize in economics, Bengt Holmström, said that white Finns must not share power and privileges with migrants and their children. In other words, they should get lower salaries social security benefits – are you ready for this?! – so that it does not irritate Finns.

Read the full story in Migrant Tales here.

Unbelievable, no?

But if you want to look deeper, all these comments and denial by the media, politicians and the public shows that Finland lacks the will and resolve to treat migrants and minorities as equal members of society. It exposes as well that racism and discrimination are deeply embedded in Finnish society.

Lower pay and lower social security benefits for migrants and minorities did not happen today or the previous week but has happened for decades.

I wonder how many people and journalists have read Pasi Suakkonen’s study, Maahanmuuttajen kotoutuminen Helsingissä (2016)? The study points out that migrants make annually on average nationally 27.3% less (21,479 euros versus 29,550 euros by Finns), and in Helsinki 38.5% less (22,286 euros versus 36,239 euros) than Finns.

Do they know that unemployment on average is 2-3 times higher among migrants than the national average? Do they know that migrant wages are so low in Helsinki that such people usually have to turn to financial support to get by?

Continue reading “If Finland treats racism and discrimination with kid gloves, a social movement can help”

Finland’s Nobel Prize in economics states that white Finns must not share power and privileges with migrants and their children

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Bengt Holmström is a Finnish economist who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2016. What he may know about economics does not mirror his knowledge of Nordic values such as social equality and especially how migrants and minorities live in Finland. 

In an interview in YLE, and speaking as a white Finn on behalf of migrants and minorities in Finland, he states that foreigners would accept getting paid lower salaries and have less comprehensive social welfare.

“It’s good for them [migrants],” he stated. “By the same token, it would let them to move up the [social] ladder and it would not irritate Finns so much [because foreigners have done little to nothing to build the country’s social welfare system that has taken white Finns decades].”

In other words, let’s make discrimination and inequality the standard. Isn’t that how things are run in this country?

As we accept – and do nothing – to promote and make migrants equal members of society, Holmström ensures that their children and grandchildren will continue to live as second-class citizens.

While such claims by Holmström should raise eyebrows, he does us a favor by reinforcing what we’ve always known about this country: Non-discrimination laws in Finland don’t really work and are hypocritical.

Read the full story here

 

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White Finnish privilege #54: Disguising your racism, bigotry, and prejudices effectively

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In Finland, there are many ways how white people and their institutions discriminate against people of color, migrants and minorities in general. Since all forms of discrimination are highly adaptive, they can also effectively disguise their racism, bigotry, and prejudices. 

Apart from an employer claiming that a person does not speak Finnish well enough to be hired, another form of widespread discrimination is the white savior complex used against groups like the Muslims.

The white savior complex, which is deeply entrenched in the worst forms of ethnocentrism, functions as an effective weapon to oppress and exclude other minorities and migrants as well.  This form of racism is especially prevalent – the list is not all-inclusive – among social workers, teachers and represenatives of multicultural associations.

Their racism, if exposed in the raw, would reveal the following:

“I don’t like you because you are a Muslim but I cannot say that too directly. But if you let me fill your head with ideas like taking off your hijab, how backward your culture is, and that women are equal (sic) in Finland blah blah blah, that will let me oppress you with near-impunity. You see, I’m not interested in your equality, but that you remain an unequal member of society.”

A good example of an oppressed person by a white savior and his or her institutions is one who never finds work to make enough money to stand on his or her feet financially. Such people form part of an integration project that excludes them from society indefinitely.

The best form of integration would be to teach such people of color to become active citizens and to challenge the very system that oppresses and excludes them.

But that would be too dangrous for some because it would end up jeopardizing their power and privilege over such groups.

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Blue Reform’s Sampo Terho of Finland and his politically ambidextrous misbeliefs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Blue Reform* minister for European affairs, culture and sports, Sampo Terho is politically ambidextrous: He can say one thing and state a totally different thing. It is like coming out of the closet and going back in. The opportunism in such ambidextrous behavior is believing that others don’t notice. And we do.  

In the statement below, Terho gets tough on Muslims but takes a more benign view of Foreign Minister Timo Soini’s right to attend anti-abortion gatherings abroad as a member of the government.

In the first quote below on the left, he states the following about Muslims: “A country that accepts refugees and immigrants cannot tolerate that its culture would die. Those who move here must inevitably change and adapt to our basic values.”

But then he makes an about-turn on the foreign minister’s case, who is also a member of the same party: “Soini has personal beliefs, an opinion he has a right to have. Personal opinion and freedom of religion are Western values based on human rights.”

What hypocrisy!

Thank you, Rasismivapaa Suomi, for the heads-up.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

 

Blue Reform MP Simon Elo: Let’s make discrimination official in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if the Blue Reform*, which is an offshoot of the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS), wants to change the constitution so that non-Finnish citizens would get paid less social welfare than Finnish citizens, the suggestion by MP Simon Elo exposes to the tee the racism of his party and hatred of migrants. 

Blue Reform, like the PS, are not only a danger to our Nordic welfare state and democracy, but a threat to migrants and minorities living in Finland. 

Why? Because both parties are racist. 

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

The fact that a party in government wants to officialize discrimination reveals the extent of racism in the government and why this social ill has worsened under Prime Minister Juha Sipilä.

Such discrimination that Elo proposes isn’t possible because it is unconstitutional. Section 6 of the Finnish constitution expressly states: 

“Everyone is equal before the law. No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age,
origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

Finland will hold parliamentary election in April 2019, which explains why Blue Reform is so eager to take out its racism card in order to attract similar-minded voters.

Blue Reform’s support, according to various polls, is dismal, or under 1%.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

Dutch foreign minister offers excuses for racism and “failures of multiculturalism”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The interview below with Dutch foreign minister, Stef Blok, is another prime example of why racism, bigotry, and discrimination continue to list high on the European shame board. The interview, where Blok tells us how “multiculturalism has failed,” reveals another excuse why racism is deeply ingrained in Europe. 

He also forgets to tell us about the history of racism in Holland and Europe and its complicity in the slave trade.

Said Blok in Politico: “Give me an example of a multiethnic or multicultural society, where the original population are still living as well … and where there are peaceful community relations. I’m not aware of any.”

It is odd, but not surprising, that Blok speaks of “multicultural society,” or a society that is culturally and ethnically diverse, as a failure because he’s not aware of any ones where there are good ethnic relations.

Certainly, there aren’t due to the legacy of racism in countries like Holland.

Moreover, many successful economies like the United States build their growth on exploiting migrants as cheap labor.

No, Foreign Minister Blok, you got it wrong. Well-functioning societies – and none will never become 100% harmonious – hinges on social equality and equal opportunities. If you are unwilling to challenge social inequality and racism, there is your answer of what you refer to as the failure of “multiethnic or multicultural society.”

It is not “race”  or “ethnicity” but of equal opportunities and inclusion that are key to creating a well-functioning society.

When Blok claims that multiculturalism is a failure, it is only an excuse that reveals a lack of political will to take action against racism and social inequality.

Read the full story here.

Another statement made by the Dutch foreign minister in the interview is that Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland “will never agree” to EU refugee quotas. He said it was because “colored people” have “no life” in those countries and would be “beaten up.”

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