Why are attitudes becoming more favorable towards migrants in Finland? Helsingin Sanomat turns to Lena Näre, a sociologist, to provide some insight on why attitudes towards migrants have become more desirable.
Some results below of the poll published by Helsingin Sanomat Sunday.
In a historic decision on Thursday, the Pirkanmaa District Court banned the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (Pohjoismainen vastarintaliike, PVL) with links to far-right groups in the Nordic region, according to YLE in English. PVL is a racist hate group that aims to do away with Nordic democracy and replace it with national socialism.
The district court based its decision to ban the neo-Nazi PVL because it “flagrantly violated the principles of good practice.”
Writes YLE in English: “The court ruled that it was a violent group that exhorted followers and members to violent acts. The court said that the group was not entitled to freedom of speech protections as its actions violated the human rights of others.”
One of the latest cases of violence by the PVL is its member Jesse Torniainen, sentenced to two years in prison for aggravated assault.
Some asylum seekers in the northern Finnish city of Kemi claim that they do not leave their homes after eight pm on Saturdays because it’s too dangerous. One asylum seeker, who got a residence permit, said that this was advice that he received from the Red Cross.
“There are many drunks on Saturday night, and this could lead to problems,” the former asylum seeker of Kemi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Migrant Tales. “We still get a lot of mean looks from strangers [in the city] and sometimes they give us the finger as they drive past in cars. I would say that 5%-10% of the inhabitants [of Kemi] don’t like us.”
Feelings of insecurity in Kemi was fueled by the 2016 shooting of an asylum seeker and by the Soldiers of Odin, who harass and broke another asylum seeker’s finger.
Virpi Pakisjärvi, the head of the Kemi asylum reception center, denied that the Red Cross gives instructions to asylum seekers about leaving their homes on Saturday evenings.
Yaron Nadbornik, the president of the Jewish Community of Helsinki, said that the rise in online hate speech has caused great insecurity of Helsinki’s small Jewish community. The Jewish Community of Helsinki launched this week a campaign to raise 15,000 euros in 48 hours to finance increased security needs.
The Jewish Community of Helsinki uses 200,000 euros for security annually.
“I will not say that it is only the extreme right that is directing this [online] hate speech against the Jewish community,” said Nadbornik.”Let’s just say that they are people from different ideologies that write online thousands of hate comments against Jews.”
Brown is beautiful just like black and white are beautiful, right? Add to the latter equation power and privilege and a more sinister picture emerges: White is beautiful but brown and black aren’t.
Finland is such a racialized country and so conscious of its whiteness that it only sees people through a very narrow lens: white Finns or non-white Finns.
Whiteness is such a powerful matter in Finland that some non-white children learn not stay under the sun too long for fear that their skin won’t become too tanned.
Some, like Rosa Emilia Clay, Finland’s first African-born naturalized Finn and primary school teacher, kept her African background a secret from her children.
Clay’s granddaughter, Normalee Johnsson, wrote in a letter in 2009 that was partly published in Helsingin Sanomat:
“When mother died, we learned her secret: we had African blood in our veins! Finally we understood why mother always wore a bonnet and long sleeves in the summer. What we could not understand is why she kept our African, Arab, and English heritage a secret. For a while it was shocking that I didn’t know who I really was.”
Those who know a little about Clay’s life in Finland, are well aware of the racism she faced and suffered.
Like hundreds of thousands of other Finns, Clay emigrated to the United States in 1904.
She never returned to Finland.
Racism and white privilege are such powerful forces that some people spend their lives passing as white, according to a story in the Washington Post.
Continue reading “Exposing white Finnish privilege #43: White versus dark skin”
Shortly, we’ll look at this period as the lost decade where we openly and shamelessly flirted and sided with racism and fascism.
Remember these quotes about the vigilante white supremacist Soldiers of Odin? They were made by public servants that should know better. In a Facebook posting, the far-right vigilante group is threatening (surprise, surprise) Africans, Arabs, dark-skinned people, vegetarians gays liberals, humanists and others with acts of violence.
Any sensible person could have seen the writing on the wall: Groups like the Soldiers of Odin are white supremacists supported by other white Finns and the establishment.
Their rise is similar to the Perussuomalaiset* (PS), whose ascent to political power was assisted by the media, politicians (and I wouldn’t be surprised by Russia’s troll army). The fact that too many don’t see these groups as a threat to our Nordic democracy and society is the best indication we have of our denial of the issue.
Is it a coincidence that the police service gave support to such vigilante groups when they started to show up more in Finnish cities and towns? This year, an openly racist Facebook page was uncovered with over 2,800 police or about one-third of the country’s police service. Does a survey in 2016, which reveals that 80% of the police see asylum seekers as a threat, say anything about racist attitudes. What about if 25.1% stated that they voted for an openly anti-immigration party like the PS?
Let’s look at these public representatives that are supposed to defend our society but failed miserably in the task:
Really? Have Finnish women ever before been harassed sexually by Finnish men?
* After 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
The most recent case of cultural appropriation in Finland was seen in October when a Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) host put on a Native American feathered hairpiece. To add insult to injury, the YLE TV host aired on the same programme a clip of a Finnish 1960 “comedy” with blackfaced actors.
Politicians are another group that were named and shamed this year for cultural appropriation. In Norway, the country’s finance minister, Siv Jensen of the right-wing populist Progress Party (FrP), landed in hot water in October after posing with a Pocahontas dress at a ministry costume party. In the spring, Finnish Social Democratic Party MP Satu Taavitsainen posed on Instagram wearing a fake Saami costume and this caused a vigorous debate in social media between the MP and representatives of the Saami community.
If there is something that unites Jensen and Taavitsainen it is their hostile views of minority and migrant rights. Jensen has gone as far as to call for the dismantling of the Saami Parliament, an elected body, in her country.
In 2012, Jensen stood on a podium of the Saami Parliament and vowed to shut it down. The FrP minister said that the building would make a beautiful museum and that such institutions hinder the development of North Norway.
In the face of these hostile speeches coupled with a long history of encroachment and assimilation policies in the Nordic region, Petra Laiti, Chairperson of the Finnish Sámi Youth Organization believes that cultural appropriation cases that pop up offer an opportunity to bring to public attention a number of issues facing the Saami today.
“While unfortunate, recent cases [of cultural appropriation] offer an opportunity to raise awareness in public about the issue [as well as our struggle for greater rights],” said Laiti. “Cultural appropriation is about power and minorities are never consulted. Our costumes are sacred and are the only thing we have left.”
After being detained by the police on October 23 in Mikkeli, the twenty-one-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker in detention cell 406 was released from detention in Joutseno* this afternoon at 4:40 pm. All in all, his detention in Mikkeli was from October 23-27 and from October 27-November 23, or a total of 32 days.
“I don’t know what to say because I’m so happy because I’m happy to be free again,” he said. “I don’t have any words to describe what I’m feeling. It’s a bit confusing.”
The asylum seeker said that Thursday a policewoman and man broke the news to him.
“I felt nervous, and I asked if it’s good or bad news,” he continued. “One of the police smiled and told me to wait for the interpreter, who told me that I would be released.”
The asylum seeker still doesn’t know what his fate is in Finland.
“I applied for a new asylum case and got a swift rejection from Migri,” he concluded. “I don’t know what is going to happen to me.”
* The asylum seeker who was locked up in this cell thought he was in Lappeenranta but in fact he was at the Joutseno immigration removal center located 20km away.
Two women, a young mother of two children, and of a teenage girl who traveled with her family to Finland in 2015. Both have something in common even if they are from different countries: Both are refugees who still don’t know if they will get asylum in Finland. Two years have gone by since their long and dangerous journey started to Finland.
The first drawing is by Arezo*, who came to Finland from the Afghan city of Ghazni, located in southeastern part of the country.
“The trip to Finland took about a month,” she said. “It started from Afghanistan, and then we went with my husband and two children, who were then four- and two-years-old, we went to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and finally Tornio, Finland.”
Arezo said that the journey was arduous and that she was especially afraid for her family when they boarded a boat that took them from Turkey to Greece.
“The journey was long and difficult,” she continued. “We came with a lot of hope, but now there hangs a big question mark if we will get asylum in Finland.”
The Iraqi teenager, whom we will call Saboora*, is 18 years old and likes to draw. In the first drawing, she said that the journey from Turkey to Greece was fast and took 45 minutes.
Continue reading “The story of two asylum seekers in Finland: Arezo’s and Saboora’s three drawings”