Finland Archives - Page 182 of 359

Neo-Nazi group now claims to carry out street patrols in as many as eleven Finnish cities

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Neo-Nazi groups like Suomen Vastarintaliike (SVL) and the Solidiers of Odin are carrying out street patrols in a number of Finnish cities, reports Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa. Migrant Tales reported Saturday that SVL started street patrols in Pori, which have now expanded to three neighborhoods of that southwestern Finnish city.

The founder of The Soldiers of Odin, Mika Ranta, has admitted being a nationalist socialist, according to MTV3.

SVL states on its website that it carries out street patrols in the cities of Pori, Lahti, Tampere, Hyvinkää and Oulu. Likewise, the Solidiers of Odin claim on their Facebook page to carry out street patrols in Kemi, Rovaniemi, Tornio, Oulu Kajaani, Ylivieska, Pori, Joensuu, Helsinki, Tampere and Hämeenlinna.

The immediate question that arises concerning these neo-Nazi street patrols is what are they doing patrolling our streets. What’s the reaction of the police service and politicians?

Are non-white people safe and could they be attacked by such neo-Nazis who are openly hostile to them?

It appears that not too many are worried. It’s a bit like the rise of far right nationalists in the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, who are just “letting off some racist steam” in parliament and municipal councils. White Finns aren’t too worried since they aren’t the target of their hateful anti-immigration rhetoric.

Western Finland deputy police chief, Timo Vuola, had nothing else to state in YLE except that such street patrols aren’t allowed to keep order.

If a Soldiers of Odin Facebook post is true, some Finns wouldn’t care less what the deputy chief said:

“I caught two of them and the rest escaped…I sat on top of one and held the other one with a hand-lock after a couple of minutes until man came to help me. The police arrived and thanked me stating that these types [asylum seekers] are a real problem…I nodded and stated: You don’t damn say! I was surprised that I didn’t get charged [by the police] for assault. I don’t care if I did. The grandmother’s and grandfather’s words [of gratitude] and expressions = priceless…?”

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Neo-Nazis now patrol the streets of Pori in southwestern Finland

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Neo-Nazis are today patrolling the streets of the city of Pori, the home of Islamophobe Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari, according to YLE News, which cites Pori-based daily Satakunnan Kansa.

Writes YLE News: “Satakunnan Kansa reported that the SVL had started the patrols on Independence Day, and it has already extended those activities to other towns in the Satakunta region that host reception centers for asylum seekers.”

Here’s the catch and the reason why neo-Nazis are patrolling the streets of Pori now after before patrolling the streets of the northern Finnish city of Kemi. Too many white Finns, politicians, the media and police service, aren’t too outraged about this. They’re just a few young lads letting off some steam they probably reason.

We know that Huhtasaari, the PS MP with the kindergarten-teacher smile, probably thinks these types of patrols are justified because asylum seekers are mostly criminals and “illegal refugees (sic!).”

Read full story here.

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Researchers working for the police see falling support of the Perussuomalaiset as a danger to society

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

It’s incredible how even the police service feeds xenophobia in Finland. A column published by two applied science researchers on the Police College of Finland web page is a perfect example of the one-sided view that some people of the police service have of migrants and cultural diversity.

One of the biggest problems in Finland when researching migrant crime is in the collection of equality data. For example, researchers cannot tell you what best practices they use and what their responsibility is in fueling ethnic profiling and victimization of certain national groups living in Finland.

Read full column (in Finnish) here.

A good example of how partial crime statistics can be used to ethnically profile migrants is one by the National Research Institute of Legal Policy (Optula), which states that the number of suspected rape cases in 2013 was 473. Of these around one third were committed by persons with “foreign backgrounds.”

Why don’t researchers care about the groups they study and ethnically profile?

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Ongoing debate on asylum seekers in Finland: Lawmakers who play or are ignorant of our laws and basic human rights

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

As I watched the A-studio: Talk debate about the record number of asylum seekers in Finland, I thought about Kadar Gelle, an anti-racism activist who watched Monday’s A-studio debate, where Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Tom Packalén, a former policeman who has built a political career on racist rhetoric, debates with Somali Finn Mukhtar Abib about the government’s plans to tighten immigration policy.

Writes Kadar on his Facebook wall:

I turned on the A-studio program and saw Tom Packalen speaking about immigration. My blood started to boil from zero to one hundred until I understood that I can change television channels. It’s a waste of time to listen to a narcissistic and racist loudmouth [like Packalén] who suffers from a personality disorder. I turned off the television and my pulse went back in an instant to normal.

It’s interesting to note when watching Thursday’s A-studio debate on the record number of asylum seekers that have come to Finland how politicians capitalize on people’s fears.

Politicians like Eerola and many other act irresponsibly and recklessly especially during these times by spreading fear and xenophobia among an already frightened population. This shouldn’t surprise us since they have worked relentlessly to instill fear of migrants and asylum seekers. They have built lucrative political careers with the help of xenophobia and fear-mongering.

Juho Eerola is another PS MP who has built a political career on bigotry. The way he speaks about migrants is not only insulting but reveals his true political colors and what he wrote in 2010 about Benito Mussolini.

He wrote: “I myself am attracted to Benito Mussolini’s fascism, and in particular the economic policy [the country] pursued.”

Do you think that a person who sympathizes with Mussolini and who is a far right anti-immigration politician has anything constructive to say about how migrants should be integrated and become equal members of society?

PS MP Eerola’s pet topic is now one-way adaption or assimilation. Why? Because he wants to keep Finland white. See full TV program here.

One of the most crucial matters that these types of debate programs forget is Section 6 of our Constitution, which states:

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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?

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Xenophobia is a cancer that spreads in Finland

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Migrant Tales

After years of looking the other way Finland is paying a high price today for its self-inflicted xenophobia. What are the consequences of such a social ill if we continue to permit it to roam freely with the help of urban tales, bigotry, populism and political chicanery?

The climate of suspicion that has Finland in a stranglehold has impacted our country in many ways negatively. It is a monkey wrench that has been thrown into the works of a successful nation that appears to have lost today its way and which fears its own shadow.

As our population grays we need new young people to move to this country. We need more jobs and innovation. In order to speed up the adaption process of these newcomers we need to be a more open and inclusive society.

Instead we have done the total opposite. We have reverted to false panaceas like xenophobia and anti-immigration rhetoric, which have made matters worse.

It’s not only society that loses but especially migrants and minorities trying to adapt and become a part of society.

Xenophobes commonly demand that migrants must adapt to our ways but instead place and build walls that exclude such people from being part of society.

Fear is one of the deadliest poisons of xenophobia. Fear is hate.

The present state of fear, which politicians, the media and public officials are feeding directly or indirectly, is one of the biggest challenges that Finland faces today. That’s why we need more, not less, leadership against xenophobia, fear and hate.

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President Sauli Niinistö’s “ultimatum” to asylum seekers should apply to Finns as well

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The capacity to live with difference is…the coming question of the twenty-first century.

Stuart Hall

President Sauli Niinistö said Saturday during a YLE Radio 1 question-and-answer session that those asylum seekers that don’t abide by our core values should leave Finland.

“That’s the central issue,” said President Niinistö. “People who want to be here need to accept our core values: democracy, equality, human rights and all of that. If they don’t, they can’t stay in Finland.”

Read full story here.

While few will disagree with what he said, it’s unfortunate that we assume too many things about ourselves and the asylum seekers. When we place ourselves on a pedestal and compare ourselves ethnocentrically to Others we easily forget that we too are humans and have a lot of faults and much to learn.

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UPDATE (December 5): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on December 5, 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.

December 5

Lähde vahvistaa: Suomessa majailee kolme kovan luokan terroristia (Iltalehti)

What’s wrong with this story? Finland’s two tabloids, Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat, are not an example of mediocre journalism but of commonly spreading bigotry, reinforcing racism and fear-mongering. Ilta-Sanomat did this in the early 1990s when the first Somalis came to Finland. Migrant Tales has published some billboards of those years. Here’s one story below where Iltalehti claims that “sources confirm” that there are three hardcore terrorists in Finland. Nowhere do we get a hint of the source or why the tabloid decides to keep his or her name anonymous. Considering the xenophobia, hostility and the burning of two asylum reception centers in Finland, and ceaseless fear-mongering taking place in the media and social media forums, this type of journalism is not only irresponsible but puts at risk the safety of migrants and asylum seekers in Finland. By inciting fear we encourage violence. Terrible and irresponsible journalism at its worst.

Read full story here.

Before asking asylum seekers to respect Finnish laws and culture we should ask if we practice what we preach

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said that in order to make Finland a more secure place, each asylum seeker will have to sign an agreement that he or she will not break the law and respect Finnish culture, according to YLE.

“In this way they [asylum seekers] will understand and promise to follow Finnish laws and culture,” said Orpo. “We want to make clear these basic rules [to them].”

Read full story here.

While such an initiative is bound to fail and fall flat on its face, I for one hope that Finnish politicians and ministers like Hanna Mäntylä and Jari Lindström and many others would follow, or at least understand, our constitution and laws.

What about substitute MPs of the PS like Juha Maenpää who wrote on his Facebook wall that god answered his prayers after an asylum reception center was razed to the ground by a suspected arson attack in Niinsalo Tuesday? How does Mäenpää follow and respect our laws and culture?

Orpo’s attempt to get asylum seekers to sign an agreement reveals, in my opinion, his opportunism and ignorance about the challenges the country faces with over 30,000 asylum seekers. It also reveals how much influence the PS has in government concerning immigration policy.

Such an “integration” contract has been suggested by many populist and anti-immigration politicians before. I don’t think it has ever been applied anywhere in Europe because it simply wouldn’t work.

Asking somebody to sign such a contract shows that you don’t trust them and see them as a security risk. A country that takes in refugees doesn’t offer a good image of itself and to asylum seekers by showing suspicion instead of faith and fairness towards them.

By asking them to sign such an agreement we are suggesting that they will break the law and are potential criminals. People, irrespective of their background, are innocent before proven guilty, right? That’s a basic human right that applies to everyone.

When Orpo talks about following Finnish culture does he mean that Muslims can now drink alcohol and get drunk the Finnish way? Can they be racist like some Finns? Racism is a part of our culture and a way how men and women boost their low self-esteem.

Go here if you want to read something about the dark side of Finnish culture.

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An arson attack against an asylum reception center in Finland gets a mixed response

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Juha Maenpää, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* substitute MP, who wrote that the burning of an asylum reception center in Niinisalo Tuesday morning was how god answered his prayers, is an indication of how xenophobia has overtaken Finland. Reaction to what he said are highly revealing as well about the state of Finland today.

To show how lopsided the present debate about asylum seekers and our ever-growing culturally diverse society is, one could test the latter statement by Juha Maenpää and ask what would happen if a migrant, never mind a Muslim, would have made such a claim.

Instead of the Muslim stating what Maenpää said, “Great. There is a god. My prayers have been answered,” the only word the Muslim would substitute in Maenpää’s statement is god for Allah.

How would the media and politicians react? Would we see a storm or a hurricane?

Migrant Tales spoke to Maenpää by phone Wednesday. He said that “politicians should wake up to the situation, if they don’t it could spark a civil war.”

Today on a Facebook post on his wall, which was published by waltamedia.fi, Maenpää didn’t appear to repent what he posted on his Facebook wall Tuesday.

Headlined “I’m in the eye of the storm!” Maenpää claims that he didn’t pray for the asylum reception center to be razed to the ground. He said that his statement was taken out of context.

While the PS politician appears to want to confuse us with his double-talk, few people, even from his party, believe what he said was appropriate. But then there’s this usual silence coming from the PS…

Read full story here.

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