Tag: Finland

Finland and Europe must not be lured into populism and xenophobia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Denials by party leaders like Timo Soini that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) isn’t a xenophobic party, and the meek response of Finland’s mainstream parties to such a threat, speak volumes of the present state of this country. Who helped the political careers of xenophobes like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others? Soini and the PS. 

Why do we forget this important fact? Possibly because we dread admitting that intolerance is a bigger problem than we want to believe.

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Read full story here.

Believing that Soini is against racism as he often claims, it allowing him and intolerance off the hook.

Certainly racism and intolerance isn’t a problem for a white Finn never mind the head of the PS. It is, however, an issue for many in this country who aren’t white and those who struggle for acceptance in an ever-hostile anti-immigration atmosphere that has political support.

British shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, was quoted recently as saying on The Guardian that non-Jewish people must take a leading stand in defeating antisemitism in Europe. Speaking at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, he said that in the fight against antisemitism, silence was the “coconspirator of evil.”

Correct. If I were Alexander’s speech writer, I’d stress that it’s not only antisemitism that we should challenge, but all types of intolerance irrespective if that person is a Muslim, Roma, gay or belongs to any other minority.

He said that the rise of antisemitism was “deeply troubling” in the face of the far right making significant gains in the 2014 European parliamentary elections.

Will we begin to raise our voices against intolerance when it snatches power?

By then it will be too late.

 

 

Latest drug police scandal sheds light on other issues like ethnic profiling in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The latest police corruption scandal concerning the head of the Helsinki police drug squad, sheds light on two matters: Our naivety as a society about institutional corruption, and the extent of  other issues like ethnic profiling by the police. 

Police corruption is nothing abnormal since it exists everywhere. What is abnormal, however, is believing that our police are immune to corruption. It’s exactly that type of wishful thinking that permits corruption to find fertile ground to grow. 

The Helsinki police drug squad chief facing bribery and conflict-of-interest charges is Jari Aarnio, who has naturally denied any wrongdoing.

According to YLE, citing Helsingin Sanomat, the charged policeman is suspected of having links with criminal organizations and a tracking device company, Trevoc, whose services are used by the police and Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo).

Let’s go for a moment back to a story that Migrant Tales published in 2012. After the Ombudsman for Minorities got a number of complaints by people who claimed they were stopped by the police due to their ethnic background, Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen and the police stated flatly that no ethnic profiling happens in Finland.

Such an absolute claim is highly revealing since it suggests the opposite: ethnic profiling happens more often than we want to admit.

In many respects, it’s the same attitude that must have fueled the latest police corruption scandal. Denying that something doesn’t happen offers an opportunity to abuse the system and laws.

David Burnham, a former New York Times writer, states in the 1970s: “While almost all cops take free meals [in the United States], the idea of getting a break is the platform, the launching pad, from which the bad guys spring. A policeman who commits these acts does so for the same reason that others are thieves – inclination and opportunity.”

“Getting a free meal” can also mean turning a blind eye or playing down a problem like ethnic profiling. It is the launching pad to other abuse by the police of people like immigrants and visible minorities.

The police and the interior minister are, however, still adamant: No ethnic profiling goes on in Finland by the police.

Henrik Dettmann: Finland is an “extremely intolerant” country

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Is Finland a racist country? Henrik Dettmann, head coach of the Finnish national basketball team, agrees and claims that Finland is an ”extremely intolerant” country that isn’t a favorable place for foreigners.

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Read full story here.

“Yes [Finland is a racist country],” Dettmann is quoted as saying on Verkkouutiset. “If I compare what I have experienced [in different countries], nowhere have a bumped into such narrow-minded attitudes towards foreigners as in Finland, nowhere else.”

He said that if a party like the Perussuomalaiset get 20% of the votes in an election  by fueling anti-immigration sentiment, that already says a lot about the present state of Finland.

Dettmann has worked as a coach of the German and French national basketball teams.

It is a positive sign that more Finns are speaking out against racism in this country, which continues to be denied or played down.

If we had the opportunity to move twenty years ahead in time, how would we look at Finland’s darkest period in the new century?

One matter is for certain: Not enough voices spoke out against racism and intolerance.

Strict banking laws in Finland leave refugees without bank accounts and discourage foreign investment

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Stateless refugees cannot still open bank accounts in regions like Etelä-Savo in Eastern Finland, according to Länsi-Savo, a Mikkeli-based daily. Not only are stateless persons affected but different municipalities that want to attract foreign investment. Some small- and medium-sized companies that want to relocate in Finland from Russia have a difficult time opening bank account as well. 

Migrant Tales understands that there is no standard procedure for opening a bank account in Finland for stateless persons, who cannot confirm their original identity. Some branch offices not only permit stateless persons to open bank accounts but have access to online banking.

According to Länsi-Savo, opening a bank account in Mikkeli has become more difficult, if not impossible.

If a stateless person cannot open a bank account, it effectively means that he or she cannot be paid assistance by the state. In order to avoid such a problem, municipalities like Mikkeli cannot accept refugees from Syria, according to a municipal employee who works with refugees.

The most outrageous aspect of this policy is that there aren’t any standard rule but instead allows bank to treat people on a one-to-one basis. Some stateless refugees in cities like Kouvola and Tampere haven’t had problems in opening bank accounts and even getting online banking services.

Last year I encountered this problem head on when I went to Nordea bank in Mikkeli with a stateless person.  After a few questions, the bank employee said that the person needs a valid passport to open an account at that bank. But if on that passport it reads ”his/her identity cannot be confirmed,” the person can never open an account at Nordea.

I asked the Nordea employee what could be done.

“Why don’t you go to OP bank,” she said. “I’ve read in Länsi-Savo [the local paper] that such persons can open accounts at that bank.”

Surprised by what I was hearing, I asked the bank employee if she was serious.

“Why do they [OP bank] have one set of rules and you have another?” I asked. “Don’t you think it is pretty incredible that you are sending a potential client to the competition?”

The bank employee didn’t answer my question.

Let’s say that the person is lucky and is able to open a bank account but cannot get online banking services. That’s how Finns did their banking over two decades ago. They stood in lines and asked the bank teller to pay their bills.

Even in getting banking services, some immigrants are second-class members of this society.

See also:

Migrant Tales (March 13, 2012): Stateless persons do not have the right to open a bank account in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here is a pretty odd case that I encountered Monday (March 12) when I went to Nordea bank in Mikkeli to open an account for a stateless person.  After a few questions, the bank employee said that the person needs a valid passport to open an account at that bank. But if on that passport it reads ”his/her identity cannot be confirmed,” the person can never open an account at Nordea.

I asked the Nordea employee what could be done.

“Why don’t you go to OP bank,” she said. “I’ve read in Länsi-Savo [the local paper] that such persons can open accounts at that bank.”

Surprised by what I was hearing, I asked the bank employee if she was serious.

“Why do they [OP bank] have one set of rules and you have another?” I asked. “Don’t you think it is pretty incredible that you are sending a potential client to the competition?”

When I asked JusticeDemon about what happened, he said that there is a clear administrative problem over what counts as proof of identity and over the  implementation of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (Accession by Finland on 10 October 1968).

One point of that Convention is Article 27 (Identity papers), which states, “The Contracting States shall issue identity papers to any stateless person in their territory who does not possess a valid travel document.”

According to the Ombudsman for Minorities, an identity card issued by the police should count as valid identification just like a passport.

Some believe that the decision by the banks to not allow a stateless person to open a bank account as arbitrary.

There is not much a person from a war-torn country can do if he or she is stateless. Who’s to blame? The refugee? The failed state? The bank(s)? Or authorities regulating the bank sector?

Whatever the case, it sure isn’t the fault of the stateless person.

See also:

Time has shown us that our anti-racism efforts in Finland haven’t been in vain

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It was only a few years ago when Migrant Tales was openly challenged by some for speaking out against racism in Finland. According to the more hostile commentators that posted on our site back then, racism didn’t exist in this country. If it existed, it was minor and exceptional.

Even after the anti-immigration and anti-EU Perussuomalaiset (PS) party scored their historic election victory in 2011, some Finns continued to live in denial about this social ill.  As intolerance was played down, Finland become an ever-hostile place for immigrants and visible minorities.

Here’s one comment Allan in May 2011 that sums it up:

That is exactly what Enrique is trying to achieve with his hate speech, or has already along with your kind of sycophants. Always there is a foreigner anything happens it is “racism” be it from having to pay a bus ticket and someone not sitting next to him, its “racism”. So that is why there is no racism in Finland, as it is all imagined. Boy called wolf one time too many.

Allan’s comment about racism in Finland is highly revealing because it shows how intolerance is able to see another day thanks to denial.

The question is no longer whether there is racism in Finland or not, but to what extent this social illness has found roots in this country. Those roots of intolerance are very deep and cover a wide area.

Still in denial?

Why then do some Finns still refuse to recognize that there are “other” Finns, who have the same rights as they to live here?

Why don’t you ask immigrants and visible minorities if they feel secure in Finland? How can they be if they are underemployed or unemployed? Why not ask third-culture children who, despite having lived all their lives here, are still labelled as pupils “with immigrant backgrounds” by teachers?

Why not ask why such youths have a greater chance of becoming marginalized than white Finns?

Why are we asking this question over and over again, if there is racism in Finland, if we have the answer and proof? Ever thought about asking the Romany minority of Finland, which have lived here for five centuries?

Tim Wise puts the whole issue in the following manner when he speaks of white privilege in the United States:

To be a person of color in this country, is to always have to know what the other guy thinks. It is to always have to know what the other person thinks about you. I you don’t, if you for one minute, you forget what other people think, your life is in danger.

The intolerance that Wise speaks of is already here in Finland and will reach the same intensity as in the United States if we do not take concrete steps to challenge such a social ill.

But why should a white Finn challenge intolerance? He’s the top dog, a member of the dominant group.

Sensible people understand that if racism isn’t challenged in our society, the biggest loser we’ll be the whole of society. White Finns will be able to keep their privilege but at a huge social cost.

To find a good answer whether intolerance is an issue in this country, it’s important to listen to those that are at the receiving end like Laura Eklund Nhaga.

I hope that more Finns, especially those with non-white backgrounds, stand up for their rights like this young woman.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGts9CSbz1Y&list=PLUE9_qAC5gmHAME78ahFkFtCP5o1uG9T2

 

Lieksa, Finland, councilperson who wanted a “Somali-free” meeting room gets sacked as the PS’ town council leader

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Esko Saastamoinen, the Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilperson from Lieksa who demanded that a ”Somali-free” meeting room for his delegation, has been sacked as the PS’ town council leader, according to Karjalainen, a Joensuu-based daily. 

Saastamoinen was, however,  able to retain his post as the party’s Lieksa town board first vice president.

The PS councilperson faces as well charges for ethnic agitation and discrimination.

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The former PS town council leader “demanded” at a public meeting on Monday that his delegation be given a new meeting room because it was being used by a Somali working group, according to YLE in English. 

The demand made by Saastamoinen for a new meeting room, which had been supported by another PS councilperson, was made in the presence of Lieksa Lehti editor Marja Mölsä, who published the news.

In an earlier story published by Iltalehti, in which the town secretary gave in to the Lieksa PS’ demands for a new meeting room, was flatly denied Wednesday by the town’s Mayor Esko Lehto.

He said that ”under no circumstances” will the PS councilpersons be given a new meeting room as the town secretary had confirmed in an earlier Iltalehti story.

The question we should ask after this latest scandal by the PS is why Saastamoinen and another PS councilperson, who supported the idea of a new meeting room, are still members of the party.

Certainly there would be outrage if a politician made a similar demand in a country like the United Kingdom or the United States.

This affair shows once again that the PS still treat nicely their racists.

It reveals as well why racism is still considered “normal” and encouraged in some parts of Finland.

 

Lieksa town secretary caves in to PS demands for “Somali-free” meeting room

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An earlier story, which claimed that a Perussuomalaiset (PS) Lieksa town council leader doesn’t want to be in the same room where a Somali group meets once a month, has been corrected by Karjalainen, a Joensuu-based daily. It is not the PS town council leader, Esko Saastamoninen, making such a demand but the PS councilpersons of Lieksa. 

Lieksa’s town secretary confirmed to tabloid Iltalehti Tuesday that the PS councilpersons will get a new meeting room.

What did I just read?! Yes, right, Lieksa’s town secretary caved in to PS’ demands for a ”clean room” where Somalis don’t meet once a month.

It’s difficult to weigh what is more offensive: The PS town councilmen’s demand or the town secretary’s compliance.

Saastamoinen wanted a clean room because he said that Somalis are carriers of different types of diseases and therefore the PS town councilmen didn’t want to meet in the same room as they.

Abdirahim Hussein, a Center Party politician who was born in Somalia, demanded that Saastamoinen should resign from his post as the PS’ town council head, according to Suomenmaa.

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 Read full story (in Finnish) here.

“He shouldn’t be in politics,” he said. “Does he mean that Somalis aren’t clean? It is a defamation against us. These types of statements shouldn’t be acceptable.”

They are unacceptable and they should have no place in our society. Racists use a number of arguments to drive home their arguments. One of these is that immigrants carry different types of diseases.

The PS are the third-largest party in the Lieksa town council with eight councilpersons after the Social Democrats and Center Party. The anti-immigration and anti-EU party gained in Lieksa 22.5% of the votes in the 2012 municipal election, which is a 16.1% rise from 2008.

 

 

 

 

PS leader of Lieksa, Finland, refuses to be in the same room where Somalis meet

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Taking into account all the problems and positive solutions that have been found in the town of Lieksa in the region of South Karelia concerning its over 200-strong Somali community, it is disturbing that a city councilmen like Esko Saastamoinen, Perussuomalaiset (PS) town council leader, states he doesn’t want to be in the same room where Somalis meet once a month.

Saastamoinen, who is the town councilman leader of the PS, made his comment on Joensuu-based Karjalainen, which cites the local Lieksan Lehti.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Here’s a good indication why matters got off the wrong foot in Lieksa, which has been in the national spotlight due to the ethnic tension there.

Matters have improved a lot since then.

According to Saastamoinen, the PS want a ”clean meeting room” to meet.

What are we to think about this?

For one, Saastamoinen puts into question the good work that many are doing to integrate refugees into Finnish society.  It reveals as well the intolerance and xenophobia that has afflicted Finland through a party like the PS.

In many respects, Saastamoinen sounds like the racist white Southerners of the 1950s or how leaders of the National Front in the UK reacted to immigrants in the 1970s.

In plain English it’s called racism with a capital ”R.”

Suomen Sisu tests Finland’s tolerance for hate

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If you want a good view of the type of Finland a far right association like Suomen Sisu wants to build, check out the invitation to their 15th anniversary celebration at the Santahamina Military Base near Helsinki. The invitation states at the end:  “Santahamina is a military zone where only Finnish citizens have access to [the base].”

Fortunately, Finland’s defense forces have prohibited such an event taking place at the base, according to Monday’s Helsingin Sanomat.

The Santahamina Military Base is the home of the Jaeger Regiment, which played a key role in helping the Whites defeat the Reds in the Civil War of 1918.

The invitation, signed by Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen, who hasn’t hid before his loathing for Muslims and other minorities like the Roma, is another example of how far-right groups test how much Finns tolerate hate.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-11-11 kello 20.11.09Finland’s Security Intelligence Service (Supo) sees Suomen Sisu as an extremist ogranization.

One of the aims of Suomen Sisu is to keep Finland white. It discourages white ethnic Finns from marrying foreigners, especially blacks.

If you believe that Suomen Sisu is a “nationalist association that promotes Finnish values and self-esteem,” then you believe that the English Defense League fights for human rights. Such claims are red herrings that aim to hide their  hatred for certain minorities.

Suomelaisuuden liitto, which has been overtaken by PS members, has waged a hostile campaign against the the role of  theSwedish language in Finland.

The association is closely related to Suomen Sisu.

Thank you Niko Tamminen for the heads-up.