Tag: Finland

HS in English: Concerns about growing racism in Savo and Karelia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment:  We all know that racism is a problem and that immigrants and other minorities are targets of attacks. Ask many visible immigrants in Finland if they have ever been a victim of racist harassment or a hate crime the answers you get may surprise you.  Some immigrants may play down these incidents while others are quite candid about them. 

A good rule of thumb in the town that I live in is the visible immigrants usually visit a bar with two other friends. Going alone could put you in harm way especially when alcohol has a role in the matter. 

YLE reports something that has been known for a long while: “In Iisalmi, in the north of Savo, police have had reports of residents of immigrant background being targeted by verbal abuse. Racist graffiti has been seen in public places, and in one case, a young woman was threatened with physical violence.”

So what gives and why is racism “growing more than usual” in Savo and Karelia?

The police do not give us a clear answer. 

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Police in North Karelia and North Savo are concerned about increasing manifestations of racism in the area. Police in the eastern town of Lieksa were informed that young people in the area had been invited on Facebook to convene on Tuesday evening in a suburb with a large immigrant population under the heading “Who’s afraid of a black man?”

Read whole story.

Migration patters among Jews – Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Comment: The first Jew to receive a permanent residence to live in Finland in 1832 was Jakob Weikaim, a tinsmith who moved from Latvia in 1799 at the age of 14.He was the first Jew that was allowed to move to Finland without converting to Christianity.

Until 1809, when Finland was still a part of Sweden, its former ruler promulgated a number of laws that permitted Jews to only settle in the following Swedish cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Norrköping.  

The size of the Jewish community of Finland has always been small. In 1870 there were 460 in the country and today it totals under 2,000.

Sounding much of the arguments used by some parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) today,  Finnish-language newspaper Uusi Suometar wrote in 1833 that Finland’s Jewish population would reach half a million within a hundred years due to high birth rates.

One of the most uncomfortable relationships that affected the Finnish Jewish community during the Continuation War (1941-44) was when Finland aligned itself with Nazi Germany. Even though Jews fought in the Finnish army sometimes alongside the Germans, it was pretty clear to some what would happen to them if the Nazis would have won the war. 

While persecution of Jews in Finland was a far cry from Germany of the 1930s, there was anti-Semitism.  Another factor that kept matters from escalating on this front was the fact that there were so few Jews.  As in other parts of Europe,  Jewishness was not encouraged.

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Finland’s Jewish community is small, but active. Its small size and unique characteristics allow us to understand the migratory patterns of this community and to use the data to extrapolate the migration patterns in Finland to larger Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. Finland aligned itself with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union 1941-1944. Finnish Jews fought in the Finnish army, occasionally side by side with the Germans.

Read whole story.

Why don’t Finnish politicians challenge urban myths hard enough?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

In Ireland, where the immigrant population has grown very rapidly in a span of ten years, there are concrete steps to address urban myths about migrants, refugees and Muslims. In Finland it appears to be a totally different story. 

Below are some myths that a brochure about migrant workers and their families. Why isn’t there a similar campaign in Finland by the government?

As far as we are concerned, the term Ireland below could be replaced by Finland.

01 Do Migrant Workers take jobs from Irish people?

  • There is always the possibility of displacement in a competitive economy but most available research shows that migrant workers replace rather than displace workers in Ireland.
  • There are many reasons why it can be hard for unemployed people to find work, e.g. lack of childcare, and disability access, discrimination, racism, deskilling, educational disadvantage.
02 Are Migrant Workers a drain on the economy?
  • Migrant workers expand the economy by allowing businesses to grow and by investing their own skills and money in enterprises.
  • Of the 162,200 additional jobs created in the Irish economy from 2004 to 2006, non-Irish national entrepreneurs and companies accounted for 53% of these jobs.

03 Do Migrant Workers bring down wages?

  • Wage levels including the minimum wage have consistently risen over the past decade.
  • Migrant workers should not be blamed for employers who do not pay minimum wage and who violate employment legislation for their own profit.

04 Are Migrant Workers a burden on public services?

  • Migrant workers tend to pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. It is estimated that around 200,000 migrant workers provide an annual surplus in income taxes of around half a billion Euro.
  • Despite unfounded fears of “welfare tourism”, less than 1% of the country’s migrant workers are dependent on social welfare. Social welfare is important for any worker as a safety net in times of illness and unemployment.

At the beginning of the brochure reads: “Migration is the mother of progress and invention. (…) Our world today is shaped by the industry of immigrants.”

 

How to battle racism in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

A student from an African country asked me about moving to a city in Eastern Finland. “Is it a nice place?” he said, meaning if there was a lot of racism. Since we can never predict when racism will strike, one good way of confronting this social ill in Finland and Europe is by not running away from it.

Things have been so bad in many parts of Finland that some ethnic groups fear going to a night club alone. Usually they visit these places with a group but never alone.

One may ask how is it possible that some ethnic groups would not chance being in a night club alone for fear of being attacked. What kind of country are we living in? Why do public officials and the police play down this social ill?

The reason why most cases of racism and harassment go unreported in this country is because there is a strong culture of denial in the police for these types of crimes.

A policeman from Mikkeli told a group of foreign students that if they are yelled at and harassed in public they should ignore these insults and not report it to the police. He compared racist harassment with the type of jokes people throw at him as a policeman when he visits his home town.

Certainly another cause for not reporting racist crimes in Finland are immigrants themselves. This has to change not for the sake of the victim but for their children and grandchildren.

It doesn’t matter what “official Finland” thinks about racism. It is what we think of it and how we will react to it.

There are many ways skinning racism but one of them is not running away from the problem.

Boycott “The Finns”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Migrant Tales had decided in April to ditch the English-language name “True Finns” for the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party because it was a horrible translation. By calling a party “True Finns” one is insinuating that those that don’t support this right-wing populist party are “phony Finns.” The new English-language name, The Finns, stoops even lower.

There is a way to put an end to the manipulation and nonsense of a party like the PS when it comes to a name like “The Finns.” Boycott it and refuse to use it.

Over 9,000 people have signed a petition on Facebook about “The Finns.”

I recommend that foreign journalists throughout the world follow what is done on Migrant Tales. We call Timo Soini’s party the Perussuomalaiset, or PS.

It’s that easy.

The Perussuomalaiset adopt “The Finns” as their official English name

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party are now officially called in English “The Finns,” reports Helsingin Sanomat citing Finnish News Agency (STT).  The motion to adopt “The Finns” as the official English name of the party was made by PS head Timo Soini.

Soini was quoted as saying to STT that the reason why the name was changed to “The Finns” was because he did not like the party to be called “Ordinary Finns,” “Basic Finnn;” even “True Finn wasn’t a good name because it suggested it was a far-right party.

Let’s admit it folks, the name “True Finns” is really bad because it suggests that Soini’s followers are the only true Finns of this country. The rest are phony Finns.

Migrant Tales wrote about the party’s English name, True Finns, in a blog entry in April and resolved the matter by calling the party by its Finnish name.

The Finns probably reflects Soini’s wish for the party to remain one of the biggest in Finland. I think a very suitable name for them would be the “Fundamental Finns” because of their fundamentalist ideas.

Another act in the tragic-comic play by the PS has taken place. Migrant Tales will continue to call the party Perussuomalaiset due to the poor and unfair translation.

 

The far right and the PS should know there is no such thing as selective hatred

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Even if some anti-immigration groups try to make their message more digestible to voters, it should be clear after the tragic events in Norway that hate speech affects everyone. Selective hatred is a myth.  If you loathe one group that poison spills over on other ones and eventually to  all of society.

Hate speech and racism are extremely dangerous for any society because their aim is to undermine and destroy our Western democratic liberal way of life and values.

It is sad, even unfortunate, that Finland has only awoken now to the menace of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s artillery of populism, ignorance, anti-EU and anti-immigration rhetoric.

PS head Timo Soini resembles the “good cop” and others like MP Jussi Halla-aho and his band of Suomen Sisu followers the “bad cops.” Whether there is a good and bad cop in the PS is not the point. The safe haven that these bad cops have found under Soini stick out like an ever-growing sore thumb. The good and bad cops of the PS resemble a police force that is more interested in defending its shoddy record than correcting it.

As far as for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants, Multicultural Finns and minorities living in Finland are concerned,the PS is a visible threat to them.

While the PS may be an expression of social discontent in this country, its racism and xenophobia of too many of its MPs place a big question mark over the party’s credibility.

How can a party that places so much political capital on demonizing other groups ever aspire to lead Finland?

Exposing the language of anti-immigration groups in Finland and Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

One of the most surprising factors behind the hate speech of anti-immigration groups is that it is never portrayed as hatred. Racists never admit in public they are racists nor do far-right groups claim that they are extremists.

Deciphering the language of groups like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party may be difficult for some. The language they use to label immigrants and minorities has nothing to do with fairness nor our values found in the spirit of our laws.

Take for instance the far-right Suomen Sisu association wing of the PS led by MP Jussi Halla-aho and their loathing of the term “multiculturalism.”

Migrant Tales bloggers know that multiculturalism is a Canadian social policy used to integrate immigrants and promote cultural diversity. There are only three multicultural (social policy) countries in the world: Canada, Australia and Britain.

In Finland, multiculturalism is used to mean ethnic and cultural diversity with some sprinkles of Canada’s multicultural social policy.

If we look at the PS and other populist and far-right parties in Europe, multiculturalism means a totally different thing. For these groups, multiculturalism is a shady concept or policy that permits Muslims and Africans from moving to Europe and Finland. When these groups commonly speak of “uncontrolled immigration” they mean that too many or no Muslims and Africans should be allowed to move to Europe.

In the same way they have definied mulituclturalism to fit their political agenda, they have soiled the good name of immigrants and refugees.

Certainly the usual language of racism will be used to justify their loathing of these groups. One of their favorite arguments is that these people “are so barbaric that they can never adapt to our society.” Thus their racism and hatred is justified because a certain group is so different from us.

But the big hole in their argument of groups like the Counter-Jihadists is that they don’t have any solutions on how to make diversity work. Their solution is a constant whining about “ghettos” and “maladapted” immigrants when in fact the grand majority of these people have jobs, pay taxes and lead normal lives.

Moreover, if European society is already culturally diverse how do they plan to make it less diverse? What do they plan to do with the millions of Muslims and other minorities living in Europe?

The fact is that anti-immigration groups don’t have any answers. The only answers they will give you in public is blatant bigotry that flirts with your stereotypes and racism.

If you ever meet up with a representative or a person who loathes immigrants and other minorities in Europe, why not ask him or her what they plan to do with these people.

The answer they may give may shock you.

Far-right thinking and the cold war in Finland and the PS

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

The rise of far-right thinking and nationalism in Finland seen through the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is nothing new in the face of Finland’s long cold war isolation. Finnish-Soviet relations were not the only one that were under close scrutiny by the state, but how we interpreted our history and ourselves as a nation. That is now changing thanks to the reemergence of our ever-growing diversity as a nation.

The rise of the PS could be seen as a counterforce to that diversity and openness we are seeing in Finland today after living under the shadow of the former Soviet Union for over four decades.

Any serious student of Finnish society can tell you that we have always been a culturally diverse society: we were under Swedish and Russian rule for about 700 years and Finland produced 1.2 million immigrants between 1880-1999.

Here is an interesting analysis (in Finnish) of cultural diversity in Monday’s Helsingin Sanomat and the myth that we are somehow a homogenous nation.  An important matter to keep in mind is that the anti-immigration far right in the PS  have noidea what multiculturalism is and only see it as a policy that permits Muslims and Africans from moving to Finland.

In 1920, for example, we had 3.5 times more foreigners living in the country than in 1970, when there were about 7,000. The biggest group of foreign nationals that lived in Finland at the time were Finns who had become naturalized Swedes.

Finland was geopolitically near-isolated as well from Western Europe. Due to our special relationship with Moscow, we could never join the EU never mind the Council of Europe because it was too outspoken on human rights violations in the USSR.

In all respects the cold war era changed the mindset of Finland radically. By almost killing our diversity we ushered in a very exclusive, nationalistic and even racist way of seeing ourselves. We started to look and think so much alike that we actually believed we lived in a perfect society reinforced by our myths, stereotypes and lack of critique.

Since diversity almost became extinct in these parts in the cold war, people who came to Finland had funny names. In the 1980s, for example, foreigners were called aliens not immigrants. Refugees from the Soviet Union were never called that. They were known as people who “skipped the country (loikkari).”

It shouldn’t come to any surprise that living in a country that has done so much to destroy its diversity willingly or unwillingly never had the basic tools to seriously debate what happened during the cold war after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Because this did not happen in earnest, it is now taking place through the rise of parties like the PS, who are attempting to awaken — or keep asleep — cold war Finland with the full arsenal of anti-EU and anti-immigration rhetoric.

Unfortunately for the PS and fortunately for Finland, diversity is here to stay.

Accepting and encouraging it will be the best guarantee of developing a healthy and strong Finland in the future.

Are immigrants and Multicultural Finns becoming a social movement in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I rebel, then I exist. Albert Camus (1913-60)

By Enrique Tessieri

The news coming out of our television sets in recent months show protests in the Arab world, Greece and recently in London. Similar demonstrations have sparked in Chile and Israel. Despite differences between these protests, the message is the same: We don’t trust our traditional rulers any longer.

In which form these mass protests appear differ from country to country. On April 17 we saw such a protest in Finland, when the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party won 39 seats from 5 in the last election in 2007.

The PS victory has the same message as other ones globally: It is a big thumbs down to the country’s traditional parties and rulers.

Migrant Tales has said on many occasions that there is nothing wrong with protesting and fighting for the rights of others. However, if you link racism and xenophobia to “your struggle” you water down the noble message of your movement.

It would be naïve and short-sighted to think that just because the PS won a big victory in April, they will continue to collect  the fruits of discord. Since immigrant groups and parties like the Greens and others now see a clear adversary, the PS, it means that they are growing in strength as well.

French sociologist Alain Trouaine has studied social movements for a very long time, ranging from the May Movement of Paris in 1968 to the Solidarity movement of Poland in the 1980s.

Social movement, according to him, “are central and burn at the heart of society.”  In other words, social movements permit society to renew itself. This happens constantly.

One social movement in the making made up of immigrants and Finns could be Minun Suomeni on kansainvälinen – My Finland is International on Facebook.

What is remarkable about this Facebook page is that it already has the ability to mobilize demonstrations thanks to its over 45,000 “friends.”

Those who ask why immigrants and Multicultural Finns are hardly acknowledged, have no history or exist for the majority of Finns ask key questions about how larger groups exclude smaller ones.

If immigrants and Multicultural Finns don’t have a history or a nascent one at the best in Finland, how can they ever aspire to demand more rights never mind control and shape historicity? Since a group doesn’t have any history or very little of it recognized by the majority it means that it does not effectively exist. It is a bit like the debate on whether there is racism in Finland. By denying that there is racism are we affirming that we are not a culturally diverse society?

That is why I believe that one of the consequences of the rise of the PS will be more vocal social movements led by immigrants and Finns that will struggle and fight for greater recognition and acceptance by society.