Tag: Immigrants

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Diana Bellesi): Going and returning

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Being a migrant for a number of generations is special. Why do some of us are always hoping to go somewhere but we are always returning?

New immigrant arrivals in Argentina during the beginning of the last century. Source: Google

My late father, Nemo, put this surreal situation in the following words: Being at a railway station is like being in the land of nowhere with a sense of being somewhere else, or estando en una estación de tren es estar en la tierra de nadie con un sentir de estar más allá..

For some, this state is a feeling of intense joy because there is so much anticipation.

Diana Bellesi is an Argentinean writer and poet who put the latter state in the following words:

Adónde voy volviendo yo

que siempre quiero irme

a otra parte

Where am I returning to

that I always want

to go to another place.

Gracias, thank you Ivy Carlos for the heads-up.

Finding help if you are a victim of a hate crime is difficult in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There was a horrible attack against a Pakistani father of two over on February 23. Just to get an idea of the wounds he sustained on that terrible night, it took last week four hours to remove his stitches. 

What would have happened if the attackers were three Pakistanis who attacked a white Finn in such a vile manner? What would be the public’s and media’s reaction?

We got an example of this in 2015 when Finnish youths of non-white background sexually assaulted a white woman in the Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila.

Reporting on such a terrible story is difficult. I still remember a plea that the Pakistani victim told the attackers as he laid on the ground: “Please don’t kill me, I have two children.”

A Pakistani was attacked by three white Finns on February 23 and was near death. Pictured published with the permission of the victim. Photo by Enrique Tessieri.

Getting justice in Finland from a suspected hate crime is difficult.

Continue reading “Finding help if you are a victim of a hate crime is difficult in Finland”

Authorities should look at factors like social exclusion, third culture and school bullying for what happened in Munich

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As the dust settles over what happened in Munich on Friday, when Ali Sonboly took the lives of nine people and injured tens of others, there are a lot of questions that are taking our eyes off the ball. Instead of talking about “Islamic terrorism,” why are we not talking about some other motives that could have played important roles in the tragedy?

In Finland, an interview hosted by Sanna Ukkola of YLE with police service chief inspector, Timo Kilpeläinen, and an unknown authority on geopolitical conflicts, Alan Salehzadeh, reinforced how lost we are in finding solutions to mass killings and terrorism.

The whole talk show revolved around Islam, radical Islam and terrorism when, in fact, it should of asked more important questions.

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Read full story here.

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The Guardian writes:

“One of the questions facing authorities is whether Sonboly, who was bullied and isolated at school, intentionally set out to kill other young people. The dead included seven teenagers, a 20-year-old and a 45-year-old woman.”

Continue reading “Authorities should look at factors like social exclusion, third culture and school bullying for what happened in Munich”

UPDATE (October 6): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Poor and Sloppy Journalism

Posted on 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.

October 6

A2 Pakolais-ilta (YLE)

What was wrong with this television debate? Even if one of the hosts on the program was Wali Hashi, it was white Finns’ perceptions and opinions about asylum seekers coming to Finland and how they should integrate to our society. The term “integration” was mentioned a lot of times but it was code for assimilation, or one-way integration. Every form of prejudice Finland has about asylum seekers and migrants,  like they are criminals, rapists, social welfare bums and other labels, were pushed around freely during the one-sided debate. Forcing a refugee family to eat porridge and speaking of these people, who are also medics and university graduates, as helpless children who have to learn that zucchini is kesäkurpitsa in Finnish is beyond me.  The program did little to dispel the xenophobic climate in Finland but instead reinforced it by not challenging it. On top of this you had one National Coalition Party MP, Susanna Koski, and a pastor, Marjanna Toivianen, who still don’t know that the correct Finnish term for integration is kotoutuminen, not kotiutuminen, which means “coming home.” In 1998 Finland had to invent a new term for integration because none existed before that. That term is kotoutuminen.

If YLE cannot do a descent TV debate on our ever-growing culturally diverse society it should not do one at all.

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Finland’s attitude and experience of cultural diversity lag thirty years behind other European countries

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Watching YLE’s A-studio, which was aired Wednesday, is a prime example why we are still far away in Finland of having an inclusive society that is fair to everyone irrespective of their background. Spotting the red herrings in the debate on such a talk show isn’t easy but not impossible.

If National Coalition Party MP Wille Rydman argues that Finland needs structural changes in its economy and labor market, it really needs a major attitude overhaul on how it sees immigration and cultural diversity. Finland is at least 30 years behind other European countries like Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom in this respect.

Na?ytto?kuva 2015-5-21 kello 9.27.37Watch Wednesday’s A-studio (in Finnish) here.

The latter means in practice that we’re debating the same things and using the same false arguments and fears that were proven wrong at least three decades ago in other European countries. Debate is highly inflamed and hostile for those migrants and minorities living in Finland today.

Continue reading “Finland’s attitude and experience of cultural diversity lag thirty years behind other European countries”

Using the term “immigrant background” in a bigoted country

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In a country like Finland, where even politicians can make political careers with their bigotry, what impact does the label “immigrant background” have in reinforcing intolerance and prejudices? 

This question is an important one because, like racism, the label rarely if ever affects white Finns.

The tragic rape of a woman this week by a group of teenagers in the northern Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila is a case in point.

Even if the police apprehended the five suspects and they were in custody, they labeled them in a statement as having “immigrant backgrounds.” The police said that the ethnic label used in the statement was necessary since they needed more eyewitnesses.

Helsingin Sanomat used the term “immigrant background” in a first take of a story. In a column the daily explained why it took out the ethnic label in a newer take but admitted that it could have been left in the story since the police were trying to get more eyewitnesses.

Even if the daily posed some good questions about the problem in using such a label and if it is ethical under the circumstances that all of the suspects were apprehended, Helsingin Sanomat contradicted itself in another story where it highlighted in a headline that it later changed from “every third sentenced [for rape] was a foreigner” to “Tapanila gang rape suspects have been jailed.”

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Continue reading “Using the term “immigrant background” in a bigoted country”

UPDATE (Jan. 24): Migrant Tales’ 2015 Hall of Fame of poor journalism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales’2015 Hall of Fame of poor journalism will be updated separately. To see other examples of opinionated journalism in Finland about cultural diversity, please go to this link. 

Jan. 24

Suomi ei vedä maahanmuuttajia (Helsingin Sanomat)

What was left out? Today’s editorial on Helsingin Sanomat headlined, “Finland doesn’t attract migrants,” defends the country’s tightening of family reunification laws but surprisingly agrees with the anti-immigration populists, the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* that Finland should invest more in integration and offer more Finnish-language courses to newcomers. Is this only mentioned by the PS? Why does Helsingin Sanomat single out the PS in this respect? Do they want to make up with the anti-immigration party? Even if learning the local language is important, it isn’t a passport to equal membership in society. In Spain, where there are many Latin Americans, racism and social exclusion are common despite the fact that such migrants speak Spanish as their native tongue. Integration is a two-way process (not mentioned in the editorial) and certainly one reason why so few skilled migrants come to Finland is due to a number of factors like how do Finns relate to cultural diversity and Otherness? The cartoon depicts the prevailing attitude in all political parties: See no migrant, hear no migrant, speak no migrant.

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Sweden Democrats openly attack cultural diversity – will the PS of Finland follow their example?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In a clear attempt to cash in on the anti-immigration sentiment, Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder said that minorities like the Saami could never be Swedes and was willing to pay immigrants to leave the country, reports The Local.

The mere suggestion that Sweden is only a country of white Swedes reveals the racist and exclusive mindset of the Sweden Democrats. In a US context it would be something like encouraging Hispanics, blacks and other minorities to go back to where they came from because white USAmericans rule the country.

“Yes, and that is good,” Söder was quoted as saying on The Local. “We must make it easer for those considering moving back to their country. Then we’ll be in a better condition to create a society of common identity.”

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 Read full story here.

In Söder’s views, Jews, Kurds and the Sami are examples of groups that are Swedish citizens but cannot be considered “true” Swedes if they don’t assimilate into Swedish society.

Has anybody asked Söder who is a so-called “true” Swede? Why does he think he is a “true” Swede? Is there any such thing as a “true” Swede?

What Söder is claiming is what is exactly wrong in the Nordic region. White Nordic people think that this land is exclusively theirs. This is malarkey.

The language of the Sweden Democrat party secretary is regurgitated by parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) of Finland, Danish People’s Party and Progress Party of Norway. All four of them believe that only white Nordic people are the right people that should live in this region.

Willy Silberstein, chairperson of the Swedish committee against anti-Semitism disagrees with Söder.

“I am Jewish and born in Sweden,” he said. “I am just as much Swedish as Björn Söder. There is an us and them mentality which I think is a characteristic of the party.”

While the PS in Finland have distanced themselves from the Sweden Democrats, their success in the March elections will be watched closely by the PS. Finland holds parliamentary elections in April 2015.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Systemic disenfranchisement of migrants and minorities in Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One important question that doesn’t appear to bother too many politicians is why migrant voter turnout in Europe is so low. In the 2012 municipal elections of Finland, 20% of eligible migrants voted compared with 18.6% in 2008. This is a far cry from 59.5% and 62.2% of Finnish citizens that voted in such elections, respectively. 

As we saw in the EU elections of May, the far right made important gains especially in countries like France, United Kingdom, Denmark Austria, Sweden and Greece. The low voter turnout coupled with the disenfranchisement of migrants from the political system and society in general has benefited the far right.

According to  an opinion piece on euobserver by Thomas Huddleston, the low levels of voter participation and naturalization of Europe’s ever-growing immigrant population have become “the major disenfranchisement cause of our time.”

Table 1: Persons entitled to vote and those who voted by nationality in municipal elections during 1996-2012.

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Source: Statistics Finland.

Some of the key issues that Huddleston points out are the following:

  • There are 51 million migrants aged 15-74 in the EU, or 14% of the adult population;
  • 32 million migrants are first- and 18 million are second-generation migrants;
  • Two thirds of the first first-generation are not citizens of their country of residence;
  • A large number of young second generation adults are not citizens in around half of the EU member states;
  • Among non-EU citizens, 10 million live in EU countries (Germany, Italy, France, Greece and Austria) denying them even the right to vote in local elections;
  • Far right parties in countries like Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and the UK are benefiting the most from this democratic deficit.

It’s clear why the far right and anti-immigration groups do not want to give migrants greater voting rights since such a move would undermine their power. But if we want to make the EU more inclusive, it’s clear that we are going to have to make an about-turn in voting rights to migrants.

Writes Huddleston:

Research finds that the electoral power of the far-right is the most important factor explaining the restrictiveness of European countries’ citizenship policies, which then has major effects on immigrants’ naturalization rates, even for high-educated and developed-world immigrants.

For those who still believe that parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), which has far right roots, haven’t poisoned the air for migrants and polarized society should think twice. A good example is the ongoing debate on same-sex marriage in Finland. If the PS wouldn’t have won the 2011 elections and become the third-largest party in parliament, same-sex marriage would most likely have been approved a long time ago.

 

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. 

Time warp Fazer of Finland: Stereotyping Mediterranean “gigolos” to sell salt licorice

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I was surprised to see Fazer, a Finnish foodservice company, advertising salt licorice on television with the help of a 1980s stereotype of a Southern European gigolo  who speaks Finnish with a me-Tarzan-you-Jane accent. 

Migrant Tales sent an email to Fazer Monday morning about the ad but never got a reply. I did, however, get in touch with the the Mainonnan eettinen neuvosto, an advertising ethics board, which recommended that we sent a complaint to them, which we will.

It’s clear that one of the biggest challenges that migrants face in Finland is tackling stereotypes about them. The most recent television ad by Fazer reinforces stereotypes about one group of migrants.

Fazer has a questionable record on stereotyping different ethnic groups in its products.

Pressure from the Finnish Consumer Agency, EU and Ombudsman for Minorities forced the company to stop using a Golliwog on its licorice brand in 2007. In 2011 it was forced to change the image  on one of its produces that used a stereotyped image of a Chinese man (see below).

images

Before…
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…after.

 

golliwog

Golliwogs on Finnish licorice brands has been a common site since the 1920s…

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…and another company continues to flirt with them to this date. This licorice was sold at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

If you feel that this TV commercial by Fazer is offensive, send an email to the company, the Mainonnan eettinen neuvosto or Ombudsman for Minorities.

Another effective way would be to boycott Fazer products.