Tag: Immigrants

CEO Whalroos claims the social welfare system marginalizes Finns

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

Björn Wahlroos, chairman of the board of banks Sampo Group, Nordea and forest group UPM-Kymnmene, was quoted on Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat as stating that the   present social welfare state system is the main culprit for marginalizing Finns. He said that outgoing President Tarja Halonen had put a dent in the credibility of the executive branch by polarizing Finnish society. 

“During Halonen’s mandate the [credibility of] presidential institution has suffered,” he said. “I wouldn’t [go as far as to] state that she was not fit to be president, but her position has been different from what the people expressed in the parliamentary election.”

What is Whalroos implying? Does he claim that while 81% of Finns did not vote for an anti-EU and anti-immigration party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS), the president should jump on the populist bandwagon and echo what 19.1% of Finns voted for?

Since Whalroos represents the conservative model of our society, or the epitome of capitalist greed for some, his views have a lot of relevance to Finns but especially to immigrants and minorities.

If more social inequality is going to occur in Finland in the years ahead due to the diminishing role of the welfare state, the impact on Finns, immigrants and minorities will not only come in benefits but in a totally new set of values. This, I believe, is the central issue. What are those new values that will guide us in an ever-growing dog-eat-dog society?

One of the first matters to fly out of the window in Whalroos’ economic model for Finland is social equality (tasa-arvo).

But concepts such as social equality have little meaning for immigrants, minorities and Finnish with international backgrounds if they do not exist in practice. Even if we have to take Wahlroos’ claims with a pinch of salt, he is right in claiming that the present social welfare system does marginalize some people, especially immigrants.  City officials and politicians use social welfare services to sweep under the rug serious social problems like acceptance of immigrants.

Moreover, Whalroos, a former activist of the communist party when he was a student, simplifies things and stumbles on the same problem that other conservatives make: Less control of the economy will resolve all of our society’s problems.

If you want to see what kinds of societies economic liberalism has created, visit the United States and other countries like Argentina. You will rapidly get a good idea of how neo-liberal capitalism  has fueled social inequality, poverty at the cost of higher dividends for shareholders.

While Whalroos speaks highly of President-elect Sauli Niinstö, it is unclear if the new president will be as outspoken as his predecessor on issues like social inequality and racism.

A poll by MTV3 of the presidential candidates showed that Niinistö agreed with PS chairman Timo Soini and Sari Essayah of the Christian Democrats that the far right did not pose a threat to Finland.

Labor immigrants in Finland: Who exploits whom?

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By Enrique Tessieri

Remember when some politicians pointed the finger accusingly at labor immigrants because they would fuel racism? Remember how these politicians claimed that immigrants would work for a pittance and thereby drive wages down? A story published by Kauhajoki-lehti reveals how Swedish construction group Skanska exploited its employees at a construction site by paying them 4-euro hourly wages  and a bowl of rice every day.

A story by Kansan Uutiset claims that such workers made 3 euros an hour and worked 12-hour shifts.

So who is to blame? The worker or the company? What about those who should be regulating such sites to ensure that everything is done legally?

Most of the immigrant workers in question are from Estonia, Kosovo, Russia and Poland.

Taking into account such cases, and there are many of them out there in Finland, it’s clear that some companies will exploit immigrant workers if given the opportunity. This doesn’t happen to Finns on such a scale because they are organized.

Unions should take care of immigrant workers as much as they do their own nationals.

Does this happen? Kauhajoki is a good example that it doesn’t.

Lip service or action by Finnish municipal authorities?

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By Enrique Tessieri

The role of accepting refugees in remote municipalities as a way of slowing the number of people who move out of the community is a half-way solution to the challenging demographic problem facing many parts of Finland. While there is a lot of good will to accommodate refugees in their municipality, many of these people end up moving to bigger cities like Helsinki after short stay. 

One of the problems why refugees and immigrants avoid small municipalities or stay a short while is because there are few opportunities, jobs and near-nonexistent immigrant community.

Another important matter that encourages such refugees to move out of such municipalities when possible is the lack of a clear idea by city officials of what these people’s role is in the community.  Directing them to their umpteenth Finnish-language course, employment office or to The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela)  are not effective ways of dealing with the issue but a method of brushing the problem under the rug.

While some municipalities do a better job than others at integrating refugees and immigrants, those that do a poor job are the ones who do no envisage any “real” place for them. By “real place” I mean hiring refugees and immigrants to work for the municipality and doing everything possible that they’ll work, invest and raise their families in our community.

Mikkeli (pop. 48,676) is a municipality located about 230km northeast of Helsinki.  It’s a typical city that faces serious demographic challenges (aging population) and needs outside investment to create more jobs.  What makes matters worse is that the city does not have any concrete plan or roadmap on how it plans to meet these future demographic and economic challenges.

Believe it or not, Mikkeli has no international director coordinating such efforts except for the assistant mayor.

Some estimates see Finland needing by 2040 two million immigrants to maintain the same age structure it had in 2007, when 17% of the population was over 65 years.  Since such a large number of immigrants are needed to maintain the present age structure, the role of immigration can only slow the process of aging at municipalities like Mikkeli.

In the region of Etelä-Savo where I live, 2040 is already here in some municipalities. In Puumala, 29.3% of the population is over 65 years while the average for Etelä-Savo is 22.7%. In Mikkeli, 19.1% of the inhabitants are pensioners.

In many respects the rise of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS) comes at a very bad moment for Finland and regions like Etelä-Savo.

If local authorities are struggling to figure out the big picture for refugees and immigrants in their respective municipalities, they have to deal as well with ever-growing nationalism and anti-immigration sentiment.

Hiding one’s head in the sand is not a solution. Smaller municipalities throughout Finland need not only a viable plan that will promote mutual acceptance, respect, equal opportunities and most importantly jobs for refugees, immigrants and their local inhabitants, they need to implement such a plan now.

Why did you come here? (3/4) “Omar Hussein: At last peace”

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By Enrique Tessieri  

This is the third of four short biographies that were published in an English reader called Why did you come here?  The book, which was published in 1994 by WSOY, was authored by Russell Snyder and myself.  Omar Hussein is the first Somali friend I had in Finland. I met him in the early 1990s, when Mikkeli opened up its first refugee center.  

Back then, I wrote a big feature for Apu magazine about the refugees that had been located in Mikkeli. Thanks to that story, I got death threats over the phone from angry readers who warned me that I’d be killed if I didn’t stop writing about refugees.

It was the first time  had received death threats as a journalist.

When I read Hussein’s story today after sixteen years I am stopped by one sentence: “After so much death, Finland seems like a heaven to me. There is no killing and people are not persecuted for their ideas.”

True, but… people like himself are persecuted in a different way because of their ethnic background.

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…I was forced to leave my country for political reasons back in 1986. Before the civil war, Somalia was a one-party state with a ruthless dictator called Siad Barre. It was not uncommon for Barre’s army to kill, rape and steal when carrying out routine house checks searching for enemies of the state. I was one of these so-called “enemies.”

Most of Burao’s 50,000 inhabitants (in Somaliland) were farmers. I can still recall the buildings of my hometown and those dusty streets. The civil war, however, has destroyed everything, the homes, the farms, the streets of my childhood.

I have eleven brothers and twenty-five sisters and belong to the Isaf clan. Our clan has around 600,000 members. We are all close and distant relatives. My father has six wives. I think I was my father’s twentieth son.

My father gave me his name, Omar. He is a very religious man, a staunch Muslim who has never liked politics. Today, at the age of eighty-seven, he continues to be very faithful to his religion and family. My father and his sixth wife are expecting a new child shortly.

Life used to be very nice in Burao. I used to have many friends. Families were very united and we were always surrounded by many good people.

I was eventually forced to leave my country and move to Egypt. After that, I lived in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and finally Iraq before coming to Finland. Jordan was the most enjoyable country, because the people were the friendliest.

I have seen too much death and suffering. In Beirut, I was on the street and saw someone die from a sniper’s bullet. I also saw a person blown apart by a bomb exploding inside a car. It was a ghastly sight to see this person’s limbs and blood scattered on the shattered car and sidewalk.

In Baghdad I saw a man stabbed to death by two strangers. The poor man was yelling for help on an abandoned street. No one came. I watched the killing from the top of a roof where we were sleeping because of the heat. What could I have done? If I had tried to save this man’s life, I’m sure I would have ended up dead.

After so much death, Finland seems like a heaven to me. There is no killing and people are not persecuted for their ideas.

Finnish culture and the cold weather still shock me. I don’t always feel at home in Finland. People are sometimes very racist. They come up to me and ask what I’m doing in this country. Why don’t I go back to Somalia?

The silent habits of Finnish culture amaze me. Finnish people can be driving in a car for hours and not say a word to each other. If two people who know each other do not say a word for a long time in my country, it means that they are angry with each other.

For a Muslim like me, Finland creates cultural conflicts. I am sure that if I returned to Somalia, my people would ask me where I have learned all these new habits. At this moment I am at a cultural crossroad – one road leads to Finland and the other back to Somalia.

In my opinion, I have assimilated well into Finnish culture. Speaking Finnish is no longer a problem. Some of my countrymen are not as fortunate. They are very bitter. You can’t blame them. Many of us are hated in Finland and Somalia. Our countrymen living in Somalia consider us cowards because we left the country.

What are my future goals? I would like to study electronics and get a job.  If I get married, I will follow the customs and laws of Finland and marry only one woman. Unlike my father, I can only afford to have one wife.

Polygamous marriages are different from monogamous marriages. There is a log of jealousy between the co-wives. There is also jealousy among the children of the different wives.

I would naturally like to get married to a Muslim woman. If Finland becomes my permanent home, I am perfectly aware that my children will suffer because Somali and Finnish cultures are so different.

All in all, I feel good in this country. I’m especially happy that Finland is a peacrful place to live, with no wars or killings.

I have longed for peace all my life and now I have found it.

Why did you come here? (2/4) “Angel Barrientos: A stranger in my home”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

By Enrique Tessieri

This is the second of a four-part series of a few short biographies that appeared in 1994 in an English reader called Why did you come here? The book was authored by Russell Snyder and myself. Angel Barrientos was at the time of the interview 45 and had moved to Finland as a refugee from Chile.

What is Angel’s message? Read on…

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…After many months of clandestine living (after the military coup of September 11, 1973), I found my way to the Finnish Embassy in Santiago. I used to know people who worked at the embassy. I am grateful to them for helping me get safe passage to Finland.
 I did not know anything about Finland before coming here. The only images I had were terribly long, cold winters and pine forests. After an exhausting flight from Santiago, the plane landed in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on a wintry January day.
At the time all Chilean refugees were hopeful that (Augusto) Pinochet’s government would fall in a few years. We had to wait for seventeen years.
My greatest tragedy is that I did not really foresee how radically my life would change by moving to Finland. I have suffered very much. It is not easy being an outsider in this country.
I admit it is my fault that I do not speak Finnish well enough. The truth is that I have never had any motivation to learn this language. I never considered Finland to be my permanent home.
I feel that when I am living in Finland, I am living in two places at the same time. One foot is entrenched in my native land and the other is here. I cannot plan for the future because I am constantly thinking about moving back to Chile.
Do you have any idea what I feel because I cannot express myself linguistically or culturally after twenty years of living here? It is a sinister feeling that eats me up from the inside. I am convinced that my stomach ulcers are caused by these factors.
I graduated as an interior designer. As an interior designer, my job was to design the interior of large office buildings, to choose the appropriate furniture, curtains and wall paper.
During the boom years of the late-1980s, there was work for interior designers. I am presently unemployed. Around 40-50% of all interior designers are without work.
I have lived with two women. With Sirpa, my first finnish love, we have twin daughters. Our separation was a long and painful process. It is too difficult to explain in a few words.
My new wife is called Hanna. We have a three-year old daughter, Paula. I have always spoken Spanish to my children. It is important for my children to speak another language because it opens up new worlds for them.
I am especially concerned about the future. The poor economic situation and the deep recession (of the early 1990s) do not encourage me to see the future optimistically. Living off unemployment benefits forces me to live frugally. Because of my age, I think I will have a hard time getting work even during better economic times.
Sometimes I have a great urge to return to the days of my youth. Back then, people like myself were convinced we could change the world. All we needed was a few determined men and the masses to create a revolution. We were so naive.
What will I do in the future? Who knows…If the economic situation does not improve, I might pack my bags and move back to Chile with Hanna and Paula. But my age worries me, it is not easy to begin life again in another country. Maybe in Chile I would also suffer a similar fate as I did here. I would be a stranger in my own land.

HS.fi: Maahanmuuttajat eivät korostu Suomen henkirikostilastoissa

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Comment: Felonies committed by immigrants do not stand out in Finland even though crimes committed by such people are one of the favorite weapons used by far-right politicians in the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party to discredit foreigners.  A study published in Wednesday’s Helsingin Sanomat on homicides committed in Holland, Sweden and Finland show that the felony rate among immigrants in this country is relatively low when compared with Holland.

A typical felony in Finland is committed by a middle-aged person who has a serious alcohol problem. The victim is a person who has been drinking with him or her.

“In Finland only six percent of homicides are carried out by organized crime or other criminal activity,” said researcher Martti Lehti. “The corresponding figure for Holland was 30%, which surprised us.”

A couple of years before Finland’s first Alien’s Act came to force in 1983, a group of foreigners and I handed a petition to some MPs in parliament. The police chief was present as well. When I asked why Finland was so uptight about immigrants, the police chief said that they wanted to keep crime levels down. 

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EU-maiden välillä on erittäin suuria eroja henkirikosten syissä ja tekotavoissa. Suomessa tyypillisen henkirikoksen tekijä on keski-ikäinen alkoholin suurkuluttaja ja uhri humalainen ikätoveri. Ruotsin tilanne myötäilee Suomea, mutta Hollanti on jo toista maata.

Read whole story.

La Nación (Argentina): La escuela es donde más se discrimina

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Comment:  A poll by Unicef Argentina (in Spanish) of 13-18-year-old adolescents revealed that discrimination is a problem at Argentinean schools. According to the poll, four out of ten adolescents were discriminated at some point and seven out of ten directly.

Skin color and obesity were cited as the main reasons for being discriminated. That was followed by nationality. Sixty-five percent of the adolescents polled said Bolivians were the most discriminated national group in Argentina.

Even if Argentina was populated in the nineteenth and early twentieth century by European immigrants, discrimination against non-Europeans was the rule. Apart from their belongings and hopes, immigrants brought their prejudices as well. It took, however, a ruthless military dictatorship that ruled the country in 1976-83, and the rise of democracy to awaken the people slowly to this social ill.

Some of the most discriminated persons in Argentina are the poor, Amerindian groups as well as Bolivians.

In the 2011 population census,  Bolivians were the second biggest group (233,464) living in Argentina after Paraguayans (325,046). A total of 1.531 million people born in foreign countries were registered in the 2001 population census out of a total population of 36.260 million.

While 4.2 million European immigrants moved to then sparsely populated Argentina during 1881-1914, higher birth rates among mestizo groups compared with Argentineans of European backgrounds has allowed the former group to grow in size.

While discrimination and racism are serious problems in Argentina, it is a positive matter that the government has taken steps to make the country more inclusive irrespective of one’s background. Argentina became the first Latin American country in 2010 to approve same-sex marriages.

Here is a link to the government’s National Plan Against Discrimination.

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Cynthia Palacios

Siete de cada diez adolescentes argentinos fueron testigos de alguna forma de discriminación, y cuatro de cada diez la sufrieron en carne propia. El escenario: la escuela, en primer lugar, en forma abrumadora, y en segundo lugar, la calle. Así lo revela una encuesta realizada entre 900 chicos de siete provincias, divulgada ayer por Unicef Argentina.

Read whole story.

MTV3: Kiuru maahanmuuttajien asumisesta: Kiitos ei keskittymiä!

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Comment:  Minister of housing and communication, Krista Kiuru, a Social Democrat, presses lightly on a raw nerve facing the immigrant community of Finland, according to a story on MTV3.  Taking into account high unemployment among immigrants and public housing policy in Finland, there is very little that Kiuru can do to avoid concentrations of immigrants living in neighborhoods.

Kiuru said that in the story below that some public officials are in favor of immigrant concentrations in neighborhoods because it is an easy way of dealing with the problem.  “It’s not going to happen during my term in office,” she said. “In my opinion, it isn’t a smart thing to do primarily for the reason that many of them (residents of such neighborhoods) are living off income support or are single parents. I don’t want that type of concentration (of people) in a city.  No thank you.”

While Kiuru’s intentions may be noble and are a reflection of our social welfare state and housing policy, is poverty becoming more visible in Finland due to immigrants?  Was it ok in the past to have low-income Finns living in certain neighborhoods of a city since, being white Finns, poverty wasn’t that visible . Visible immigrants have given poverty a more visible and disturbing face.

Do I think Kiuru will succeed at dismantling the concentrations of immigrants or low-income Finns in certain neighborhoods? No, that is a pipe dream. The only effective way would be to improve employment, training opportunities for immigrants and unemployed Finns and their integration into society.

Do you agree?

Interesting fact: Varissuo, located near Turku, has the highest concentration (35% of the total population of 8,881) of immigrants in Finland. Seventy-three percent of the students have an immigrant background.

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Jouni Sipilä

Asunto- ja viestintäministeri Krista Kiuru haluaa pysäyttää sosiaalisen asumisen keskittymisen omille alueilleen.  Kiurun mielestä myös päättäjien keskuudessa esiintyy ajattelua, jonka mukaan esimerkiksi maahanmuuttajille olisi syytä varata omia asuinalueitaan.

Read whole story.

Migrant Tales literary blog?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Would launching a separate “little” literary blog (Migrant Tales “Little”?) be a good idea? It would publish poetry, short stories, short plays, drawings. anecdotes,  and pictures of our lives in Finland and elsewhere. Depending on how this lifts off, we could even organize contests.

Everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is warmly welcome to contribute.

“Little” literary magazines are different from consumer magazines. Many don’t carry ads and their circulation is under 1,000.

Please send all material and queries to [email protected]. 

Look forward to receiving your contributions so we can share them with others!

Enrique Tessieri

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Ireland and the financial crisis 2011. (Picture by ET)

This original Brazilian song could be about a young immigrant who travels to foreign lands. Here’s part of the song translated into English from the original Spanish lyrics below:

“Imagine and you’ll see

The Southern Cross Constellation*

Don’t ever forget it,

Irrespective of the path you take

That star appears

And its light will orient you…

Be curious

To see where the old sun hides

Behind another  horizon

For the simple reason that everything depends

On your imagination.

If you try, maybe you’ll discover

A path that nobody has found…

* The Southern Cross Constellation is as important to Brazilians as the North Star to the Finns. The Southern Cross Constellation is visible on the Brazilian flag.

__________________

Spanish lyrics of “Consideración” by Rubén Blades

Imagina y verás
A la Constelación del Crucero del Sur.
No la ovides jamás,

Para que en cualquier rumbo que tomes
Esa estrella asome,

Y su luz te oriente,
Con la simple razón
De que todo merece consideración.

Determina y verás
La posibilidad de encontrar dirección,
Porque todo es posible,
Con tu decisión.

Ten la curiosidad
De ver donde un viejo sol se esconde,
Tras otro horizonte.
Por la simple razón de que todo depende

De tu imaginación.
Si lo intentas, quizás hallarás
Un camino que nadie encontró.

Si te orientas, verás
Que la luz de esa estrella
No te abandonó.

Busca y encontrarás

La razón de los sueños
De Eva y Adán!

Se oriente, rapaz:

Se oriente!