Tag: Perussuomalaiset

Same-sex marriage bill approved by Finnish parliament

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Parliament has approved 105-92 a bill that will pave the way for same-sex marriage, according to YLE in English. The vote in favor of same-sex marriage is the first-ever citizens’ initiative that has been approved by the Eduskunta, or parliament.

The vote was a big setback for Timo Soini and the Perussuomalasiet (PS)* party, which had spent a lot of political capital against the bill.

Other losers were Päivi Räsänen and the Christian Democrats.

The biggest winners were parties like the Greens, Social Democrats, Left Alliance and Swedish People’s Party, which voted in majority for same-sex marriage.

Migrant Tales believes that the passage of the bill will be a big boost for gay rights but for our ever-growing culturally and ethnically diverse society.

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Read full story here.

 

With the passage of the bill, Finland finally joins the other Nordic nations that have approved same sex marriage.

Writes YLE in English: ”The reform will force wide-ranging changes in other legislation, which will take well over a year to finalize. The law will therefore not take effect until 2016 at the earliest.”

Gays and lesbians have been allowed to have registered partnerships since 2002.

 

* 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.

 

Same-sex marriage bill vote Friday will be a cliff hanger

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland will vote Friday on the long-overdue bill that would make marriage legal between same-sex couples. A lot rides on tomorrow’s vote. In many respects, the outcome of Friday’s vote shows Finland to be at an important crossroads.

Some analysts see the passage of the same-sex marriage bill not only as a victory for gays but for all minorities in Finland.

At present, the social construct of the so-called white, heterosexual Finn is being seriously challenged by tomorrow’s vote as well as by our ever-growing cultural diversity.

According to political observers, the vote is still too close to call.

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Read full story here.

 

The debate on same-sex marriage has divided Finland. Even so, Evangelical Church of Finland Archbishop Kari Mäkinen said this week he supports granting homosexual couples the right to marriage.

It’s highly probable that the historic vote Friday would not be a cliff hanger if it weren’t for the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which are betting much of their political capital against the bill.

In 2011 the PS won their historic parliamentary election victory by gaining 39 seats in parliament from 5 previously. Their election victory was based on hostility and mistrust of the EU, immigrants, refugees, cultural diversity and homosexuals.

Friday’s vote will reveal a lot of things. One is whether we are a closed or open-minded society.

The closed society, supported by the PS, is outright hostile to minorities and keeps such groups excluded by building fences of mistrust with the help of myths.

The open-minded society is the new face of Finland in this century that cannot be stopped. That face and landscape comprises of minorities with equal rights.

 

* 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.

Homophobic Finland? Thank the Perussuomalaiset

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some weren’t too worried when the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* won their historic parliamentary election victory in 2011 by raising the number of MPs to 39 from 5. “They’ll implode like the Rural Party did in the 1970s,” and “This is only a passing [political] fad” was what one heard. 

One matter is clear after almost four years of bitter-tasting PS politicking: Attitudes towards migrants, minorities like gays has stiffened; such attitudes have made Finland ever-intolerant and thereby less attractive to skilled migrants and foreign investment.

It’s clear that if the PS ever get into government, they would spearhead and breathe new life in this country to the conservative economic policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who brought us mass unemployment and exacerbated social and economic inequality.

One of the best examples of hardening attitudes in Finland – thanks to the PS – is against gays and the long and winding road of approving same-sex marriage is a good example.

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One of the most outspoken voices against same-sex marriage is the Perussuomalaiset party. Read full story here.

 

It’s clear that if the PS wouldn’t have won in 2011, same-sex marriage would have already been legal in this country.

Taking into account that recent polls show the Center Party to be the clear favorite to win the next parliamentary elections in April and the party’s voting record, Friday’s parliamentary vote for or against same-sex marriage will be the last for a very long time.

The PS has tried to pull many fast ones on the public. One of these was a recent claim that migration costs Finland near-2 billion euros. While such claims were conjured by the PS for obvious reasons, has anyone asked how much the populist party has cost Finland in the way of lost skilled migrants, jobs, opportunities and investment?

Finland has a problem: It’s population is aging and we need skilled migrants to fill the gap as well as new jobs. Why would any person in his right mind move to a country that is suspicious of migrants and foreign investment?

One problem with racism and ethnocentrism is that it distorts reality.

* 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.

Islamophobia is rampant in the PS and they like it

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Or should the headline read: Islamophobia is rampant in the PS and they LOVE it?

Two members of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) Salo city board said in a statement that the Muslim religion is incompatible with our Nordic welfare state values. The statement by the PS of Salo, a city located 114km west of the capital Helsinki, comes after the city board approved 10-3 a zoning change to allow the construction of a mosque in the city. 

According to the statement,  the PS said that it was a bad idea to build the mosque near a child care center.

Using the usual crime statistics to drive home their Islamophobic views, the PS of Salo said:

Research by the National Research Institute of Legal Policy show (sic!) that migrants from the Middle East and North Africa are 16 times overrepresented in rape statistics. Muslim values promote social inequality of women and of other religions. These values are unacceptable to the Perussuomalaiset.

Unacceptable values?! What about toxic values like bigotry and limiting religious freedom?

With such stands and statements by the PS of Salo, the anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party continually sticks its foot in the mouth and contradicts itself.

The eeriest matter about such Islamophobic stands not the PS itself, but the near-silence of the rest of society condemning such anti-democratic views. What kind of a monster would we create if we permitted the PS to decide what religions are compatible with our way of life and those which are not?

Its leader, Timo Soini, who is a devout Catholic, believes that religious freedom is an important value he personally supports.

So how does the Salo PS statement sit with what Soini believes? It doesn’t. Welcome to the strange world of the PS.

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Islamophobia is rampant in the PS as this statement (in Finnish) proves.

 

Migrant Tales spoke in January 2013 to Hannu Niemi, a Justice Ministry researcher who does research on migrant crime, admitted that crime rates by immigrants have been exaggerated by the media and some political parties to gain attention and label whole groups.

Niemi said that the number of rape crimes committed by immigrants is 1-2 per 1,000 inhabitants.

As the PS statement clearly shows, bigotry and racism have become the norm in some circles in Finland.

A statement like ‘not in line with our values’ is ample proof that the PS are the menace to those Nordic welfare state values we cherish.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

Municipal politician’s prison sentence speaks volumes about the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The sentencing by a court on Friday of a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* city councilman and member of the Mikkeli city board to three months in prison speaks volumes about the party’s anti-immigration rhetoric, according to Länsi-Savo.

Matti Siitari, who was general manager of M-S Metalli between 2006 and 2010, forced 17 Estonian employees to work 13-hour days seven days a week without rest never mind holidays and pay.

Contrarily, Finnish employees at the company worked eight-hour days five days a week and were paid overtime and holiday pay.

M-S Metalli filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and owes the Estonian workers 500,000 euros in back payments, according to Länsi-Savo.

Siitari is a typical PS politician when it comes to his views on immigration and immigrants. The PS municipal politician is all for tighter immigration policy. Even so, Finland’s already tight migration policy didn’t help the 17 Estonian employees working for him.

Siitari has not yet announced his resignation as councilman or member of the city board.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

 

On his Facebook page, the PS politician ‘likes’ MP Olli Immonen and Espoo city councilman Teemu Lahtinen.

Immonen’s anti-immigration and especially Islamophobic stances are well known. He is chairman of Suomen Sisu, a far-right association that is against white Finns marrying foreigners.

Lahtinen, who was caught “liking” neo-Nazi Facebook page Kansallinen Vastarinta, was  a member in the 1990s of Isänmaalinen Kansanliike (IKL), a fascist political group that idolized Benito Mussolini when it first existed between 1932 and 1944.

In the 1990s, the IKL used to have close ties with far-right parties such as the National Front of France, Belgian Vlaams Belang and Sweden Democrats.

Siitari’s prison sentence sheds a dubious light on this week’s statement by PS’ Matti Putkonen, who raised the party’s estimate of the cost of immigration from 1-1.5 billion euros on Friday to close to 2 billion euros.

Putkonen’s claim is outright ridiculous since the majority of migrants living in Finland work, pay taxes and consume.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

Defining white Finnish privilege #13: Case Matti Putkonen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

One of the exclusive privileges white Finns who belong to anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* have is making ludicrous claims about migrants and minorities. Matti Putkonen of the PS is the latest case of white Finnish privilege. He is claiming – without proof – that “the cost of migration” to Finland may be now as high as 2 billion euros, according to tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. 

On top of such an unsubstantiated claim, Putkonen can even accuses The Finnish Immigration Service of fostering racism because it plays down “the cost of migration.”

According to the FIS, “the cost of migration” is 203 million euros.

Näyttökuva 2014-10-31 kello 10.14.06

White Finnish privilege gives Putkonen the right to make outrageous claims about migration. Read full story here.

 

What do Putkonen and the PS mean by “the cost of migration” anyway? If the majority of migrants living in this country work, pay taxes and consume, how can they be only a cost to society?

In the world of white Finnish privilege and anti-immigration sound bites this is plausible. As PS MP Tom Packalén and National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma recently showed, it doesn’t matter if what you say is an outright fabrication since your aim is media attention at all costs. It doesn’t even matter it your unsubstantiated claims are proven wrong. Your claim has spread with the help of the media to the public. Mission accomplished.

What Putkonen’s figures and claims about migration reveal a systemic campaign against migrants and minorities for shameless political profit.

As Migrant Tales wrote recently, the figures presented by Putkonen are the PS and grossly exaggerated and one-sided. There is nothing in the PS claim how much growth migration brings to Finland.

A recent OECD report revealed that in Finland migration had boosted growth in 2011 by 0.16%, including pensions.

So what Putkonen and the PS are claiming is what they’ve been lobbying all along: migrants shouldn’t have any rights to collect social assistance like native Finns.

The social aid that most migrants enjoy in this country is the same that native Finns have.

Definition #13

To understanding the ludicrous claims of Putkonen and the PS  concerning “the cost of migration,” we can play fill-in-the blanks to grasp their absurd claim. All you need to do is replace the word ‘migrant’ with ‘woman.’ Certainly we could be even bolder: replace ‘migrant’ and ‘woman’ with all Finns who get social assistance.

Here’s an example from a quote on Ilta-Sanomat:

Putkonen now claims that the cost of migration is greater, about two billion euros.

Putkonen now claims that the cost of women is greater, about two billion euros.

Or: Putkonen now claims that the cost of our welfare state is greater, costing hundreds of billions of euros.

Attacking migrants is a cowardice act like sexism. In the same way that Putkonen makes his nonsensical claims, how would it sound if he said that since women have babies that costs Finland an arm and a leg?

He would never do that because women have won important rights in this country even if they still make about 20% less than men.

Migrants continue to be disenfranchised in Finland and they are being kept on short leashes with the help of  white Finnish privilege as Putkonen and the PS too commonly show.

See also:

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

PS’ Timo Soini of Finland looks more like a wolf and less like a sheep as April elections near

Posted on by Migrant Tales

With the help of one term, “cultural marxist,” Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini gave us the clearest-yet image of the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Soini lashed out on his blog at the same-sex marriage lobby and particularly at Nasima Razmyar as “cultural marxists” after she compared the PS leader and Christian Democrat Päivi Räsänen as “conservative Islamists” for opposing same-sex marriage.

Parliament is expected to vote in November on a same-sex marriage bill in Finland. The PS and Christian Democrats have opposed such a bill.

The use of an antijihadist term like “cultural marxist” shows once again the ever-louder anti-immigration shift and hostility of the PS towards migrants as the April elections near.

According to Urban Dictionary, “culture marxist” implies the gradual destruction of our traditions in order to build a failed communist-like paradise as we saw in the Soviet Union. The term is used by far-right counterjihadists to alarm Europe of a takeover of the region by Islam.

The term was used countless of times in Anders Breivik’s manifesto on the day he killed in cold blood 77 people to save the West from Islam.

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Consensus has opened the door to the PS, a party with far right, anti-immigration, homophobic and nativist nationalistic roots.

 

Using a term like “cultural marxist” by Soini is further proof that the PS will continue to step up its attack on migrants and minorities in Finland as the April 19 elections near.

Contrary to the 2011 elections, which saw the PS become the country’s third-largest bloc in parliament, Soini is clearly worried about how to lure voters in 2015. In 2011 that was easy because of the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, a week before parliamentary elections.

If the EU and the euro zone are no longer issues as in 2011 that leaves only one that the PS  is shamelessly exploiting: immigration and Islam.

 

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

 

When youth leaders of parties like the NCP of Finland are in the dark about cultural diversity

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It is sad, even unfortunate, that some of our future political leaders of the National Coalition Party (NCP) see Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity as a threat and the adaption of these newcomers and their children as an ethnocentric one-way affair. 

One of the first matters that these youth leaders would learn about the over 1.2 million Finns that emigrated from this country between 1860 and 1999 is that they were keen on maintaining in faraway lands their roots and ties with this country. They did this by establishing newspapers, printing presses, associations and even getting involved in labor movements in countries such as the United States.

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Migrant Tales has written a lot about the Susanna Koski and the Youth League of the NCP. Read full story here.

If we look up to those Finnish immigrants for not forgetting their cultural and linguistic roots, why are NCP and Perussuomalaiset (PS)* youth leaders hostile to migrants in this country who want to do the same?

Migrant Tales spoke briefly on the phone with Susanna Koski, the head of the Youth League of the NCP, which listed as two of its political aims in 2014 to do away with ethnic agitation laws and the ombudsman for minorities office. The Youth League of the NCP will meet on November 7-9 to draft a new set of goals for 2015, according to Koski.

“No comment,” she said concerning her stand on the ethnic agitation law and whether it should be included in the 2015 program.

It is surprising that youth leaders of Finland’s largest and third-largest political bloc in parliament, the NCP and PS, respectively, see cultural diversity as a threat.

Both the youth leagues of the NCP and PS lobbied to demote Finland’s second-official language, Swedish, to elective status at schools.

Meanwhile, the ministry of education and culture announced that it will grant the youth leagues of the NCP and PS 650,000 and under 30,000 euros, respectively, in aid, according to YLE.

One of the reasons why the Youth League of the PS was granted such a small sum of money was because their values concerning multiculturalism, or cultural diversity, wasn’t in line with state policy. The same question could be asked of the Youth League of the NCP and if its position on multiculturalism are in conflict with our official values.

The Youth League of the PS will appeal the matter.

If there is a factor that threatens to retard Finland’s progress as a modern Nordic welfare state in this century, it’s the provincial and intolerant world view of youth leagues of the NCP and PS.

Not understanding the role of immigration, integration and the need to integrate and make our society more inclusive to newcomers is like shooting oneself in the leg big time.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

The source of the 1.5 billion-euro-claim for “the cost of migration” is none other than the PS

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini, party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and Matti Putkonen gave a press conference Friday where they claimed that “the cost of migration” and development aid totaled up to 2.7 billion euros. 

Migrant Tales wrote that when these figures were drawn out of a PS hat, not one reporter at the press conference asked how they had arrived at such a figure after Slunga-Poutsalo claimed that migration costs the country annually 1-1.5 billion euros and development aid 1.2 billion euros.

Only one paper, however, tabloid Iltalehti, did some investigating and approached the PS with that all-important question: How? As expected, the source was Putkonen of the PS.

When approached by the Iltalehti reporter, Slunga-Poutsalo referred the reporter to a PS lobby group, Suomen Perusta, which said they weren’t the source of such claims.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

 

Putkonen boasts being the source: “I claim that the figure [cost of migration] is 1-1.5 billion euros a year. I challenge the officials to tell me if I’m wrong or right.”

Putkonen added that the 1-1.5 billion euro figure comprised of matters such as travel expenses, housing, clothing, daily allowances or monthly welfare payments, interpreters, cost of civil servants, asylum centers and other expenses.

So the claim by the PS, which shouldn’t surprise us, is a bunch of malarkey.

In another story, Iltalehti cites official figures from the ministry of employment and the economy, which place costs at 203 million euros.

As can be seen, calculating cost is not a simple matter. How do you take into account those refugees that establish businesses in the future and create jobs?

Certainly if you are an anti-immigration party your goal is to inflate as much as possible costs, which is what the PS is doing.

One of the big problems in the claim by the PS is what it refers to as “the cost of migration.” Is Putkonen referring to the cost of refugees or the total cost of migration to Finland? How can “the cost of migration” be so high if the grand majority of migrants work, consume and pay taxes in this country?

A recent study by the OECD that revealed that migration had boosted growth in 2011 by 0.16% including pensions.

Let’s hope that national media challenges in its editorials the populist claim by the PS that aims to maintain a climate of suspicion against migrants in this country.

All it needs is a critical two-part question: How did you arrive at such a figure and what are your sources?

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.

An effective way of putting racism in context in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There are many ways to understand ethnic hatred and racism in Finland. One of these is by substituting the word ‘migrant’ for your ethnic group and/or ‘woman’ in a text that’s aimed at fueling ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Let’s take the recent claims of two politicians, MPs Tom Packalén and Pia Kauma, to see how passions are fueled or can be smothered. 

Original claim by Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Packalén.

Before: Gangs made up only of young people with migrant backgrounds said their motives are racist because their aim is to hurt white Finns.

After: Gangs made up of only young white Finns said their motives are racist because their aim is to hurt migrants and minorities.

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Before and after. Racism is like the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) mushroom. It looks beautiful when it fruits and may invite some to eat its hallucinogenic poison. Time, like racism, reveals the true face of this mushroom when it ages and dies.

 

As we all know, Packalén pulled a fast one on the media and public. The problem with the PS MP’s claim is that it just isn’t true and an inflated exaggeration. Even so, his claims have spread fear and labelled non-white Finns, encouraging even neo-Nazi groups like the Kansallinen Vastarinta and members of the PS to patrol the streets of Helsinki.

Here’s National Coalition Party MP Kauma’s claim.

Before: Migrant mothers buy new baby carriages with social aid.

After: White Finnish mothers buy new baby carriages with social aid.

Like with Packalén, Kauma’s claim is stuffed as well with lots of baloney.

Even if these two MPs made up these stories in light of the April parliamentary elections, is one point. But the other very important one is that they succeeded at getting a lot of media coverage, which was their original aim.

Check out the two postings below on how by just changing a few key words in a vengeful and racist text reveals the underhanded motives of the writer and brings the topic closer to home:

If you still are trying to grasp these two disgraceful examples, why not replace migrant or ethnic group with ‘woman.’

Remember how urban tales about women were and still may be rampant in Finland? Women can’t drive, they’re poor in math, all they know what to do is have babies and cook…This is the exact anatomy of racist discourse in Finland today. Migrants live off welfare, they’re lazy, sly and shouldn’t be trusted…

How many generations did such outright lies about women still continue to oppress them?

Ever figure out how it feels to be in a university math class and be the only women? Think about how much pressure there is on that woman and how much energy she must expend to prove that she’s just as good as her male classmates.

This exact feeling is what many migrants feel in society. They’re constantly trying to prove that they are just as good and worthy of being treated as equal members of society.

Thus there is nothing harmless when politicians reinforce prejudices about migrants. On the contrary – it is a violent act that aims through power to dominate others.

Add to the latter the near-silence of society and a bigger picture of the social ill emerges.

Racism is not only costly to society but especially to the victim.

 

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party 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.