Tag: Perussuomalaiset

The PS is a far-right, populist party that hopes to strike election gold with the sexual assault cases of Oulu by migrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Imagine a political party that jumps for joy when migrants are suspected of sexual assault like in the case of Oulu. Imagine a party that taps into voters’ Islamophobia, xenophobia and hatred to get votes. Imagine a party that aims at relegating migrants and minorities to second-class members of society with the help of lies and fake news. 

It should not come to any surprise that we are talking about the far-right Perussuomalaiset* and Blue Reform, which split from the mother party in 2017 after Jussi Halla-aho was elected the new chairperson. Halla-aho was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion.

The difference between the PS and Blue Reform is that the former has come out of the closet with its racism while the other one is in the closet.

According to the Helsingin Sanomat, the PS plans to cut state spending by 2 billion euros if they are in government.

Halla-aho said as well that he sees the PS becoming Finland’s largest party.

 

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

While the PS becoming Finland’s largest party is a pipe dream, the PS’ constant vilification of migrants and minorities only serves to tell us that we are not liked by some. But that is fine because it is a call for people who oppose such rhetoric to rise up and challenge its racist ideology.

Apart from ending subsidies to the wind power sector, the party wants to lower social welfare costs to people of immigrant origin by 1 billion euros.

Continue reading “The PS is a far-right, populist party that hopes to strike election gold with the sexual assault cases of Oulu by migrants”

Islamophobia and xenophobia on steroids: Jussi Halla-aho’s latest column in MTV

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson, Jussi Halla-aho, convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012, is a columnist for television station MTV. Two matters emerge when skimming through his latest column: The media is part of Finland’s racism problem; and the PS is the first modern Finnish party to capitalize exclusively on immigration, especially Islamophobia.  

Another MTV columnist, Ivan Puopol, is in the same anti-immigration league as Halla-aho.

Both of them have one aim in their writing: Immigration is a problem but Muslims are even a worse problem.

When reading their Islamophobic opinions, one asks what is their end game?

If they want to make migrants and minorities feel hated and socially excluded, then that could be an aim of their writing

Will they be able to kick migrants and Muslims out of this country? Will they succeed at keeping Finland white?

In light of their racist worldviews, they will fail because Finland is becoming more culturally diverse, not less.

Our writing should concentrate on how to gain a louder voice and more power in Finland.

Unfortunately, too many Finns, like Puopol and Halla-aho, believe that their privilege and power is eternal.

 

Read the full text here.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

What political capital will the Finnish far-right Perussuomalaiset party gain from Oulu?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is the first modern Finnish party to capitalize politically on Finland’s Islamophobic and anti-immigration sentiment. With parliamentary elections around the corner on April 14, the question is if the PS will get a boost from the sexual assault cases of Oulu?

Another question is the Blue Reform Party, which split from the PS in June 2017. Will Oulu give it political capital as the PS is hoping?

Considering that the Blue Reform Party have about 2% support in diffrent opinion polls, it is unlikely that will pose a threat in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The PS’ toxic Islamophobic rhetoric and fear-mongering were important factors that helped it to secure its historic parliamentary election victory of 2011, when it won 39 seats from 5 seats in 2007.

Four years later, in 2015, the PS got a boost from a widely covered sexual assault case about a month before the parliamentary elections. The case, which happened in the Helsinki neighborhood of Tapanila, sparked lynch-mob hysteria and fingerpointing on social media and in print media.

The PS became in 2015 with 39 seats the second-biggest party in parliament.

Like before and today, the reporting by the media of sexual assault cases by foreigners is the same: It paints all migrants with a single brush and spreads stereotypes made by Islamophobes and racists. One of these is that sexual assault crimes soared after 2015 when over 30,000 asylum seekers came to the country.

But charts like the one below tell a totally different story than what groups like the PS and politicians of mainstream parties are telling their voters.

The chart above shows that suspected sexual assault cases of minors by Finns totalled 82% in 2017 versus 18% by foreigners. As we can see, the number of overall suspected sexual assault cases in the chart has retreated while rising slightly among foreigners. Source: Statistics Finland.

Continue reading “What political capital will the Finnish far-right Perussuomalaiset party gain from Oulu?”

The wise tales of Uncle Toms and the unbalanced reporting by the Finnish media

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, which was complicit in the early 1990s of spreading racism wholesale in Finland, hasn’t yet apologized for its reporting about groups like the Somalis. In an interview with a Kurdish Islamophobe, Sheida Sohrabi, Ilta-Sanomat signals that it will never apologize for its shoddy and one-sided reporting. 

Sohrabi, who would be called in the United States an Uncle Tom, or Tuomo setä/Mamu setä in Finnish, is a good example of that label. While there are many definitions and explanation of what is an Uncle Tom, I consider it a close synonym of Stockholm Syndrome.

Articles like the one below are a good example of how tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat use so-called migrants to get across their prejudiced message of other migrant groups like Muslims. It is questionable if Shorabi, who came to Finland when she was five and who is a Kurd, even remembers where she was born.

Moreover, the Kurds are fighting to gain their independence and create their own country from Iraq, Turkey and Iran.

Sohrabi speaks of “cultural differences” in the story even if she came to Finland when she was five years old. Sohrabi is an aspiring National Coalition Party politician who wants to make her mark with Islamophobia. Read the original interview here.

An example of the “quality” of Finnish tabloid journalism of the early 1990s. The Ilta-Sanomat billboard affirms that Somali asylum seekers swindled the authorities in granting them refugee status.

Junes Lokka, Marco de Wit, Gleb Simanov, Miki Sileoni and too many others are examples of people who hate migrants, especially Muslims, even if they are people of foreign origin.

Continue reading “The wise tales of Uncle Toms and the unbalanced reporting by the Finnish media”

Oulu has turned Finland into a more hostile place for migrants, especially Muslims 

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A journalist asked me what I thought about the reaction of the politicians to the sexual assault cases in Oulu. Certainly, any sensible person would condemn such acts. But what could we say about the politicians and the media?

My answer: The reaction of the politicians and the media is a clear sign of Finland’s ever-worsening hostile environment for migrants, especially Muslims.

A number of studies published last year, like the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, revealed that out of 12 EU countries studied, Finland was the most hostile to blacks. Racism is an issue in Finland as it is in other parts of Europe.

One may ask why is there a growing hostile environment in this country against migrants and minorities?

The answer is right under our noses: Not challenging our prejudices effectively enough and the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party in 2011. Even if the PS imploded in June, Blue Reform continues to beat the same hostile drum against Muslims.

The PS are the first modern party that vowed to “solve the Somali problem” in Finland.

Is this the bottom line for understanding what happened in Oulu?

In light of the sexual assault cases in Oulu and Helsinki, Blue Reform, which has five ministers in Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, is ratcheting up and returning to its old populist ways by suggesting changes in Section 9 of the Constitution. The Section states: “A foreigner shall not be deported, extradited or returned to another country, if in consequence he or she is in danger of a death sentence, torture or other treatment violating human dignity.”

Continue reading “Oulu has turned Finland into a more hostile place for migrants, especially Muslims “

WARNING: ISLAMOPHOBIC CONTENT – Laura Huhtasaari (Suomen Uutiset)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why is this Islamophobic? Perussuomalaiset* Vice President Laura Huhtasaari usually makes Islamophobic comments on steroids and other times without them. In the news story below, Huhtasaari, who is an avid follower of US President Donald Trump’s and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s anti-immigration policies, says that her party has the right solutions to migration and wants to join hands with other parties to make Finland a safe country. 

Is this believable? The most racist party in Finland has the answers to solving its migration “problems.” I don’t think so. 

Apart from PS President Jussi Halla-aho, Huhtasaari is the top Islamophobe politician in Finland. She hates Muslims and likes to parrot what other Islamophobes in Europe and elsewhere say. Her call for other parties to cooperate with the PS is a deception.  

Read the full story here.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way. 

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

White Finnish privilege #56: How Islamophobic is Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Ever thought why political parties like the Perussuomalaiset,* Blue Reform and politicians from other parties, especially from the National Coalition Party, are so keen at pointing the finger at Muslims? Do they do so because they are racists? Opportunists? Political gold diggers? 

What about the media that permits this type of anti-social behavior to go near-unchecked?

I have never heard the following statement made by a Finnish journalist when interviewing Islamophobes: “There are in Finland an estimated 70,000 Muslims and that amounts to just 1.3% of the population. What gives?”

 

Islamophobia and hate crime go hand in hand as in the case of a Pakistani migrant who was brutally attacked in February. Source: Migrant Tales.

Continue reading “White Finnish privilege #56: How Islamophobic is Finland?”

European Agency of Fundamental Rights: Finland has the most racial harassment cases against PAD of 12 EU countries surveyed

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A new study by the European Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) reveals that a third of people of African descent (PAD) surveyed have experienced racial harassment in the last five years. That’s not all: Perceived racist harassment was highest in Finland (63%) and least prevalent in Malta 20% (see chart below).

“It is a reality both shameful and infuriating: racism based on the colour of a person’s skin remains a pervasive scourge throughout the European Union,” writes FRA director Michael O’Flaherty in the report’s forward. “…It is a reality both shameful and infuriating: racism based on the colour of a person’s skin remains a pervasive scourge throughout the European Union.”

Finland’s dubious ranking as the highest five-year rate of perceived racist violence against PAD has only ourselves to blame and a result of our lost decade (2011-2019), where we allowed racism and our silence to create the hostile migrants against migrants, especially PAD, today.

Migrant Tales wrote: “Why are the Center Party and National Coalition Party in bed with an anti-immigration and nationalist party like the PS [Perussuomalaiset]?*”

Such a bedfellow has cost Finland dearly in racism, discrimination and hostile environment.

Read the full Guardian story here.

Continue reading “European Agency of Fundamental Rights: Finland has the most racial harassment cases against PAD of 12 EU countries surveyed”

YLE A-studio talk show’s question and image sum up Finland’s migration and demographic challenges ahead

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Monday’s A-studio talk show debated Finland’s low birthrate and what the country could do to challenge the threats of an ageing and shrinking population as well as how migration could ease such woes. Present at the talk show were Left Alliance chairwoman Li Andersson, Justice Minister (National Coalition Party) Antti Häkkänen, and Nordea bank economist Olli Kärkkäinen.

While there was nothing new that said at the talk show, there was one question and one image that summed it up.

Kärkkäinen asked a very important question: “Even if politicians are so much in agreement that we need migrants, especially labor migrants, why has so little been done?”

The host asks the Nordea economist to answer his question.

“It’s easy to speak here [in these talk shows] about students staying to live in Finland and get a residence permit if they search for work,” he continued. “We can slash red tape, give out residence permit faster, but for some reason, there is little progress [in changing the present situation]. Let’s hope that demographic pressures will bring changes [faster] when the next government takes power.”

One reason why the present government has done so little is the Perussuomalaisiet*, and Blue Reform, which are populist anti-immigration parties. The former was in government but after it split into two factions in 2017, the Blue Reform is in government even if it popularity in opinion polls hovers around 2%.

Finland will hold parliamentary elections in April 2019.

Another striking feature of the talk show was the background picture of a migrant working as a cleaner.

Is this how YLE and Finland see migrants? Are they just cheap labor to do menial work that Finns don’t want to do?

Watch the full A-studio talk show here. Can’t foreigners do anything better than work for cleaning companies?

Considering Finland’s ineffective and inhumane immigration policy, and if the migrant gets a residence permit, his or her rights at the workplace are far from satisfactory.

Continue reading “YLE A-studio talk show’s question and image sum up Finland’s migration and demographic challenges ahead”