Tag: Perussuomalaiset

How Finland’s immigration and asylum policy turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that Finland’s immigration policy towards asylum seeker moves from one blunder to the next. Under Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government immigration policy has been inefficient, expensive and, most importantly, inhumane and against our Nordic values.  

Where else could you read about a prime minister offering his home in September 2015 to asylum seekers and then making an about-turn in policy by turning these people into thousands of undocumented migrants? It is like a scene from the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

 

This cartoon by Rabah Boussuira appeared in Strange Days, a book published in 1984 about Finland’s tough stand against migrants.

Populism is nothing more than offering simple answers to complex problems. This is why populist parties and politicians fail and let down their voters. They don’t have any sensible answers never mind a clue.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is an unfortunate example of how populism and fascism have today a foothold in Finnish politics. They also stand to suffer a stinging defeat in the municipal elections of April 9.

Continue reading “How Finland’s immigration and asylum policy turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde”

Who’s responsible for the spike in hate crimes in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen states that there is an upsurge in hate crimes in Finland, according to YLE News. He states that those hate crimes that are reported to the police service are only the tip of the iceberg. Is Kolehmainen being disingenuous? Why doesn’t mention he state clearly that politicians and political parties are polarizing society and emboldening racists?   

The national police commissioner states that one of the problems is that victims are reluctant to file a complaint to the police service. And why would they? It takes months, if not a near-eternity, for the police to get in touch with you.

Migrant Tales reported in May a case when a white Finnish woman insulted in a racist manner and threw a bucket of water on a Kenyan woman who lives in Helsinki. Still today the police and the non-discrimination ombudsman have not been in touch with the victim.

The latest sentences for hate speech – all present or former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politicians – of MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, Tampere city councilor Terhi Kiemunki, Olli Sademies, Sebastian Tynkkynen and many others are an example of where part of the problem originates.

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Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finnish immigration policy in general and asylum policy, in particular, is a good example of the decades-long suspicion that Finland’s political establishment has of outsiders. If some words could be used to describe the present state of things, it could be “not my problem” and “denial.” 

That statement, not my issue, reveals a lot about ourselves as a society and our capacity to live with difference.

The ongoing debate in the media about undocumented migrants is a case in point. Few if any newspapers blame the ever-growing number of undocumented migrants on the politicians who voted in favor of doing away with in April of residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

By doing away with this option, parliament forced the number of undocumented migrants to rise from a few hundred to the thousands. In other words and in plain English, the politicians and government have created the ever-growing undocumented migrant problem in Finland.

We all know that populism means simple solutions to complex problems. The government, which comprises of the Center Party, National Coalition Party (NCP), and Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, believes in simple solutions to complex problems in areas like migration.

The vote to do away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds is a case in point. Lobbied by the PS, the Center Party and NCP voted – together with the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in the opposition – to do away with such a clause.

Naively, irresponsibly, ignorantly and with a dose of self-deception, the government believed that by doing away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds would solve the problem. It did not solve any problem but worsened it. In the government style, the blame for their incompetence is blamed on the victim, or in this case the asylum seeker.

Thanks to too much complacency in the media that too many continue to have major blind-spot issues with immigration, migrants and asylum seekers, officials like Päivi Nerg can appear and say with a poker face that she “is concerned about the security risk that illegal [sic] immigrants pose,” according to a story by Helsinki Times.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading “Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too”

PS’ Teuvo Hakkarainen and Olli Sademies: Ethnic agitation charges and racist bravado

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What happens when one present and one former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politician faces charges for ethnic agitation? Answer: They lie through their teeth and act dumb (which isn’t difficult for such politicians). PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen got sentenced today for ethnic agitation and will have to pay a fine of 1,160 euros. Olli Sademies, a substitute councilman who retired from the police force, is in court today facing ethnic agitation charges as well.  

The court will give its verdict on Sademies’ case on January 13.

Hakkarainen is a good actor. He plays the dumb country boy and starts to making up his own interpretation of events claiming incredibly that he didn’t know that there was a law against hate speech even if he’s a lawmaker.

Moreover, Hakkarainen knows that Finland has a hate crime law because he was one of eleven MPs that wanted to make it redundant tin 2013, according to Jussi Kohonen.

Hakkarainen got charged after he wrote on his Facebook wall in mid-July after the Nice killings: “We’ve got to stop pussyfooting. Muslims out of this country! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. We shouldn’t accept Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to our country.”

It’s not the first time that the PS MP has made racist statements.

Below is a recording of him on his first day in parliament after he got elected in 2011.

Here are some other stories:

Like Hakkarainen, Sademies plays dumb as well.

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” he was quoted as saying in summer by Demokraatti . “What is that ethnic group anyway that I have agitated? Charging me is absurd and it’s a racist opinion.”

Continue reading “PS’ Teuvo Hakkarainen and Olli Sademies: Ethnic agitation charges and racist bravado”

Rehellisyyden ja oikeudenmukaisuuden nimessä

Posted on by Ana María Gutiérrez Sorainen

”Perussuomalaisten toiminnan perustana ovat rehellisyys, oikeudenmukaisuus, inhimillisyys, tasa-arvo, työn ja yrittämisen kunnioittaminen sekä henkinen kasvu.” Näin perussuomalaiset kertovat heidän arvomaailmastaan. Tänään on vaikea uskoa, että perussuomalaiset ovat rehellisiä. Teuvo Hakkaraisen avustaja Antti Kauronen kertoi oikeudessa, ettei Hakkarainen halua puhua ja, että hän pyysi, että syyte hylätään.

”Kaurosen mukaan Hakkarainen ei ole menetellyt tahallisesti eikä ole halunnut rikkoa lakia. Hakkarainen ei ole edes tiennyt tällaisen lain olemassaolosta päivitystä kirjoittaessaan, puolustus sanoi, ja jos olisi, ei olisi kirjoittanut. Puolustuksen mukaan Hakkarainen sai tietää laista vasta myöhemmin.”

Alusta lähtien en ole uskonut tuohon väitteeseen, ettei Hakkarainen olisi tiennyt kiihottamisen kieltävästä laista. Kuten Jussi Korhonen kirjoittaa Seura –lehdessä: ”Hakkarainen ja joukko muita perussuomalaisia allekirjoitti vuonna 2013 tuolloin kansanedustajana toimineen Jussi Halla-ahon ensimmäisenä allekirjoittaman lakialoitteen, jolla lakia pyrittiin rukkaamaan. ”

Hakkarainen itse oli kirjoittanut maaliskuussa 2014 blogissaan laista ja vastustanut sitä. Hakkarainen: ”Omia kansalaisia kyllä tuomitaan vihapuheista hyvinkin herkästi ihan oikeuslaitoksia myöten.” Miten Hakkarainen voi vastustaa sellaista mistä hän ei tiedä mitään?  Hakkarainen jäi nyt kiinni lain rikkomisesta, mutta myös valehtelusta.

Kansanedustaja Hakkarainen on saanut tuomion kiihottamisesta kansanryhmää vastaan. 20 päiväsakkoa merkitsee Hakkaraiselle 1160 euroa. Mitä nyt tehdään perussuomalaisten rehellisyydelle? Kuka vielä uskoo siihen?

Tänään myös entinen perussuomalainen varavaltuutettu Olli Sademies istui tuomioistuimen edessä ja syyte oli sama kuin Hakkaraisen. Sademiehestä ei enempää, koska hänen suhteen perussuomalaiset toimivat oikein. Saa nähdä ovatko kaikki perussuomalaiset samalla viivalla.
Perussuomalaisten kotisivulla sanotaan myös, että oikeudenmukaisuus kuuluu heidän arvomaailmaan!
Lähteet:
https://www.perussuomalaiset.fi/tietoa-meista/arvomaailmamme/

http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000005032239.html?utm_medium=social&amp%3Butm_content=www.hs.fi&amp%3Bshare=e22d0d0c8b3ee0f6e2a23e89a17af012&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=facebook-share

Hakkarainen ei muka tiennyt laista, jonka muuttamista itse vaati


http://teuvohakkarainen.puheenvuoro.uusisuomi.fi/162489-milloin-hulluuden-mitta-tulee-tayteen

Disingenuous Islamophobes like speaker of parliament Maria Lohela want you and I to forget where they came from

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, who has gone from one scandal to the next, got booed by a large crowd in Helsinki on New Year. Perussuomalaiset (PS)* speaker of parliament, Maria Lohela, who has built her political career by spreading Islamophobic rhetoric, states on her Facebook page that the Finns have lost touch with their good habits by booing the prime minister. 

Lohela, like her populist anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party, the PS, couldn’t be more out of touch with Finland and reality. Politicians like her, who are very selective and suffer from political amnesia, are outright deceitful.

Lohela finds herself in “good company” in the Nuiva manifesto in 2010. She is one of thirteen people who signed the manifesto with three PS politicians (MEP Jussi Halla-aho, former MP James Hirvisaari and Kotka city councilman Freddy van Wonterghem) who were sentenced for ethnic agitation as well as others who have made their political careers by attacking migrants. Some of these are MP Juho Eerola, MP Olli Immonen, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, PS party secretary, and seven others.

Other Nuiva manifesto signatories are MP Juho Eerola, MP Olli Immonen, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, PS party secretary, and seven others.

Continue reading “Disingenuous Islamophobes like speaker of parliament Maria Lohela want you and I to forget where they came from”

Will Halla-aho be the PS’ savior or the party’s political grave?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A while back I asked a friend what would happen if the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* implode as we’ve seen in the polls. What will emerge from the ruin of that xenophobic party? Will we see another party that is more sinister and more dangerous to cultural diversity?

With PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho’s decision to challenge Timo Soini and run for chairman of the party could well mean the birth of an ever-radical anti-immigration party in the same league as the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party.

Will Halla-aho be the lifesaver of the PS’ problems and succeed at bolstering the embattled party’s poll standings? If we read PS politicians like MP Laura Huhtasaari, the Islamophobe with the white kindergarten teacher smile, the answer is a confident yes.

According to her, “Finland needs Perussuomalaiset values, Jussi is a pioneer, a nationalist who defends our rights. He doesn’t vacillate. He’s not afraid of being labeled because he believes in what he says.”

When watching the news about Halla-aho and how the media reports about this MEP, who was sentenced for ethnic agitation, it’s amazing to note how much fascination and interest there is in a politician who has built his political career on insulting minorities and spreading racism.

Continue reading “Will Halla-aho be the PS’ savior or the party’s political grave?”

Why did Finland allocate so much money on asylum reception centers that treated in too many cases refugees like “livestock?”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Who watches over, never mind defends, the rights of asylum seekers?

The Supermen*

In 2015 and 2016 some 38,000 asylum seekers [1] came to Finland and scores of asylum reception centers sprung up rapidly throughout the country to house these people. Even if the government’s answer to the ever-growing number of asylum seekers was “to make Finland unattractive for asylum seekers,” these people did a service to Finland by helping expose our ineffective and costly immigration and integration policy.

Disagree? How is it possible that it takes for some migrants 5-7 years before they can knock on the door of an employer and ask for a job?

Why is migrant unemployment many times higher than the national average?

Why do migrants get paid on average 25% less than white Finns?

It’s clear that there’s a lot of work to be done to lessen the pay gap between migrants and white Finns and lower high unemployment levels.

Fabrication or the truth?

An anti-racist colleague at the recently held Golden Family Awards in Helsinki exposed an interesting problem about our reporting of asylum seekers this year.

“When I started to read [the first] stories [from January] about that abuses that asylum seekers were suffering at reception centers, the first matter that crossed my mind was if they are true because they were so unbelievable,” the person said. “How could people in our country treat others in such a terrible manner?”

For Migrant Tales, 2016 was the year of investigative journalism. We published 128 news stories on asylum reception centers, interviewed scores of asylum seekers, and got in touch with many newspapers. Our efforts helped us to get the deputy manager of the Kolari asylum reception center fired.

Asylum seekers who are minors wrote a letter to Pitäjänuutiset in the fall explaining why they are seeking asylum in Finland.

Our network of sources involves comprises of a journalist and Arab-speakers who know the asylum-seeker situation in Finland as well as the back of their hand.

In the beginning, nobody wanted to write about such abuses never mind read about the terrible stories we started to expose to the public. When Migrant Tales approached Helsingin Sanomat in January,  the reporter at Finland’s largest daily gave little importance to the carefully investigated story we sent showing abuses at Luona, a private company controlled by Barona that managed back then reception centers in Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, and Hyvinkää.

Continue reading “Why did Finland allocate so much money on asylum reception centers that treated in too many cases refugees like “livestock?””

Finland’s ever-growing crisis of undocumented migrants is the government’s and Social Democratic Party’s doing

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Thanks to the 107 MPs listed below that voted on April 13 to approve law 2/2016 that did away with granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds, Finland faces today an unprecedented rise of undocumented migrants.

According to various estimates, the number of undocumented migrants is seen rising from a few hundred to thousands, even by as many as tens of thousands.

Prior to scrapping residence permits on humanitarian grounds, an asylum seeker who got a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) was granted a temporary residence permit if there wasn’t a repatriation between Finland and his country.

Law 2/2016 is poorly thought-out and is an example of how populism and xenophobia are guiding the government by the leash when it comes to immigration policy. Thus Finland’s immigration policy doesn’t hinge on whether countries like Iraq are safe or not, but on anti-immigration politics.

I am astounded many times to watch officials of the Migri, politicians who are interviewed by complacent journalists state that these people only came to Europe to search for a better life.

So?! Is it is a crime to flee a failed state like Iraq embroiled in violence and search for a better life in Europe?

Anti-immigration rhetoric in Finland has become so extreme that we label whole groups for fleeing countries that we destroyed directly and indirectly in the first place.

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Here we go again with the anti-immigration rhetoric – it’s election time in Finland!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here we go again, folks, it’s election time in April 2017 in Finland. The populist-nationalist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is picking up its hostile attacks against migrants, minorities and our ever-growing and proud culturally diverse community. Their allies in these attacks are their government partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP). 

You may rightly ask how it is possible for a government party like the PS to freely target our community with hostile and vengeful attacks? How is it possible that mainstream parties like the Center Party and NCP, which should know better, are near-silent to the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric?

Even opposition voices like the Social Democrats, which use catchphrases like “we’re against racism,” it’s unclear how seriously the party wants to challenge structural racism and greater inclusion of migrants in the labor market.

You may ask how we have arrived at to this terrible juncture. The answer is simple: Too few people in this country care or believe in our Nordic rights that promote social inclusion and social equality.

Continue reading “Here we go again with the anti-immigration rhetoric – it’s election time in Finland!”