Racism Archives - Page 10 of 208

The government’s anti-racism program stops racism on paper

Posted on May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish government has called for comment on its proposed six-million-euro action program against racism by June 10th. The program’s development began last year when then President Sauli Niinistö was questioned at an international press conference about racist remarks made by ministers in the Petteri Orpo government.

Announced in May, the program calls for anti-racist programs in ministries, schools, and volunteer organizations. It highlights the adoption of a national holocaust remembrance day and promises to make holocaust denial illegal. Other welcome issues, though modest in substance, is a reference to Islamophobia, but nothing on specific measures.

There is also no mention of intended legal reforms in response to charges against Finland by the EU Commission (ECRI) regarding weak legal protections against racism. It would be a systemic
change isf such measures were adopted but there is little in the program outline of that nature.

That is likely because such changes could get ministers like Riikka Purra- who recently reiterated her view that there was a conspiracy to replace white Europeans with immigrants- in trouble.

Her social media remarks about fantasizing shooting immigrant kids on a commuter train, as well as Minister for Economic Affairs Wille Rydman’s emails about wanting to ban Muslim women rather than their hijabs, was what got the government in trouble to begin with.

There is no specific mention of Africans, although an EU study recently found that group to be more discriminated against in Finland than in any country in Western Europe. Finland’s largest
immigrant minority, its Russian community, is also totally ignored although in other recent legislation, their travel and relations with families in their home country have been seriously hampered.

MP Heikki Vestman and the government replace human rights and the rule of law with bravado and hubris

Posted on May 19, 2024July 5, 2024 by Migrant Tales

National Coaaliton Party MP and chairperson of the constitutional committee, Heikki Vestman, has made a name for himself for his xenophobic statements and for flaunting human rights and the rule of law. His parliamentary committee has given the green light to the Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law that will be introduced to parliament next week.

Vestman likes to spread macho bravado by portraying himself as a true “patriot” by throwing human rights and the rule of law under the bus, and bullying vulnerable groups like asylum seekers.

Rarely, if ever, will he and the media tell you what his behind the pushback law.

“As a Finnish Member of Parliament, I believe Finland and the Finns must be able to safeguard their security in every situation. It is a core task of the state.” said MP Vestman. What you are saying if we cut through your nationalistic bravado is: legalizing illegality.

Some ask why are the hundreds of people seeking asylum such a threat to national security if 32,360 asylum seekers came to Finland in 2015 and now tens of thousands fleeing war from Ukraine?

Finnish government to move ahead with pushback law

Posted on May 15, 2024May 16, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Prime Minister Orpo announced today that it will give next week to parliament the Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law. In our opinion, the new law will not solve the problem at the border but will worsen it.

Disagree? Just take a look at other EU borders, and you will come to a startling reality: suffering and death.

Milka Sormunen called in her comprehensive piece on the draft law appropriately “Legalizing illegality.”

Prime Minister Orpo and his National Coalition Party, who have given the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* a free hand on migration issues, did not mention a word about the four crucial factors undermining the draft law: breaching international agreements, the Constitution, Human Rights, and in general the rule of law.

Said Orpo: “I think that this law is drafted in such a way that it fulfills all the essentials [issues] simultaneously: First, the law works in such a way that we are not subject to instrumentalization [by Russia]. Secondly, it is written in such a way that it can be approved [by parliament].”

Source: Yle

Orpo said that the above two factors, which do not mention breaching Human Rights, the constitution, and international agreements, have a good chance of passing in parliament.

Some say that the PS’ policy of “zero asylum seekers” is one factor why the government, especially the PS, wants to close the Finnih-Russian border and deny asylum. Is it a coincidence that the majority of asylum seekers at the Finnish-Russian border come from Muslim-majority countries?

After this draft law gets approved, what other steps will the government take to undermine Human Rights and the rule of law?

The whole Fnnsh-Russian border conflict has a bitter taste of politics.

The Finnish government’s new citizenship law is a house of mirrors

Posted on May 7, 2024May 7, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Plans to tighten the citizenship law expose a remarkable case of historic amnesia of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government. Did you know that Finland denied women, whom they proudly claim were the first to get suffrage rights in Europe, the right to give citizenship to their children? It was only the man who had such a right and privilege.

In 1984, about 66 years after independence, women were finally granted the right to give citizenship to their children under jus sanguinis.

Source: Valtioneuvosto.

It took about 66 years to change the law and still, 40 years later, there is no apology that upended many people’s lives. Instead, the government wants to make citizenship more difficult.

You may ask how the old law that did not allow women to pass on citizenship to their children, changed such people’s lives. The Finnish state should offer an apology for such an exclusive law.

MP Heikki Vestman is one of the main anti-immigration ideologues of the National Coalition Party of Finland

Posted on May 5, 2024May 5, 2024 by Migrant Tales

National Coalition Party (NCP) MP and chairperson of the constitutional committee, Heikki Vestman, is making a name for himself by promoting xenophobia. In a previous post, Migrant Tales published how Vestman was using Islamophobia and bullying tactics to gain attention and power.

His rhetoric has turned him into one of the main anti-immigration ideologues of the NCP. He is in the same shameless league as his NCP partner, Atte Kaleva.

MP Heikki Vestman is one of the leading anti-immigration ideologues of the NCP. Read the full story here.

Vestman, who also chaired the immigration committee in the government’s program negotiations, washes his hand by stating that the tightening of immigration policy is to bring our laws in line with other Nordic countries.

That assertion is debatable. Migration Institute researcher Erna Bodström compares the changes to East Europe rather than other Nordic countries.

In his usual anti-immigration style, where Vestman sees himself as a savior of our Nordic way of life, he believes that the tightening of the citizenship act will help “integrate” people.

“The citizenship act encourages people to settle in Finland, learn the language, acquire basic knowledge of society measured by a citizenship test, follow the rules of the country, and work for their livelihood.”

The pushback law of the Finnish government will fail and be a farce

Posted on May 4, 2024May 4, 2024 by Migrant Tales

A question to Interior Minister Mari Rantanen and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo: Is the main motivation of the pushback law to strengthen the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* policy of zero asylum seekers? Why are asylum seekers coming from Russia such a threat to Finland’s internal security?

The fact that a total of 1,271 asylum seekers have come to the country via the eastern border from August 2023 to January 2024, raises some questions that the media skips. Knowing the PS’ and Ntional. Coalition Party’s negative attitude towards Muslims and other non-European asylum seekers, is the main reason to keep asylum seekers from Muslm-majority countries from coming here?

The last thing that the new law will do is solve Finland’s asylum issues at the Finnish-Russian border. Source: Yle

The grand majority (80.88%) of asylum seekers at the Finnish-Russian border come from Muslim-majority countries. During August 2023-January 29, 2024, of the total 1,271 asylum seekers, 1,028 (80.88%) were Syrian (491 people), Somalian (360), Yemeni (120), and Iraqi (57) nationals, according to Yle News.

Did over 32,000 asylum seekers in 2015, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, pose a threat to internal security? What about the tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have come to Finland?

Another factor that is a blow to Rantanen’s pushback law is her credibility and her long political career of posting racist comments about asylum seekers.

For the above reasons, the government’s pushback law is a farce that will do more harm than good.

Does Rantanen believe that a law will stop people from crossing the border?

That is wishful thinking and just another example of what such borders do in the EU: they bring suffering and death.

Facebook (Timo Vornanen, the Finnish MP who shot his gun in public): Oops!

Posted on April 29, 2024May 4, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Finland lives in collective amnesia about its ultranationalistic, xenophobic disposition. The post earlier this month shows Vornanen’s loathing of the Greens and of migrants.

Rosa Meriläinen is a Green politician and writer.

For obvious reasons, the former policeman is on sick leave for two weeks.

The shooting incident not only exposes the lies of the government program, “a strong and committed Finland,” it exposes its outright lies.

Is this the Finland I want to live in?

No, thanks, I’ll pass.

“All kinds of candidates for the European[parliamentary] elections. This comes from the GREENS.
For Rosa’s information, climate change will not be stopped by standing up to the police and breaking the law. I understand that you think breaking the law is “all OK and fun;” as long as it is not directed at your own people.
Or do you Rosa think that the world will be a better place if someone gives you a good beating?
The only effect such an act would have is to overwork the police and the courts; they would have just one more case to deal with and this would make you feel bad. Breaking the law will not have any effect on climate change.
Breaking the law will not save the world.
I think your actions as a parent are very irresponsible.
And as far as the immigration that Rosa mentioned is concerned, we do not need any more foreign “specialists” living on social benefits and other income transfers here in Europe and Finland.
We simply cannot afford it.
A skilled workforce that comes here to work and pay their taxes is welcome.”

A letter to Interior Minister Mari Rantanen

Posted on April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Migrant Tales

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen of the Perussuomalaiset party*,

Since the Finnish media won’t ask you critical questions about the tightening of migration policy, I’d like to ask you why are you tightening the screws. Finland needs migrants and, as you know, we are up sh*t creek due to the graying of our population and its cost.

Interioir Minister Mari Rantanen.

Many parts of your migration policy show the worst of Finland. Take for instance changes in the naturalization law, where you are requiring people to live in Finland eight years from the five required now. What about human rights? Aren’t you planning to undermine such a right in the new refoulement law?

I moved to Finland in December 1978. As many children of Finnish parents, I spent my summers with my grandparents. I am grateful for those summers and the opportunity I had to experience the magical summers of Finland.

Compared with the smog and heat of Los Angeles, nothing could compare with those summers.

During that time, I grew up believing that I was a Finn and my plan was to move to this country after completing my university. I even went to the Finnish army about doing my conscription.

One day, however, after returning to live in Finland, I wondered why I had to apply for residence permits periodically. I asked the lady at the aliens’ office, yes, that was what it was called back then, why I had to apply for a residence permit periodically if I was a Finn.

The Finnish police can remove a hijab by force if you are an asylum seeker

Posted on April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 by Migrant Tales

A Turku Court of Apeal dropped all charges on 23.3 against seven police and security guards who removed a hijab by force from two asylum seekers in 2017. Apart from the long path of due justice, the case is unsettling because it raises the following question: why is it that a Muslim woman can use the hijab in a passport picture if she has a residence permit but not if she is an asylum seeker?

The ruling, in my opinion, is shameful and shows how little regard the police have for religious freedom of Muslims. Moreover, the five-year wait for the case to be finally decided by the Court of Appeal is a blow to trust of Finland’s legal system.

In an email dated 29.10.2022, prosecutor Heidi Suvirinne, told Migrant Tales that the Court of Appeal will not look at at the case if the police had the right to use force to remove the hijabs.

“I look at the case from a legal point of view, and the important thing is that the Court of Appeal will decide whether the police had the right to use force and whether the use of force was in concordance with the law; if not, assault [committed by the acquitted suspects).”

What is your opinion about this case?

Please send your replies to [email protected].

Read the full story here.Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

Further reading:

The tailspin of the Finnish economy – it’s the immigration, stupid!

Posted on April 13, 2024April 13, 2024 by Migrant Tales

The growth of Finland’s economy in the past fifteen years has been disappointing with our indebtedness growing at an alarming rate totaling today about 75% of GDP, according to Yle. If we were to point to the elephant in the Finnish room, it’s clear that our rapidly aging population and too few immigrants are the culprits.

To top it off, when Finland’s debt-to-GDP ratio started to rise worryingly in the early 2010s, Finland was hit politically by the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which made it to the major political league in the 2011 election, when its numbers rose to 39 MPs from 5 MPs previously.

During the past decade, Finland needed to attract labor immigrants in a big way but chose instead to spread populist xenophobia. Today the PS together with the National Coalition Party (NCP), and its minor partners, the Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats, are planning to significantly tighten immigration policy.

You don’t need to be a sociologist to understand that the whole concept of immigration and how it is supposed to work is tainted by racism and discrimination thanks to the PS and its obeient partners, the NCP. The government is doing everyting possible to keep Finland white and non-Muslim.

Read the full story in Finnish here.