Racism Archives - Page 13 of 208

When xenophobia becomes an obsession and knows no end

Posted on October 3, 2023October 7, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Finland’s Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen is one of the government’s xenophobic “hotheads.” She, like PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra, will exploit and spread xenophobic soundbites to suit her party’s political agenda, which is nothing more than bashing brown and black migrants and refugees.

Even if she is supposed to watch out for our safety in Finland, she is near-constantly commenting about the situation in Sweden. In the tweet below she quotes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who, like the National Coalition Party of Finland, decided to go to bed with a far-right party.

If only immigration “problems” could be as easy to solve as Rantanen makes us believe in the tweet below:

“Political naivety and ignorance led us to this point as well as irresponsible immigration policies and failed integration,” Rantanen quotes Swedish PM Kristersson. “Finland will avoid the Swedish way by tightening immigration and integration and increasing integration.”

Add to the latter a racist opinion piece by a tabloid Ilta-Sanomat and you have a one-two knock-out punch that blames migrants for the violence and most Sweden’s problems.

Matters will get worse on the migration front.

Even so, we must do everything possible to push back against racism in Finland and Europe.

Foreign Student: Summer 1981

Posted on September 28, 2023September 28, 2023 by Migrant Tales

If the April issue was the longest with 12 pages, then the summer issue was the shortest Foreign Student with only four pages. Apart from wishing everyone a good summer and thanking the activism of its members, the Foreign Student expressed disappointed with those who did not speak out.

“The past club year has been very significant. We have taken a stand and moved to better our lot as immigrants in this country. To all those who helped I extend my deepest respect and admiration,” wrote Enrique Tessieri. taken

There were some kind words for Foreign Students Club vice chairperson, Alex Sannemann’s wedding in Seurasaari.

Read all the Foreign Students here:

Foreign Student: January 1981

Foreign Student: February 1981

Foreign Student: March 1981

Foereign Student: April 1981

Foreign Student: May 1981

Foreign Student: Summer 1981

Foreign Student: September 1981

Foreign Student: October 1981

Foreign Student: November 1981

Foreign Student: December 1981

Foreign Student: January 1982

The Finnish youth gang “problem” is a monster concocted by the radical right

Posted on September 28, 2023April 15, 2024 by Migrant Tales

What drives the government, particularly Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen of Perussuomalaiset (PS), to give utmost attention and tackle the issue of youth street gangs? Is it a sincere attempt to
solve such a social problem, or an opportunity to further victimize migrants and minorities in Finland?

The assertion isn’t far-fetched. The PS is historically the first major contemporary Finnish party to benefit stigmatizing other groups, such as Muslims, Africans, and other non-EU nationals, as less valuable.

Many of Rantanen’s social media posts before the April election, which were deleted and white-cleaned after the election, were based on racist far-right conspiracy theories. “We shouldn’t be so blue-eyed that soon we won’t be blue-eyed,” is one of her infamous quotes. Sinisilmänen, or blue-eyed, means being naive in Finnish.

Source: Reilumedia report [1].

Moreover, although these types of quotes do not instill credibility in Rantanen’s ability to find solutions to youth problems, her efforts are further shot to pieces when she blames the “problem” on the “wrong” type of immigration policy.

Another takeaway is the government’s statements about clamping down on youth crime and its near-silence on far-right terrorism.

Another matter that raises red flags is the PS’s track record. In all the general elections in 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2022, the party has used successfully a migrant crime theme to attract voters to the polls.

Neighboring Sweden held its election in September 2022 against a backdrop of spiraling gang violence where over 60 people were killed.

By promising to get tough on such crime, the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, and the Moderate Party led the right-wing bloc to victory. Their success also provided the PS with an important migrant crime theme to exploit politically. The problem, however, was that Finland’s youth gang problem was small compared with Sweden’s.

In the autumn of last year, the police estimated that there were 100-200 gang members in Helsinki and Turku.

As crime is usually an important topic covered by the media, it attracts more attention if so-called people of foreign backgrounds are part of the narrative. Should it surprise us that coverage of Finland’s youth gang “problem” started to grow rapidly in October after the September elections of Sweden?

Source: Reilumedia

Foreign Student: March 1981

Posted on September 27, 2023September 28, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales will publish all of the eleven issues of the Foreign Student, the newsletter of the Foreign Students Club of Helsinki. The March 1981 issue continued to test the waters by speaking out for foreigners’ rights.

Writes the Foreign Student: “Foreigners in Finland are taking a new stand concerning their rights here. All of us are asking: why such a tough stand concerning us while the Finnish Authorities are hypersensitive about the way Finns are treated aboard, as for example in Sweden?”

Read all the Foreign Students here:

Foreign Student: January 1981

Foreign Student: February 1981

Foreign Student: March 1981

Foreign Student: April 1981

Foreign Student: May 1981

Foreign Student: Summer 1981

Foreign Student: September 1981

Foreign Student: October 1981

Foreign Student: November 1981

Foreign Student: December 1981

Foreign Student: January 1982

Foreign Student: January 1981

Posted on September 26, 2023September 28, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales will begin to publish the Foreign Student, the newsletter of the Foreign Students Club of Helsinki. The January 1981 issue was the first newsletter, which came out 11 times until January 1982. The Foreign Student played an important role in giving migrants a voice during a period when foreigners were supposed to remain quiet about their civil rights.

When the Foreign Student was published about 11,000 foreigners lived in Finland. Most of these foreigners were Finns who were naturalized Swedes.

It also helped to drive up membership of the club and gave the foreign community a needed voice.

Read all the Foreign Students here:

Foreign Student: January 1981

Foreign Student: February 1981

Foreign Student: March 1981

Foreign Student: April 1981

Foreign Student: May 1981

Foreign Student: Summer 1981

Foreign Student: September 1981

Foreign Student: October 1981

Foreign Student: November 1981

Foreign Student: December 1981

Foreign Student: January 1982

The “Denmarkization” of Finland’s immigration and asylum policy

Posted on September 26, 2023September 26, 2023 by Migrant Tales

The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has had a long love affair with Denmark’s anti-Muslim immigration policy, one of the toughest in Europe. With loaded guns in government, the PS must be happy that they can adopt, with the blessings of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the two minor coalition partners, the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) and Christian Democrats (KD), that country’s harsh immigration policy.

The Danish People’s Party (DPP) used to call the anti-immigration shots in government but in recent years their support has declined abruptly. In the 2022 election, the DPP lost 11 seats to remain with five seats in parliament, which is a far cry from the 37 seats they won in 2015.

The fortunes of the DPP have been undermined by the Social Democrats who have adopted and succumbed to the same hardline immigration policy and rehotirc of the far-right party.

While some are debating if a radical right party becomes more moderate when in government, Denmark offers us an answer: it radicalizes other parties who must adopt more hostile stances in order to survive and not be devoured by a populist party.

Apart from the government’s immigration policy that disenfranchises migrants by weakening more their civil rights and making them vulnerable to exploitation by employers, one wonders how far the PS – with the blessing of the NCP, SPP and KD – will go in order to make life difficult for migrants.

in Denmark, the DPP went as far as to force migrants to speak only Danish at home and deport whole families if a member is convicted of a crime. When will we see the following aims below in Finland?

Source: Migrant Tales

Spearheading these radical changes in Finland’s immigration policy is PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen. She recently announced plans to speed up the asylum process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.

Movies like Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” are needed more than ever today

Posted on September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Thanks to Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” we can now get a terrific glimpse of the suffering of asylum seekers who were used as political pawns by Belarus and Poland. Since it would have been impossible to film the movie in Belarus or Poland, Holland created a movie with actors to debict these people’s suffering.

Writes the Guardian: “Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.”

The movie also exposes the hypocrisy and racism of Europe towards such people.

“The end of the film makes the explicit comparison between the two refugee crises,” the daily continued, “and the different receptions granted to Ukrainians and to the much smaller number of darker-skinned refugees from Africa and the Middle East received at the border.”

In Finland, Perussuomalaiset* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen announced a tightening of asylum procedures in Finland by speeding up the process to four weeks. The asylum seeker will wait for the decision at the border.

“Mosque” scoop by a tabloid reveals the hostile face of Islamophobia in Finland

Posted on September 25, 2023September 25, 2023 by Migrant Tales

If there is a big divide and mistrust between the media and the Muslim community it was exposed by a scoop the tabloid ilta-Sanomat on a secret “mosque” in a Helsinki nursery. Throughout the years, some Muslim imams and other members of the community have expressed apprehension of the Finnish media.

For those who may not know, Finland has only one mosque built in the 1940s located in Järvenpää, a short drive north of Helsinki. All the rest of these mosques without a minaret are, in fact, prayer rooms.

Finland’s only mosque with a minaret is located in Järvenpää and was built in the 1940s. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

True, some Muslims call prayer rooms mosques.

While many will disagree with Suomen Muslimifoorumi’s Aladin Maher about his views on gay marriage and the great replacement conspiracy theory, the underlying message of the stories written about the “mosque” reveals a deep-seated mistrust of Muslims that is amplified by politicians from parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*and National Coalition Party.

The story about the mosque awoke Finland’s Islamophobic hardliners like Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Justice Minister Leena Meri, Minister Wille Rydman, MPs like Atte Kaleva, Joakim Vigelius, never mind the thousands of hostile comments on social media.

All of these politicians and ministers had something bad to say about the mosque and Maher and exposed their hypocrisy.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

We shouldn’t be surprised the these hostile comments came mostly from the Islamophobic PS and National Coalition Party.

If the ongoing hostile comments are anything to go by, it shows that any meaningful dialogue between some sectors of Finnish society and the Muslim community is light years away.

Rejection by the media and certain politicians of Muslims ensures that nothing will change.

Government remains silent on the threat of far-right terrorism in Finland

Posted on September 13, 2023September 14, 2023 by Migrant Tales

How is it possible that we do not hear a word from the government about three suspects tried on terrorism charges in Lahti. Helsingin Sanomat published an editorial Tuesday about the threat of far-right violence in Finland.

Writes Helsingin Sanomat: “However, the case is a fresh reminder that the extreme right is a real threat to Finland’s security. The assessment made by the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) a couple of years ago is correct; in addition to the terrorist threat from radical Islamists, the terrorist threat from the far right has increased.”

As if trying to divert attention from far-right terrorism, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has preferred to talk about migrant youth gang violence and new questionable methods to give the police more search- and-seizure powers.

For many years, groups like Migrant Tales, historian Oula Silvenoinen, and columnist Saku Timonen have warned about the ties of the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and far-right groups. Is it a surprise that one of the main suspects in the terrorist trial in Lahti is a former PS member Viljam Nyman?

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Finnish prosecutors have charged four men in the Lahti terrorism trial that are believed to be able to produce semiautomatic weapons using a 3D printer and attacking critical infrastructure, politicians, anti-racism activists and NGOs. One of the targets was believed to be former prime minister, Sanna Marin.

Finnish news server YLE reported that the four suspects follow neo-Nazi ideology linked to accelerationism, which claims that fundamental societal transformations can be achieved only by accelerating different processes in society.

White-cleaning racism and lies may land you a ministerial seat, Mari Rantanen, but it won’t boost your crediblity

Posted on September 3, 2023September 3, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Can anyone really trust Mari Rantanen, the Interior Minister of Perussuoalaiset (PS)* of Finland? All it took to whitewash her far-right racist views was to take down such posts from her social media sites after the election and claim that she does not believe in conspiracy theories.

What a coward! She spreads all these far-right racist conspiracy theories and then does not have the guts to stand by them.

What does that show?

It reveals moral cowardice and bravado.

One of her many infamous quotes is: “We must not be so blue-eyed that soon we will not be blue-eyed.” “Blue-eyed in Finnish means naive.

She has also wished that asylum seekers drown in Greek waters, Europe will turn into an Africa, and that if steps are not taken to halt non-white migrants, Europe is threatened with civil war.

PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen is proof that far-right racism rooted in conspiracy theories will take you far in politics. Source: X (formerly Twitter).

Looking at Minister Rantanen’s racist track record, it’s clear that she is bankrupt of all credibility. How can you trust a minister who is openly racist and too chicken to stand by her toxic views? How much of an opportunist is she, and how much harm has she inflicted on Finland? A generous amount, I believe.

Her loathing of Muslims and other minorities is clearly evident. Take for example the so-called youth gang “problem,” which is a direct copy from Sweden’s election and helped boost the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, to victory.