Tag: Racism

A woman of color in Finland was told that she was ethnically “unsuitable” for a job

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In Finland, labor market discrimination is rampant. A woman of color from Rwanda, Alice Mutoni, thought she was about to get hired but things went sour when her probable employer discovered that she was black. He said, “this was a Finnish company selling Finnish things,” according to YLE News. 

The non-discrimination ombudswoman, Kirsi Pimiä,  said that Mutoni’s case was a typical example of workplace discrimination in Finland. She said that her office receives regularly complaints about ethnic- and race-based discrimination.

”We have seen a lot of racism in Finland, and research findings indicate that Finland tops the table when it comes to this type of discrimination in Europe,” Pimiä was quoted as saying to YLE.

 

Read the full story here.

One of the best ways to complain about discrimination in Finland is to raise a storm, like Muoni did.

 

Laura Huhtasaari and Ville Tavio: How some sectors of the Finnish Lutheran Church promote racist discourse

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.

William Blake (1757-1827)

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* vice-president and MP, Laura Huhtasaari, is keen on building her political career on Islamophobia and polarizing our country into two distinct camps: “us” and “them.” 

Apart from plagairizing 80% of her Master’s thesis, she copy-and-paste jobs of her Islamophobic and anti-immigration rhetoric from the likes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and US President Donald Trump.

On October 8, Huhtasaari and PS MP Ville Tavio took part in an open talk about asylum policy in Finland at St Michael’s Church (Mikaelinkirkko) of Turku.

I wrote a rebuttal last year to an anti-immigration column written by Tavio published in the Helsinki Times. He never bothered to reply. Like Huhtasaari, Tavio is an admirer of Marine Le Pen’s Islamophobic and openly hostile Front National.

What did the Lutheran Church wanted to gain by inviting two anti-immigration hardliners to debate asylum policy is a mystery to me.

Huhtasaari lets off her usual Islamophobic rants about Muslims at the event:

“I honestly hope that the church defends Christian values, Christians, Christian traditions, otherwise Muslims will wipe out [our Christian way of life].”

See the original Facebook posting here.

While it’s doubtful that two politicians like Huhtasaari and Tavio will help create a better society based on mutual respect and understanding, the real worrisome matter is the reaction of other politicians and society in general.

Mostly silence and turning a blind eye.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 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. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

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.

Anti-immigration stances and policies of the United Kingdom will lead to its breakup

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What three countries are officially multicultural? They are Canada, Australia and the UK. In the case of Canada and the UK, these countries adopted multiculturalism as a social policy to avert the breakup of their countries.  

As everyone knows, Canada has a French-speaking Quebec that aspired to become an independent nation. One of the most important roles of Canada’s multiculturalism was to make sure that Quebec remained a part of the country.

And it did.

Read how PM Theresa May deraild the UK’s Brexit process here.

It is the same story for the UK with respect to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Here is the big question: As the UK retreats into its ever-xenophobic and hostile shell of the outside world, will such stances and policies lead to the eventual breakup of the so-called United Kingdom?

Continue reading “Anti-immigration stances and policies of the United Kingdom will lead to its breakup”

How the Finnish police fuel mistrust and erode credibility with migrants and ethnic minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finnish police servicer held a seminar on Wednesday on migrant surveillance.  NGOs like Stop Deportations and Refugees Welcome expressed outrage and published some PowerPoint slides shown at the seminar by the Helsinki Police department responsible for immigration matters. 

Sanna Valtonen of the Refugees Welcome NGO expressed dismay with the material used by the police to depict migrants and asylum seekers.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” she said. “No NGO present at the seminar reacted to these slides except for us [Stop Deportations and Refugees Welcome].”

Ethnic profiling is illegal in Finland but the seminar shows that the police still don’t get it and persist in having antiquated and racist views of migrants and minorities.

Linda Hyökki wrote in a story published today in Migrant Tales: “Police inspector Heli Aaltonen showed a tasteless series of PowerPointe slides representing the ‘most common’ [ethnic traits of its] customers.”

Even if Aaltonen’s presentation aimed at being funny, it fell flat on its face because of the slides’ racist depiction of people of different backgrounds.

Aaltonen’s attitude shows a common problem when white people like her want to try out their sense of humor at the cost of migrants and ethnic minorities.

Go here to read some of the racist depictions of different migrant groups.

Hyökki writes about Aaltonen’s PowerPoint slide presentation: “The depictions were bluntly racist, enforcing stereotypes of immigrants from different backgrounds such as Russians/Estonians being alcoholics who live in illegal dorms and Africans being drug dealers. Moreover, they were also drawing from anti-Muslim discourses that have become – apparently widely accepted even within institutional contexts –hence offering the perfect proof for what we can call structural Islamophobia:

Continue reading “How the Finnish police fuel mistrust and erode credibility with migrants and ethnic minorities”

The structural Islamophobia and racism embedded within Finnish Police

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: This story was received today by us from Linda Hyökki. 

On Wednesday, October 10, the NGO “Stop Deportations” and Sanna Valtonen from “Refugees Welcome” shared on social media pictures that shocked anti-racist activists, and indeed generally anyone who is concerned about ethnic profiling. In a seminar named “Lost in Helsinki”[1], organized by the department responsible for immigration matters at the Helsinki Police, inspector Heli Aaltonen showed a tasteless series of powerpoint slides representing the “most common” customers. The series was supposed to be funny (?), or a lousy attempt to commemorate the national day of Finnish literature[2], as the slides depicted the “Modern-day 7 brothers”, a reference to one of the most known Finnish novels and written by Aleksis Kivi, the national author of Finland. In these slides, all 7 “customers” were named after figures from the novel.

The depictions were bluntly racist, enforcing stereotypes of immigrants from different backgrounds such as Russians/Estonians being alcoholics who live in illegal dorms and Africans being drug dealers. Moreover, they were also drawing from anti-Muslim discourses that have become – apparently widely accepted even within institutional contexts –hence offering the perfect proof for what we can call structural Islamophobia:

“Timo”: from Somalia; married to three wives; drinks alcohol occasionally; has come to Finland after his wife (wife has a Finnish citizenship and used family reunification to get Timo to the country); divorced his wife after receiving residency permit; after his divorce, Timo used family reunification to get his other wife to Finland; Timo’s third wife has been brought to Finland by using the identity of the first wife; has children with all three wives.

“Eero”; an asylum seeker from Iraq; lied about his age; received a negative decision regarding his asylum due to groundless application; Secret Police has given a statement about Eero that he is a threat to the national security

Aaltonen also added a profile of a female customer “Aino”, borrowing the famous figure from the Finnish national epic poetry work compiled by Elias Lönnrot. “Aino” was depicted as a girl wearing a headscarf, so clearly referring to her religious affiliation as a Muslim. She was supposed to be a stay-home wife – as allegedly staying inside doors is something that her “religion obliges” her to do –, a victim of domestic violence, someone who is inactive in the job market and cannot even communicate due to lack of language skills. Oh yes, she was also supposedly a victim of human trafficking.

These are devastating examples about how embedded racism and Islamophobia is in Finnish state connected institutions. With such “ethnic profiles”, inspector Aaltonen as an official representative of Finnish Police did nothing less than spread bigotry, prejudices and consequently contributed to hate speech and victimization of minorities. It goes without saying, that associating certain ethnicities or nationalities with Islamophobic stereotypes puts all members of these ethnic groups under the radar of bigots? The presentation reproduced images of Muslim men being violent abusers of women, deceiving and misusing Finnish social services and state funded financial aid, notwithstanding the images of “backward” Muslim women as oppressed not only by their husbands but also by their religion – Islam.

It is time that the Finnish Police issue an official statement distancing the institution from any racist or Islamophobic ideas about minorities and immigrants residing in our country. It is time, that we openly discuss the extend to which racism and anti-Muslim prejudices are a structural problem. If this is the “contribution” of the Finnish police to intercultural understanding, social cohesion and security of all citizens and residents in the country, then how are religious and ethnic minorities ever supposed to trust the professionality of the police in dealing with hate crime when all their official representative Aaltonen has done is to spread more hate.

[1] Helsinkiin kadonneet -seminaari

[2] October 10th is the national day of Finnish literature, “Aleksis Kiven päivä” named after the national author of Finland.

Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland: Who and why we are

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if the NGO Anti-Hate Crime Organisation (Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry) was founded on September 8 and registered on October 3 by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH), our association was spreading its first roots on February 23.

On that Friday in Vantaa at about 11:45 PM, three Finnish youths violently attacked a Pakistani migrant.

Migrant Tales wrote in March: “A group of youths and stabbed at least twenty times and repeatedly hit with ax causing, among other injuries, a fractured skull. The police are quiet until Tuesday when it puts out a statement, which does not mention that this may be a hate crime.”

If it were reported by the police as a hate crime, it would be one of the worst ever in Finland.

I met the victim, his wife, and two daughters, for the first time in March in the hospital. His state was terrible and weeks later it would take as long as four hours for the nurses to remove his stitches.

One of the wishes that the victim had, who is a member of our NGO’s board and our first honorary chairperson, is to tell people about hate crime. One matter that saddened him was that no NGO – except for one – had visited him when he was recovering in hospital.

One of the first matters we plan to do, among other matters like networking and forming alliances with different NGOs, is community empowerment like our honorary chairperson wishes. We will gladly oblige.

Since we believe that there is a lot of work to do in the area of hate crime, and, unfortunately, this will worsen in Finland, our answer to this challenge is Suomen viharikosvastainen yhdistys ry/Finska Anti-hartbrottsorganisation rf/Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland.

Apart from being Finland’s first hate-crime NGO, we call on everyone interested to join us and to challenge this social illness.

The journey is a long one but we are confident that we will prevail.

Turku appeal court of Finland upholds earlier decision to ban neo-Nazi PVL group

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales was happy to hear that the appeal court in Turku has upheld an earlier decision by the Pirkanmaa district court in Tampere to ban in Finland the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL) and Pohjoinen Perinne (Nordic Tradition Group), a PVL –linked group, according to YLE News.

The PVL will have to end operations in Finland once court’s decision becomes enforceable, or when there is no longer any possiblity of appeal by the neo-Nazi group.

Last November, the court in Pirkanmaa banned the PVL but the group appealed the decision.

Apart from openly supporting anti-Semitism, racism and hostility towards sexual minorities, both courts ruled that the PVL encouraged violence. The ultimate aim of the former neo-Nazi organization is to set up in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic region a nationalist socialist state.

The PVL represents one of many extremist groups in Finland that have gained more public exposure.

The growth of the far-right group could not be possible without the support of political parties like Perussuomalaiset (PS),* Blue Reform and even mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), which do not openly support fascism but seem distant relatives to such extremist ideologies.

PS members Ulla Pyysalo have had links to the PVL as well as others, like Sampo Terho and Jussi Niinistö, in far-right groups.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 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. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

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.

 

 

Blue Reform’s Sampo Terho of Finland and his politically ambidextrous misbeliefs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Blue Reform* minister for European affairs, culture and sports, Sampo Terho is politically ambidextrous: He can say one thing and state a totally different thing. It is like coming out of the closet and going back in. The opportunism in such ambidextrous behavior is believing that others don’t notice. And we do.  

In the statement below, Terho gets tough on Muslims but takes a more benign view of Foreign Minister Timo Soini’s right to attend anti-abortion gatherings abroad as a member of the government.

In the first quote below on the left, he states the following about Muslims: “A country that accepts refugees and immigrants cannot tolerate that its culture would die. Those who move here must inevitably change and adapt to our basic values.”

But then he makes an about-turn on the foreign minister’s case, who is also a member of the same party: “Soini has personal beliefs, an opinion he has a right to have. Personal opinion and freedom of religion are Western values based on human rights.”

What hypocrisy!

Thank you, Rasismivapaa Suomi, for the heads-up.

* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 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. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.

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.

 

Anti-refugee sentiment in Finland and politicians who capitalize on fear and racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A new survey by PEW Research Center shows that there is wide support in several EU countries for taking in refugees. The report shows that Spain is the most welcoming while Poland and Hungary are the least responsive. 

Another EU country in the survey, Italy, also scored far behind Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, and Greece.

As Finland holds its parliamentary elections in April 2019 and EU elections a month later, parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), Blue Reform,* and politicians of the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) are eager to capitalize on anti-immigration sentiment.

And that is what is happening now after a massive police operation took place over the weekend and which led to the arrest of two suspects, an Estonian and Russian citizen, suspected of laundering money.

The arrest of the two foreigners, especially of the Russian citizen, has caused a Russophobic knee-jerk reaction from politicians of the PS, Blue Reform, Social Democrats and the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) to restrict the purchase of land from outside the EU and EEA.

MP Suna Kymäläinen of the Social Democratic Party, who got re-elected in 2015 thanks to her anti-Russian stance on real-estate purchases, reiterated her calls for tighter controls on non-EEA citizens. PS MP Tom Packalén, who has built a reputation on his anti-immigration views, said that parliament should speed up a law that would force non-EEA and EU citizens to get a special permission to buy land.

Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö said that the new law would grant the government the right to intervene in transactions that it sees jeopardizing national security.

Another result of Finland’s xenophobia is limiting the rights of dual citizens even if discrimination is prohibited in the Finnish constitution.

Read the original PEW study here.

As with Sweden, support for refugees in Finland must be in the same ballpark.

Continue reading “Anti-refugee sentiment in Finland and politicians who capitalize on fear and racism”

How would we classify Finland’s immigration and asylum policy? Thumbs up, or down?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just like President Donald Trump has destroyed the US’ standing in the world, what wreckage has Finland’s immigration and asylum policy brought on our society and our country’s name? 

Thanks to years of anti-immigration rhetoric and hardline policies by the former and present government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, Finland has sunk into a dark hole where values like human rights and social equality are forfeited for cheap nationalism and by fortifying structural racism.

Finland’s immigration and asylum policy has a clear message to Muslims and non-EU citizens: Stay out!

Maria Lohela, former speaker of parliament and PS MP, is a good example of how racism has become a part of our institutions. She got elected with her Islamophobic rhetoric. She is today part of the Blue Reform block. Source: YLE.

Just like the media in the United States is fighting tooth and nail to expose the corruption, racism and kakistocracy of Trump’s administration, the media in Finland has an important job as well to make sure that parties like the Perussuomalaiaset* and their allies in parliament and elsewhere, don’t take Finland for a ride as happened before the 2011 parliamentary elections.

Continue reading “How would we classify Finland’s immigration and asylum policy? Thumbs up, or down?”