xenophobia Archives - Page 10 of 92

Espoo Perussuomalaiset councilperson reveals his and party’s ignorance of migrants

Posted on September 11, 2023September 11, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Hannu Järvinen is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* councilperson from the city of Espoo. One of his big pastimes is speaking badly of immigrants. Like many of his party, xenophobic and especially Islamophobic opinions are his pet topics.

His advice will scare away people from Finland than keep them here.

Järvinen’s solution for migrants: “When you move to live in Finland, you have to learn the language, respect our ways of life and values as well as work for the good of Finland.
When you move to Finland, you have to become like a Finn.

While such requests appear outrageous because they have nothing to do with Finland’s official integration program, too many like Järvinen think like him.

In Finland, over 1.2 million people emigrated mainly to North America and Sweden before and after World War 2, respectively, during 1860-1999.

My tweet to Järvinen: “Your point of view shows me that you don’t know anything about immigration. Did you mean that we are supposed to throw away our culture? Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Finns that have moved away from this country.

Here is a good video that shows what Järvinen means and how it is supposed to happen in real life. In the movie Pane e Cioccolata, an Italian migrant becomes Swiss by dying his hair and rooting for the team that is playing against Italy.

When Italy scores, he can no longer hold his joy.

The anti-racism statement has little to do with eradicating the social ill in Finland but all to do with saving the government’s skin

Posted on September 2, 2023September 2, 2023 by Migrant Tales

One of the facts about the government’s anti-racism statement is that it has more to do with injecting trust in a government after it was hit by a string of racism and far-right scandals in the summer. At least for the time being, the statement succeeded at keeping the government from dissolving after the Swedish People’s Party gave it the thumbs up.

The statement also exposes the magic abilities and wishful thinking of the government: the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* isn’t a far-right party; politicians with problematic racist backgrounds are appointed ministers and with the wave of a wand, their racism instantly white-cleaned.

Read the full government anti-racism statement here.

While there was nothing new in the statement except for criminalizing Holocaust denial, Nazi and Communist flags, it was a rehashing of what the government is obliged to do to protect the rights of all people in Finland irrespective of their background.

The statement would have never been drafted if it weren’t for the scandals that the government underwent.

The statement highlights, however, the ongoing problem of racism in Finland: We acknowledge the social ill’s existence but are not willing to challenge it head on.

Media Monitoring Group of Finland:* In the face of rising far-right nationalism, Yle publishes (again) a story about youths who hate foreigners

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

Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) published Saturday a story about two far-right youths belonging to the openly fascist and racist Blue-and-Black Movement (Sinimusta liike), and one to Suomen Sisu, which the authorities named in 2011 as “a Nazi-spirited association.” Thanks to the Yle article, the reader can read how much these so-called “radical nationalists” hate migrants.

Pyry-Lii Soinio is a twenty-two-year member of the Blue-and-Black Movement. He does not hide his loathing for outsiders. “I don’t think immigration should be restricted,” he said, “but [foreign] people should be deported altogether. I don’t care whether immigrants are good citizens or taxpayers. What matters to me is whether they are Finns.”

This is the third article that Yle has published on far-right members in the last three years. The first one was in 2019 by TV host Sean Ricks on far-right youths, followed by Suomineito in 2022.

Both stories received their fair share of criticism.

Yle defended its decision to air Suomineito.

Unequal social welfare for forigners: The wettest dream of the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party

Posted on August 22, 2023August 22, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Plans to pay migrants less social welfare planned by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government are a wet dream that spans back to 2016, when then Social and Health Minister Hanna Mantylä aimed to pass legislation that would grant migrants less social welfare than native Finns. Fortunately, such a law did not see the light of day since it was unconstitutional.

The unconstitutionality of such a law rests on Section 6 of the Constitution: “Everyone is equal before the law. No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age, origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person.”

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Thus, if you are going to pay less social welfare to a group, the measure must apply to everyone in order for it to be constitutional.

Efforts to get foreigners to get less social welfare than native Finns, was brought up again in 2018 by Finland’s Nobel Prize in economics, Bengt Holmström. He said that white Finns must not share power and privileges with migrants and their children. In other words, they should get lower salaries and social security benefits so that it does not irritate Finns.

According to Statistics Finland’s Working Paper series published in 2014, Finland is no land of opportunity for migrants, according to Pekka Myrskylä. He claims that the employment level of Estonians and Thai citizens matches that of white Finns. The majority of migrants, however, live in poverty in Finland because they make less money, according to him.

I have tweeted to Riikka Purra about her suggestion not to pay social welfare to foreigners. My question to her was: If social welfare is left to a minunum, does it mean that foreigners have to pay taxes?

Surprisngly, she did not respond to my tweet.

National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma is another politician who has been hellbent that migrants should be paid less social welfare.
Continue reading “Unequal social welfare for forigners: The wettest dream of the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party”

Shame on you if you are a Finnish politician and don’t know what racism is!

Posted on August 21, 2023August 21, 2023 by Migrant Tales

One clear aspect of Finland’s heated debate about racism is how politicians, especially from the Perussuoomalaiset (PS) party, claim ignorance about what racism is. PS MP Joakim Vigelius went as far as to claim that the term “racism” has suffered from inflation.

I wonder if victims of racism and microaggression feel the same way.

As can be seen with Vigelius’ view of racism, it is always a white person setting the narrative and definitions about such a social ill.

Another politician, MP Jani Mäkelä, the head of the PS parliamentary group, said in Helsingin Sanomat that other groups define the term to fit their political needs.

“They take this term, arbitrarily define its content according to their own definition,” he said.

One of the most unusual comments that Mäkelä made to Helsingin Sanomat was his definition of racism. According to him, the law protects the individual from discrimination but this cannot apply to immigration policy, cultural and national groups.

He said that cultures, where women and sexual minorities are treated badly, cannot be considered equal to Finnish culture.

“Such a culture should be seen as inferior if it treats people like that,” added Mäkelä.

In other words, Finnish law protects individual rights against discrimination but it isn’t racist to speak demeaningly of groups like Muslims.

As one navigates through the denials and smoke screens from politicians about racism, it’s easy to understand that such tactics aim to deceive.

Some friendly advice: If you have difficulty figuring out what is racism, ask and do some research. That is how we did it in California: one can achieve a lot with the help of cultural sensitivity and the willingness to learn.

Unless you have lived isolated from people, there is no reason why you should blame ignorance on your racism.

Another piece of advice: if you want people to treat you with respect, then you should treat them with respect, too.

PM Petteri Opro: “There is nothing racist or discriminatory in the government program”

Posted on August 18, 2023August 18, 2023 by Migrant Tales

And that is not all that Orpo said in Helsingin Sanomat: “We are doing everything in our power to eradicate racism and discrimination,” he continued, “We are doing more [on this front] than any government before us.”

In light of the scandals that have rocked Orpo’s government from the start, there appear to be an endless amount of denial in the face of a chronic loss of credibility of the government.

Source: Twitter

Fomer Prime Minister Sanna Marin warned that Orpo’s government is ready to “erode the fundamental values of a democratic society.”

Finland is a country that has lost its way and where democracy is now under threat

Posted on August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 by Migrant Tales

There are a number of worrying signs that Finland’s democracy and social welfare state are under threat. The threat does not come from abroad but from inside Finland thanks to the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and National Coalition Party (Kokoomus).

Apart from disenfranchising migrants with strict laws that will make life harder for the country’s most vulnerable groups, Petteri Orpo’s government plans to weaken labor laws like the right to strike, and even the PS has been accused recently of trying to censor the media.

Lauri Nurmi wrote “The Unofficial Biography of Jussi Halla-aho in 2020. He claims in an Iltalehti editorial that the PS has made a dangerous move by trying to censor the media. Source: Iltalehti

Nurmi writes: “The [PS congress] invitation to the media ends with a special request: ‘We appeal to all the editors to please leave the archaeological political hacking in your offices coat racks and focus on the decisions made at our congress and political policies.’
The Perussuomalaiset [party] is trying to censor the media and limit what questions they can ask [at the congress]. The invitation from the PS could be seen as obstructive. The demand by it is unprecedented and dangerous in Finnish political journalism, but the reason for making [such a request] is obvious.”

It’s clear that the party is not happy with the scandals originating from racist and far-right posts by ministers like Riikka Purra, Wille Rydman and Vilhelm Junnila, who was forced to resign. Instead of blaming themselves, they place the blame on the media.

Moreover, the government plans to weaken worker rights and unions and take away basic health care from undocumented pregnant women and their children.

Inhumane would be a too weak word to describe the new government’s policies.

Let’s test your level of naivety: Is Finland finally awakening to its “r” problem?

Posted on July 16, 2023July 16, 2023 by Migrant Tales

It would be wrong to just blame the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* for Finland’s racism problem. The rise of the PS after the 2011 election would not have been possible without the direct and indirect support of other political parties, the media, and the public.

When results of the 2011 election started to appear on television screens, which placed the PS in the major political leagues after 39 MPs were elected versus five previously, a perilous watershed was crossed. Back then, Migrant Tales was one of the few voices in Finland warning about the rise of the PS.

My concern was even heard by Time Magazine.

But let’s go to the original question in the headline: Are we waking up to our country’s racism problem?

As mentioned, it would be misleading to just blame the PS for the growth of this problem.

Finland’s racism problem, which is a pretty serious social ill, has grown thanks to denial and playing down the problem. If Riikka Purra’s writing was concerning, they will be small fries when compared with the hostility our culturally diverse communities will endure when we grow bigger and demand our rights and public spaces, which rightfully belong to us, too.

Weak leadership and denial of your coalition partner’s far-right and racist history are a recipe for disaster

Posted on July 7, 2023July 7, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Petteri Orban, Finland’s international image has suffered a devastating blow. In a matter of over two weeks, the country’s reputation has swung from having a forward-looking and charismatic prime minister like Sanna Marin to one that denies and wants to do business with a radical-right party.

The government has been rocked by scandals and the source of these scandals is none other than the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. Far-right conspiracy theories, ministers with shady far-right backgrounds like with the case of Vilhelm Junnila, inappropriate relations with minors, and malicious targeting of journalists by MPs, among many other issues.

The opinion piece by Helsingin Sanomat journalist brings some good points on why the media has been blind to what numerous PS politicians who publish regularly far-right and racist posts on social media. The opinion piece sheds light on the daily’s blind spot of racism and the far-right. Source: Helsingin Sanomat

The latest snub to the embattled prime minister was the naming of Wille Rydman as the replacement for Junnila, the former minister for economic cooperation.

Rydman, who has built his political career on racism and hard-right talking points, quit the National Coalition Party (NCP) and joined the PS months after Helsingin Sanomat revealed his inappropriate relationship with minors. No charges were brought against Rydman, although the case left him scarred and embittered.

If the government’s example is anything to go by, one can be named minister as was with the case with Junnila despite having a long history of posting far right, neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic posts. With Rydman, you can attack and call on social media lynch mobs to attack journalists like Ida Erämaa and the next week be appointed minister.

Not only have all these scandals and revelations made NCP Prime Minister Petteri Orpo look weak and vulnerable, they have robbed his government of the most important resource: credibility.

Neo-Nazi and racist sympathies will help you go far in Finnish politics

Posted on June 26, 2023June 27, 2023 by Migrant Tales

Finland’s most right-wing government since the 1930s was hit by controversy on its first day Tuesday due to its links with neo-Nazis, the far-right, and unapologetic racist blog posts.

One of the epicenters of the scandal is Minister of Economic Affairs Vilhelm Junnila, whose neo-Nazi and white supremacist sympathies are readily seen through a trail of evidence.

Apart from taking part in a rally organized by far-right groups, Junnila congratulated in 2019 a Peerussuomalaiset (PS)* candidate for receiving the 88 election number. “First of all, congratulations on an excellent election number,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel. “I know it’s a winning card.”

As everyone knows, 88 is code used by neo-Nazis to mean “Heil Hitler,” or “HH.”

It is odd why Junnila now apologizes for such inappropriate behavior by stating on Twitter that “I condemn holocaust, antisemitism and all anti-Semitic acts completely.”

Sorry, but Junnila’s about-face apology is BS served on a platter.

(From top left to right) Junnila visiting the United States and posing with Confederate General Robert E. Lee suggesting white supremacist sympathies. Wearing a Donald Trump MAGA (Make America Great Again) cap with former PS MP Veikko Vallin. Junnila giving a speech at a far-right rally in Turku in 2019.