Tag: xenophobia

Sloppy Finnish journalism that plays into fearmongering and xenophobia

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Below, is one example of many of how media like the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) fuel racism and fear of asylum seekers in Finland. Asylum seekers and Muslims form a small part of Finland’s total immigration picture. Why do they give so much attention to them?

If the story is to look at each parties’ stand on migration, what is a woman with a niqab doing in the picture? The article calls it a burka but in fact, the woman is wearing a niqab.

By the way, how many women wear the niqab never mind the burka in Finland?

What would you call this type of reporting apart from shoddy, even opinionated journalism by YLE?

This type of reporting should not come as a surprise from the state-owned broadcaster since it has seen a lot of changes and meddling by politicians like Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset.*

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

* 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?”

The bad and good news after Sweden’s 2018 parliamentary elections

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is good and bad news after Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The bad news is that the far-right Sweden Democrat saw its support rise by 4.7 percentage points to 17.6% compared with the elections in 2014, according to Svenska Dagbladet. The good news – if it can be considered as such – is that the result was well below expectations. 

Writes The Local: “But the pre-election polls had clearly got into their [Sweden Democrats] heads: YouGov had them polling at 25 percent and becoming Sweden’s biggest party – the same YouGov that got the party right last time. Other pollsters said they’d adapted their methods and were better equipped this time to gauge the SD vote, with Ipsos and Demoskop for example putting them around the 18-19 percent mark. But who could really tell?”

Read the full story (in Swedish) here.

Certainly, Sunday’s election result will make Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s job difficult in forming a new government. The present situation may mean the Social Democrats forming a government with a right-wing party that would exclude the Sweden Democrats.

The fact that the Sweden Democrats became the country’s third-largest party – not second-largest, according to some polls – and that migration and crime took the front seat of the political debate, reveals something disturbing about the Nordic countries. Norway, Finland, and Denmark, whose far-right Danish People’s Party does not form government but supports it, all have seen the rise of the populist anti-immigration parties.

How is it possible that Nordic countries, which profess being the most liberal and which base their social policy on equality could be so xenophobic and Islamophobic?

Continue reading “The bad and good news after Sweden’s 2018 parliamentary elections”

(Migrant Tales 12.2.2017): Dear Sweden, don’t play ball with the Sweden Democrats – Finland is the best example of the disaster that awaits you

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Dear Sweden, 

In all of the Nordic region, we have seen far-right populist parties rise in this century with a hostile even vicious anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity agenda. Of all the Nordic countries, you are the only one in the Nordic region where populist anti-immigration parties have not formed directly or indirectly a part of government. 

A poll in November, however, showed a sharp rise of the far-right Sweden Democrats to 21.5% when compared with 12.9% it got in the 2014 parliamentary elections and not trailing too far behind the Social Democratic Party (25.7%) and Moderates (22%).

The Sweden Democrats are the third largest party today in the 349-seat Riksdagen (parliament) with 49 seats (12.9%) in 2014 compared with 20 seats (5.7%) they won in 2010.

In an analysis piece by Expo, an anti-racism and anti-fascism NGO in Sweden, they explained the rise of the Sweden Democrats in 2010 to the Riksdagen in the following words:

“The Sweden Democrats gain from presenting themselves as an alternative to the so-called establishment,” wrote Expo chairman Daniel Poohl. “The bloc politics that has marked the election campaign has turned the Sweden Democrats into a distinct third alternative, an underdog.”

Poohl continues to warn us in 2016 about the Sweden Democrats: “That’s where we come in. This is the white paper [stating that they aren’t a racist party and have no ties to fascism] that the Sweden Democrats would have to do, but will never be able to write. The racism found in the Sweden Democrats isn’t something that belongs to history but is a part of the party’s concept.”

Migrant Tales wrote the following letter to Sweden in june 2015 warning about the perils of playing ball with a populist party that loathes immigrants:

“Today, you, dear friend in Sweden, are the only country that can restore sanity to this part of Europe and effectively challenge this force that is undermining and threatening our Nordic values. We need you to hold out and show leadership, which has been shamefully lacking in the rest of our region.”

 

Read the full story here.

However, it looks like there is a tear in the cordon sanitaire that excluded the Sweden Democrats from Swedish mainstream politics. Anna Kingberg, the head of the Moderates, said that her right-wing conservative party would be ready to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats, according to Politico.

Continue reading “(Migrant Tales 12.2.2017): Dear Sweden, don’t play ball with the Sweden Democrats – Finland is the best example of the disaster that awaits you”

Finland’s speaker of parliament stokes the white Christian flames of “us” and “them”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Conservative National Coalition Party speaker of parliament, Paula Risikko, was quoted as saying in Senäjoki-based daily Ilkka that she is concerned about the role of Christians in Finland.

“Was it easier before to be religious,” she was quoted as asking in Keskisuomalainen. “For example, it’s not as easy today to bring one’s religious views at work. Christians are being pushed in a closet at the same time when other [religions] are coming out of the closet.”

From giving the thumbs up to far-right demonstrators, expressing ignorance that Finns are not only white, and her tough stand on asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, which she calls illegal immigrants and spreads fear, Risikko’s conservative views continue to insult minorities in this country.

Behind that smile and her Marimekko shirt, lies a sinister ideology that sees migrants, especially Muslims, as a threat to Finland. Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Certainly one reason for Risikko’s latest comment is the parliamentary elections of April 14, 2019, and the EU elections the following month. Does Risikko believe that stoking the flames of “us” and “them” will give short-term political gains?

Do her comments target Muslims and other minorities? Does it reveal her white fragility? Or are they a glimpse of how politicians in Finland continue to lurch towards cheap nationalism with the help of “us” and “them?”

All of the above stain Risikko. 

Finland’s ministry of the interior will (alas) launch an independent inquiry of Migri

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Conservative National Coalition Party Minister of the Interior Kai Mykkänen announced Friday that an independent inquiry of the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) will be launched, according to YLE. The minister said, however, that the independent inquiry should not be seen as a lack of trust in Migri’s work, which has had to process some 45,000 residence permit applications. 

Calls for an independent inquiry of Migri, which could be carried out by UNHCR, has the support of opposition parties like the Social Democrats, the Greens, and Swedish People’s Party as well as of NGOs like Amnesty International, Finnish Refugee Council, and the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman. 

Frank Johnson, the director of Finland’s Amnesty International chapter, welcomed the announcement by Mykkänen. He said that the independent inquiry, called for by Amnesty International, Finnish Refugee Council, and the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, was “a good decision.”

Read the original tweet here.

Even if Migri has processed 45,000 residence permits since 2015, when a record 32,477 asylum seekers mostly from Iraq, it does not let them off the hook and permit civil servants to make faulty decisions that impact people’s lives or their deaths in some cases.

Mykkäen said that “there is no evidence that suggests that Migri rejects asylum applications systematically.

Part of the of criticism of Migri is due to their interpretation that countries like Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated, and Iraq are “safe” to deport asylum seekers. 

Some believe that the large amount of rejections of asylum applications by Migri is politically influenced. Since 2015, the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which split into two factions in June 2017, was invited to form part of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government. This has fuelled a hostile environment for migrants in Finland. 

Prime Minister Sipilä’s government has tightened immigration laws like family reunification as well as other services  entitled previously to asylum seekers. 

* 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.

Brexit-inflicted UK is so racist that even white Europeans are targets of racism and rage

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It would be wrong to conclude that Brexit is the cause of the racism we are witnessing today in the United Kingdom. Surprised? Not really. What would you expect from a country that has a dark history in global domination, exploitation, and genocide? 

The common thinking of some people about the United Kingdom is that it was its divine right to colonize, enslave, exploit, pillage and commit genocide on a mass global scale. Britain is as much out of touch with its racism and bigotry as it is in acknowledging, apologizing and compensating its victims. 

The racism we are seeing today in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere is the same ogre that conquered and pillaged the world through the greed of colonization and slavery. 

Below is a story in metro.co.uk that highlights the illness facing Brexit-inflicted United Kingdom, where even white Europeans are targets of racism and rage. 

Read the full story here.

Thank you Patrick Yu for the heads-up.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: How anti-diversity and Islamophobic is Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

“One of the big denials that one still hears a lot in Finland is its denial of the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, an Islamophobic party that won 39 seats in the parliamentary elections of 2011 from just 5 MPs in previously. There was an ongoing debate after 2011 within the PS on what caused its historic election victory. Then party leader Timo Soini claimed it was anti-EU sentiment while its present leader, Jussi Halla-aho, claimed it was the PS’ Islamophobic stance. 

While it’s clear that the PS’ anti-Islam campaign rhetoric played a crucial role in 2011, one wonders how some 20% of the voters were receptive to Islamophobia and bigotry. The PS’ election victories in 2011 and 2015 are valid examples that Finland has serious issues with xenophobia and especially with Islamophobia. Unless we want future generations of Finns to learn how not to hate other cultures and ethnic backgrounds, we need a radically new definition of Finnish identity.

In that new definition, all religions, ethnic backgrounds, and cultures fit in that new identity.”

 

 A study on Europe’s most racist countries commissioned by the European Commission published in Fem Positive.

 

* 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.