Tag: xenophobia

Finland’s about-turn in immigration and asylum policy reveal populism and suspicion

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There is an interesting article in newsmagazine Suomen Kuvalehti that claims that before Finland gave 85% of asylum seekers a positive decision today it’s almost the opposite. 

The article quotes National Coalition Party (NCP) Interior Minister Paula Risikko, who claims that Finland’s hardline stance is the same as Sweden’s and no different from the EU concerning Iraqis.

“It [refugee policy] isn’t [different], on the contrary,” she was quoted as saying in Suomen Kuvalehti. “Finland gives its support to the commission to renew [and implement] a common a common refugee policy [for the EU]. The aim is to prevent abuse of the asylum procedure and to counter the ongoing illegal movement of asylum seekers from country to country and harmonize policy on this.”

If we study closer Risikko’s statement, it’s clear that it has nothing to do with reality but is purely political and based on suspicion of Iraqis, the biggest national group that came to Finland from fall 2015.

Moreover, her suspicion isn’t only seen in her statement but in the harsh laws that the government has proposed and passed that tighten immigration and refugee policy.

Read full story here.

One good matter that asylum seekers have given Finland is that they have exposed our ineffective immigration and integration policy as well as our exceptionalism and denial of racism.

Continue reading “Finland’s about-turn in immigration and asylum policy reveal populism and suspicion”

Finland’s ever-growing crisis of undocumented migrants is the government’s and Social Democratic Party’s doing

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Thanks to the 107 MPs listed below that voted on April 13 to approve law 2/2016 that did away with granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds, Finland faces today an unprecedented rise of undocumented migrants.

According to various estimates, the number of undocumented migrants is seen rising from a few hundred to thousands, even by as many as tens of thousands.

Prior to scrapping residence permits on humanitarian grounds, an asylum seeker who got a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) was granted a temporary residence permit if there wasn’t a repatriation between Finland and his country.

Law 2/2016 is poorly thought-out and is an example of how populism and xenophobia are guiding the government by the leash when it comes to immigration policy. Thus Finland’s immigration policy doesn’t hinge on whether countries like Iraq are safe or not, but on anti-immigration politics.

I am astounded many times to watch officials of the Migri, politicians who are interviewed by complacent journalists state that these people only came to Europe to search for a better life.

So?! Is it is a crime to flee a failed state like Iraq embroiled in violence and search for a better life in Europe?

Anti-immigration rhetoric in Finland has become so extreme that we label whole groups for fleeing countries that we destroyed directly and indirectly in the first place.

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Am I surprised that Finnish fiction sees migrants as unhappy victims? Not!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Researcher Pasi Saukkonen tells us in a YLE story that “not one content immigrant is found in Finnish fiction.” One may ask how come?  The answer, in my opinion, is simple: It’s a white Finnish view, their prejudices and the narrative they want to give of Others. 

The fact that there isn’t “a single content migrant” reflects, in my opinion, the xenophobic attitudes, exceptionalism, and outright denial of Others from being treated as equal members of society.

White Finnish authors cited in the article write about migrants through the lens of exceptionalism and white Finnish privilege.

Entitlement gives, in these cases, the power to construct social narratives based on the writer’s prejudices. and ignorance.

There are many countries where immigration is seen as something positive. In Finland, however, it is seen as something negative, especially if those people are Muslims or dark-skinned.

Am I surprised why migrants never enjoy a good ending in fiction?

Not at all. It’s only another indication of Finland’s suspicion of Others.

Why migrants and minorities in Finland continue to suffer from discrimination and social inequality

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Entitlement and denial are some of the reasons why respect for cultural diversity and treating Others in Finnish society as equals faulters. There is too much lip service like “we’re against racism” but few deeds to give such a powerful statement life and meaning. 

Entitlement reinforces denial. It permits the majority to have its racist cake and eat it.

There’s no way that we’ll have too many listeners to our anti-racism cause as long as entitlement and denial play a central role in how the majority views and treats minorities.

It’s pretty simple: How can I, a member of the minority, tell the majority, which has entitlement and power, that it should give up its privileges so I could be treated and compete on the same level as he or she? How can I convince public officials and politicians to put into action those “we’re against racism” catchphrases?

Worse yet is that we have members of our culturally diverse community that are mouthpieces of the majority or mamu-setäs (Finnish Uncle Toms).

If we look at countries like the United States, the Civil Rights Movement (1955-68) and its most illustrious leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. show us that the only way you are going to change things is through a social movement.

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Here we go again with the anti-immigration rhetoric – it’s election time in Finland!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Here we go again, folks, it’s election time in April 2017 in Finland. The populist-nationalist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is picking up its hostile attacks against migrants, minorities and our ever-growing and proud culturally diverse community. Their allies in these attacks are their government partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP). 

You may rightly ask how it is possible for a government party like the PS to freely target our community with hostile and vengeful attacks? How is it possible that mainstream parties like the Center Party and NCP, which should know better, are near-silent to the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric?

Even opposition voices like the Social Democrats, which use catchphrases like “we’re against racism,” it’s unclear how seriously the party wants to challenge structural racism and greater inclusion of migrants in the labor market.

You may ask how we have arrived at to this terrible juncture. The answer is simple: Too few people in this country care or believe in our Nordic rights that promote social inclusion and social equality.

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A small far-right Suomi ensin! demonstration again and the media cherishes a story

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Suomi ensin! (Finland first!) is a far-right group that goes to different places in Finland to stir up anti-immigration sentiment and hatred for migrants. Even if their demonstrations attract few people, they get a lot of attention in the national media. On Saturday afternoon their demonstration attracted 300* people to the eastern Helsinki neighborhood of Itäkeskus to listen to their xenophobic rhetoric. 

One of the matters that the Suomi ensin! demonstrators complained about was too many foreigners at public swimming halls, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The demonstrators didn’t lose the chance to warn listeners about Islamization and how the government’s immigration policy is synonymous to treason.

Suomi ensin! calls itself a nationalistic movement, which is code for fascism.

Taking into account how this group pesters and antagonizes migrants in Finland,  what would happen if a group of visible migrants went in front of the Perussuomalaiset* party’s headquarters and demonstrated in the same manner and make the same outrageous claims?

Ever wonder what kind of a media storm that would create? We doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in such a neutral manner as

We seriously doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in the same neutral news story manner as Helsingin Sanomat did with Suomi ensin today!

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Today’s demonstration at Itäkeskus. Note the two skinheads on the right. Photo by Migrant Tales reporter.

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The disgraceful stand of the government towards undocumented migrants in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Winter is rapidly approaching and Interior Minister Paula Risikko isn’t too enthused about the idea that the Evangelical Lutheran Church wants to give housing to undocumented migrants, according to YLE.

As everyone knows, the rapid rise of  undocumented migrants in Finland is the government’s own doing since it voted in spring to scrap granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

One of the direct impacts of the new law was that undocumented migrants in Finland would surge from a few hundred to thousands, according to various estimates.

One of the surprising matters about the whole issue is that it is purely political and originates in an anti-immigration party called the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which shares power in government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP).

It is a good matter that the Evangelical Lutheran Church has not been swayed by the government’s anti-immigration populist rhetoric and taken a stand against leaving undocumented migrants to their own fates as permanent secretary of the interior ministry, Päivi Nerg, recently suggested.

Nerg was quoted as saying in Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen that no emergency accommodation should be given to these migrants because “it would send the wrong message.”

What, Nerg, is the “right message?” Let these people freeze and die outdoors?

Comments like the above, and many others, show us that we should not give the government and politicians the benefit of the doubt when it comes to immigration policy and handling undocumented migrants since most of them are driven by suspicion and opportunism against cultural diversity.

Disagree?

What did the youth leader of the PS, Sebastian Tynkyynen, suggest what should be done to these “migrants who stay illegally?” He stated that they should be interned in closely guarded camps in the forest, where they’d live in tents apparently in subzero temperatures.

Tynkkynen belongs to the PS, which is in government, but nobody in his xenophobic party never mind in the Center Party and NCP have any objections to what he said.

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Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Even if the PS is the last party that doesn’t have a clue how to treat migrants in Finland fairly because they are driven by bigotry, anti-cultural diversity, and racism, it is disappointing to note the silence coming from the government in the face of this rhetoric.

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Defining white Finnish privilege #31: The Solidiers of Odin and the Finnish media

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Soldiers of Odin are a vigilante group that hate asylum seekers and are white Finnish supremacists. One Facebook post on their page outlined a while back the aim of the vigilante group: “We are a patriotic group struggling for a white Finland.”

The Soldiers of Odin have omitted such a statement from their Facebook page for obvious reasons since it’s racist.

If we look at their Facebook page today under “about” we don’t find any information about any white supremacist rhetoric. On the contrary. The vigilante group claims today “to protect people, especially women, from criminal immigrants, but also ‘to help everyone regardless of their ethnic background.’”

Whatever the group claims, it is a white Finnish supremacist vigilante group that has changed its racist rhetoric to code.

I highly doubt that there are any visible minorities, never mind asylum seekers, who walk around with them patrolling streets.

Even so, it’s incredible how much fascination the national media continues to have for this vigilante group. We’d be grateful at Migrant Tales if we got a fraction of the media attention that the vigilante group gets.

The interesting question to ask is why a white supremacist group like the Soldiers of Odin gets media attention and why we don’t.

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Will Donald Trump breathe new life into a doomed party called the Perussuomalaiset?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Donald Trump’s election victory this week has emboldened our own group of populists, racists, and bigots in Finland who pray what happened in the United States will breathe new life into a political disaster called the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. There are many reasons why copying and pasting populist rhetoric in the United States won’t work in Finland. 

One important reason is that Finland is not the United States and visible migrants and minorities aren’t posing a threat to white privilege.

We are not a country made up of recent immigrants but of emigrants.

Those visible minorities targeted by parties like the PS account for about 10% of all migrants in Finland, which is small. The number of foreigners living in Finland is about 4%.

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The article in the New York Times raises an important point. Read the full article here.

The whole debate, therefore, about visible migrants and minorities being a threat in Finland is in many respects a storm in a teacup fabricated by parties like the PS.

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November 9, 2016: “A date that will live in infamy”

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It looks like Donald Trump is heading for an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential elections, according to the New York Times. 

A friend in California asked me a few weeks ago what would happen if Trump was elected US president. I told him that the demise of the United States as a world power would speed up. We are living in difficult times.

When will Trump build his infamous wall with Mexico? What about banning Muslims from the US? How many women will he grab by the genitals? How much racism and bigotry will he unleash in Europe on top of the racism and bigotry that we’ve seen already?

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Read the full story here.

A saying filled us with hope when Argentina was ruled by tinpot dictators in the 1960s and 1970s: No evil lasts a hundred years, or no hay mal que dure cien años.

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