xenophobia Archives - Page 32 of 92

The government of Juha Sipilä has failed with flying colors on its strategy to contain the rise of racism in Finland

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Migrant Tales

There has been an interesting debate on hate crime in Finland. If we’d believe the government, hate crime and racism in Finland are a far-right phenomenon and of a few racist hotheads.

Wrong.

The government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä is so much in dark and in denial about a social ill like racism that it actually believes that having a nationalist populist anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which bases its popularity on spreading ethnic hatred, in government, its lame stance on racism and tightening immigration laws have no consequences on rising hate crime in the country.

Wrong again.

We can conclude that the present strategy and stance on racism and cultural diversity of the government is an utter failure that promotes violence against migrants and minorities.

When the government’s anti-racism rhetoric is only air and when they tighten immigration policy they send the following message to Finns: These people aren’t worthy of dignity and are a threat to our country.

Måns Enqvist of the Finnish police service states in the YLE News story what we all know but don’t want to admit:

“Yes, it’s [hate crime] clearly on the rise,” Enqvist said. “And there are many reasons. Of course one reason is that the climate for discussion in Finland has changed. We are more likely to say anything at all. And that creates a foundation for moving from speech to action.”

A good example of the hypocrisy of the government concerning racism in Finland was the participation of Finance Minister and NCP Chairman Petteri Orpo and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s participation at September 24 Stop this game! demonstration against racism and fascism in Finland.

The following Monday it was business as usual. The government was accused of lowering social welfare to migrants by 10% when compared with Finnish citizens.

Read the full story here.

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UPDATE: Iraqi asylum seeker files charges against suspect who shot at him

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Migrant Tales

One of the two Iraqi asylum seekers, who was shot at twice with an air rifle by a white Finnish suspect Friday* in the Kemi neighborhood of Syväkangas, will file charges.

Due to language problems, a friend of the victim, who spoke better English than the victim, spoke to Migrant Tales. The victim was in the same room as the man who spoke to Migrant Tales by phone.

“My friend went today [1pm] to the police and they asked if he wanted to press charges,” the victim’s friend said. “He said yes. They asked how much money he’d be demanding from the suspect but he said he did not know and had to speak to a lawyer first.”

Just like on Saturday after the incident, the victim had to be accompanied home because there were three Soldiers of Odin members nearby that cussed at him.

“At the police station there were three Soldiers of Odin members waiting outside,” he said. “I don’t know what they want to do if they want to beat him up or kill him.”

The victim’s friend said that the police went to speak to the vigilante gang members.

“My friend says that every time he goes out of his home, the Soldiers of Odin follow him around,” he continued. “The police didn’t offer him any protection [from such gangs]. They just told him to call them if they bother him.”

If the latter is true, why aren’t the police doing anything to protect the victim and why isn’t there an outcry in the Finnish media about the actions of the vigilante gang? Why are they allowed to harass and intimidate the asylum seeker?

On Saturday, a white nearly 70-year-old Finnish man shot at two Iraqi asylum seekers in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. The victims weren’t hurt by the incident and called the police.

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Xenophobia and fearmongering are effective age-old control tools to keep the Finnish public in line and on a short leash

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Migrant Tales

One matter that some political parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* use constantly is the anti-immigration card to get votes and media attention. What can we say when a retired police service commissioner uses xenophobia and fear to boost book sales?

One important question that journalists should ask when covering a story is why did a certain piece of news become news at a particular time?

Retired Police Service Commissioner Mikko Paatero created quite a stir this week by claiming that asylum seekers in this country are secretly organizing and networking with criminal gangs.

Picking on asylum seekers is easy because they have no power. Paatero acts just like a bully at school.

One of the matters that surprised me about his statements was how much media attention they got.

Xenophobia and fearmongering go hand in hand. Our fear of the outside world in Finland has been an effective tool to control society and quell dissent. The name of Paatero’s book, “Faltering internal security,” spoonfeeds fear to the Finnish public. I don’t have to buy and read this book to understand what its message is.

Paatero’s book, “Sisäinen turvalisuus horjuu” (Faultering internal security), is political. He uses age-old social ills like xenophobia and fearmongering to keep the public on a short leash and to attack those that disagree with him. One of the messages of his book is to get more money for the police service because, according to him, insecurity and possible crime by asylum seekers, among others, are on the rise.

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Our new message to the world: Finland doesn’t like you so don’t even think of moving here!

Posted on September 2, 2016 by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä doesn’t like asylum seekers never mind cultural diversity. In the last few months, we’ve seen a tightening of immigration policy by the government, which sends out a clear message to would-be asylum seekers and migrants: Don’t even think of moving here!

Some may appear surprised by the government’s draconian and heartless measures that have far-reaching consequences for members of our ever-growing culturally diverse society.

When you do away with residence permits under humanitarian grounds, enact laws that make it virtually impossible to bring your family to the country and shorter appeal times for asylum seekers, you tell the world that all those nice things about being a tolerant country that respects human rights is a lie.

The message is clear: We don’t want you here – don’t even think of coming to this country!

Some very big questions that the latest law on shorter appeal periods is the right of asylum seekers to use lawyers when interviewed by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). Migrant Tales has heard that asylum seekers don’t have any longer the right to a paid lawyer at the Migri interview.

Imagine how difficult and complicated has Migri, with the blessings of the government, made life for asylum seekers in this country. Not only have they shortened the appeal periods but made legal help more expensive and complicated.

In Finland, it’s nothing strange that lawyers charge around 200 euros an hour for their services.

Read the full statement here.

There are countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and Argentina that have a rich history of how migrants built the country.

Continue reading “Our new message to the world: Finland doesn’t like you so don’t even think of moving here!”

Two words that shed light on what the Perussuomalaiset party is: racist bravado

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Migrant Tales

If there would be two words that define what the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is all about, it would racist bravado. By the way, the PS is no common racist party but a member of the government. It shares power with the Center Party and National Coalition Party, which usually look the other way when the PS has one of its racist fits.

These parties usually look the other way because they too have issues with racism among its ranks.

Disagree about my description of the PS?

PS MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, whose racist antics we’ve read during the past years, is one of many examples of the type of racist bravado that the populist anti-immigration party spreads.

Apart from the MP’s numerous posts, like gays, Swedish-speaking Finns and Somalis should be sent to the Åland Islands, Hakkarainen reveals his bravado in an interview with Kankaanpään Seutu, where he defies a possible sentence for hate speech.

Hakkarainen wrote in a Facebook posting that “all Muslims aren’t terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. Finland should not accept any Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to Finland,” according to him.

The PS MP is under investigation by the police for hate speech. His bravado is quite evident in Kankaanpään Seutu.

“Bring it on if I get sentenced [for hate speech]. I’ll take care of this in my own way,” he was quoted as saying. “Of course [one should follow the law]. But this [possible sentence for hate speech] is like a speeding ticket. Everything is today seen as hate speech.”

Hate speech is nothing more than a speeding ticket?

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Hakkarainen’s bravado not only shows how much disregard an MP of the PS has for cultural diversity, but how toothless the law is when it comes to challenging such a social ill.

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After targeting migrants and asylum seekers with tougher laws, Sipilä’s government now sets its eyes on Roma panhandlers

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Should we be surprised after the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä tightened immigration policy it is now targeting the Romany minority? If the government has its way, Finland will criminalize panhandling.

Sipiläs government, which comprises of the National Coalition Party (NCP) and anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is one of the most anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity governments in a long time.

The first question that such a draft law that would criminalize panhandling raises is why it is needed in the first place? Are Roma panhandlers from countries like Romania and Bulgaria such a problem?

PS MP Raimo Lehto believes so.

“Panhandling should be forbidden because it annoys and bothers Finnish citizens,” he said, “and they tell us that they should be taken off the street because they frighten certain people.”

Read and watch the full interview (in Finnish) here.

The new law, which specifically targets Roma from countries like Romania and Bulgaria, comes after the government passed laws that did away with residence permits under humanitarian grounds, tightened family reunification requirements and shortening appeal times for asylum seekers.

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The Finnish media’s “fascination” of racists is a problem

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Here’s a simple question: Why on earth does a newspaper like Etelä-Suomen Sanomat of Lahti even bother to publish a story about a handful of racists who demand that Finland shuts its borders to asylum seekers?

The answer to that question could shed a lot of light on how the media treats groups that are against our Nordic values, Constitution, and hostile to migrants and minorities.

One of the reasons why the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party saw a rapid rise in the 2008 municipal and especially in the 2011 parliamentary elections was, unfortunately, media fascination over the new “party on the block,” which was overtly anti-EU, anti-migration and especially anti-Islam.

When you ask some analysts why a party like the PS attracted so much interest, you’ll usually get a typical white Finnish answer: They were an option to voter skepticism of traditional parties. If so, why does this skepticism target migrants and encourages politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari, Juho Eerola and many others to be hostile racists on steroids?

Read full story here.

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Finnish interior ministry report: violence against migrants hasn’t grown significantly in 2015

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish ministry of the interior reported in a statement Monday that there hasn’t been a spike in violence last year perpetrated by extremist groups despite some 32,500 asylum seekers that came to the country in 2015. The ministry cites Sweden and Germany as countries where violence against migrants committed by extremist groups have apparently grown.

The report claims that violence by extremist groups like the neo-Nazi Kansalinen Vastarinta and others hasn’t risen in “a significant way” in the face of a high number of asylum seekers.

“The number of suspected crimes reported to the police due to the crimes committed by extremist groups didn’t, however, rise in 2015,” ministry of the interior head of development, Tarja Mankkinen, was quoted as saying in a statement. “Even so, right-wing extremism and ant-immigration movements have become more prominent [in Finland] and the [anti-immigration] atmosphere has worsened.”

Read full statement (in Finnish) here.

There are a couple of things that we should keep in mind concerning the report, which we should study critically.

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Asylum seekers’ rights in Finland to appeal will be severely undermined thanks to a new law that will come into force on September 1

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Migrant Tales

President Sauli Niinistö, who has done little to challenge xenophobia in Finland because he is eyeing a second term, will sign Friday a new law that will shorten from 30 days to 21 the rights of asylum seekers to appeal negative residence permit decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).

Apart from cutting down on the right of asylum seekers to appeal negative decisions by Migri, conditions to appeal to the supreme administrative court will become stricter as well.

This cartoon by Ville Ranta pictures well how the government sees asylum seekers. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä says, “Will you stop squirting us [with blood]?” Source: Valomerkki.

Last year, 32,478 asylum seekers sought asylum in Finland but their numbers in 2016 have fallen significantly due to an EU agreement with Turkey to stop new migrants from coming to Europe.

If you are looking for complex answers why the present government, which comprises of the Center Party, National Coalition Party (NCP) and Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, wants to tighten immigration policy look no further because the answer is right under your nose.

When I speak to asylum seekers in Finland, I try to be as candidly as possible with them.

I apologize for telling you this, I usually say, but we have an anti-immigration government that doesn’t like you and wants you out of this country no matter what.

Some may blame the PS for the government’s hardline stance on migrants and cultural diversity, but in truth the PS’ partners in government, the Center Party and NCP, are no different. Aren’t they drafting and voting in favor of such laws?

Migrant Tales considers Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government as one of the most hostile ever to migrants. For certain since 1983, when Finland passed its first-ever aliens’ act, it is the most hostile government to asylum seekers and migrants.

The measures that the present government is taking to water down the rights of asylum seeker and migrants is shameful because it means “interpreting creatively” our international agreements and Section 6 of the Constitution, which guarantees that everyone, irrespective of his or her background, is equal before the law.

The reason why Finland is passing draconian laws against asylum seekers, migrants and minorities in this country is because it has serious issues with diversity.

Finland is happy if it can remain an island in Europe.

Continue reading “Asylum seekers’ rights in Finland to appeal will be severely undermined thanks to a new law that will come into force on September 1”

Not even a xenophobic lifesaver can save the Perussuomalaiset from sinking in the polls

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Support for the anti-immigration populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has hit a new all-time low of 7.6%, according to the latest poll by YLE, according to YLE News. The poor showing of the party reveals that its strategy to target and increase attacks against migrants, asylum seekers and minorities in July has badly backfired.

PS politicians like MP Teuvo Hakkarainen and PS youth leader Sebastian Tynkkynen are under police investigation for ethnic agitation.

Hakkarainen said right after the Nice killings in mid-July that Finland should close the door to migrants from the Middle East and Africa. Tynkkynen parroted what Hakkarainen said.

“We’ve got to stop pussyfooting,” said Hakkarainen on his Facebook wall. “Muslims out of this country! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. We shouldn’t accept Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to our country.”

Below is a long list of news stories published in Migrant Tales about how the PS attacked in July migrants in this country.

Read full story here.

With more voters turning their backs to the PS, one may ask what the populist party gave Finland during its eight-year stint as one of the biggest parties in Finland.

Continue reading “Not even a xenophobic lifesaver can save the Perussuomalaiset from sinking in the polls”