Tag: xenophobia

Brexit: Stoke the fires of natonalism and you’ll get burned

Posted on by Migrant Tales

After the United Kingdom decided Thursday to exit from the European Union, the question remains: why?

In many respects, the answer to that question is a similar one that you hear in some European countries why such-and-such country has seen the political rise of populist anti-immigration party.

Finland is a good example of the latter. The populist anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* won 5 seats in the 2007 parliamentary elections. Four years later that number rose to 39 seats.

Nationalism and ultranatonalism, is one of the worst social ills inflicting Europe today. Speech that divides and incites nationalism has its consequences as we saw Thursday in the United Kingdom.

One of the questions we should be asking today is what is the United Kingdom’s and the Tory party’s end game after Brexit. It shouldn’t surprise us that they are probably in the dark about where their nationalism will take them.

Are they going to eat their imagined take-Britain-back nationalism at the table or what?

There is one matter for certain this week: Thursday’s referendum will not only impact Europe but especially the United Kingdom economically. It will fuel as well social ills like Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia and many other social ills that socially exclude minorities.

And for what? So that Prime Minister David Cameron gambled to unite his party and lost big time?

What can we learn one important lesson from Brexit? Don’t stoke the fires of nationalism because you’ll get burned.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

PS MP Tolppanen’s defection to the SDP is a good example that racism in Finland is still a debate between white people

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A lot of people were surprised Wednesday to hear that former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Maria Tolppanen, who has made some pretty racist statements in the past, has defected to the Social Democrats (SDP). 

There are two matters that are extremely disappointing and shed light on Finland’s ongoing issues with racism: It’s still a discussion between white Finns who aren’t directly affected by it.

Since the racism issue in Finland is a debate between white people, it’s clear that the social ill isn’t treated seriously. There is a lot of lip service and empty claims that “we’re against racism” that don’t mean much.

In one move, the leader of the SDP, Antti Rinne, also given a serious blow to the party’s credibility on anti-racism issues.

Tolppanen’s defection is a good example as well of the former PS MP’s opportunism and her moral caliber. It also exposes, as we have seen in the polls, that the PS is a sinking ship.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-22 kello 14.16.17

Read full story here.

I wonder what SDP MP Nasima Razmyar thinks about the defection.

Will the media even care to ask her opinion about the matter?

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

We have the means to challenge and beat xenophobia and fascism in today’s Europe

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if we should be concerned about the rise of xenophobia and fascism, which disguises itself with populist anti-immigration rhetoric in Europe, there’s one matter that should worry us the most: silence and apathy.

Tomorrow, the referendum in the United Kingdom on whether to stay in the European Union isn’t only a vote for or against but on how much space Britons will give to anti-immigration rhetoric and demagoguery.

Throughout Europe, we have seen countless examples in Hungary, Denmark, Poland, United Kingdom, Finland and others of how xenophobia and creeping fascism have challenged our values for a culturally diverse, socially equal and just Europe.

When challenging the very forces that aim to take us back to an all-white Europe that only existed in rhetoric and myth, it’s important to keep in mind that size doesn’t matter.

The most powerful weapon that we have as activists is our sense of social justice and our never-ending dedication to challenge the very matters that populists and fascists don’t want the public to know about their ugly truth.

Latin America has seen its fair share of social injustice and violence. In Argentina, where I was born, we lived through one of the bloodiest dictatorships  in our history during the so-called dirty war (1976-83) era. Back then, it was relatively easy for a military dictatorship to shut the country off from the outside world; landline phones didn’t work, censorship and self-censorship were rampant.

Continue reading “We have the means to challenge and beat xenophobia and fascism in today’s Europe”

Oikeus elää – A Right to live ???? ????? demonstration tomorrow at 4:00 pm in Helsinki (Narikkantori, Kamppi)

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finnish government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has done everything possible to make asylum seekers feel unwelcome in Finland. On Friday, they tightened family reunification guidelines and recently did away with giving residence permits on humanitarian grounds. 

The new family reunification law makes it virtually impossible for an asylum seeker who gets a residence permit to bring his or her family from abroad.

Asylum seekers and Finns will demonstrate against an assessment by the government that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are safe to return asylum seekers.

“We hope the government will change the decision [on Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia],” said an Iraqi asylum seeker who plans to attend Monday’s demonstration. “We didn’t come to Finland to live off your social welfare.”  

What is grotesque about the new law is that the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, with the support of their government partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP), want to reassure their voters that they are as xenophobic as before even if their support in the polls has plummeted. 

The Center Party and NCP have struck a deal with the PS:  You have carte blanche to spread anti-immigration rhetoric and we’ll support the tightening of immigration policy as long as you support our massive budget cuts, which will hit pensioners, low-income and middle-class families.

After Sipilä’s government laid thorns on the path of asylum seekers in Finland, there is one matter that they can’t do anything about: Extinguish their hope.

That’s why tomorrow’s demonstration at 4:00pm in Helsinki (Kamppi) is one of the last chances that asylum seekers and concerned Finns have to show that they won’t be bullied by one of the country’s most anti-immigration governments seen in a long time.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-20 kello 0.03.24

Visit Facebook site here.

Continue reading “Oikeus elää – A Right to live ???? ????? demonstration tomorrow at 4:00 pm in Helsinki (Narikkantori, Kamppi)”

Finland tightens family reunification laws and denies migrants the right to a family

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finnish parliament didn’t vote Friday to tighten even further family reunification guidelines but effectively socially excluded and relegated migrants, especially asylum seekers, to second- and third-class citizens. The news ironically coincides with the death of former Rural Party MP Sulo Aittoniemi (1936-2016), an advocate against refugees and cultural diversity. 

Article 16 of the Human Rights Charter guarantees protection to families:

Article 16.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

And then there’s Section 6 of the Finnish Constitution that states: Everyone is equal before the law.

Are migrants, specifically asylum seekers that get a residence permit, equal before the law?

Certainly not since they don’t have a right to live with their families in Finland.

Is it a coincidence that Aittoniemi, who served as MP between 1987 and 2003, passed away on this dark day for migrants with families? 

Aittoniemi’s views and scorn for refugees, cultural diversity, and gays were well known.

In one comment in 1989 he vowed that “we won’t allow refugees to walk over us!” according to YLE. 

Social Democrat MEP Liisa Jakkosaari  once called Aittoniemi “a demagogue and charlatan” after he claimed that refugees that come to Finland only do so for economic reasons.  

Taking into account Aittoniemi’s views of migrants, it is surprising the Helsingin Sanomat does mention the former MP’s issues with gays but not a word about his racist views and stands.

If parliament showed in one vote how it loathes migrants and their human rights, the Helsingin Sanomat article showed how much the media denies a social illness like racism.

When some asylum seekers ask me why a country like Finland, which they thought respects human rights, tightens its family reunification law, my answer to them is simple and straightforward: We have one of the most anti-immigration governments in a long time. They tightened family reunification guidelines because they don’t want you in this country.

The new family reunification law means in effect that it will be virtually impossible for asylum seekers to bring their families here if they get a residence permit.

After an asylum seeker has his residence permit, he or she has three months to apply for family reunification. In order to be eligible, the person has to make 2,600 euros/month after taxes in order to bring his spouse and two children.

According to Pekka Myrskylä, a Statistics Finland researcher, only 20% of Finns make that amount of money today.

“What’s the point of getting a residence permit when they make it impossible for you to bring your family to this country?” said a disappointed Iraqi asylum seeker.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-18 kello 0.47.59

Read full story here.

Continue reading “Finland tightens family reunification laws and denies migrants the right to a family”

MP Jo Cox’s death revealed and reminded how important our struggle against barbarism is

Posted on by Migrant Tales

On Thursday, we heard about the tragic killing of Labor MP Jo Cox, which was a stark reminder of the things she warned us about like hate speech, racism and outright hostility towards migrants and minorities. All we can do when such a heinous act gives us and our democratic institutions a blow is to stand strong. 

Cox death reveals in naked reality where Europe is failing and how it wants to correct its failure with violence. The brutality and bloodshed we are witnessing on European soil also involves the hundred of thousands of asylum seekers who have fled strife to only be given the cold shoulder by the European Union as was the deal with Turkey.

A paragraph in The Guardian sheds light on Cox’s death below.

“The idealism of Ms Cox was the very antithesis of such brutal cynicism. Honor her memory. Because the values and the commitment that she embodied are all that we have to keep barbarism at bay.”

A good synonym for barbarism is inhumanity.

Finland’s efforts to keep barbarism at bay are disappointing to say the least. The rise of the xenophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, the silence of most politicians to ever-growing racism and discrimination, stiffening family reunification laws and immigration laws, near-constant bravado and saber rattling from politicians are some of the challenges we have had in keeping barbarism at bay.

White Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There has been a lot of debate about the present government tightening further family reunification laws. It shouldn’t come to any surprise that such measures not only reveal hostility towards asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities but are an example of white Finnish privilege in its most extreme forms.

Even if the Constitution guarantees that everyone in Finland is equal before the law, the truth is that you’re not. If you have Finnish citizenship your ok but if you are a foreigner or an asylum seeker that got a residence permit, it’ll be virtually impossible and costly to bring your wife and kids to this country.

Why?

Because this government, which comprises of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Center Party and National Coalition Party, is openly hostile to Others.

We’ve known it all along that even naturalized Finns aren’t equal before the law because they’re not considered “real” Finns but are people with “foreign backgrounds.”

If the government has its way with the passage of the new law,  a person has to make 2,600 euros a month after taxes if he wants to bring his spouse and two children.

Even if the government states that such laws are important because they discourage asylum seekers from coming to Finland, it is just another PS anti-immigration ploy with the support of the Center Party and NCP to keep Finland white.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-9 kello 11.23.12

See full program here.

Continue reading “White Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine”

Saido Mohamed defects to the Greens, cites differences over ever-tightening immigration policy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Saido Mohamed  has defected from the National Coalition Party (NCP) to the Greens, according to YLE. 

“After the parliamentary elections [April 2015] I started to have serious thoughts about membership in the National Coalition Party,” she told Migrant Tales. “My values and morality were in conflict with the party’s line on immigration policy.”

Mohamed said she was disappointed that the NCP hasn’t shown any leadership in challenging ever-growing hate speech and racism. 

“I’m now joining a party that speaks how things are and what should be changed concerning migrants in Finland,” she said. “In politics you change things with other people.”

While the Finnish media has treated NCP Interior Minister Petteri Orpo with kid gloves, Mohamed pointed out in the  YLE story that is under Orpo’s leadership that Finland has tightened immigration policy especially in the area of family reunification.

“I have waited from the National Coalition Party courage to condemn simply and clearly ever-growing racism and hate speech,” she was quoted as saying in YLE. “That type of courage I haven’t seen [from the party]. On the contrary, the long spell of silence has been easy to interpret that the party approves [racism and hate speech].”

 

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-8 kello 12.46.54

 

Read full story here.

Continue reading “Saido Mohamed defects to the Greens, cites differences over ever-tightening immigration policy”

Institute of Race Relations: Denmark – creating a hostile environment

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Reem Abu-Hayyeh

Nearly 300 people face criminal charges for aiding refugees in Denmark in September 2015, and the government continues to create a hostile environment by cracking down on migration.

The rise in humanitarian and political initiatives in solidarity with asylum seekers and refugees that we have seen across Europe in the past year has been reflected in Denmark, in contrast with the government’s defensive response (Denmark, along with the governments of Belgium, Austria, Sweden, France and Germany, has demanded an extension of temporary controls at the internal borders of the Schengen area). In September last year, as images of thousands of refugees walking along the Rødby highway towards Sweden were splashed across national newspapers and television channels, some citizens, influenced by the political response, saw the images as indicative of a threat to Denmark, but many others, such as the ex-head of Denmark’s National Council for Children Lisbeth Zornig, went to aid the refugees. It is those who have now been charged with ‘human trafficking’ amongst other things, for assisting refugees with travel, crossing the border, or simply for providing them with food or clothing. The charges are under section 59(8) of the Danish Alien Act, which criminalises ‘assist[ing] an alien with travelling into or through the country or … with an unlawful stay in the country’.

Restricting access to support – and to citizenship

Denmark is often viewed as a model social democracy, but its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers has exposed the limits of these claims. In the country’s July 2015 national elections, the nativist Danish People’s Party (DPP) won over 21 per cent of the vote, making them the second largest party after the Social Democrats, momentarily looking as though they might form a right-wing coalition government. As it currently stands, Venstre (Denmark’s Liberal Party) leads a minority government, influenced by the DPP on a vote-by-vote basis. In October 2015, the new conservative-liberal government, with support from the Social Democrats, Liberal Alliance, Conservatives and the DPP, passed legislation severely restricting migrants’ access to public funds (with cuts to ‘integration benefit payments’) and services, as well as demanding a whole host of new requirements for citizenship, with retrospective effect, including higher language and income thresholds and the cancellation of the Social Democrats’ 2014 reform which gave easier access to citizenship for children born and raised in Denmark (children over the age of 12 now have to meet the same criteria as adults).

Continue reading “Institute of Race Relations: Denmark – creating a hostile environment”