Tag: xenophobia

Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Just like his colleague Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, MP Tom Packalén is another good example of white Finnish privilege. His example is in the same questionable league as National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma, who falsely accused migrant mothers of buying new baby carriages with social aid while Finnish mothers buy used ones. 

If you are a white Finn, an MP of an anti-immigration party like the PS and a former policeman, you have in Finland a lot of clout to say almost anything you want about migrants and minorities and put them in harm’s way, even if what you say is outright sinister because it promotes hatred and suspicion of other groups.

Packalén debated today with Marian Abdulkarim on Helsinki Radio. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen somebody in this country ask the right questions. The PS MP was on the defensive with Abdulkarim because he was forced to stay on the topic.

Some of the things that white Finnish privilege permits you to say is a ludicrous statement like ‘we’re not allowed to debate this topic,’ which Packalén has been doing all along as well as a long list of other anti-immigration politicians.

Here’s what Packalén wrote on his blog on Uusi Suomi : He claimed that a youth gang made up of only migrants is terrorizing East Helsinki and that one of its members said that their motive for hurting white Finns is racist.

The police has denied what Packalén claimed and have assured residents that there is no crime wave in East Helsinki.

Another ludicrous statement by the PS MP is that these youth gang member are the “ripening fruits” of our failed immigration and integration policy.

If Packalén had his way, he’d change our “failed” immigration and integration policy in such a way that it would be harder for asylum seekers and non-Europeans to come to Finland. Why? Because the PS and Packalén loath cultural diversity. They want to keep Finland white.

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Listen to radio program (in Finnish) here.

 

Packalén, like too many members of his party, aren’t only blinded by their white nationalism but by their ignorance about immigration.

Their claim that immigration and integration policy have failed is a myth they like to spread like most of the things they say and claim.

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This comment on Packalén’s Facebook wall gives an idea of how the PS MP has invigorated and fueled racist comments. This one by Carl Bauer, who compares blacks, which he calls the n-word, to half-monkeys hang on trees with their genitals. No racism in Finland? Think twice. And while you think about this type of blatant racism, ask why a PS MP allows it to happen on his Facebook page.  Thank you Sakari Timonen for the heads-up.

 

Certainly there are many things that could be improved in our immigration and integration policy, but not in the way that the PS wants.

If Abdulkarim gave Packalén a lesson on what racism is, I would tell him about Finnish emigration between 1860 and 1999, when over 1.2 million Finns left this country.

The Finns that moved to other countries founded associations, newspapers and were proud of their Finnish background and roots. In Argentina, where I have studied Finnish colonization for many years,  the Finns founded a colony in the middle of the subtropical jungle in order to live amongst themselves.

Packalén can refresh his memory as well about section 17 of our Constitution, which gives us rights to our language and culture.

Definition #12

White Finnish privilege means in the case of PS MP Packalén that I can make up stories about migrants  and put them in harm’s way.

Even if tabloids are writing sensationalist stories about youth gangs, spread fear and even get neo-Nazis to patrol streets, I’m not accountable for what I said.

See also:

* 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 PS has found its political role model in the Sweden Democrats

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Tom Packalén is an example of how the good election result of the Sweden Democrats has invigorated him and the PS to start scapegoating migrants in Finland. Taking into account the poor result of the PS in the last presidential, municipal and EU elections, it’s clear that some PS MPs will do anything to get attention and hopefully votes.  

Even if the PS claim to not have any official contacts with the Sweden Democrats, they are perfect political soul mates. Both parties loathe migrants, especially those that aren’t white like them.

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Read full blog entry (in Finnish) here.

 

Packalén’s blog entry on Uusi Suomi is quite revealing not for its well-balanced points of view but because it scapegoats, generalizes and victimizes all migrants.

Packalén admits on the blog that his anti-immigration views were the reason why he went into politics.

Here are a few questions Migrant Tales would like to ask the PS MP:

  • You label the members of the youth gang on your blog entry as migrants but how many of these are Finns? Do you even know?
  • Finland has one of the lowest number of migrants in the European Union. From your anti-immigration perspective, doesn’t this mean that immigration policy has been “successful?”
  • You call these so-called migrant youth gangs “racist.” Do you have any what white racism is?
  • Instead of whining about “failed immigration policy,” what solutions do you want to bring to the table? In your blog entry you offer none.

Migrant Tales does not condone any type of violence but we don’t go around – like you – stressing and pinning the blame on all Finns when a crime is committed.

That, MP Packalén, is the difference between your opportunistic and populist claims and what we are saying.

 

* 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.

What will the April 2015 elections of Finland reveal about ourselves as a country?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that the parliamentary elections of April 2015 in Finland will reveal a lot of matters about this country. In many respects it’s like strip tease joint where women or men, disguised as political parties, take off their clothes. Sexuality isn’t being shown in bare flesh but in political ideologies such as racism, whiteness, anti-cultural diversity, anti-EU and nostalgia of a Finland that only existed in our imagination. 

The anti-immigration, far-right and populist winds blowing over Europe should concern us. But it is a good sign as well that there is a lot of opposition, thanks to social media, against such social ills. Pulling a 1933 political stunt on a country could be more difficult today than over eighty years ago, when Nazi Germany came into being.

As April 19 nears in Finland, it’s clear that anti-immigration voices are getting louder and more hostile. Should it surprise us then that the Perussuomalaiset (PS),* which claims to have sacked all of its racists and fascists, is leading the charge on this front?

Finland’s darkest political period in this century (2011-15) could be seen in the same light as the half-a-century old rants made by USAmerican racists of the South. What these Finnish politicians say today will make their great grandchildren’s faces turn red with shame. Racists always look ugly as time unmasks their lies.

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There’s a very good column on City by Taneli Hämäläinen that summarizes, in my opinion, the way PS politicians switch the argument around. We’ve seen this on Migrant Tales on a number of occasions used by far-right anti-immigration voices. It’s like claiming that the Jews unleashed the Holocaust and the Nazis were their victims.

The issue is not asking how racist a country like Finland is, even though this is an important question, but what is our response as a society to such a social ill.  Is there a response? If so, is it effective? If not, why?

You don’t have to be black or a member of an ethnic minority to understand how insulting and lowly some politicians will act to get votes and feed their narcism in the process.

But let’s go back to the main question of this posting: What will the April 2015 elections of Finland reveal about ourselves as a country?

It will reveal two things: If racism and fascism (1) are are growing or on the defensive.

* 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.

(1) Tiina Rosenberg gives a good definition of fascism as a political ideology that want to exclude other groups. The aim of fascism in Nazi Germany was based on an argument that they had to kick out and/or exterminate other minorities like the Jews, Roma and their political enemies in order to become a super race.  Nazi war criminal Alfred Rosenberg, who was sentenced and hanged for war crimes, is a good example of this type of ideology. He writes about it in The myth of the twentieth century.

 

Too many Finnish politicians and parties are ignorant of their country’s migrant and refugee history

Posted on by Migrant Tales

-titta, en finne igen i fyllan!
-satans finjävlar!

-look, (a) drunken Finn!
-damn Finnish devils!

The infamous saying, en finne igen, yet another Finn, can be found in Urban Dictionary. The statement was used by Swedes to claim that Finns are “violent, primitive savages” because some have issues with learning Swedish and alcohol. After World War 2, hundreds of thousands of Finns emigrated to Sweden. 

Watching YLE’s Pressiklubi and the debate between rector Tiina Rosenberg of the University of Arts Helsinki and Simon Elo, the head of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* youth league, it’s clear that the PS is one party that is very selective about how it treats Finnish history and racism.

One of the ways of tackling the prejudices that the Swedish media spread and reinforced about Finns in the 1970s was an active campaign by the Finnish embassy in Stockholm to meet the editors of different media. One of the outcomes of such lobbying was not labeling crime suspects to national origin.

Elo states on the interview that the PS has renounced racism but the party continues to act in the same way as the Swedish media did over 40 years ago when labeling Finns.

A good example is the latest edition of the party’s newspaper, Perussuomalainen, which claims in the most sensationalist language and images that Jihadists use refugee centers in Finland as holiday resorts. The pictures and the message of the story labels Muslims and migrants in Finland in the same way as the Finns were labelled once by the Swedish media.

Näyttökuva 2014-9-29 kello 10.38.03

Watch program here.

 

Moreover, when Rosenberg mentioned that many Finns emigrated to Sweden, Elo snapped back and stated that it was “an insult” to compare Finnish migrants to refugees that come to this country.

Elo, with his knee-jerk statement,  exposes in one sentence the prejudices that this country has for refugees.

This shouldn’t surprise us since the term is loathed in the Finnish language so much that the 420,000 Karelians that were forced to flee their homes after the Continuation War (1941-44) are called evacuees, or evakkot, not refugees.

For some strange reason as well, Soviet citizens that defected to Finland during the cold war were never seen as refugees, which they were.

Elo’s statement, that one cannot compare asylum-seekers that come to Finland to Finnish emigrants that moved to Sweden because they “were hardworking,” exposes not only the PS politician’s ignorance of this country’s history but the myths that his party is reinforcing and spreading.

What does it say about Finland as well, a country that has seen over 1.2 million emigrants between 1860 and 1999 and resettled 420,000 refugees, doesn’t have a clear idea and understanding about its own immigrant and refugee history and on top of this has a party (PS) that is openly hostile to them?

The answer to that question lies in our own collective deconstructed memory and our low national self-esteem.

Haven’t studies showed that people with low self-esteem are more prone to prejudice?

Elo also claimed on the program that the PS is a party that supports “healthy” nationalism.

Is there such a thing in a party like the PS that flirts with far-right ideology and nativist nationalism?  Certainly Elo is white so he can claim anything he wants to but I suspect that many migrants and minorities will disagree with his statement.

Rosenberg said that the seeds of fascism are planted in a party like the PS, which singles out others from being treated equally and with dignity in this country.

Migrant Tales has said it many times: Parties like the PS are not only a menace to this country but especially to migrants an minorities.

Alberto Coronel sums up well what is happening to us in Finland today with parties like the PS with the quote below. In this same questionable group we can place the National Coalition Party, Christian Democrats, Center Party and Social Democrats.

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In plain English the quote by Chris Rock means in our context that if the PS could, they would disenfranchise as much as possible migrants, minorities and Finns who don’t see the world in the same way as them.

Why?

Because that’s their political agenda.

* 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.

Defining white Finnish privilege #11: Case Teuvo Hakkarainen

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen is a good example of white Finnish privilege. Here’s an MP that has issues with alcohol, racism and now dates teenagers as well as allegedly takes minors to bars. He has sent on his work phone pictures of his phallus and Image magazine claims in its latest issue that the PS MP drove 306 km/hour with his motorcycle. Hakkarainen denies this. 

Let’s not forget as well that the PS MP was sentenced to prison for robbery.

After all these questionable “merits,” PS chairman Timo Soini said recently that he’s happy that Hakkarainen will be running for a second term in office.

Definition #11

Imagine for a second if a visible minority, migrant or, god forbid a Muslim would do only half of the things that Hakkarainen did. Even if that person would do only a quarter of the things that the PS MP has done and is doing, that person would be lynched alive on social media forums and by the print media.

The reason why Hakkarainen can get off the hook for all the things he’s done is because he’s white and a PS MP.

Instead of seeing him as a person squandering tax payers money, some see him as a hero.

Moreover, the PS sees Hakkarinen as an “authority” on migration. An authority? With that type of poor judgement, and not suggesting that the two are alike, we could argue that Heinrich Himmler was an “authority” on Jews, the Roma and all the enemies of the Nazi regime.

If you are white and have issues, join the PS. It’s a good party to hide your problems.

See also:

* 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.

Will the Sweden Democrat victory give a boost to the PS in Finland?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Swedish election result not only showed a shift and set for a minority-left government, but historic gains made by the far-right Sweden Democrats. Conservative Moderat Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who conceded defeat late Sunday, said he will hand in his resignation Monday after eight years in power.

Just like the anti-immigration Peerussuomalaiset (PS)* in 2011, the Sweden Democrats scored their best election victory to date by almost doubling their support to 12.9% (+29 MPs to 49MPs) from 5.7% (20 MPs) in 2010 in the 349-seat Riksdagen (parliament).

Like the PS, they too are today the third-largest party in parliament after the Social Democrats and Moderate Party.

The interesting question to ask is if the good showing of the Sweden Democrats will give a boost to the PS in next year’s elections.

An important matter to keep in mind when looking at far-right, populist and anti-immigration parties is that they are a reaction not a solution to our ever-growing cultural diversity.

Näyttökuva 2014-9-15 kello 10.31.28

Seats gained by different parties in the Swedish parliamentary elections. From left to right: Left Party (V), Social Democrats (S), Greens (MP), Sweden Democrats (SD), Center Party (C), Liberal Party (FP), Christian Democrats (KD) and Moderate Party (M).

 

Sweden’s new prime minister is Social Democrat Stefan Löfven faces a daunting task in forming the country’s next government.

“I’ll talk to other parties,” he was quoted as saying on The Local. “My hand is outstretched. I’ll talk to the Greens, but also to other parties.”

A coalition comprising of the Social Democrats, Left Party and the Greens only adds up to 43.8%, while a center-right coalition totals 39.3%. This means theoretically that the far-right anti-immigration party holds the balance of power.

“We’re the absolute kingmaker now,” said Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson. “[You] can’t ignore us the way they have ignored us over the past four years.”

Näyttökuva 2014-9-15 kello 9.56.42

Read full story here.

Sweden’s incoming Prime Minister Löfven said he would continue to shun the far-right party as have done all mainstream parties.

Whether the policy of excluding the Sweden Democrats has worked or not remains to be seen. Mainstream parties in Finland have taken a different approach and even invited the PS to form part of government after the elections four years ago.

Even if the Sweden Democrats are heading north and the PS are heading south, it’s clear that a lot more has to be done to challenge right-wing populist anti-immigration sentiment. More leadership is needed especially from migrant and multicultural Swedes and Finns.

Did outgoing Prime Minister Reinfeldt’s pro-immigration statements and stance help the Sweden Democrats isn’t the point. The issue is that politicians must show leadership during difficult times and not look for scapegoats.

Far-right anti-immigration sentiment has also grown in Norway and Denmark, where xenophobic parties did well in recent elections.

Parties like the National Coalition Party and Social Democrats have done a dismal job in challenging the rhetoric of parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS).* The most recent baby carriage scandal by conservative MP Pia Kauma is a clear example how some mainstream politicians are flirting with xenophobia.

 What do we have in Finland to show after almost four years of the PS in the opposition? Polarization of society, political scandals, strengthening of urban myths and racism – in sum, a country that appears to have lost its way.

How will the Swedish elections impact Finland’s elections in April?

Certainly it won’t hurt them.

* 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.

National Coalition Party and Perussuomalaiset lead anti-immigration drive in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

With parliamentary elections nearing in April, topping the anti-immigration rhetoric list are two parties with representatives in parliament: National Coalition Party and who else but the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. 

We’ve been reading almost daily about National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma’s crusade against migrant women with baby carriages. The PS are another hostile party to migrants that will feed migrants to the dogs in order to get your vote in April.

While the PS wants to fool voters into believing that their rhetoric against migrants and minorities has something to do with patriotism and defending white Finnish rights,  nothing could be further from the truth. 

Migrant Tales has never been fooled by this type of chicanery and neither should you.

IMG_4352

If there are warning red light over Finland, it’s to warn us of the PS, a party that has ties with extremist groups like Suomen Sisu.

 

Since the PS has made so many outrageous statements in the past about migrants, minorities and development aid, let’s look at the two most recent ones by MP Vesa-Matti Saarakkala and MP Juho Eerola.

If Saarakkala had his way, he’d get rid of dual citizenship and take away a person’s citizenship if he were sentenced for a serious crime like terrorism. Eerola, on the other hand, the MP that admitted liking fascism and Benito Mussolini’s economic policies, wants to scrap the right of migrants to use paid interpreters.

What’s wrong with these two proposals? For one they reveal that Saarakkala and Eerola, both lawmakers, are in the dark about our constitution.

One of the most important rights in our constitution is that everyone, irrespective if the person is a Finn or migrant, has the right to be treated equally before the law.

Here’s a question to Eerola: If you are going to take away the right to use a paid interpreter from migrants, how would that affect minorities such as the Sami, Roma and mutes?

These types of statements made by MPs just to get votes in next year’s election reveal the true face of the PS. It shows a party that is lost but led by the headlights of its opportunism and ignorance. The PS would end up feeding our laws and values to the dogs if it ever got power.

Should migrants, expats and minorities fear the PS? Not at all. We should challenge them and do everything possible to send them them back to where they came from: to the one-digit political minor league.

Let’s hope that this will happen sooner than later.

* 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finland’s parliamentary elections of April 2015 have begun

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Even if parliamentary elections will take place on April 19, 2015, it’s clear that they’ve begun. Rumbles can be already heard from political parties such as the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, Muutos 2011 and the National Coalition Party, which are vying for media attention and voters. Who are they targeting? Who else but migrants and minorities. 

National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma is the one that claimed on Friday that migrant women were buying new baby carriages with social aid and that migrants were getting more welfare than Finns.

Kauma’s claims, which were based on hearsay, were disproven. Even so, the conservative MP continues to be in the media spotlight.

Any serious student of racism would ask the following question: Why does MP Kauma, who bases her claim on gossip and openly victimizes migrants, controls the narrative on migrants? Why doesn’t Pekka Myrskylä’s blog, which showed that the majority of migrants live in poverty in Finland, wasn’t even mentioned by the Finnish media?

Why in the last parliamentary elections did the media believe the narrative of the PS and politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and others even if it’s clear today that they were spreading lies about migrants?

The answer is in my opinion clear: The Finnish media isn’t only white but too many reporters have a challenging time thinking outside their ethnic box.

Migrants and minorities in this country have memory and we won’t forget. In the meantime as new lies are stacked over old ones by opportunistic politicians, the credibility of our institutions will be undermined. Who would believe in the police if the police are suspicious of you?

What is surprising in the Kauma affair is that not one migrant – except for mothers with baby carriages – were asked what they thought about the MP’s false claims.

On Monday’s A-Studio, a YLE host asked Kauma if she’d apologize for what she said. Social Democrat chairman Antti Rinne had said over the weekend that it’s clear that migrants don’t get more social aid than Finns and therefore talk about baby carriages should end and Kauma should apologize.

The MP said she wouldn’t apologize for bringing up a topic that had gotten the attention of white Finns.

Kauma did, however, apologize to those migrant mothers with baby carriages who have been harassed by Finns because of what she said.

Please read the last sentence again and ask:

Why did she make such claims in the first place if they aren’t true?

Politicians like Kauma and Timo Soini will find themselves in good company with MP James Hirvisaari of Muutos 2011, a xenophobic far-right party that believes racist sound bites to the media will help them get voters.

They are right but in the wrong party because there’s little media interest in Muutos 2011.

Hirvisaari, who got the boot from the PS after he posted a picture on social media of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, is a PS creation. Without the PS, Hirvisaari would have never got elected.

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Here MP James Hirvisaari shows his Finnish machoism and narcism with his anti-immigration rhetoric, where he promises to get immigration under control. Social media has created many Frankensteins like Hirvisaari.

It’s highly likely that Hirvisaari will lose his seat in April.

We at Migrant Tales hope that he gets voted out of parliament.

 

* 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.

Muutos 2011 election campaign exposes the contempt and hatred some Finns have for migrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Muutos 2011, which has one MP in parliament, is a good example of a xenophobic party in Finland. They are a good example of the racism, contempt and hatred that some Finns have for migrants and minorities. Behind all the Muutos 2011 rhetoric you will find a hostile message: keep Finland white. 

James Hirvisaari, who was ousted from the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* after he posted a picture of a friend making a Nazi salute in parliament, is its lone MP.

The party gives us a glimpse of what they think of migrants and minorities in their election program:

Muutos always places Finns first in decision-making. Since we Finns are from a global standpoint a small and disappearing minority, we have to defend our language and culture since nobody will do this for us.

We’re not against immigration, but we believe we have a duty to former and future generations to maintain Finland a livable and secure country where Finns can live and practice their culture.

Näyttökuva 2014-9-8 kello 17.40.29

The poster states that Finns must have to right to decide what Finland will look like in the future.

 

Any sensible person can see what’s wrong with the above statement about immigration. Muutos 2011 sees Finland as a white country while in fact it has always been and will be culturally diverse. In Muutos 2011’s world, migrants would be seen as eternal outsiders that would always be second- and third-class citizens in this country.

The campaign poster above says it all about white privilege and how some Finns dread cultural diversity. Their problem is that Finland is already culturally and ethnically diverse. It’s not as if this will happen tomorrow or after tomorrow. It’s here, now.

Migrant Tales hopes that Muutos 2011 will lose their only seat in the April parliamentary elections.

* 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.

Finland President Niinistö’s “information-gathering exercise” about dual citizenship should worry us a lot

Posted on by Migrant Tales

President Sauli Niinistö has asked Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, an anti-gay an anti-immigration politician, to look into the possibility of tightening Finland’s dual citizenship laws or ending the practice altogether, according to YLE in English.  Prime Minister Alexander Stubb was, however, quoted as saying on YLE in English that plans to end dual citizenship are not in the cards. 

“We are not tightening any legislation we are simply reviewing the overall situation,” said Stubb.

Let’s hope this is the case but tell this to the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and if they were in government mainstream parties like the National Coalition Party and Center Party. How many “innocent-looking information-gathering exercises” have led to changes in laws? Many.

Taking into account the standoff between the Ukraine and Russia, the rise of anti-immigration sentiment in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, the so-called “information-gathering exercise” by President Niinistö is something that should worry us a lot, especially  those of us who are dual citizens.

Even if the tightening of dual citizenship laws for Russians is one reason why this matter is being brought up in Finland in the first place, the whole idea suggests that this country could be ready to turn their backs on holders of dual citizenship. The message would be a clear one: owning two or more passports is bad and should be discouraged.

Näyttökuva 2014-8-23 kello 8.14.33

 

Read full story here.

If Finland tightens and does away with dual citizenship, it will not only be a blow to our ever-growing culturally diverse society, but to Finnish expats living abroad. One of the reasons behind our present dual citizenship law was to strengthen our country’s bonds with expats, their children and grandchildren living abroad.

The message by the authorities and Finland will be clear if laws are tightened: Dual citizenship is bad. Hide it in the closet.

* 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.