Tag: xenophobia

(Migrant Tales, August 19, 2012): Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, the super immigrant

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Migrant Tales insight: Even if the op-ed was published about 10 years ago, too many politicians and officials continue to falsely believe that “super immigrants” will save the country from its low birth rates, aging population, and ever-present racism. 

See also: The world’s happiest country faces a labor and talent crunch

THIS OP-ED PIECE WAS UPDATED.

Is it possible that in 2012 we have politicians who are totally against immigration? We actually have quite a few of them in Finland. While all political parties have these types of politicians, none of them have so many as the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. 

Certainly, these types of politicians won’t tell you directly that they are against immigration to Finland. That would sound too radical and make them vulnerable and force them to lose votes.

What they will tell you, however, is totally a different story. With poker faces, they will state that they are not against immigration but against immigration they consider harmful to Finland.

These politicians sound like they are reading to you the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, when Prince Charming  wakes the beautiful princess with a kiss from her deep sleep. Anti-immigration politicians and parties don’t speak of Sleeping Beauty per se, but about super immigrants.

Sleeping Beauty (anti-immigration  view of Finland) , Prince Charming (super immigrant) and other pro- and anti-immigration forces. In this famous Walt Disney fairy tale, everyone is white except for the evil witch, who is almost white. 

Who are these super immigrants?

  • They function perfectly as a group even if humans are far from perfect
  • They are white northern Europeans, some Far East Asia groups like the Chinese (white Russians are excluded)
  • They commonly belong to the Christian faith
  • They are heterosexuals
  • They are skilled professionals and well-behaved
  • They adapt quickly and without problems to our way of life
  • They are never unemployed (they are against social welfare and handouts)
  • They are paid less than  Finnish employees
  • They don’t mind wearing sleeve badges to help police ethnically profile more effectively
  • They never practice their culture in public spaces
  • Their children only speak their parents’ language at home
  • Their parents speak near-perfect Finnish
  • Cultural difference and slight Finnish accents are fine because they allow us to distinguish who is “us” and “them”

Let’s stop kidding ourselves about these so-called super immigrants. They may exist but not in the numbers that a party like the PS or other anti-immigrant groups would like to see moving to Finland.

If you are waiting for these types of people to inhabit Finland in the near future, you might as well turn into Sleeping Beauty.

A column about super immigrants will appear next week in Savon Sanomat, Kainuun Sanomat and Karjalainen. 

How rape statistics reveal a serious problem: racism and prejudice

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You know there is something fishy whenever any person starts to use percentages to drive home the point that immigrants are rapists. If anything, rape statistics do reveal a problem: racism and prejudice. 

One blogger on Uusi Suomi writes: ”In April, Finns were told that men from xxxx  are guilty of committing rape alarmingly often.” Using a tabloid story as a source, he states that in 2006-09 34% of all convicted rapes were by foreigners.

There are some serious problems with the conclusions of the tabloid never mind the writer:

  • How many foreigners were convicted of rape?
  • Are we speaking of an ”alarmingly high” amount?

In the Uusi Suomi blog entry, Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari, who was fined in December for inciting ethnic hatred, believes that 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year is enough proof to close our borders.

Hirvisaari writes:  “We don’t need ‘free movement’ since it only brings too many problems and forms part of the left-wing agenda to undermine the nation-state.  ’Let’s do away with borders and mix different nationalities.’ Border control and immigration policy should be contrarily tightened.”

Here is some of Hirvisaari’s latest double-talk on his latest blog entry:  “Multiculturalism is a destroying politicial ideology, which does not fit in a [culturally] diverse society.”*

Yes, that’s right, such a comment was made by a Finnish MP based on 25 rape convictions during the first five months of the year!

If anything, rape statistics reveal a serious problem: a society’s racism and prejudice.

Massive Greek police clampdown on immigrants

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Cash-strapped Greece showed its dark side over the weekend when some 2,000 police in Athens and surroundings arrested 1,100 undocumented immigrants and held another 4,900 for questioning, according to Clandestina blog. The action is a disturbing example of how the Greek government is trying to blame immigrants for the country’s financial problems.  

It is estimated that Greece has close to one million undocumented immigrants mostly from Asian countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and others.

Apart from having no legal protection, one of the most worrying aspects of the clampdown by Greek police is the silence of European politicians. This is not only shameful but a clear indication that matters are going to get worse in Europe for immigrants before they improve.

Adding salt to injury, the police named the operation Xenios Zeus, which was the ancient Greek god of hospitality.

Two thousand police were mobilized in Athens and 2,500 on Greece’s eastern border with long-time enemy Turkey.

The massive crackdown, which will continue, took place before the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and European Central Bank representatives were set to meet Greek officials concerning a 31.5-billion-euro tranche of aid next month.

Writes the Los Angeles Times: “Public Order and Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Dendias defended the roundups as necessary to keep Greece from unraveling, arguing that the country faced the biggest “invasion” since the influx of the ancient Dorians thousands of years ago. Dendias had earlier claimed that “unbelievably high” numbers of immigrants were involved in crime, according to Greek news reports.”

Der Spiegel names Timo Soini as one of Europe’s most dangerous politicians

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German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, published the top ten most dangerous politicians in Europe concerning the euro crisis. One of these was Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini, who is in the ”good” company of Geert Wilders, Viktor Orban, Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, Silvio Bertlusconi and four others.

Even if Soini is in the opposition, his shadow hangs heavy over the government of Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, according to Der Spiegel.  “Not a penny more,” he is quoted as saying defiantly about the euro crisis. “We have paid enough.”

Even if Soini is considered as one of the most dangerous politicians of Europe, there’s nothing to be proud of. All of Der Spiegel’s  ten-most dangerous politicians are euroskeptics as well as Islamophobists, populists and even quasi-dictators like Prime Minister Orban of Hungary.

Writes PS MP Reijo Tossavainen on his Uusi Suomi blog: “In my opinion Timo Soini is right. I am satisfied, and even somehow proud, that Soini as well as other Perussuomalaiset members have been against [euro bailouts]…I am pleased that the same trend is evident in other parts of Europe as well.”

I wonder what medicine Soini, Tossavainen and others of the PS will prescribe to Europe if the euro becomes history and we slip into a deep recession.

Will they step up their attack on the usual scapegoats like immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and other minorities?

I’m afraid that’s happening right now.

 

Words have consequences: Deciphering code words of hate in Finland

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…hate groups have used conflicts over immigration to advance                                                                                         their White Supremacy, their hate, their stereotypes…                                                                                                            Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States was founded in 1913 to address anti-Semitism and ”to secure justice and fair treatment of all.” ADL’s Stacy Burdett reveals in an interview below the code words of hate used in the U.S. to dehumanize and victimize immigrants and visible minorities. The same speech is rampant today in Finland and Europe. 

Below are four ways to recognize the code words of hate:

  • Immigrants are an army of invaders
  • Dehumanization
  • Immigrants bring crime and disease
  • Conspiracy theory

While Hispanics are singled out as a danger to the United States, anti-immigration groups in Europe point their finger at Muslims.

Let’s look at Burdett’s points and see if they apply to Europe and Finland.

Immigrants are an army of invaders. With this claim, anti-immigration groups drive home the point that immigrants, or Muslims in the case of Europe, are an ”army” or “horde” invading our values and way of life.

There are many examples of people and groups using this argument. One of them is Aalto University senior lecturer Kyösti Tarvainen, who claimed, using a pocket calculator, that Muslims would outnumber Finns this century due to their high birthrates.

Pet adjectives used by these groups to describe immigration are “uncontrolled” and/or “mass.”

Dehumanization. Immigrants are talked about as swarms, hordes or in worse terms.  Burdett says: “…when you teach children at school to think a person is animal-like, less than human, you teach them that this group is less-deserving of their basic civil rights.”

Former Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki (Social Democrat) once labelled refugees as “welfare shoppers” that come in groups to this country to live off our generous social welfare system. The claim implies that since they come here as “welfare shoppers,” they should be treated as second-class members of our community.

The Nuiva Manifesto, an immigration policy endorsed by the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party, points out what basic civil rights should be taken away from immigrants.

Immigrants bring crime and disease. This is a common  argument used by anti-immigration groups with the help of inaccurate statistics.

PS MPs like James Hirvisaari have used rape statistics and social welfare payments to single out and attack certain immigrant groups and minorities in Finland. One of his most incredible claims was that Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, carried out his massacre because of “uncontrolled immigration” and because 100% of all rapes committed in the country were by foreigners.

Conspiracy theory. In the United States, anti-immigration groups claim that Mexicans that come to the U.S. do so to reconquer the Southwest and take back land that once belonged to Mexico.

In the same way, these groups in Finland and Europe claim that ”multiculturalism” is a conspiracy to permit Muslims and blacks to take over Europe ethnically and culturally.

Concludes Burdett: “When people all over the country are trained to think of immigrants as invading our way of life, trying to rip apart our civilization and undermining our values, when we are trained to think that they are a little less than, less-deserving of rights, less human, animal-like, almost…good people will be inculcated to hate.”

…”words have consequences. There is a direct connection between the policies we have in our societies, the words of leaders, daily lives of minority communities and immigrants and unfortunately we have seen hate crimes against Latinos, Asians and other immigrants on the rise.”

Sounds eerily familiar, even if Burdett is speaking about the United States.

Thanks to Daily Community Village Activist for the heads-up. 

 

Racist graffiti appears (again) in an eastern Finnish city

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It was only in 2010 when Kansainvälinen Mikkeli (International Mikkeli) brought to the city’s attention racist graffiti. To the association’s surprise, the graffiti had been on the walls of the Kattilansilta School and an underpass for over six months. Nobody, never mind the city, appeared to care too much about them.  

While this type of graffiti is the work of a small minority, it should not only be condemned by the city but painted over. What kind of image does racist graffiti give to a city like Mikkeli? How many new families and businesses will they scare away?

Does our silence suggest that we approve of this type of behavior or that we are ambivalent to it?

 This picture was taken in July 2012, even if Nazi Germany was defeated in May 1945. 

 White Power and SS signs, a trademark of neo-Nazis, together with a familiar warning. This picture was taken in July 2012.

One of these associations that is spreading stickers promoting neo-Nazism is the Suomen Kansalinen Vastarinta (SKV). The sticker was placed in spring 2012 in front of the author’s home. It reads: “Multiculturalism is hazardous to your children and grandchildren.” 

 

 

Somali-Finn Abdulah: Living in no-man’s land (Part I)

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Even if I have never met Abdulah* in person but only by phone and through his comments on Migrant Tales, it’s as if we’ve known each other for a long time. Abdulah moved to Finland from Somalia in 1990 with his parents and six sisters. He was eight at the time. 

When Abdulah came to Finland, there were only 21,174 immigrants living in the country, accounting for a mere 0.4% of total population, versus 183,133 (3.4%) today, according to the Population Registration Center. 

“For a child from Somalia, moving to Finland was at first exciting,” he says. “We were starting a new life in a new country. I was fascinated by the snow.”

Abdulah says that his brief honeymoon with Finland ended abruptly when he started elementary school. He was the school’s first and only black student. 

“That’s when the bullying started; I was even attacked physically by my classmates,” he continues. “Something bad happened to me almost every day at school.”

 Being black in an all-white crowd can be sometimes dangerous in Finland. 

Abdulah says that once all of his classmates, which numbered about 20, waited to attack him after school. Even a school “friend” assaulted him once with a knife. 

“I’ve been bullied, called names like the n-word, insulted, kicked and hit hard at school,” he says. “The only way to survive was to be quiet and roll with the punches. There was nothing else I could do because the teachers never believed me. They were always on the side of the white students.”

“I’ve been bullied, called names like the n-word, insulted, kicked and hit hard at school,” he says. “The only way to survive was to be quiet and roll with the punches. There was nothing else I could do because the teachers never believed me. They were always on the side of the white students.”

Abdulah says that he’s tried to make friends with Finns but it has been virtually impossible. He did make some friends at school but their friendship never lasted long.  

 This type of tabloid ads were common in the early 1990s. It reads: “Armed refugee hater chased after blacks.” 

“First they’re your friend and then they abandon you,” he says. “I was nine when I met a very nice boy at school. On the way to his home a friend of his meets us and asks him why he’s with me. He then told me right their on the spot that he could no longer be my friend.”

Even if the bullying has left deep scars on Abdulah, one of the worst memories he recalls was when he was nine and walking with his mother to the market.

“A drunk man attacked me on the street and started insulting me,” he says. “My mother called out for help but nobody came. That incident really traumatized me. I was only a child.” 

Abdulah admits that growing up and living in Finland has made him paranoid. The election of an anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset didn’t help dispel his fears about racism against Somalis in Finland.    

The matter that concerns Abdulah the most about the Perussuomalaiet is their belief that Finns should not have children with blacks. 

“With the election victory of the Perussuomalaiset that brought to parliament some fascist [anti-immigration] politicians like Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and others, things started to turn ugly in this country from an already very bad situation for Somalis and blacks.” 

Part 2 will be published Saturday.  

*Abdulah’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

Let’s play fill in the blanks with with far-right Finnish MP James Hirvisaari

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When reading the thoughts of far-right politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS) party MP James Hirvisaari, one of the most vocal white-Finnish-power advocates in this country, one should look for the visible or invisible but in his writing. Migrant Tales fished one today from Facebook.

The PS MP writes: ”Some ‘humanitarians’ are driven by naive utopian ideology: [they claim] ‘let’s do away with borders and mix national groups so we can end all wars…‘ [Here it is: But] I believe that a strong and healthy society can withstand weaknesses and diversity but let’s not make these two matters the norm. Fashionable liberalism can make art from shit in all areas of life.”

That’s not all. A person on the Facebook thread claims that “multiculturalism is a death knell  to all [white] Europeans” and “we are now at war.”

At war against whom? Against their stupidity or is it a desperate attempt to lure voters to a sinking political ship called the PS?

Finland will host municipal elections on October 28.

If you have problems grasping how far below the belt Hirvisaaari hits with his far-right thoughts, one way of understanding them is by removing key words from his writings such as “Muslim” or “Islam” and replacing them with “Finn” or “Christian.”

Here is a small example of how I’ve refilled the blanks in one of his recent blog entries:

Hirvisaari writes: When I criticize Islam, I criticize those who hate Jews, humiliate women in many ways…

Refilling the blanks: When I criticize Christians, I criticize those who hate Muslims, Finnish men who humiliate women by killing their wives and children before taking their own lives…

While Hirvisaari lacks the grey matter to be in the same ideological hate league as David Duke, his views on ethnicity are very similar to those of the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard. The big difference between the two is geography: Duke lives in Louisiana and Hirvisaari is from Asikkala, Finland.

What does PS MP James Hirvisaari think about white power and the Ku Klux Klan?

Like Hirvisaari, Duke denies that he is a racist. Instead he likes to think of himself as a “racial realist.”

Contrarily, Hirvisaari sees himself as a ”white Finnish ethnic realist,” who is saving white Finns and Europeans from multiculturalism,  a political ideology or immigration policy according to him that permits too many blacks and Muslims to live in Europe.

A question begs an answer: Who are the Perussuomalaiset?

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The million-dollar question after the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party’s historic election victory was what kind of party had entered the Finnish political stage. After over a year in parliament and numerous scandals that have rocked the PS, a question still begs an answer: Who are they?

If you seek an answer directly from the party, the response you’ll likely get is as convoluted as the PS itself. Great lengths will be taken to point out what they’re not.

This shouldn’t surprise us considering that the PS’ political fuel comes from near-constant whining and scapegoating.

The historic election success of the PS was by and large based on hit-and-run tactics like scapegoating and denial.

Irrespective of its hodgepodge nature, how is it possible for a far-right politician like PS MP Jussi Halla-aho and party chairman Timo Soini to sit at the same table? What unites both men ideologically?

Would it be fair to call the PS an opportunistic right-wing populist party with a heavy dash of far-right nationalism? Would the best description of the party be: anti-EU, anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-gay, and anti-minority rights?

If we look at close political relatives of the PS in the Nordic region, we’d find  the Islamophobic Danish People’s Party, Sweden Democrats, and Progress Party of Norway.

All of them are anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam.

The PS’ only MEP, Sampo Terho, is a member of the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) parliamentary group.  The biggest number of EFD MEPs come from the UK Independence Party (10), which wants the UK to exit the EU, and the xenophobic Lega Nord (9), which considers southern Italy a part of North Africa.

Even if the PS wants to tone down its right-wing conservative radicalism because it doesn’t sit well with moderate Finnish voters, it’s fair to claim that they are an anti-EU, anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti gay, and anti-minority rights party.

  • The PS are an anti-EU party because 100% of PS MPs don’t want Finland to bailout any EU country. Some even believe that the Finland should exit the EU.
  • They are an anti-immigration party because 97% of the MPs don’t want anymore immigrants to move to Finland. If Finland must accept immigrants, they should be white Christians.
  • The PS is an anti-Islam party because MPs like Olli Immonen and James Hirvisaari, among others, believe that it’s only a matter of time when Europe will be taken over by Islam (Eurabia).
  • They are an anti-gay party because 82% are against same-sex marriages.

Conclusion: The PS are an anti-EU, anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-gay and anti-minority rights party with ties to the far right.

 

Far-right violence spreads across Europe – what about Finland?

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As the euro financial crisis deepens so does the rise of far-right violence across Europe, according to a report by the Institute of Race Relations. Finland stands out as one of the 100 cases documented by the report. It states that academics studying immigration in this country are forced to withdraw from public discussion rather than face intimidation and threats to their families.

Migrant Tales has been as well the focus of attacks, death threats and intimidation.

The report, Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the European far Right, documents the cold-blooded shooting of a Moroccan during Black February as a clear warning sign for Finland.

The far right has found a good platform in the PS. 

The report states on page 8: “The Satakunta Police Department is investigating  whether Facebook comments made by a [former] True Finns [Perussuomalaiset] elected councillor in Köyliö constitute incitement to racial hatred. After a 21-year-old Moroccan man was  shot dead in Oulu in March [see page 15], Tommi Rautio posted that the murderer should be given a medal because there is ‘a war going on and in every war decorations are handed out.'”

While there are some encouraging signs that politicians and the media see PS politicians like Jussi Halla-aho and his Suomen Sisu followers as extremists, it’s still not too late to defeat the far-right menace that has attacked Finland.

How much of a threat is the far right in Finland? Are matters going to get far worse before they improve?