“Since leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and I have strived to advance human rights in countries around the world. In this quest, we have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence.”
Jimmy Carter
Some sectors of the media and other people like teachers believe that silence is the best response to racism spread by politicians.
One former journalist of the Mikkeli-based Länsi-Savo believed a few years ago that the best way to challenge racism was not to notice it.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson Jussi Halla-aho offers us many examples of the racism spread by politicians in Finland. His comments on migrants, especially asylum seekers, reveal a pathological obsession with the topic.
Halla-aho is not the only PS politician that is obsessed with Muslims. All of the PS MPs elected last year are obsessed with the topic.
Here is a typical latest tweet that reveals Halla-aho’s obsession with the “corona supplement” proposed by the government for income support to families.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, The chairperson of the PS, who was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion, claims that the support will not go to families but mostly to migrant men who are living alone.
Helsingin Sanomat claims that about one in three recipients of income support speaks a language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue; one in three recipients is a single man.
I’m confident that the majority of the recipients of the corona supplement will be single women, and what’s wrong if other vulnerable groups, like non-EU migrants, who suffer from high unemployment and get paid less than average salaries benefit from such help?
I wonder how many people and journalists have read Pasi Saukkonen’s study, Maahanmuuttajen kotoutuminen Helsingissä (2016)? While the study was published a few years ago, it showed that migrants made 27% less nationally and 38.5% less than Finns is they lived in Helsinki.
Do they know that unemployment on average is 2-3 times higher among migrants than the national average? Do they know that migrant wages are so low in Helsinki that such people usually have to turn to financial support to get by? Migrants also get lower social welfare benefits than Finns, according to Statistics Finland researcher Pekka Myrskylä.
Myrskylä wrote: “Generous social welfare benefits to migrants appear to be an urban legend. Since migrants make a quarter less than natives, welfare benefits are smaller since they hinge on earnings-related subsidies.”
In light of these facts, it is nothing surprising that the PS is at it again to harm and make life as difficult possible for migrants, especially people of color.
It is a systematic and racist policy that has wide support in Finland and which has turned the PS into parliament’s second-biggest party.
