Tag: James Hirvisaari

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.

Näyttökuva 2014-9-9 kello 22.04.25

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.

Two anti-immigration politicians “doing their hate thing” in Finland: One former, one present PS MP

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Has anyone asked what the election in 2011 of 39 MPs of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party has done to poison the political atmosphere for immigrants and visible minorities in Finland? To show how much in denial we still are in a country, take a closer look at some former and present PS MPs.

Where’s the denial?

In the fact that the media and public sees individuals – not the PS never mind its good-cop leader Timo Soini – responsible for the party’s racist and Islamophobic remarks.

One former member of the PS, MP James Hirvisaari, who is now a member of the far-right Muutos 2011 party, and one present member, MP Olli Immonen, are making headlines again.

MP Hirvisaari, who has already been sentenced for ethnic agitation, writes on his blog that the state prosecutor is carrying out a preliminary investigation on charging the MP for the same crime.

Hirvisaari, who commented on a blog entry by PS politician Kai Haavisto, wrote that rape was a “national pastime” of countries like South Africa. The Muutos 2011 MP wrote as well that the genetic makeup of certain ethnic groups, like black Africans, encouraged a culture of rape.

Hirvisaari made the comment on a blog written by Haavisto where he suggested that those groups that are prone to commit rape should be chemically castrated before being allowed to live in Finland.

Kuvankaappaus 2014-1-10 kello 10.10.24

Not only does PS MP Immonen’s blog entry is close to 3,000 words long! The length and the topic show clearly the MP’s hatred for Muslims and cultural diversity.

MP Immonen, who is the chairman of the far-right association Suomen Sisu, which discourages white Finns from marrying foreigners, claims in his latest blog entry that gays, green-left groups, and the Finnish Lutheran Church are helping Islam to spread in Finland.

Immonen sent in December a written question to parliament that Finland should start classifying people according to their ethnic background.

As in previous cases, the PS and Soini haven’t said a word about Immonen’s racist views. The PS leader said that Immonen’s suggestion to classify people according to their ethnic background “doesn’t concern him.”

One matter that baffles me about the PS is that they are usually ready to label whole groups as rapists and criminals, but when some Finns look at the anti-immigration party, they are seen individuals.

This reveals, I believe, that deep state of denial that Finland is in concerning intolerance.

 

Is your attitude towards racism determined by your upbringing and where you grew up?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some immigrants and visible minorities fight against intolerance their own way. Others, however, shy away from such a challenge by preferring to live in denial. Is the way you fight against intolerance dependent on what you learned at home and in your home country? 

If a white Russian learned to hate blacks and Muslims in his society, why would he start defending this group in Finland? What about those immigrants that come from countries where questioning authority is a no-no?

What about if you lived in a society where your ethnic group had privileged status but now you’ve lost that status? What about if you make a deal to accept that you’re a second-class citizen in your new home country as long as you are not relegated to third- or fourth-class status?

Just because a person is an immigrant doesn’t mean that he or she understands never mind is against racism. Those prejudices that you learned could be reinforced by the new home country.

While some white Finns try to justify their racism by claiming that some immigrants are racists, one can never compare the two.

Writes Migrant Tales in January:

“The fact that white Finns are the standard of everything in Finland is enough proof that they wield real power. White Finns don’t have to understand racism because they simply don’t have to. It’s not an issue because they are the standard of this society, the norm. Everyone else has a prefix attached to them like immigrant, immigrant descendant, black, Roma etc.”

IMG_0038

One of the great figures to emerge from the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr. He said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

The most important matter that the Civil Rights Movement taught me was that you can challenge a social ill like racism and beat it at its own game even if such a social ill believes that it is all-powerful and unbeatable.

If I use myself as an example, it’s clear that the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the United States  (1955-68) had a lasting impact on my life. It not only taught me how important it is to challenge a social ill like racism, but fight for change in a non-violent manner.

Images and my direct experience with that period lives on so strongly that I bring them up in talks in Finland.

Kuva 79

 Malcolm X is another exemplary fighter of the Civil Rights Movement. He said: “Racism is like a Cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.”

Racism leaves deep scars in some people. It has left such wounds in me.

One open scar was left by our elementary school’s first black pupil in the mid-1960s. He was bullied to such an extent by his classmates that the black child lasted about two weeks at our Hollywood, California, school.

I don’t remember his first name, but his last name was Brown. How can I remember such a fact about a classmate I knew briefly such a long time ago? One of the jokes that was made by one student went as follows: “What’s the color of shit? Brown!”

Imagine the power or racism to destroy another person’s self-esteem. My classmates were all children who came from so-called middle-class homes. Together they acted like a school of ferocious pirhanas attacking their prey.

Even if the principle of the school spoke to all of us about how we should treat the new black student with respect, he never spoke to us about our behavior.

How is racism perpetuated and reinforced in Finland? By denial and in so-called normal Finnish homes.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS) and its leader, Timo Soini, are good examples of the bullying and victimizing of immigrants and visible minorities in this country. As everyone knows, Soini is the so-called good cop of the anti-immigration party.

One of the PS’ biggest loose canons and racists, MP James Hirvisaari, was expelled from the party after he invited a friend to parliament, whom he took a picture of making a Nazi salute.

If it weren’t for the PS, and specifically because of Soini, it is doubtful that Hirvisaari would have ever been elected. As a member of the far-right Muutos 2011 party today, nobody is any longer interested what Hirvisaari thinks.

So yes, Soini and the PS are responsible for making racism and intolerance more acceptable in Finland. Letting him off the hook is a mistake. He is the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

We must remember, however, that it’s not only the PS that has issues with racism but every party in this country. The PS would have never obtained so much power without the complacency and cowardice of other mainstream parties.

Magneettimedia editor and owner fined 45,000 euros by court for anti-Semitic writings

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Magneettimedia editor and owner Juha Kärkkäinen has been fined by a Finnish court 45,000 euros for publishing anti-Semitic writings of Ted Pike, David Duke and others as well as cartoons that bear a striking resemblance to the former Nazi tabloid, Der Strümer (1923-45), reports Lahti-based Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-21 kello 19.08.26

Read full story here.

The court ruled that the writings published fall in the category of hate speech and propaganda against Jews. 

Kärkkänen, however, denied the charges. He said the writings weren’t libelous or defamatory.

Numerous anti-Semitic articles have been published in previous issues of Magneettimedia. These include:

  • The Jews Who Control the Media
  • Who Owns the Media in 2012?
  • A Great Video Shows What a Cheat Albert Einstein Really Was!
  • Zionist Terrorism in Norway
  • CNN, Goldman Sachs and Zionist Control
  • How to Break Down and Dominate the Zionists

Meanwhile, former Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP, James Hirvisaari, accused on a blog entry the Finnish government of committing genocide against its people.

“Multiculturalism is one of the death weapons [to commit genocide],” he wrote. “With crude lies like “internationalization,” “aiding,” and – which is ridiculous – “to save Finnish jobs,” Finns are clearly misled to believe that the only option is the death of Finland.”

This kind of writing is being spread by the Muutos 2011 MP.

While Hirvisaari is one of a few MPs with far-right anti-immigration views, how much hostility spills to the street from his racist diatribe? How many Finns, with low self-esteem and multiculturally challenged like him, are “inspired” by his message of hate?

There is no reason why anyone living in this country should take sitting down Hirvisaari’s and Kärkkäinen’s call to hate minorities.

Our reaction to intolerance should be first and foremost a reaction.

Pressiklubi exposes MP James Hirvisaari’s fabricated lies and ignorance of immigrants and minorities

Posted on by Migrant Tales

MP James Hirvisaari, who got expelled from the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party last week, appeared on Ruben Stiller’s Pressiklubi Friday. Compared with his appearance on Enbuske & Linnanahde Crew’s talk show the previous day, the new Muutos 2011 MP’s fabricated lies and ignorance were exposed in the raw.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-12 kello 8.13.52

See full program (in Finnish) here.

Just like the many urban tales spread by anti-immigration politicians like Hirvisaari, one of their favorite deceptions is to portray themselves as champions of free speech. In the case of Hirvisaari, it’s the state prosecutor and hazy ethnic agitation laws that attempt to limit his freedom of expression.

If we look at what Hirvisaari has written before about immigrants and Muslims, we’d notice that the MP has had a lot of freedom to insult and victimize other minorities in order to further his political career.

The fact that racist Islamophobic diatribe has found a home in Finland through the writings of people like Hirvisaari, reveals that this country has serious intolerance issues to deal with.

Before the historic 2011 elections, in which the PS won 39 seats versus  5 in the previous election, far-right voices like Hirvisaari were elected to parliament thanks to their fear-mongering and lynch-mob style writings, which spread like wildfire thanks to the social media and national media.

Pressiklubi did a good job at exposing Hirvisaari’s exaggerations and outright lies. Johanna Korhonen asked the MP if he could give one concrete example how his right to express himself about Islam was limited.

Hirvisaari didn’t answer the question because it would have exposed the secret of his fabricated lies and exaggerations.

Another fast one pulled by Hirvisaari on the show was claiming that criticizing multiculturalism was forbidden in this country. If this is true, why is their so much intolerance and criticism of cultural diversity on many social media websites and forums in Finland?  

When the media and the general public understand that intolerance, racism and victimization of immigrants and minorities have nothing to do with our national interests but are harmful to our society, it will be easier to nip characters like Hirvisaari in the bud before they sprout into political Frankensteins.

How the Finnish media flirts with disgraced former PS MP James Hirvisaari

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why would a Finnish talk show like Enbuske & Linnanahde Crew want to interview a disgraced MP like James Hirvisaari, who got kicked out of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party last week for taking a picture of a person making a Nazi salute in parliament? One of the guests of the show, actress Krista Kosonen, wrapped up Hirvisaari’s thoughts and writings in one word: Crap!

Even if Tuomas Enbuske tries to make smart questions to understand the mind of Hirvisaari, it is another sad example of the how the media continues to flirt with far-right politicians whose only merits are spreading hatred.

Is the interview with Hirvisaari another sad example of how the Finnish media gives racists inflated respectability and importance?

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-11 kello 18.54.10

Read full story here.

What’s the point of interviewing a convicted MP for ethnic agitation? What value does he bring the debate? Does his presence in the program reveal something about Tuomas Enbuske’s and Aki Linnanahde? Thanks to Kosonen, however, and contrary to Enbuske, who tried to understand Hirvisaari’s worldview, the Muutos2011 MP got a taste of her medicine. 

“Hirvisaari says that he doesn’t fear anything,” Kosonen said on the show and was quoted on Ilta-Snomat. “But that is what it actually is: fear. Living in a small bubble…We have to think how immigrants should adapt to society not fear, how clitorises are slashed fifteen years from now.”

This is the second time Tuomas Enbuske has invited Hirvisaari to his show. 

 

 

Paljastattu.: Uudet ajat puhaltavat Suomen yllä

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Enrique Tessieri

Kansanedustaja James Hirvisaaren episodi tällä viikolla nostaa pöydälle yhden mielenkiintoisen kysymyksen: onko se ensimmäinen näkyvä halkeama perussuomalaisten hajoamisesta? 

Vaikka on liian aikaista sanoo kuinka Hirvisaaren potkut perussuomalaisista tulee horjuttamaan puoluetta, Timo Soini tulee varmasti vakuuttamaan ulospäin ettei puolueelle ole mitään hätää ja oma pesä on nyt kunnossa.

Onko niin?

Hirvisaaren tapausta huolimatta, ei se merkitse, että puolue on ratkaisu äärioikeistolaisen ja rasistisen ongelmaan. Perussuomalaisia yhä yhdistä samat populistiset arvot:  EU-, maahanmuutto- ja erityisesti islamvastaiset mielipiteet.

Miksi ihmeessä kansanedustaja Hirvisaari otti kuva ystävästä eduskunnassa tekemässä natsitervehdys? Paitsi erittäin huono arviointikyky seurauksista, paljastuu myös raasti Hirvisaaren äärioikeistolainen ja vainoharhainen maailmaa.

Yksi syy miksi natsismi, äärioikeistolaisuus ja kovat arvot ovat nostaneet päätään Suomessa ja Euroopassa tänä päivänä voidaan selittää yksinkertaisesti sillä, että monet ovat unhottanet omaan maan historiansa.

Talvisota oli tärkein syy miksi liitouitumme Hitlerin Saksan kanssa jatkosodan aikaan. Silloin yhteinen vihollinen oli Neuvostoliitto. Samat perustellut olla kansallismielinen populisti, äärioikeistolainen, Natsi tai rasisti pätee yhä. koska vihollinen on Muslimit ja maahanmuuttajia.

Perussuomalainen kansanedustaja Juho Eerola on erinomainen esimerkki siitä kuinka fasismi on pääsyt Eduskuntaan ja on muuttunut salonkikelpoiseksi. Muistaako kukaan mitä Eerola kirjoitti Hommaforumin seinällä vuonna 2010? Hän kirjoitti: ”Itseäni viehättää fasismi ja erityisesti Benito Mussolinin harjoittama talouspolitiikka. Yrittäjyyteen kannustettiin, se oli tiukasti valtion kontrollissa…”

Vaikka Eerolan avustaja Ulla Pyysalon nimi löytyy vuonna 2011 uusnatsi Kansallinen vastarinnan listalta, hän ei nähnyt siinä mitään väärä. Ei ihme.

Eerolan, Halla-ahon, Immosen ja Hirvisaaren maahanmuuttovastainen ja ksenofobinen linja ei pelkästään paljasta suvaitsemattomuutta ja rasismia, siinä on reilu annos tietämättömyyttä sekoitettu vainoharhaisen ideologian kanssa. Vaikka Halla-aholle on tohtori tutkinto, ei se merkitse mitään. Natsi-Saksan aikana paljon tiedemiehiä ja tohtoreita  murhasivat juutalaisia, vähemmistöjä ja viattomia sivilejä.

Suomi oli viime vuosisadalla hyvin suljettu maa. Kuten Mussoliniin Italiassa, ulkomaalaisomistus oli vähäistä ja tärkeämmät taloussektorit, kuten mm. metsäteollisuus ja kaivosteollisuus,  suljettiin ulkomaalaisomistuksista. Suomen maahanmuuttajia väestö oli silloin hyvin pieni melkein olematon (1970 asui 5 483 ulkomaalaisia). Vasta 1990-luvulla, asiat muuttuivat kun tulimme EU-jäseneksi.

Miksi Suomi oli hyvin suljettu maa viime vuosisadalla? Koska silloin tehtiin kaikki mahdollinen rajoittaa maahanmuutto ja ulkomaalaissijoituksia tänne. Kenties tämä selittää miksi Suomessa maahanmuuttovastaisuus on nostanut päätään voimakasti.

Suomi elää tänään uuttaa aika. Jollekin se on hyvin vaikea ja toiselle se on helpompaa omaksua.

Alkuperäisen blogikirjoituksen voi lukea tästä.

Is it ok to be a closet fascist, Nazi and racist in the PS after the Hirvisaari scandal?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

In an A-studio talk show Monday, Perussuomalaiset (PS) third vice-president, Juho Eerola, was asked what was the underlying message of MP James Hirvisaari’s expulsion to members of the party. The PS MP said that “playing with issues like National Socialism and misanthropy” are unacceptable in the PS.

The person making such a claim, Eerola, wrote in 2010 that he was attracted to fascism and Benito Mussolini’s economic policies.

This is the same PS MP who forgot to mention that his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, was found in the end of 2011 on a list applying for membership in Kansallinen Vastarinta, a neo-Nazi group that openly supports National Socialism.

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-8 kello 10.06.05

Pyysalo was elected last year to the Taipalsaari town council last year and her views of immigrants are in the Hirvisaari league.

On a thread on Facebook last year with TU tennis, Ulla Pyysalo compared immigrants to animals and plants. “Yes, transplanting animals or plants in a new environment has always ended in failure…I heard just recently that hunters are encouraged to kill these raccoon dogs. God dang it how racist and terrible. Eeek help! :D DDDD,” she wrote.

The PS third vice-president admitted that he and those who signed the anti-immigration Nuiva Manifesto haven’t turned their backs on Hirvisaari irrespective of what happened last week.

Eerola tried to correct the A-studio journalist by stating that there isn’t an anti-immigration wing in the PS. He said that all of the candidates that ran for office in the 2011 election supported the party’s immigration policy, which is based on the Nuiva Manifesto.

The Nuiva Manifesto is hostile to immigrants because it seeks one-way integration, loathes cultural diversity, and aims to curtail Muslims and visible immigrants from outside the EU from moving to this country.

If by Eerola’s logic all of the PS MPs gave their backing to the Nuiva Manifesto in 2011, then it means that all of the PS MP belong to the anti-immigration camp or are Nuiva Manifesto supporters.

 

Two important stories this week that may have far-reaching implications for Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This week was marked by two important news stories that will could have far-reaching consequences on our country: Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari’s expulsion from the anti-immigration and anti-EU party, and positive words about immigration by Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen. 

Kuvankaappaus 2013-10-5 kello 8.20.40

Verkkouutiset is published by the National Coalition Party. See full story here.

While the first news about Hirvisaari dominated this week’s headlines, it was interesting to note how this far-right anti-immigration MP has been turned into a scapegoat by Timo Soini and his party.

Hirvisaari was sacked because he took a picture of his guest, Seppo Lehto, making a Nazi salute in parliament. It wasn’t because of his conviction for ethnic agitation or for all the racist and far-right statements he’s made in the past. Moreover, we shouldn’t forget that Soini accepted Hirvisaari’s candidacy (and his anti-immigration rhetoric and lunacy).

Even if the PS wants to convince us that “its racism problem is over,” think twice because it is far from over. With or without Hirvisaari, the PS continues to be an anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party that aims to keep Finland white at all costs.

You don’t have to look too far in the PS to find the likes of Jussi Halla-aho, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo and a long list of others to understand that the party’s racism problem is still a festering issue.

Why is it ok for an MP like Juho Eerola to admit being attracted to fascism and why didn’t his aide, Ulla Pyysalo, get expelled after her name was found on a neo-Nazi associaton list?

Remember City Councilman Risto Helin who gave a Hitler clock to a neo-Nazi club in Vaasa? Why wasn’t he sacked from the party?

Doe the Hirvisaari incident tell us that it’s perfectly fine to house fascist, Nazi ideas in the PS and be a racist but a no-no to make a Nazi salute in parliament or with a Hitler mask?   

The expulsion of one far-right anti-immigration hothead like Hirvisaari is not enough. We need leadership and a shift in attitudes and values that will help Finland steer a new course on the intolerance front.

The second important piece of news this week was by Interior Minister Räsänen, who is no friend of gays, immigrants and immigration. She did, however, speak in a positive manner of the important role that Finland’s immigrants should be allowed play in this country’s development in this century.

The main point Räsänen made was that immigrants bring more money than take from society. Contrary to what politicians like Hirvisaari say, immigrants foster economic growth.

”Taking advantage of the skills of immigrants is vital to Finland’s well being,” she was quoted as saying on Verkkouutiset. ”Those that come [to Finland] from elsewhere should be seen as involved and active participants [in society]…”

If immigration is an important pillar of economic growth for many countries, why do some still believe that it is an economic and social burden? Why does the interior ministry have to tell us something so obvious, that immigration fosters economic growth?

The answer is simple: Because the debate on immigration, immigrants and our ever-growing cultural diversity has been hijacked by the likes of politicians like Hirvisaari and others  thanks to our silence. We are still taught at schools and at home that foreigners are a threat and should be eyed with suspicion.

Taking into account our aging population and the social and economic deterioration we face as a nation in this century if we persist to believe our urban tales about immigrants, it would be suicidal today not to challenge intolerance, prejudice and racism in Finland.