Even if parliamentary elections are in April, some politicians, like National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) MP and Espoo city councilwoman Pia Kauma, are openly attacking migrants. She’s the conservative politician who stated on Friday that migrants shouldn’t buy new baby carriages with welfare money.
Kauma got an opportunity on Monday to present her case on YLE’s A-Studio.
The interview, in my opinion, exposed her greed and political opportunism. How many times have anti-immigration politicians in the James Hirvisaari league tried to capitalize on the urban tale that migrants get more social welfare than white Finns.
“What irritates ethnic Finns is that they aren’t treated equally in this country,” said MP Kauma.
Not treated equally?! I wonder if she’s ever read Pekka Myrskylä’s blog, which shows conclusively that the majority of migrants in Finland live in poverty and get less social welfare than white Finns.
Marja-Leena Remes, a social worker at Espoo who was a gust on the same program as Kauma, stated that she didn’t have any evidence that migrants get more social welfare than white Finns. According to her, the city of Espoo only gives 200 euros in assistance to buy baby carriages.
Good luck if you’re going to buy a new baby carriage with that sum of money.
It’s clear from the A-Studio interview that Kauma bases her claim on he-said-she-said rumor.
Sakari Timonen is one of the best anti-racism bloggers in Finland. He states on a recent blog headlined Crusade against baby carriages that of the city of Espoo’s annual budget of 1.573 billion euros, only 3% (48.146 million) of this sum is allocated for social assistance, which could include the 200 euros for buying baby carriages.
See A-Studio interview (in Finnish) here.
Why then is Kauma making such a big deal about this matter if it’s only a storm in a tea cup?
Because she’s craving for media attention and because she knows that by fueling the envy of white Finns against migrants and minorities she’ll get media attention and supporters.
This is the same prank that anti-immigration politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Jussi Halla-aho, Hirvisaari, Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola and others used to get elected in 2011.
Shame on the National Coalition Party and Kauma.
Expect more hostility from more politicians like her as parliamentary elections near in April.
* 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.
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