Racism is a sickness, and as a disorder, it has consequences for the victim and the perpetrator. We learned about a bus driver and Peurssuomalaiset (PS)* politician called Gleb Simonov, who thought up the “bright” idea to videotape and insult only Somalis in three videos that he posted.
Read on »Posts Tagged: Somalis
A Helsinki bus driver who publishes video tapes of Somali clients he’s insulted
What would you say if a bus driver, who only video tapes Somalis, starts calling them liars and forces them off the bus even after one of them said she was ready to pay for the bus fare? Ethnic profiling? Racist? All of the above?
Read on »Ilta-Sanomat continues to publish racist stories even today
It’s disingenuous of tabloid Ilta-Sanomat to publish a story on Monday about legendary Finnish sports television commentator Raimo “Höyry” Häyrinen’s racist comments without taking a long look at itself in the mirror.
Read on »Writer Nura Farah is one of the bright hopes of multicultural Finland
Nura Farah is Finland’s first published writer with Somali roots. She moved to Finland as a refugee in the early 1990s when she was 13 years after her country became tangled in a costly and painful civil war that continues to date.
Read on »Nura Farah: A blooming flower with a pen that many aimed to destroy
There is an interesting interview of Nura Farah, Finland’s first Somali-born writer, who speaks openly about growing up as a black person in this country from the 1990s, when even middle-school teachers took part in the racist bullying of non-white Finns. Racist bullying and racism are white privilege weapons used by this society to destroy
Read on »Finnish tabloid media’s dubious “achievment” is spreading intolerance
The Finnish tabloid media has the dubious “honor” for having spread intolerance in Finland by giving populists and racists inflated respectability and importance. If we look at some of the billboards that tabloids published in the 1990s, it’s clear that they were responsible for spreading racism and prejudice in Finland. Take for instance the most
Read on »Fadumo Dayib: To research, or not to research Somalis, is the question
I am here today to reflect on being the other, on othering. I am not here as a PhD student from this University but as an activist, a blogger and as your research object. Read full essay here. The previous presenter raised a very important point that activism does not put bread on your table.
Read on »So a PS councilman of Lieksa, Finland, wants a “Somali-free” room…
Roble Bashir We need a Somali-free meeting room today in the eastern Finnish town of Lieksa, according to a Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilman Esko Saastamoinen. Somali-free town tomorrow or Somali- free country after tomorrow? Why do they hate us so much? Illustration by Sebastian L. Jackson for Migrant Tales. Many times I wonder what is wrong
Read on »Meet the Somalis – the illustrated stories of Somalis in seven cities in Europe
The Open Society Foundations have recently published a fascinating set of seven illustrated stories, called ‘meet the Somalis‘, covering the experiences of Somalis living in cities across Europe. On November 21, this will coincide with the publishing of the Foundations’ research report “Somalis in Helsinki”. To quote the Foundation’s website: “The Somali community in Europe
Read on »How tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat reinforce our prejudices against immigrants and refugees
Tabloids like Ilta-Sanomat have a lot to learn about fairness, which is the cornerstone of all good news reporting. But tabloids aren’t interested in fairness but in sensationalism. A story by Ilta-Sanomat is headlined: ”Two Somalis use [fake] Yemeni passports to travel to Finland.” Even if the story suggests that these Somalis are committing a crime
Read on »Record number of immigrants become Finnish citizens in 2012
A record number of immigrants got Finnish citizen in 2012, rising by 4,530 to 9,090 persons, according to Statistics Finland. The lion’s share of these naturalized Finns were Russians (2,480) followed by Somalis (610), Estonians (520) and Afghanis. While citizenship grants many rights to an immigrant, it does not mean that the person will be
Read on »FIS: Somali family reunifications plummeted to just over 500 in 2012
The number of Somali family reunification applications in 2012 plummeted to just over 500 application compared with 1,900 in the previous year and 3,900 in 2010, reports Helsingin Sanomat, citing the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS). There were a total of 8,600 applications in 2012. The highest number were from were from citizens of the
Read on »FRA: Hate crime a daily matter in the European Union
Two recent reports published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) confirm that hate crime happens daily throughout the European Union (EU). One of the reports reveals that 32% of Somalis interviewed by the agency that live in Finland reported being victims of hate crimes during the past 12 months. Other countries in
Read on »THL study shows high amount of mental health problems suffered by Russians, Somalis and Kurds
The first question that came to mind when I read a disturbing study of Russian, Somali and Kurdish immigrants by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) is why now? If the THL study is the first-ever of its kind in Finland about immigrants’ health and living conditions, why has it taken such a long
Read on »Finnish Lutheran Church says family reunification from Africa is costly and dangerous
Archbishop Kari Mäkinen said that family reunification of Africans with their families in Finland is not only costly but dangerous, reports YLE. Since Finland does not have an embassy in war-ravaged Somalia, Somalis are required to apply for residence permits in neighboring Ethiopia or Kenya. The Finnish Immigration Service has a backlog of about 10,000
Read on »Feeding Somalis and poor immigrants to the loan sharks of Finland
Migrant Tales wrote in May about the high cost, hassle and red tape some Somalis face to bring their relatives to Finland. Since it appears that the aim of the immigration authorities and politicians is to make family reunification as expensive and difficult as possible, some immigrants are being fed to the loan sharks as
Read on »Somali-Finn Abdulah: Living in no-man’s land (Part I)
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
Read on »Selling xenophobia and racism in Finnish tabloids in the 1990s
The early 1990s were a gruesome time for Finland for a number of reasons. Apart from suffering one of its worst-ever recessions in a century, the ugly face of racism become ever-public. Fortunately at the time, immigrants accounted for less than 1% of the total population so there weren’t too many around to blame except for Russians, Estonians, Roma, blacks and Somalis in the tabloids.
Read on »Forgiving our past enemies and mending relations with new ones in Finland
I have never understood why some Finns are capable of expressing so much hatred for religious groups like Muslims, Somalis, blacks, and especially the Romany minority and Russians. Even if the Continuation War (1941-44) ended 67 years ago, some of us still sound as if we were in those trenches waiting for the enemy to attack.
Read on »Another Somali youth dies this time in Espoo, Finland
Only about three weeks after the tragic death of a Somali national in Oulu, when he attempted to escape from three Finns that barged into his home, Migrant Tales has heard yet another death apparently of a Somali youth in Espoo, who died Friday morning.
Read on »Suomen Somaali Portaaliksi: Onko minun äänelläni merkitystä?
Eduskuntavaaleihin on jäljellä enää neljä kuukautta. Ennakkoäänestämisen ja vaalipäivän lähestyessä puolueet ja heidän ehdokkaansa ovat kiihdyttäneet vaalikampanjoitaan. Pyrkiessään kalastelemaan mahdollisemman suuren äänisaaliin ehdokkaat lupaavat muutoksia potentiaalisille tukijoilleen.
Read on »The sad case of Somalis in Finland
Below is a good example of how a public official’s comments helps strengthen racism and stereotypes of certain ethnic groups living in Finland. One of the biggest flaws in the arguments of anti-immigrant groups is that they incorrectly believe that cultures don’t change and therefore different groups are incompatible. I hope that the same stance as these far-right groups hasn’t overtaken the Finnish Immigration Service when we speak of the Somalians.
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
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- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
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