Jussi Halla-aho: “Finland Has Repeated Sweden’s Mistakes”

Below is a speech given by Jussi Halla-aho at the public library in Turku, Finland last Friday. The occasion was an election event for a parliamentary candidate for The Finns Party, Vilhelm Junnila. Mr. Halla-aho is a member of the European Parliament for the same party. Kent Ekeroth of the Sweden Democrats, a like-minded party in Sweden, was a guest at the event.

The elections were held over this past weekend, and The Finns Party — the only major immigration-critical party in Finland — came in second.

Many thanks to KGS for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

0:00   Now we’re about ready.
0:04   The room is full and behind the back window is a large group of demonstrators against the event.
0:09   Unfortunately they’ve turned their backs towards us but we won’t let them disturb us.
0:18   Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,
0:22   I’m Vilhelm Junnila, candidate for parliamentary elections in Finland
0:27   I’ve worked as an aide in parliament for The Finns Party
0:30   and led The Finns party group in the Southern Finland province council and in Naantali city council.
0:37   This event is not really about me,
0:40   but about you, and all of us.
0:43   In this seminar we’ll be looking at Sweden.
0:46   Sweden, our Western neighbor which many say is a model democratic state,
0:52   is often a point of our admiration.
0:57   But when immigration is in question,
0:59   Is Sweden’s path also our own path?
1:05   We have here today a member of parliament, Kent Ekeroth.
1:09   He has been a member of the Swedish parliament since the beginning of 2010.
1:15   He’s worked as a representative for the party and as the Sweden Democrats’ international affairs secretary.
1:22   In his work Kent Ekeroth has brought up specifically Swedish immigration,
1:26   and the problems connected with multiculturalism.
1:31   Finns should listen very closely;
1:33   by doing so we can avoid the mistakes of Sweden.
1:49   Can we avoid the mistakes of Sweden?
1:51   The EU MEP Jussi Halla-aho has arrived here in Turku straight from Brussels.
1:55   Can we learn from other’s mistakes?
2:00   Will we address the problems, or end up with the consequences?
2:05   Is ghettoization and tourist migration the beginning of the new age of wealth?
2:11   Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce first to the microphone Dr. Jussi Halla-aho.
2:23   Thank you, Vilhelm.
2:25   Welcome everyone to Wilhelm Junnila’s election event.
2:32   Kent Ekeroth (+ unknown name), welcome.
2:37   A few weeks ago The Finns think tank Suomen Perus published
2:42   an extensive and long-awaited research report
2:47   on the costs of immigration for Finland.
3:50   Consistent opinion polls reveal that for voters of The Finns Party,
3:55   the discussion about sensible immigration is the third most important issue.
4:02   Therefore it’s suitable to address it in this event.
4:07   Last winter a working group for The Finns Party completed
4:12   an immigration program for upcoming elections.
4:14   As many remember, the program created lots of wailing and crying
4:19   in the media and within many parties.
4:22   The program was accused, coldly, of being inhuman,
4:26   and in some opinions completely illegal, at least being against the constitution.
4:32   As a point of departure, it’s ridiculous to blame a political program,
4:37   saying that it’s in violation of the law.
4:43   The parliament is a law-creating body, where it’s possible make necessary changes in laws.
4:51   I mulled over the various problems in immigration for this speech,
4:55   that the immigration program tries to find solutions for.
5:05   If you look at recent political history,
5:07   the discussion of immigration has in part moved forward.
5:12   In contrast to ten years ago, the majority of the political field
5:16   and media admit today that many great questions are connected with immigration,
5:22   as well as challenges and problems about which something must be done.
5:27   These challenges and problems mostly concern people who have moved from Africa and the Middle East,
5:32   whose shocking unemployment numbers, ghettoization, and segregation living areas and schools,
5:40   weak Finnish learning skills, or violent criminality,
5:44   in addition, have their own especially odd, brutish features.
5:58   But when we start to talk about solutions,
6:00   mainstream discussion wants to stay strictly within the comfort zone.
6:04   Repeating generalized and ambiguous phrases,
6:10   Such as “centring on integration”,
6:12   prevent school drop-outs among second generation immigrants.
6:16   Prevent racism and discrimination, and increase social cooperation with ensured measures.
6:25   A question arises: if these are workable solutions for the solving of problems,
6:32   why aren’t they being used?
6:34   If they’re being used, why aren’t they bringing the desired results?
6:39   Why does humanitarian immigration and integration fail year after year,
6:44   decade after decade,
6:46   and why does it fail in the same way in all European countries?
6:56   Politically correct discussion of immigration is constructed so that the amount and quality
7:01   cannot be, nor even be allowed to be affected by political decision making.
7:08   The discussion can only be: shall a lot of money be used for integration,
7:12   or even more money?
7:15   The point of departure for The Finns party is a bit different.
7:20   Our view, in light of both Finnish and international experience,
7:23   is that the multicultural society, in modern terms, as an issue is not a worthwhile goal.
7:30   The quality of immigration and amount can be affected by political decision making.
7:36   Share government responsibility to create immigration and residency legislation,
7:43   that the host society will be done the least harm possible by immigration policies.
7:53   Immigration to Finland by comparison is still small, about 5% of the population.
8:01   This is something that we are also endlessly reminded of.
8:05   On the other hand we could ask,
8:07   is there any evidence for increasing immigration even more so than in Sweden?
8:15   In Finland over the past ten years it’s been repeated
8:18   that multiculturalism is a new phenomenon;
8:22   we still have time to avoid other countries’ mistakes, for example, Sweden’s.
8:31   Has Finland managed to avoid Sweden’s mistakes and failures?
8:37   No we haven’t.
8:39   Instead, Finland has repeated Sweden’s mistakes, and the results are as expected.
8:45   The mistakes are smaller than in Sweden, or even in France,
8:49   but that’s because the amount has been smaller.
8:55   It’s not because we have been able to integrate them better than in the aforementioned countries.
9:00   We haven’t had the same kind of suburban immigrant riots like elsewhere in Europe,
9:07   because we still haven’t, yet, suburbs whose residents are 80% or even 100%
9:13   marginalized immigrants.
9:17   However, we are quickly going in the same direction.
9:21   Helsinki, Vantaa and Turku are now where Stockholm and Malmö were 30 years ago.
9:29   If the present development continues,
9:33   Helsinki, Vantaa and Turku will be in 30 years time there, where Stockholm and Malmö are now.
9:42   The ghettoization of suburbs is a problem, is a reality that can’t be denied.
9:49   For an example, the Helsinki leadership named it as the next challenge in up coming years,
9:54   and at this moment, the biggest failure.
9:59   Working immigrants are centred in the already known areas,
10:05   which influence the opinions of taxpaying residents
10:09   concerning their welfare, and security,
10:11   and above all, their schools.
10:15   Seldom does a person want to place children in suburban schools,
10:19   where most of the teachers’ time and resources are spent
10:24   resolving all different kinds of crises, and resolving conflicts.
10:29   The hard cold facts are that a person looking to buy a home
10:33   takes notice if there satellite dishes on balconies,
10:38   or how many ‘Mohameds’ are on the apartment hallway names list.
10:44   Ghettoization is a problem from many angles.
10:49   First, in itself it fosters marginalization,
10:51   and continues it from generation to generation,
10:54   because the immigrants living in the enclave have no need to intermingle with
10:59   what’s called the host society.
11:03   On the other hand, it worsens the housing shortage,
11:05   especially for those people who go to work
11:09   and are not living off of subsidies,
11:11   and drives the taxpayer elsewhere to live.
11:17   For example, in Helsinki, municipal tax revenue does not increase in size,
11:20   though the population grows at a tremendous rate.
11:23   In Turku the situation is the same.
11:26   Immigrants need plenty of different kinds of social and health services,
11:34   and burden the municipal economy even more,
11:37   and participate on average in funding it to a lesser degree.
11:44   Immigration to Finland is specifically a local phenomenon.
11:49   It’s often heard in public discussion,
11:52   that Finland is a large country and sparsely populated,
11:55   which has enough room for newcomers.
11:58   And in the same vein, former Swedish PM Reinfeldt said in January
12:05   that Sweden has room for a greater number of new comers than it currently has;
12:09   he himself has seen from the window of his airplane that there’s more than enough room.
12:14   The problem with that also is, new comers are not situated in different areas of the country,
12:18   On the contrary, they seek to live in the bigger cities.
12:22   Of all the immigrants living in Finland, 80% live in the three counties of the capital,
12:28   in Tampere and in Turku.
12:35   One of the central difficult discussions on immigration is
12:38   immigration is seen as a whole.
12:40   As a monolith.
12:43   As an example, the critique presented by The Finns party, centred mainly
12:48   on non-work related immigration,
12:50   meaning immigrants coming to Finland for reasons other than work,
12:56   who in practice are not employed.
12:59   Also work-related immigration is connected with great problems,
13:01   but at this time I won’t be addressing them.
13:04   From the national economic perspective,
13:07   you can count employment as, for example,
13:12   being a translator for your own language,
13:15   or as a multiculturalism coordinator, or as a diversity expert.
13:23   Blessings for immigration are often based on prior success stories.
13:29   For an example, 100 years ago in the United States,
13:32   or during the 60’s and 70’s in Sweden.
13:36   The world is however different than before.
13:41   Globalization, and on the other hand automation,
13:44   have lessened the type of work in Europe that under-schooled or language-challenged
13:50   immigrants were employed in.
13:53   On the other hand, the welfare state that taxes work harshly,
13:57   and distributes freely all kinds of entitlements,
14:00   doesn’t entice those with know how, but other types of people.
14:08   European immigration lawmakers as such, are rather strict,
14:14   but their soft spot is for refugee practices and family reunification.
14:19   In practice these have not been channels for immigrants seeking work,
14:23   and is exactly the entirety of the problem that our immigration program seeks to address.
14:30   In some people’s opinion, we shouldn’t talk at all
14:33   about funding in connection with immigration.
14:36   Human rights organizations won’t put a price on it.
14:41   However, nowadays “human rights” more often
14:44   means rights to different kinds of services;
14:48   these services cost money and they come at a price,
14:52   that we have to consider what we have enough for, and where we don’t.
14:58   It may be that the number of recipients grows exponentially,
15:02   while at the same time the number of those who pay shrinks.
15:07   It also can’t be that at same time the public sector’s basic functions are slashed,
15:12   similar expenditures for immigration grow.
15:18   Finland, like other countries, has committed to giving protection to refugees.
15:24   We have to also remember that the overwhelming majority of those seeking refuge
15:30   are not refugees according to international standards.
15:34   They are those who are persecuted in their home country.
15:39   People are fleeing poverty,
15:41   and are drawn to Europe,
15:43   by the gap in standard of living with the southern Mediterranean.
15:47   It’s neither bad nor wrong that person tries to achieve a better life somewhere else.
15:53   But the refugee system is not meant for standard of living migration,
15:58   and it shouldn’t be used as such.
16:06   Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion in Europe,
16:09   about “guest fighters”.
16:11   A person who participates in combat, such as in Syria, even on paper,
16:18   or in Europe by European Union nationals.
16:23   Often these people have arrived to Europe as refugee applicants.
16:29   This phenomenon is not actually a new one;
16:31   many remember that during the past decade it’s been reported
16:35   regularly about Somali fighters as being “Swedes”, “Danes” and “Finns”.
16:44   An even more regular phenomenon is a person from Finland or Europe,
16:48   who has received a humanitarian residence permit travel to,
16:52   or resides in their home country,
16:55   but is still on the books in Finland and receives social security.
17:04   It’s been said that refugee procedures have been created
17:08   to of offer protection for victims fleeing persecution.
17:12   Is it clear if a person is freely operating in an area
17:17   where he’s officially being persecuted,
17:19   or sends his children there for vacation, or to learn the culture?
17:25   He doesn’t consider travelling there very dangerous.
17:29   These kinds of situations, the reasons for refugee status permit should be stopped
17:35   more automatically than is the case at present.
17:39   The program also proved that Finland should get control of immigration and work
17:44   more actively at the European level.
17:48   As you have most certainly noticed in the news,
17:50   Europe is experiencing unprecedented immigration pressure,
17:53   along the southern border of the Mediterranean.
17:57   And free movement within the union means that
18:00   what’s in question is a problem, also for Finland.
18:07   The Commission (EU) at the moment
18:09   has a model in which the EU takes care of points along the southern Mediterranean,
18:17   where people who are suffering can apply for refugee status in EU countries.
18:21   At the moment people have to physically arrive in Europe
18:25   in order to hand in a refugee application.
18:31   This entails a commitment to a burden mechanism
18:34   by which a person receiving a residency permit is distributed more evenly
18:38   between the member states.
18:41   Criteria would be, for an example, the member state’s population,
18:46   its GDP, geographic size, unemployment rate, and amount of refugees already received.
18:56   It was presented in parliament a week ago, the preliminary calculations of
19:00   what the burden sharing model means to the different member states.
19:05   For example, Germany and Sweden presently take in
19:08   many times the number of refugees than those whom the criteria touches.
19:16   Finland belongs to the greatest losers according to the burden sharing model,
19:21   because the number of humanitarian refugees, for the moment, is relatively small.
19:27   And because on many economic measurements, Finland for the moment
19:30   is less badly off than other member states.
19:36   Well, soon that will be taken care of. (Finnish elections in two days)
19:38   So it looks like there’s going to be a concrete proposal
19:42   on these matters coming from the Commission in May,
19:44   after this member states take responsibility for it,
19:43   and it’s very important what kind of policy position the next government and parliament
19:52   take on this issue.
19:56   It’s worth pondering on these issues before elections.
20:01   The Finns Party is the only party that is not committed to increasing immigration,
20:08   We look first as to whether Finland has enough
20:11   for the present level of non-work related immigration,
20:14   let alone doubling or tripling that what the burden mechanism in practice, means.
20:22   We are also of the opinion that transfer of population in general
20:27   is the wrong way to react to the world’s refugee problem.
20:31   Or world poverty.
20:34   Most refugees, perhaps 99%, remain in refugee camps,
20:41   near crisis areas, in very dismal conditions.
20:48   The problems are getting clean water, a children’s right to go to school, food.
20:56   The problems are of a different calibre from what people who have come here have experienced.
21:00   The refugee camps are where those humanitarian needs should be addressed.
21:07   In addition, the African population explosion.
21:10   The African population is about 800 million,
21:12   It’s estimated to increase in this century by four billion.
21:17   This development ensures that there will always be those wanting to come,
21:22   and always more than Europe will be able to integrate.
21:32   Right now Sweden is a warning signal
21:34   on where open-handed humanitarian immigration politics might lead.
21:41   This is essential from a Finnish position, among other things,
21:44   because Sweden is our neighbor, and because Finnish laws
21:48   essentially don’t differ from Swedish laws.
21:53   Finland has for the moment, been protected because
21:57   it’s not as well-known by immigrants from other countries as is Sweden,
22:00   but the situation could also change quickly.
22:03   The director of the immigration department for the Ministry of the interior stated
22:07   at some point that our family unification laws and our handling of Syrian refugees
22:15   are at least as liberal as they are in Sweden.
22:18   The only difference being that we don’t shout it to the world.
22:23   When you count up refugees, asylum seekers and include family reunification,
22:29   it’s been evaluated that Sweden will take in 600,000 humanitarian immigrants
22:34   during this election cycle 2018.
22:39   During the past 10 years, over half a million have come.
22:45   Sweden has taken in more people during the past 15 years
22:48   than Swedes who emigrated to the United States over a 100-year span.
22:55   In just housing and reception costs alone during this election cycle
22:59   8 billion euros will be spent.
23:06   And this doesn’t even include the basic costs for support of immigrants inside the country.
23:13   In addition to economic factors, there should be taken into account the factors of crime,
23:17   schools, housing, health care, ethnic tensions, segregation, religious fanaticism,
23:29   and everything else possible.
23:33   When we hitherto take into consideration Sweden accomplishments,
23:35   the changes, the scope of integration, we can predict that in the future,
23:39   we will have a very strange neighbor, on both the east and the west.
23:45   Thank you.
 

For links to articles about the persecution of Jussi Halla-aho in Finland, see the Jussi Halla-aho Archives.

7 thoughts on “Jussi Halla-aho: “Finland Has Repeated Sweden’s Mistakes”

  1. Thanks for a sterling translation of a text that otherwise would not have been noticed. It seems a good wrap of the status quo in Finland, the last sane country in north Europe.

  2. Hope the Finns listen and listen well,it wasn’t that long ago i was watching a documentary from Somalia and most Somalias were talking of making their way to Finland

  3. Thank you for posting the transcript as well. I couldn’t help but be distracted by the audio finding the Finnish language surprisingly resembles Hungarian, a language I’ve minimal familiarity with from my distant childhood.
    The protesters, with some modicum of respect, miss the entire point of this subject. Their obviously cemented degree of ignorance portends to their own ultimate peril. When their cars burn, their young daughters fall prey to muhammed’s sexual groomers, their grocers no longer sell non-halal goods, their children routinely harrassed and beaten simply for being non-believers, perhaps then, they may begin to remove their self-imposed veil of tolerance and open their eyes to the eternal doctrinal hatreds inherent to Islam.

    • I’m no expert on linguistic origins, but I believe when the Magyars headed west from central Asia a thousand years or so ago, some settled in what is now Hungary, others continued to present day Finland and Estonia.

      Year before last I visited Eisenstadt, SE of Vienna, to pay homage to Joseph Haydn; a young couple asked me to take their picture on the girl’s ‘phone. The text was in Hungarian, and she was olive skinned with black hair.

      • The languages of Finnland, Estonia, the Magyars, etc, are the Finno-Ugric group, and along with Basque are the only non-IndoEuropean languages in historical Europe left.

  4. On line:

    2:32 Kent Ekeroth (+ unknown name), welcome.

    In the space marked: (+ unknown name) Jussi Halla-aho says in Swedish:

    “Och andra Svenska vänner”

    Which in English means “And other Swedish friends”

Comments are closed.