Helme: Estonia gets dregs of migrants

Photo: Liis Treimann

Martin Helme (37), board member of Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (CPP), explains his recent statement disparaged as racist.

«If black, send back (kui on must, näita ust).» This, in your view, ought to be Estonia’s immigration policy. Will you stick to these words?

This was overdoing it, simplifying – on purpose. But it is my conviction, and that of my party, that Estonia is supposed to have a very strict immigration policy. We cannot let mass immigration in.

We are told fairy tales of a mystical, profitable, useful selective migration. According to that, we will only get highly educated, good and hardworking people and that is supposed to help our economy, as if. But as soon as you say OK, let us sift, then; make a difference – then you are a racist.

And this is not a matter of the criteria. We may set whatever criteria, but as soon as you start to set them, immediately this is called discrimination, racism, xenophobia and what not.

You would not differentiate those coming on basis of education and working experience, rather into black and white.

I would say ours and aliens.

Who are the ours and aliens?

Ours are those who are here. Aliens are those who are not.

Estonia’s demographic situation does not allow for more people to be let in. Even with the arrival of a couple of thousand, the situation would substantially be altered. And that would not even be mass immigration.

We should be able to talk honestly about things – the way they really are. Should we follow the flow of the rest of the West, which has split the society and caused tensions, caused political tribalism – people no longer vote according to political flows but according to ethnic and cultural background – then we should be able to learn from it.

But how, then, would you differentiate between the black and the white?

In my opinion it is also wrong for Estonia to have open borders within the European Union. In that sense, I am not making any difference. It would be as unacceptable for me for Estonia to be flooded with Germans, for instance. Or Finns, or Swedes.

Right now, we are looking from the wrong end of the binoculars. We should start from the premise that Estonia is the native home and national abode of Estonians. Our political goal is increasing out Estonian population, increasing its percentage within our borders.

If you are as much against Finnish migrants as those from Africa, why then do you talk of blacks and whites?

In part, my goal was to establish that politically correct canons are not acceptable with us, when we have to do with complex issues of the society. We cannot be dictated to, which criteria we would consider as important.

Should we deem it right, we will use some racial, ethnic or religious criteria for sifting. And we ought to be able to talk about that, like this. Maybe some won’t like it, it may be offensive to some, but we will not let others impose stuff on us.

And you would establish such a criterion?

Our premise is that immigration must be absolutely minimal. And, at that – we all do understand that we can’t just bury our head in the sand – there are certain immigration categories with ethnic and religious backgrounds, people groups who are obviously problematic. The more distant and foreign the cultural background, the greater the future conflicts in the society.

The essence of what I said was that we must avoid the emergence of these problems, altogether. Let us prevent them.

Which measurements would you use? Shall we use the Pantone [colour] System to evaluate skin, or use compasses to determine shape of face?

The compasses’ joke goes back to Nazi times – no, of course not. In today’s world, the simplest way is to do it country-based.

There are certain countries, are included in certain lists, with which we are more open. Then there are other states we will be stricter with. African and Middle-Eastern states would surely fall in the latter category.

No matter the reasons a person arrives to Estonia, from there – may-be being married to an Estonian citizen, or fleeing persecution?

There are under a million Estonians in Estonia. We cannot start housing this world’s refugees, few or many. If there are Estonians who marry foreigners, then this is a two-way line. United by love, he or she may move to Algeria, not for the Algerian to move over here?

Why so?

We must protect out right to our native land, meaning control over our territory. It is up to us to decide, who are coming.

In the world of today, with discrimination theories abounding, one gets the feeling that migration is a human right. It is not. It never has been and shouldn’t be now, either. Migration is a privilege. And with those entering our country, we are the ones to decide – if, how many, from where.

Do you know, for instance, how many came to Estonia from Africa, in 2012?

I could not guess. Not many, obviously, but that is not the issue.

They were 26.

Do you know how many Moslems there were, in all of Holland, in 1900? A couple of dozen. After WW2, a couple of thousand. Now we are talking about millions. (According to Dutch state statistics, less than a million Moslems resided in Holland, at the end of last decade – edit).

There are clear patters that emerge on the basis of the kind of immigration politics that the people accusing me in racism want to establish in Estonia. I say to them: forget your talk about racism. This is not racism, this is common sense – if we keep from making the mistakes made by the West these past 30-50 years.

Should there be an educated, hardworking, ambitious person, whether from India or Nigeria, why should he come to Estonia? Why do we assume to be in the list of countries he is looking at, planning his future international career?

On his map, there are USA, UK, Australia, Germany, maybe some other countries. If we are in the list at all, then it is the very bottom. Let us be realists: we will never attract such people. This is fairy tale.

Talking of migrants coming here, they will be the dregs of society, in essence. I am not saying so about all of them, but in essence we will attract the least qualified, least motivated, least profitable for our economy. And they will come in masses. The will not be a tap we can adjust – whether it will be a trickle or a flood.

In Estonia’s demographic situation, if we are talking about even a couple of thousands a year, for our national body that would be destructive.

What are the plusses, compensating the wilful destruction of Estonians as a nation? I fail to see a reason. Should it become obvious that people are about to enter, based on some average criteria, for us to house, feed and keep, then we need to exit the European Union.