Author: Migrant Tales

A message from a 13-year-old asylum seeker girl that will be deported: “Good night”

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The ordeal of the Iraqi family of nine that is expects to be deported possibly Wednesday hasn’t ended but there is hope despite everything. One of the children of the family, who is 13, sends a message below from the immigration removal center at Joutseno: “Good night.”

The youngest member of the family is 1.5 years and the eldest 14.

The pictures below are just as terrible as “Ali’s” last selfie when he was inside a squad car at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and about to be deported.

The person who is in touch with the family responds to the adolescent’s message: “Good night loved ones.”

 

A view from the room where the Iraqi family of nine are detained at the immigration removal center at Joutseno, located next to the Russian border in southeast Finland.

 

 

 

 

Finland to deport a family of nine to Iraq – youngest child 1.5 years and the eldest 14

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Now it has come to this: A family of seven children from Karbala, Iraq, who came to Finland in 2015 with their parents will be most likely deported on Wednesday. The youngest is a year and a half and the eldest 14.

According to one source who knows the family, two of the children speak Finnish since they attended school in this country.

A family of seven children, a mother and father will be deported this week back to Iraq.

“I doubt that I’ll get any sleep tonight because I’ve been trying to help this family,” said a woman.  “I was afraid that it would come to this [deportation].”

Cases like these leave one speechless. What are they going to do in Iraq and how will they remember the trauma of those last days in Finland when they are being escorted by force back to their home country?

Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland: I’m building my home here and getting married this week

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Whenever an asylum seeker, irrespective of how many times his or her application for asylum got turned down, there is one matter that must be done: write, write and write. 

Not too many understand it, but it’s very important because at this moment every asylum seeker who is here is shedding roots or writing their history in Finland. I am certain many years from now, when we write about the hardships that the Iraqi community faced in Finland, we’ll search for those anecdotes found in diaries and in oral histories.

Here is a short story about an Iraqi asylum seeker who gave us a glimpse of his life in Finland:

I was with my uncle outside in Baghdad when we both got shot by a gang of militias. I survived, my uncle died instantly. I was rushed to a hospital where I recuperated after a couple of months. I then moved to Syria in 2011 because I wasn’t safe in Iraq. I moved to Syria in 2011 and stayed there for four years but there was a terrible civil war going on there as well. I moved back to Iraq in 2015 for a couple of months and went to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria Germany, Sweden and finally arrived in Finland on September 26, 2015. Crossing 10 countries to reach Finland was dangerous.

A picture of the lucky couple’s hands. Where there is love there is a way, right?

I have had my asylum application rejected twice. I’ve been in a relationship with a Finnish woman for over a year. We live together and love each other. We want to build our lives in Finland. I will be getting married this week. All the red tape to get the permissions from Iraq to the Finnish Embassy in Turkey have been overwhelming and forced us to postpone the date of our wedding. But everything is in order now and we’ll get married through the register office this week.

I don’t want to go back to Iraq because  it isn’t a safe country. People don’t have any right in Iraq. You have two choices, though: to join the militias or face death.

I chose life. That’s why I’m not going back to Iraq.

Please respect my decision.

Zalina Amelova: Finding work and career advancement in Finland is a tall order

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Migrant Tales insight:  Zalina Ametova is a pseudonym because she fears her employment prospects could worsen. The writer highlights the challenges of securing a job and advancing one’s career in Finland. This is a follow-up to a recent article written by a thirty-five-year-old foreigner about his experiences in the Finnish job market. Employment and unemployment are some of the hottest topics among migrants and minorities. 

Migrant Tales invites its readers to share their experiences in this area. 

Located in the northern part of the European continent is a country that borders Russia, Norway, and Sweden. It is called Finland, with the capital city of Helsinki. For many years, it has been included in the list of the happiest nations in the world based on various criteria like trust, support, perceived freedom, per capita gross domestic product, health index, and life expectancy, to name a few.

Because of its recognition as one of the happiest places on earth, many people from different countries harbor a desire to someday move to Finland and stay there for good. This might not be the best course of action to take because the reality is that Finland is not the most welcoming country there is, especially when it comes to immigrants.

Work for qualified foreigners is hard to come by. Finland is supposed to be one of the happiest nations in the world but for whom? Photo: Camtu Suhonen.

Locals themselves are finding it difficult to believe that their home is indeed one of the happiest places in the world as they are experiencing particular struggles themselves. For one, the cost of living is extremely high in this part of the world. Everyone under the watchful eye of the government is also obligated to pay large sums of tax.

You would think that only immigrants will have to face some hardships, but no, even the locals are pressured to get gainful employment because even the best degree won’t guarantee them work. This instability is something that the country has yet to overcome, and might not do so anytime soon with the government turning a blind eye towards the issue.

At least, the locals are considerably happier compared to the immigrants who have tried to make a home out of their Finnish residences. If the locals have a challenging time finding decent jobs, the condition of immigrants is much graver. Making ends meet is not simply achieved in this country as local employers tend to discriminate against foreigners.

Continue reading “Zalina Amelova: Finding work and career advancement in Finland is a tall order”

Finnish municipal elections analysis: Anti-immigration and us-vs-them politics aren’t sustainable

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One of the most important lessons of Sunday’s municipal elections is that the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, and especially its conservative anti-immigration message and wing, are the biggest losers. 

Since the party’s historic election victory of 2011, when it gained 39 seats in parliament from 5 previously, migrants, minorities and our ever-growing culturally diverse community has been the target of a hostile campaign by the PS.

Ever since the PS’ election victory of 2011, the right-wing populist party has made migrants and asylum seekers their favorite political target. Of all the Finnish parties, the PS are the only ones that have openly tried to capitalize on anti-immigration sentiment.

While the National Coalition Party won its third-straight municipal elections on Sunday with 20.7% of the vote, it was followed by the Social Democrats (19.4%), Center Party (17.5%), Greens (12.4%) and Left Alliance and the PS, which gained 8.8% apiece.

If the Greens made the biggest gains and the PS was the biggest losers, the Social Democrats were clearly a disappointment. Being in the opposition, their result was near-flat from the previous municipal elections of 2012.

 

 

With 100% of the votes counted, KOK (National Coalition Party) won and was followed by the SDP (Social Democratic Party), KESK (Center Party), VIHR (Green Party), VAS (Left Alliance), PS (Perussuomalaiset), RKP (Swedish People’s Party), KD (Christian Democrats) and MUUT (Others). Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

In many respects, the disastrous election result of the PS has come as sweet and long overdue payback for that party’s hostile and near-constant attacks against us. Outgoing PS chairman, Timo Soini, who has led their party since 1997, has played good cop, bad cop with the media.

Continue reading “Finnish municipal elections analysis: Anti-immigration and us-vs-them politics aren’t sustainable”

Finnish municipal elections: Greens make big gains, Perussuomalaiset are the biggest losers

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The result of Sunday’s municipal elections were especially good news for migrants and minorities, who have been the targets of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* especially after their parliamentary election victory of 2011, when the party won 39 seats (19.05%) from 5 MPs (4.05%) in the previous elections. 

Ever since that historic election win by the PS in 2011, the right-wing populist party has made migrants and asylum seekers their favorite political target. Of all the Finnish parties, the PS are the only ones that have openly tried to capitalize on anti-immigration sentiment.

While the National Coalition Party won its third-straight municipal elections with 20.6% of the vote, it was followed by the Social Democrats (19.4%), Center Party (17.7%), Greens (12.3%) and Left Alliance and the PS, which gained 8.8% apiece.

If the Greens made the biggest gains and the PS the biggest losers, the Social Democrats were a disappointment. Being in the opposition, their result was near-flat from the previous municipal elections of 2012.

With 95.1% of the votes counted, KOK (National Coalition Party) leads followed by SDP (Social Democratic Party), KESK (Center Party), VIHR (Green Party), VAS (Left Alliance), PS (Perussuomalaiset), RKP (Swedish People’s Party), KD (Christian Democrats) and MUUT (Others). Source: YLE.

This is why some analysts believed that the terrorist attack in Stockholm on Friday and news that a bomb was found on Saturday night in the Norwegian capital of Oslo could have helped the PS in today’s election.

Continue reading “Finnish municipal elections: Greens make big gains, Perussuomalaiset are the biggest losers”

UPDATE: National Coalition Party forecast to win municipal elections, PS the biggest losers

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YLE forecasts that the National Coalition Party (NCP) will be the winner of the 2017 municipal elections with 20.4% of the votes followed by the Social Democrats (19.2%) and Center Party (17.6%). The biggest winner will be the Greens (13.6%) and the biggest loser the Perussuomalaiset* (8.2%). 

The PS saw their support nosedive from the last municipal elections (12.3%) and especially from the parliamentary elections, when the got 17.7% of the votes.

For migrants, minorities and sensible Finns, the poor showing of the PS is the best news since the 2011 parliamentary elections, when the populist party won 19.05% of the votes versus 4.05% in 2007.

 

* The official translation to Finnish of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is the Finns Party. In our opinion, it is not only a horrible translation, but one that is misguided. A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Such terms like the Finns Party of True Finns promote as well in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and thereafter the acronym PS.

Finland’s blind spot of racism will persist for as long as we play dead and tango with it

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In the land of the blind, the person who can see with one eye is king.

A Latin American saying. 

National Coalition Party (NCP) Interior Minister Paula Risikko is a pretty questionable politician. The minister is deplorable for a number of reasons: she spreads suspicion of asylum seekers and migrants and doesn’t care to between distinguish what is a far-right anti-immigration group like Suomi Ensin (Finland First) and what is not. 

Interior Minister Risikko not only approves but has given the thumbs up to a far right Finland First demonstration in February.

With ministers like these supposedly serving migrants and minorities in Finland who needs enemies?

Interior Minister Paula Risikko giving the thumbs up at a far-right Finland First demonstration in February.

It’s clear that with politicians like Risikko and parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, NCP and Center Party in government, the country’s anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity hostility will strengthen and not go away.

The answer why is right under our noses. It’s in Risikko’s thumbs up in February, PS Foreign Minister Timo Soini’s poker face when he speaks about racism in his party, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s broken promise of offering his home to asylum seekers in September 2015, it’s in the empty “we have zero tolerance for racism” statements from politicians and so-called multicultural associations that are supposed to challenge racism but fuel it instead with their inaction.

Take a look at how our immigration law has tightened under this government and how Finland, a country that prides itself for defending and promoting human rights, denies and keeps families separated. The wretched anti-immigration atmosphere in Finland can be found in the forced deportations of hapless asylum seekers and in our inhumane immigration policy that treats migrants first and foremost with suspicion.

Continue reading “Finland’s blind spot of racism will persist for as long as we play dead and tango with it”

Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin & Jana Turk: Vote, vote and vote on Sunday!

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The 2017 municipal elections in Finland will be held this Sunday on 9 April, with advance voting having already taken place from 29 March to 4 April. Finnish municipal elections are held on the third Sunday of April every 4 years to elect councilors in the 295 municipalities in continental Finland and 16 in the Province of Åland as of the beginning of 2017.

While typically only citizens can vote in elections, the Finnish municipal elections entitle foreign non-citizen residents of Finland to have a say after only 2 years of registered residence in a Finnish municipality, or only after 51 days for citizens of a European Union country, Switzerland or Norway. With the relatively high level of Finnish proficiency still often required to access information on migrant rights, and even more so for political issues, many migrants are thus not necessarily aware that they are entitled to participate in the municipal election process.

An “Our Election” event organized by Moniheli with Green Party MP Ozan Yanar.

According to the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX 2015), the political participation of migrants has been low in the previous two municipal elections in 2008 and 2012. The general voter turnout was at 61.2% in 2008 and 58.3% in 2012. However, among eligible foreign residents, voter participation was only at 19.6% in both years. With the right to vote comes the right to stand as a candidate, and for this there is an even lower rate of participation by eligible foreign residents.

While the number of candidates with a mother tongue other than Finnish, Swedish or Sami increased from 539 in 2008 and 680 in 2012, it translated to only 0.3% and 0.4% of elected representatives respectively (34 in 2008, 43 in 2012).

Continue reading “Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin & Jana Turk: Vote, vote and vote on Sunday!”