An immigration policy founded on racism and suspicion is bound to fail.
The tightening of the new government’s immigration policy, which has instilled fear among non-EU migrants, asylum seekers, and disappointment from the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) for hindering to facilitation foreign labor from outside the EU, is risky for a number of reasons.
If one reads the new government’s immigration policy, it’s clear that it was drafted by politicians who see migration from outside the EU as a threat. For non-EU migrants the message is clear: leave, we don’t want you here.
Just like former Prime Minister Juho Sipilä’s government (2015-2019), the new government plans to treat Finns and foreigners unequally concerning social welfare.
Section 6 of the constitution is crystal clear: “Everyone is equal before the law.”
Thus, if you want to lower social welfare benefits to non-FInns, you just lower them for Finns as well if you want it to be in line with the constitution.
Many of the proposals by the new government are in conflict with our constitution and international law, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The new measures are intended primarily for those who voted for the radical right Perussuoalaiset (PS)* party and the National Coalition Party.
It is ironic that the government’s new immigration policy is published during one of the worst shipwreck disasters in the Mediterranean, where hundreds of people are believed to have drowned off the coast of Greece.
If you look at other countries like Canada, the US, Argentina and others that have a long history with migrants, they are not perfect and problematic, but there is one matter that unites them: pathways to inclusion, an opportunity to become a part of society, real or imagined. In Finland, there are still no such paths.
Looking at the new immigration policy, Prime Minister-designate Petteri Orpo’s new government sees migrants with euro signs branded on their foreheads. In the new policy, one can get a permanent residence permit if you make 40,000 euros a year. If your salary is 4,000 euros a month, you can get at the most a residence permit in a week.
In other cases, it will take at the most a month.
Some asylum seekers who have failed to get a residence permit, will not be able in the future to get work permits.
Just like in Denmark, where refugees are forced to return to areas the authorities deem safe in war-torn Syria, Finland plans a similar policy.
Other plans to tighten immigration policy include changes in residence permits, forcing people to leave the country if they do not find work after being unemployed for three months, raising from five to eight years the residence period to apply for citizenship, lowering the number of quota refugees to 500 from 1,050 now.
The message of the new government couldn’t be clearer based on white Finnish racism and suspicion of people who look different.
Even so, no government policy and its xenophobic pundits can stop our culturally and ethnically diverse society from growing and prospering.
