Finland tightens family reunification laws and denies migrants the right to a family

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The Finnish parliament didn’t vote Friday to tighten even further family reunification guidelines but effectively socially excluded and relegated migrants, especially asylum seekers, to second- and third-class citizens. The news ironically coincides with the death of former Rural Party MP Sulo Aittoniemi (1936-2016), an advocate against refugees and cultural diversity. 

Article 16 of the Human Rights Charter guarantees protection to families:

Article 16.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

And then there’s Section 6 of the Finnish Constitution that states: Everyone is equal before the law.

Are migrants, specifically asylum seekers that get a residence permit, equal before the law?

Certainly not since they don’t have a right to live with their families in Finland.

Is it a coincidence that Aittoniemi, who served as MP between 1987 and 2003, passed away on this dark day for migrants with families? 

Aittoniemi’s views and scorn for refugees, cultural diversity, and gays were well known.

In one comment in 1989 he vowed that “we won’t allow refugees to walk over us!” according to YLE. 

Social Democrat MEP Liisa Jakkosaari  once called Aittoniemi “a demagogue and charlatan” after he claimed that refugees that come to Finland only do so for economic reasons.  

Taking into account Aittoniemi’s views of migrants, it is surprising the Helsingin Sanomat does mention the former MP’s issues with gays but not a word about his racist views and stands.

If parliament showed in one vote how it loathes migrants and their human rights, the Helsingin Sanomat article showed how much the media denies a social illness like racism.

When some asylum seekers ask me why a country like Finland, which they thought respects human rights, tightens its family reunification law, my answer to them is simple and straightforward: We have one of the most anti-immigration governments in a long time. They tightened family reunification guidelines because they don’t want you in this country.

The new family reunification law means in effect that it will be virtually impossible for asylum seekers to bring their families here if they get a residence permit.

After an asylum seeker has his residence permit, he or she has three months to apply for family reunification. In order to be eligible, the person has to make 2,600 euros/month after taxes in order to bring his spouse and two children.

According to Pekka Myrskylä, a Statistics Finland researcher, only 20% of Finns make that amount of money today.

“What’s the point of getting a residence permit when they make it impossible for you to bring your family to this country?” said a disappointed Iraqi asylum seeker.

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MP Jo Cox’s death revealed and reminded how important our struggle against barbarism is

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On Thursday, we heard about the tragic killing of Labor MP Jo Cox, which was a stark reminder of the things she warned us about like hate speech, racism and outright hostility towards migrants and minorities. All we can do when such a heinous act gives us and our democratic institutions a blow is to stand strong. 

Cox death reveals in naked reality where Europe is failing and how it wants to correct its failure with violence. The brutality and bloodshed we are witnessing on European soil also involves the hundred of thousands of asylum seekers who have fled strife to only be given the cold shoulder by the European Union as was the deal with Turkey.

A paragraph in The Guardian sheds light on Cox’s death below.

“The idealism of Ms Cox was the very antithesis of such brutal cynicism. Honor her memory. Because the values and the commitment that she embodied are all that we have to keep barbarism at bay.”

A good synonym for barbarism is inhumanity.

Finland’s efforts to keep barbarism at bay are disappointing to say the least. The rise of the xenophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, the silence of most politicians to ever-growing racism and discrimination, stiffening family reunification laws and immigration laws, near-constant bravado and saber rattling from politicians are some of the challenges we have had in keeping barbarism at bay.

YLE parliamentary working group: Broadcaster is “diverse but not multicultural”

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A parliamentary working group chaired by National Coalition Party (NCP) MP Arto Satonen to examine the role of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) is not proposing any drastic change to the system of funding but plans to make the broadcaster more nationalistic. 

One of the most surprising matters that the parliamentary working group will change concerning YLE’s role is exchanging the name “multicultural” for “cultural diversity.”

While the term “cultural diversity” is a good synonym for “multiculturalism,”  striking off the latter term from YLE’s role shows blatant ignorance and how nationalism and intolerance have crept into Finnish politics.

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Culturally diverse Finland has a history

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Enrique Tessieri*

Because migrants and minorities in Finland do not have power, we are taught to believe we are rootless and have no historicity. It is not true: migrant and anti-racism activism in Finland was already very alive in the 1980s.

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The demonstration in October 1982 demanded basic rights for foreigners in Finland.

“Our dominant classes have made sure that the worker has no history, doesn’t have a doctrine, any heroes or any martyrs. Every struggle has to start from scratch, separated from previous struggles; the collective history is lost, their lessons are forgotten. History appears as it if were private property, whose owners are the owners of everything.”** Rodolfo Walsh (1928-77)

The late Argentinean writer and social activist Rodolfo Walsh (1927-77) showed the power of investigative journalism in Argentina when he published Operation Massacre in 1957. The book exposed how supporters of president Juan Domingo Pero?n were captured and shot by the military junta’s secret firing squad, after Pero?n was deposed by a military coup. Walsh’s quote, that the worker has no history, offers a good description of the situation of migrants and minorities in Finland today. Even if we too aren’t supposed to have any history, the interesting question to ask is why we are taught to believe that we are rootless and living on the outer fringes of society.

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Thulfiqar Abdulkareem Abdulameer: My story

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Thulfiqar Abdulkareem Abdulameer* 

Last year I was 27 years old, working as a journalist in my hometown Baghdad, where I had studied business administration. I wrote an article about the war, and how the militias were sending young, untrained guys to fight against ISIS who were well equipped with modern weapons. I wrote that it was like sending these young fighters to their deaths.

That article put my life in serious danger— the militias threatened me, and one of my friends told me there was a plan to kill me. I had to leave immediately, so he started helping me to run away. In the meantime, the militia planted a bomb in my friend’s car, seriously injuring him.

September 11, 2015, was my last day in my country. I fled without getting a chance to see my niece, who was born the day before. I left everything behind.

It must be easy sometimes to beat someone up just because of how they look.

The violent journey through Europe

My only chance was to cross the sea with the other immigrants. It wasn’t easy to put my life in the hands of the greedy people smugglers. But I felt I had no other choice.

We set off from Izmir towards the island of Lesbos in a rubber boat with a capacity of 35. There were 50 of us. Kids and women were crying. It felt like the hardest two and a half hours of my whole life. Until finally it was over. A miracle.

A group of brave volunteers were waiting for us on the beach. We’d made it to Europe but our hardships weren’t over. We continued on foot for seven hours to the nearest camp. Thousands of people were there waiting for their papers, fearful of what was to come, and longing for what they’d left behind. It was miserable. We stayed there for three days, sleeping out in the open.

My memories of our journey onwards from Greece are that it was awful and hard. First to Macedonia, then on to Serbia. The Serbian army were treating people harshly, with no respect. People were sleeping on the ground, almost naked, in the freezing cold—some parents had burnt their clothes to keep their children warm. The queue to get travel documents took two days. After that we made it to Croatia, then Hungary. The soldiers there also acted unbearably. It must be easy sometimes to beat someone up just because of how they look.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-15 kello 12.31.12

From there I travelled through Austria to Germany. I had planned to stay in Germany, but there, people told me that asylum seekers in Finland were getting their decisions much more quickly. So I decided to carry on—to Denmark, through Sweden, and finally arriving in Tornio, northern Finland, on October 16, 2015.

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Otavan Sanomat: Sankarini Rosa Emilia Clay

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Ali Sagal Abdikarim*

Somalialaisena, joka on asunut Suomessa neljä vuotta, minulle Rosa Emilia Clay on erittäin tärkeä esimerkki. Clay oli ensimmäinen afrikkalainen, joka Sai Suomen kansalaisuuden vuonna 1899.

Kaikki tietävät, että Suomessa asuu vähän afrikkalaisia ja afrosuomalasia. Suurin afrikkalaiskansalaistyhmä ovat somalit, noin 10 000 ihmisiä. Lukuun ottamatta Pohjois-Afrikan kansalaisia, afrikkalaisia on Suomessa noin 31 000.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-14 kello 10.01.31

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Suomi on monelle meistä kotimaa, jossa lapsemme elävät ja käyvät koulua. Kiitos Claylle, emme ole ihan muukalaisia Suomessa.

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Otavan Sanomat: Uusi elämä, uusi ihminen

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Zahra Khavari

Minä olen afganistanilainen, vaikka synnyin Iranissa ja asun tällä hetkellä Suomessa. Koska olen asunut monissa maissa, minulle ei ole niin tärkeä tietä mistä kaupungista tai kylästä olet.

Koska minulla on pakolaistausta, en ole koskaan käynyt Afganistanissa. Perheeni joutui lähtemään pakoon Afganistanista, koska siellä ei ollut turvallista elää.

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Muutin Suomeen perheeni kanssa vuonna 2014. Vaikka olen asunut täällä vain kaksi vuotta, tiedän ja tunnen, että haluaisin elää tässä maassa loppu elämäni.

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Otavan Sanomat: Kunniottaminen on tärkeä

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Zeinab Amini ja Soheila Khavari*

Suomen yhteiskunta moninaistuu nopealla vauhdilla ja viimeisten kolmenkymmenen vuoden aikana on ulkomaalaisten määrä noussut paljon. Suomessa asui vuonna 1986 16 753 ulkomaalaista, Väestörekisterin mukaan. Viime vuonna meitä oli 229 765 ulkomaalaista.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-14 kello 9.46.42

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Tämä luku tule nousemaan 2030 mennessä 330 000. Suurimmat kansallisryhmät olivat viime vuonna virolaiset (50 367), venäläiset (30 813), ruotsalaiset (8 174), kiinalaiset (8 042), ja somalialaiset (7 261).

Millä tavalla voisimme rakentaa yhteiskuntaa, jossa kunnioittaminen on kannustettava ja tärkeä asia?

Kysymystä voisimme katsoa myös toisesta näkökulmasta: Onko mahdollista rakentaa vahvaa ja vauraus yhteiskuntaa ilman kahden välistä kunnioitusta? Mielestämme se ei onnistuu.

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Namir al-Azzawi ends hunger strike after nine days

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After nine days Namir al-Azzawi ended today his hunger strike citing “health reasons” and “because nobody cared,” according to a Facebook posting. Al-Azzawi was taken to hospital two times last week after fainting on Wednesday and Sunday. 

“Even if I ended my hunger strike I will leave all the pictures and banner and visit this place [right across the little parliament] every day [from morning to night],” he said on the video. “I stopped the hunger strike not only because of health reasons but because the government and the Finnish media didn’t care.”

Al-Azzawi said that the message he wants to get across to Finns is that Iraq is not a safe place like the government alleges.

“If the government doesn’t change its decision [on Iraq] I will start a new hunger strike,” he concluded.

Apart from where al-Azzawi protests right across the little parliament, Iraqi asylum seekers have chosen Mannerheim’s statue in downtown Helsinki to be the main place where they’ll demonstrate daily against the Finnish Immigration Service’s (Migri) new assessment that claims that Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia are “safe” countries.

The assessment by Migri has come as a shock to many Iraqi asylum seekers in Finland.

Al-Azzawi wrote over a week ago on Sunday:

Dear People of Finland,

I started my hunger strike on Sunday in protest of the unfair decision by the Immigration Authorities (Migri), which claim that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are safe to return asylum seekers. Many of us Iraqis were disappointed by the decision taking into account that we fled that country because it wasn’t and still isn’t safe. I will not stop my hunger strike until the Immigration Authorities change their decision.

Namir al-Azzawi announces (in Arabic) in the video the end of his hunger strike.

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