It is very easy to complain about why Finland should be reticent or more open about foreigners moving to the country to plug the ever-growing labor shortage and arrest the aging process of the Finnish population. If I could lay the foundations of Finland’s new immigrant policy, I’d make the following recommendations: 1) Decide once…
Finnish immigration policy is lost in time
Every country has a sensitive nerve. Find and touch it and you will hear pain – or outrage. In the US it is Washington’s unilateral approach to foreign policy, accepting that it was a crime against humanity to drop two atom bombs on Japan, in Spain it is the pillaging of Latin America from the…
In memory of Eila Kännö
For those of you who had the opportunity to move to Finland in the 1970s or early 1980s, will certainly remember Eila Kännö, the head of the then-Aliens’ Office. Has anyone counted how many times the name of the immigration office has changed since the 1970s? Ihave lost track.
The future human landscape of Finland
While we can debate how many foreigners will come to live in Finland in the next decade and if they’ll come to live in the country, what will Finland’s human landscape look like in the next and following decades as the country become more multicultural? By multicultural I am referring to Canada’s novel immigrant policy…
“It paid to be Alfredo Stroessner’s son”*
María Eugenia Heikel, 57, the former wife of the late Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner’s son Gustavo, is just one victim of the ruthless regime that ruled one of Latin America’s poorest countries for 35 years. (Click to see Spanish version of the article in El País of Madrid). Even though the Stroessners fled the country…
How immigrant-friendly is Finland?
If we look at the unemployment figures (20% jobless among foreigners) and the motives of non-Finns that moved to this country according to their residence permit applications, we are still faraway from being an immigrant-friendly country. According to the Finnish Immigration Service, last year 6,196 (32%) residence permit applications were for employment followed for studies…
My controversial documentary on Finland
If I had access to a generous amount of financing and got the chance to do a documentary film on Finland, what would be the first images I would show you? I would not start with a long and slow scene of dragonflies and insects dancing in the summer air above a pristine lake hugged…
Is there racism in Finland?
One of the most successful posts of this blog is, Are you a target of racism in Finland? In my opinion the reason why so many have read it is because there is a racism problem in Finland. A Niko wrote a recent comment, where he states, “there are some real problems in Finnish society…
Spain’s Valencia shameful example to its immigrants
The regional government of Valencia, which is ruled by the right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) , is planning to force immigrants to sign a contract obliging them to respect local “customs and traditions.” Apart from being illegal and a slap in the face to respect for other cultures, the PP-led initiative is racist as well….
Carnage in southern Spain
It was a quiet Saturday evening when a phone call awakes me from my rest at about 11pm. “A lot of Finns have died in Málaga [in southern Spain],” the journalist from a large Finnish magazine said. “Can you check what is going on and I’ll call you at noon [Sunday].” The first death count…