If migration policy is based on lies, suspicion and racism, it is doomed to fail.
The attacks and hostility against the migrant and minority community in Finland intensified. The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has assured its supporters that there will be a significant tightening of immigration policies. This comes after reaching an agreement with the Swedish People’s Party (SPP) on such policies.
The PS and SPP were at loggerheads over the new government’s immigration policy. While the head of the PS, Riikka Purra, gave an ultimatum that it would pull out of the talks if the Swedish People’s Party did not accept the proposal on immigration policy.
Despite the dramatic nature of the events that unfolded on Saturday, resembling a second-rate soap opera, the PS ate its words and went through some points that the SPP had made.
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s leading daily, reported: “The SPP made changes that the tightening of immigration policy must be carried out within the limits of the constitution [and] the right of asylum seekers not to be deported will be respected.”
Yes, you read right. The SPP is asking that any tightening of immigration policy must respect the constitution and deportation bans will also be respected.
I wrote in a recent edition of the Middle East Eye: “The election in Sweden and Finland lay bare how much Nordic welfare state societies have changed in the face of growing social ills like inequality, racism and discrimination. “
We are in for a long struggle. Radical right parties have declared was on human rights and our basic civil rights.
We must stay strong and tight back!
If migration policy is based on lies, suspicion, and racism, it is doomed to fail.
