An Iraqi, 33, who came to Finland in 2015, alleges that his employer of a Vantaa cleaning company asked him for 10,000 euros to give him a letter to the Finnish Immigration Service so he’d get a residence permit. He made a deal with the Finnish employer in 2019, and he would pay the sum…
Tag: exploitation
What you are never told and should know about working life in Finland
There are many good tips migrants can get in Finland on how to land a job, write a convincing CV, and give near-perfect answers to a prospective employer at a job interview. Despite the latter, one crucial matter needs to be included: Learning and protecting your rights after you are hired. Because it is difficult…
Getting a job does not scare me, it is what happens after that raises concern
If we look at the many stories of job discrimination that we have published in Migrant Tales, one factor links them: despair and the police, which too often look the other way. Considering the underwhelming effort the police have made in challenging human trafficking, labor discrimination, hate speech, and other social ills, why would a victim trust the…
Hesburger employee debacle: Wake up Finland!
One of the big questions that the Hesburger employee debacle proves is that Finnish unions, the police, and state regulators don’t take the law seriously enough. Migrant Tales has cited numerous cases where employers exploited foreigners. It’s clear that if their employers exploit some migrants, it happens as well to white Finns. A group of former and present Hesburger…
USAmerica’s colonial legacy in Latin America is like Africa for Europe
I was shocked but not surprised when US Vice President Kamala Harris warned would-be Guatemalans fleeing corruption, violence, and poverty. What Harris said in Guatemala was shameful and dishonest. “I want to be clear to folks in the region who make that dangerous trek to the Unites States-Mexican border – do not come, do not…
Cleaning companies exploit migrants and asylum seekers. What else is new?
THE STORY WAS UPDATED Helsingin Sanomat published today an extensive investigative journalism story about the exploitation of foreigners by cleaning companies. Apart from Finnish (paywall), the full story is in English, Farsi, and Arabic as well. The Helsingin Sanomat article writes about cleaning company employers’ false promises, exploitation and long working hours, underpayment of wages,…
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Migrants face abuse on both sides of the labor market
“An Iranian engineer with a master’s degree who had lived in Finland for about 20 years, claimed that he had applied to 4,000 jobs. Of that amount, only one prospective employer asked him for an interview, which was done online. He wasn’t hired. If migrants have a difficult time getting work from companies run by white Finns, many, especially people of color, face exploitation from foreign-owned companies, which pay them low wages.
Construction company in Turku area: work 15 hours/day, seven days a week for peanuts
A friend from South America called me and said how a construction company he worked for exploited its workers. The company is located in the Turku area and Migrant Tales is studying the possibility of denouncing this company to the authorities.
Brexit-inflicted UK is so racist that even white Europeans are targets of racism and rage
It would be wrong to conclude that Brexit is the cause of the racism we are witnessing today in the United Kingdom. Surprised? Not really. What would you expect from a country that has a dark history in global domination, exploitation, and genocide? The common thinking of some people about the United Kingdom is that…
A food distributor that hires asylum seekers, pays them under the table, to change the sell-by dates of their old products
An Espoo-Helsinki-based ethnic-food distributor, which allegedly hires asylum seekers and pays them near-starvation salaries under the table, uses such victims to repackage and change the sell-by dates of food products that should not be sold. Some of these products are allegedly five years old and their sell-by dates have changed twice, according to an asylum seeker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.