“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin (1924-87) In Finland, we read a lot of studies about racism and discrimination. One recent article by Raster gives a comprehensive view of the issues fueling migrant discrimination and unemployment. Who can forget researcher Akhlaq Ahmad’s study in 2019 showed…
Tag: migrant employment
Sonia Maria Koo: EU freedoms paralyzed by Finnish xenophobia
Finnish election campaigns make it hard to stay calm even for a tax-paying, diligent, well-educated and fluent in local language EU-citizen with two decades of history in this inward-turning country showing more and more its ugly face of xenophobia and hatred.
Esperi Care reveals a wider problem: Lack of effective regulation and political will
What does scandal surrounding Esperi Care tell us about problems plaguing private elderly homes in Finland and how regulators don’t their jobs? This, I believe, is not a problem that just faces the nursing home sector, but the whole of Finnish society.
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.
Facebook Ahmed IJ: Words of exclusion
Migrant Tales insight: If finding a job isn’t easy for a foreigner in Finland, it is especially hard for an asylum seeker. Doors close and some are left ajar. Even so, you are not supposed to pass inside if you are an asylum seeker.
Asylum seeker Ibrahim has found work delivering newspapers for Posti
Migrant Tales insight: Remember Ibrahim? Remember the Iraqi asylum seeker who had applied for hundreds of jobs? Well, Ibrahim’s luck changed. He will start to work next week for Posti to deliver newspapers to homes.
Avelino* wasn’t the first undocumented migrant I had met in Finland
I got an email from a Migrant Tales reader who told me about Avelino*, a middle-aged Filipino who was working in Finland but who got deported last year with his two children. He wasn’t the first undocumented migrant I had met in Finland. The first one I met was a Mexican cook in the 1980s who was working for a restaurant called Mexicana in Helsinki.
How many former asylum seekers from Luona got jobs thanks to a fast-track employment scheme?
How is it possible that a fast-track hiring scheme for former asylum seekers at Barona, an employment agency that owns Luona, a private subsidiary that manages eight asylum reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Hyvinkää, gets a lot of attention in Helsingin Sanomat?
M. Blanc: My Finnish experience
M. Blanc* I’m a non-muslim Persian student in Finland and this is my story. I was born in Iran but due to the strict islamic rules and the islamic belief I couldn’t fit in from the early ages. I moved to Cyprus as a young teenager and after a while I came to north. I…
Finnish-language courses reveal part of the challenges that migrants face in Finland
Migrant Tales was happy to see one of our readers and contributors, Stephen Penny, on YLE Suora Linja Monday and Tuesday talking about the challenges some migrants face in learning the Finnish language. While Penny and Emma Kwegyir-Afful offer some good advice on how to improve Finnish-language training, the program raised two important issues that should…