Ali Giray is a Green Party candidate from Joensuu who is running for parliament. After living 22 years in Finland, he still gets singled out because of his background. His campaign has been a target of near-constant vandalism and harassment. Despite these setbacks, Giray doesn’t plan to throw in the towel.
Even if these types attacks aim to intimidate him and his followers, they are the sad face of Finland that some may not want to see or deny that exists.
The parliamentary elections have taught Giray a lot of things about Finland.
“It has taught me that voices from diverse backgrounds are needed and are important if we want to build a strong and working society,” he said.
Giray said that the media plays an important role in shaping people’s opinions and view about others.
“If we are almost constantly fed negative news about certain groups without any positive news we won’t be able to form an objective picture about those people,” he said. “We must remember that we are all individuals. Every groups has its bad apples.”
Giray said that one of the important matters he teaches migrants in Finland is to be proud of their work and the importance that others appreciate what they are doing.
The Green Party candidate has seen his share of discrimination while living in Finland since the mid-1990s. He said that matters have improved since then.
“When I first came to Finland with my family we lived in Mikkeli during 1995-96 and then moved away from there because of racism,” he said. “Our next home town was Riihimäki (1996-99) and then Imatra. In 2003 I went to university in Kouvola, where I majored and graduated in business administration. I did my conscription in the same city and in 2009 I moved to Joensuu.”
Giray is a self-starter, a doer. Helping other migrants has cleared a career path for him. In the beginning he helped so many foreigners that he had to employ a worker at his pizzeria for 5-6 hours a day so he could help others.
“I ended up establishing a translation service called Tulkkikeskus, where I offer today translating and interpreting services [in over forty languages],” he continued. “I also offer business consultancy to migrant entrepreneurs through another company called Yrittajävalmennus.fi.”
See Ali Giray’s interview (in Finnish) on YLE here.
Continue reading “Green Party candidate Ali Giray: Respect can take you a long way”
