Plans to tighten the citizenship law expose a remarkable case of historic amnesia of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government. Did you know that Finland denied women, whom they proudly claim were the first to get suffrage rights in Europe, the right to give citizenship to their children? It was only the man who had such a right and privilege.
In 1984, about 66 years after independence, women were finally granted the right to give citizenship to their children under jus sanguinis.
Source: Valtioneuvosto.
It took about 66 years to change the law and still, 40 years later, there is no apology that upended many people’s lives. Instead, the government wants to make citizenship more difficult.
You may ask how the old law that did not allow women to pass on citizenship to their children, changed such people’s lives. The Finnish state should offer an apology for such an exclusive law.
Without getting into a detailed description, I had to do military service in Argentina in 1977-78, during one of the country’s bloodiest dictatorships.
In Finland, it would have been a different story.
That is not all. When I moved to the country, I was treated like any other foreigner with no rights but whose mother brought some sympathy from the women who worked at the Aliens’ Office.
And now, Finland’s most right-wing government which has gone to bed with the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is giving the green light to tightening migration laws.
If the citizenship act passes parliament, it will not encourage adaption but stall and retard it. For one, it will take eight years of residence compared with five years now. Moreover, a citizenship test will be given. If Denmark is anything to go by, it will be more difficult for citizens to pass.
The new citizenship law is a house of mirrors and a shameful reminder of how eagerly the government wants to take us back to darker times for migrants and minorities.
