Sweeping Changes Proposed for Immigration to Finland
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ISSUE 18 (50) • 9 – 15 MAY 2008 • €3 • WWW.HELSINKITIMES.FI DOMESTIC NEWS BUSINESS LIFESTYLE CULTURE EAT&DRINK Focus Aviation Diplomats’ Ellen Thesleff It’s on waste harmed by life in in Retretti’s brunch prevention expensive fuel Finland summer time! page 4 page 12 page 18 page 21 page 22 LEHTIKUVA / HEIKKI SAUKKOMAA An aging employee needs work and rest in a suitable relation TERHI LEINIÖ – STT pervisors and continuous adminis- MICHAEL NAGLER – HT trative changes decreased the work satisfaction of the elderly. EVEN a few extra free days would Maija-Kaarina Saloranta, 73, help the elderly to cope with their has remained eager to work even work. Most of the respondents in a during retirement. “I work because recent survey by the Rehabilitation it’s fun. Working also provides you Foundation and the UKK Institute with a routine and brings vigour to do not necessarily want semi-re- your everyday life. Otherwise life tirement. Instead they want a slack- would be just reading Helsingin Sa- ening in work schedules. nomat,” she sums up. Rehabilitation Foundation senior Saloranta, who lives in Helsin- researcher Tiina Pensola’s proposed ki, retired at 65 from Yleisradio in age-related free time could be a pre- 2000 but she still participates in the ventive measure with which more publishing of an organisation mag- people could keep on working long- azine and her voice can be heard in er without fatigue and burnout. commercials and in the voice books “Age-related free time would be of the Finnish Federation of the Vis- more affordable for the employer, ually Impaired. and if people could keep working “If work begins to tax me too for a couple of years more with that, much, I’ll quit. I don’t have many then it would be a really good sys- work years left in any case,” says tem indeed,” Pensola thinks. Saloranta. Those who responded to the sur- 43 employed people and 22 reti- vey also think that good work-re- rees aged 56 – 69 took part in the lated health care, rehabilitation Rehabilitation Foundation and UKK opportunities and appreciation of Institute’s project. In the medical employees also encourage people exam it was found that they needed to keep working. On the other hand rehabilitation, but they also did not excessive hurrying, bad work by su- have serious functional limitations. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) may in the future take over an even greater share of immigration related respon- sibilities, suggests a report published on 6 May. The report was presented by former minister Ole Norrback (in the photo) The use of the Equality to Astrid Thors minister of migration and European affairs. Act is meagre in Finland MINNA SAARINEN – HT not necessarily recognise situations where the Act should be invoked.” Sweeping changes proposed “The Act is invoked mostly in age THE EQUALITY ACT is not known or in- discrimination cases that concern voked in Finland, indicates a recent applying for a governmental post,” for immigration to Finland study conducted at the University Miettinen says and continues, “Such of Joensuu. The Act forbids discrim- candidates are usually well aware of STT Currently processing times sa decisions, immigrant integration ination on the basis of gender, age, their rights.” DAVID J. CORD – HT for work permits may take many and asylum seekers in reception origin, language or religion. The authorities consider the Act months, but Norrback hopes that centres. All of the immigrant serv- Compensation on the grounds of clear even though the lack of dai- THE FINNISH Immigration Service those immigrants with jobs lined ices would be under the jurisdiction the Act has been claimed only a few ly use indicates otherwise. “None should become the central source up could get permits in only a of the Ministry of the Interior. times a year after the law came into of the nearly 200 people who par- for immigration services in Finland week. Ongoing tightness in the la- In total, Norrback’s report con- force in 2004. The number of cases ticipated in the study had stumbled according to a long-awaited propos- bour market would be reduced if it tains 35 different proposals. These where discrimination is suspected across a case where compensation al released 6 May. The proposal was were easier for foreign workers to proposals detail specifi c goals and is considerably higher. was claimed based on the Act,” Mi- authored by diplomat Ole Norrback get necessary approval to work in have deadlines for each goal which “The most typical discrimination ettinen says. and presented to Astrid Thors, the Finland. range from immediately to 2010. crime in Finland is to deny access or The most common situations Minister of Migration and Europe- “It is certainly possible to get The Interior Ministry now must service for Roma in a restaurant or where the authorities have enforced an Affairs. work permits in a week,” says Tar- study Norrback’s proposals. The store,” says professor of administra- the Act concerned employee, student The main aims of the proposal are ja-Riitta Nissinen of the Finnish Ministry will attempt to move as tive law Tarmo Miettinen from the and resident selections. But only a to make the process of immigration Immigration Service. “At the mo- quickly as possible, but expects the University of Joensuu, who is also fraction of the cases were given ver- quicker and more effi cient. Current- ment some cases are done within process to take months, not weeks. one of the conductors of the study. dicts on the grounds of the Act. ly a number of different government that time. But these proposals en- “This is very new,” continues Miettinen believes that unaware- One of the conclusions of the entities have different jurisdictions tail many new practical things, like Nissinen. “There are many new ide- ness of its existence is the main reason study was that the enhancement of over various matters. Under the pro- developing the data system and as and some quite radical chang- why the Act is not invoked. “Almost equality has not yet established its posal, the Finnish Immigration Serv- working out the details.” es proposed so we have to wait and one third of EU-citizens do not know place as an everyday principle of the ice would have more responsibility, The Finnish Immigration service hear the opinions of other parties. their rights and the authorities do Finnish authorities. including authorising work permits. would also take responsibility for vi- We are ready for all challenges.” Learnwell Oy is a Helsinki based company providing a variety of professional language services to individuals and companies, including: • language training: special intensive courses, • dedicated services (our X-file products) that custom-designed courses and Finnish for include corporate team-building training and foreigners courses. Expat services. • translation, interpreting, proofreading and • web tools for teachers and students. editing services. For more information visit www.thelanguagemenu.com or e-mail us at offi[email protected] 2 9 – 15 MAY 2008 VIEWPOINT HELSINKI TIMES which had brought Benito Such people are forgetting trap he fell into. And if Pres- Mussolini to power 20 years that the cognitive sciences ident Bush had studied the earlier, was Luigi Facta. At have gotten to where they British wars in Afghanistan in 18, I knew about Italian pol- are now specifi cally thanks the 19th century (or even the iticians such as Urbano Rat- to a discourse that began very recent war between the tazzi and Francesco Crispi. with the philosophers of the Soviets and the Taliban), he And that was stuff from the 17th century. We have given would have organised his Af- previous century. up on using the experience of ghan campaign differently. the past in order to better un- THE FACT is that our rela- derstand the present. IT MAY seem that there is an tionship with the past has abyss between the English id- changed. There was a time MANY THINK that the old say- iot who thinks Churchill was when we were very inter- ing about history being the an imaginary character and ested in the past because in- teacher of life is a banality Bush, who went into Iraq con- formation about the present worthy of an old-fashioned vinced that his troops would was rather thin – old news- schoolmarm. But there's no fi nish the job in two weeks. papers said all there was to doubt that if Hitler had made But that's not so. We are deal- UMBERTO ECO’s say in eight pages. The mass a careful study of Napole- ing with the same blurred most recent book is On Ugliness. media, a recent phenome- on's Russian campaign he conception of the historical He is also author of the interna- non, brings us an immense wouldn't have fallen into the dimension. tional best-sellers Baudolino, The amount of information about Name of the Rose and Foucault's the present, and if I surf the Pendulum, among others. Web I can fi nd out about mil- lions of things that are hap- pening right now (even the Once upon a time... most irrelevant things). THE PAST that the mass me- dia tells us about through According to a study made in the UK many people Hollywood and related indus- tries – stories about the do- don’t seem to be able to tell the difference between ings of Roman emperors, of the medieval English king Ri- real people and fictional characters. chard the Lionheart, about the battles of World War I – comes to us together with the AT THE BEGINNING of March, I NOR AM I surprised that IT'S TRUE that ideas about fl ow of information about the read a brief article about a poll many believe that Holmes even the recent past are very present, so it's hard for peo- held in the UK.