Comment: Below is a very good letter to the editor on family reunification published on Vaasa-based daily Pohjalainen. It is surprising that Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Christian Democrats (KD) that stresses the importance of family values, wants to tighten family reunification laws even further.
It’s not that Finland is being invaded by families of immigrants and refugees. In the last 12 years an average of 329 people annually have been able to bring their families to Finland. Forty percent of all applications are rejected by the authorities.
The anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party is most likely the reason explains Räsänen’s and the government’s stance. Acting tough — they believe — on immigration is good for the polls and keeps the PS from growing further at their expense.
Räsänen’s and the government’s view about tightening family reunification laws is a disturbing glimpse of how Finland procrastinates on this front. How can you accept an asylum seeker, who is a minor, and deny that person the right to have his parents by his side? That is pretty inhumane in my opinion.
Certainly if you believe that Somalia is a peaceful place and all those that come from there are fake asylum seekers, then I understand why you want to make family reunification more difficult.
A visit to Mogadishu by Räsänen and other Finns would do wonders to wake them up to the suffering and squalor there.
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Emina Arnautovic
Nykyisessä hallituksessa maahanmuuttokysymykset ovat sisäasianinministerin pöydällä. Kristillisdemokraattien puheenjohtaja Päivi Räsänen on lyhyenä ministerikautenaan antanut muutamia lausuntoja maahanmuuttopolitiikkaan liittyen. Viimeksi hän esitti perheyhdistämisen sääntöjen kiristämistä, vaikka ministeri Astrid Thors korjasi todettuja ongelmia jo edellisellä hallituskaudella.