Parliament voted Wednesday to lift some of the restrictions it imposed in 2016 during the government of Juha Sipilä, which, among other matters, lowered the deadline for appeals and legal assistance to asylum seekers., according to the Refugee Advice Council. One of these includes the deadlines for appeals originally reduced to 21 days from 30
Read on »Posts Tagged: family reunification
Welcome back Dana!
Migrant Tales insight: Dana is a talented poet from Iran and a victim of the Finnish Immigration Service. I met her through this blog in 2012. I wrote back in 2015: “After a year and six months, I got an email from Dana, who has written many beautiful and powerful poems for us. I was
Read on »Amnesty International 2020/21 report: Shame on Finland
Amnesty International Report 2020/21 cites recurring problems with asylum seekers and children that the Finnish authorities continued to detain unaccompanied children and families. Finland continues to maintain strict rules in its immigration act approved in 2016 by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government (2015-2019). Some observers believe that these restrictions, like shortened appeal times and strict
Read on »Syrian refugee: Parting is hard, but the hardest is to remain separated
Migrant Tales insight: This short letter to the Finnish public is an example of Finland’s inhumane immigration policy. As a refugee, you will get a residence permit, but the price will be a high one: You will have to live alone, separated indefinitely from your loved one. The Syrian refugee story is one of the
Read on »QUOTE OF THE DAY: Of course a child needs a mother and father!
“In today’s Finland, it is nothing uncommon for the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to reject family reunification by a Finnish spouse on the grounds that the child does not need a father.Doesn’t need a father? Migri should ask Argentina’s Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo if the father, mother, and grandparents are key to a child’s identity and well-being.”
Read on »Another case of an Iraqi asylum seeker married to a Finn with a five-month child who may face deportation
Just like Abdul, the Iraqi asylum seeker who is married to a Finnish woman expecting their child in September, Ibrahim* is the latest case of another asylum seeker denied a Finnish residence permit by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). The Iraqi asylum and his Finnish wife Inna have a five-month-old child.
Read on »خدمة الهجرة الفنلندية :”من الممكن أن ينمو ابن زوجتك الذيلم يولد بعد بدونك ؛ هل الطفل سوف يصبح مسلم؟
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Finnish Immigration Service: “Your wife’s unborn child can grow up without you; is the child going to be raised a Muslim?”
Apparently, there is no guarantee in Finland that marriage or having a child with a Finnish citizen will guarantee asylum and a residence permit. It is the case of Abdul,* who spoke on condition of anonymity, an Iraqi asylum seeker who came to Finland in 2015. Contrary to many like him, Abdul is married to a Finnish woman who is expecting their child in September.
Read on »Undocumented migrant: “I can never leave Finland. That’s a scary thought.”
When we imagine an undocumented migrant in Finland, we usually imagine an Iraqi or Afghan asylum seeker. But what about if that undocumented migrant is an over-sixty-year-old white pensioner from North America?
Read on »Family reunification in Finland can easily cost a migrant thousands of euros
Affluent Nordic countries like Finland are making it legally near-difficult never mind costly to reunite families of migrants thanks to the tightening of family reunification guidelines that came into force in July. How much would it cost for an asylum seeker who got a residence permit before July and applied to get his wife and three children aged 9, 7 and 4 to Finland?
Read on »White Finnish privilege #29: Your family is worth less than mine
There has been a lot of debate about the present government tightening further family reunification laws. It shouldn’t come to any surprise that such measures not only reveal hostility towards asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities but are an example of white Finnish privilege in its most extreme forms.
Read on »Tightening family reunification requirements is like putting a noose around human rights
Like Europe, Finland too is suffering from a lack of leadership. When we start to fear our own ineptness in solving problems, we slide into our shells with the help of populism, simplistic solutions, and wishful thinking.
Read on »Naapuriäidit: I am a refugee, but I also have another story
Michelle Kaila Friba Majeed Friba Majeed was born in Balkh, Afghanistan. She came to Finland in 2014 as a refugee. She is presently doing a work practice at Nicehearts in Vantaa, mainly to practice her Finnish language skills. These are the kinds of details we, as migrants, might often exchange with others upon meeting.
Read on »Tighter family reunification laws spearheaded by the PS with the government’s blessing are an example of the Denmarkization of Finland
It’s a good matter that government plans to tighten family reunification guidelines have met a stormy reception. We all know that the Perussuomalasiet (PS)*, who base their popularity on anti-immigration rhetoric, are spearheading new tighter guidelines that will make family reunification much harder.
Read on »Finland’s xenophobic Denmark slippery slope
Considering that the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is in government and that the two other ruling partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP), need the support of the PS to downsize the welfare state, it’s clear why Finland is tightening its immigration policy.
Read on »Dana: Stand up Finland this is your moment of truth
Dana Who are you if you’re afraid of a hijab and a woman?… this is what she chose, not your problem, not mine, are you really human? Who are you if you afraid of color?… are you working for Satan, is it your favor? Who are you if you afraid of black beards?… world will
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: Court of Appeal rules against challenge to lawfulness of family immigration rules
Migrant Tales’ insight: The drama and pain continues in the United Kingdom after this unfair ruling… ________________ The long-awaited judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case ‘MM’ on the matter of the lawfulness of the UK immigration rules setting income levels for the sponsorship of non-EEA family members was made public this morning.
Read on »Finnish Immigration Service terrorizes immigrants (Part II)
By Dana Why are we all so passive if we’re oppressed? What do you fear? What will you fear losing? Money? Benefits? What, then? Where’s your humanity? Who makes up your mind for you? Who controls your thoughts? How do you build and make your morals and values stronger each day? What is your religion?
Read on »Finnish Immigration Service terrorizes immigrants (Part I)
By Dana The Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) strikes terror in immigrants like me. I’ve lived for three years in uncertainty not knowing if I’d ever be reunited with my family. My mother died in May and my father in July. I hadn’t seen my beloved parents for seven years. I never thought that the last time
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Sharp-sighted bird and the Yellow Crocodile Kingdom
By Dana Once upon a day there were a pair of birds who made their first egg… after a short while the egg broke and a female baby bird emerged and tweeted her first song… Her parents were shocked and asked how come the little bird was so different from other ones…the bird had big
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Death
By Dana Death is calling me, caaall calling Because my life is a bore, booore bore Death is teaching me, hooow… why That i may enjoy Mama’s company, hiiigh high. Death is calling my name, oh that’s well Because in Finland i have nothing to heal Death is calling my heart, wow its dark Finnish
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Hey Universe, Finnish Law beats me up
By Dana Dear universe, This is my lonely life in Finland… Finnish law beats me up in different ways, no/one nowhere takes responsibility; there’s not one place in Helsinki that i can go to complain about my loneliness and separation from my loved ones. No/one will listen to me because if i ask a question
Read on »Dana: Woes for you killers who kill without a knife
By Dana Why should I personally challenge Finland’s disgraceful family reunification obstacles? I won’t. Why should I? For whom? For other foreigners? But some abuse the laws. Not only some foreigners but some Finns too. I paid, as a result, a high price for their ways. Some foreigners live here for years, or maybe they
Read on »Let’s challenge Finland’s disgraceful family reunification obstacles
Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN) of Britain shows how organizations can do valuable work in lobbying for change against unfair family reunification laws (see Migrant Tales 28.6.13). Politicians, who have tightened such laws, are short-sighted and have created a tragedy for those who live separated from their loved ones. The same suffering that separated families suffer in Finland
Read on »Migrant Rights’ Network: Campaign for the Right to Family life – next steps
By Ruth Grove-White Those affected and campaigning against the new rules on family migration will know that we are fast-approaching their 1-year anniversary on 9 July. Over the next couple of months there is plenty that you will be able to do to raise awareness and ask the Government to think again. See original story
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: What Color is the Finnish Government?
By Dana There is a fist on earth, saying stop this crime oh human There is a fist on parliament, shouting stop the lie oh liar men Unresponsive Helsinki, there is a city in Saami -land Has a shame building in it, there is a city in Finnish – land Sham parliament, raw members oh
Read on »My Conscience Your Conscience
By Dana Who has conscience? Who doesn’t have conscience? Finnish law doesn’t because it made a deep wound in me and it could not feel it did anything bad, oh nothing at all. So why is this law so cruel to me and my situation??? Because it isn’t wise…. because wiseness has conscience. What about racist people? Black
Read on »Migrant Tales Literary: Voice of My Zeal
By Dana I have no weapon i have no gun but i have pen I have no crowd , I have me alone, but i am brave Am not terrorist, am not dirty one but you are fakes I have no army i have no soldiers but i am bless I have a soul in
Read on »Dana: Am alone in a faraway land without my mom
Yes, it’s a few days since I got my citizenship, and you cruel ones got together. You hated me and my mother too. She is gone now. Dana _________ Am alone at home Alone in Finland I cannot cry I am standing in front of you, my enemies, and telling that you are very cruel.
Read on »FIS: Somali family reunifications plummeted to just over 500 in 2012
The number of Somali family reunification applications in 2012 plummeted to just over 500 application compared with 1,900 in the previous year and 3,900 in 2010, reports Helsingin Sanomat, citing the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS). There were a total of 8,600 applications in 2012. The highest number were from were from citizens of the
Read on »The social tragedy of the family reunification problem of Somalis in Finland
The Finnish Immigration Service states in a report (see page 4) that at the end of 2011 there were a total of 6,100 family reunification applications by Somalis living in the country. Even so, only 329 family reunifications took place on average annually between 1999 and 2010, according to the Refugee Advice Center. No matter how one
Read on »Finnish Lutheran Church says family reunification from Africa is costly and dangerous
Archbishop Kari Mäkinen said that family reunification of Africans with their families in Finland is not only costly but dangerous, reports YLE. Since Finland does not have an embassy in war-ravaged Somalia, Somalis are required to apply for residence permits in neighboring Ethiopia or Kenya. The Finnish Immigration Service has a backlog of about 10,000
Read on »Feeding Somalis and poor immigrants to the loan sharks of Finland
Migrant Tales wrote in May about the high cost, hassle and red tape some Somalis face to bring their relatives to Finland. Since it appears that the aim of the immigration authorities and politicians is to make family reunification as expensive and difficult as possible, some immigrants are being fed to the loan sharks as
Read on »Migrants’ Rights Network: The battle on family migration will be a long one, but we can win
By Ruth Grove-White Every now and again there are changes to the immigration rules which even writers for the Daily Mail voice their objections to. The new rules on family migration to the UK, which came into force on Monday, represent a major assault on family life for Brits and migrants alike. Campaigners now need to
Read on »The long and costly ordeal of family reunification from Somalia to Finland
Ever wondered about the hassle and red tape a Somali resident of Finland must face to bring his family here? Apart from the long two-and-a-half year wait on average, the whole process is especially costly for a person from Somalia, where annual income totals about $600 (471 euros), according to the CIA Factbook. There are
Read on »Family reunification in the UK: ‘Keeping families apart’ – MRN briefing on family migration policy
The MRN (Migrants’ Rights Network) campaign on family migration releases a new briefing paper showing that a higher income threshold for family migration could shut out 50% of the UK working population from bringing a spouse or partner here – with ethnic minorities, women and children particularly hit.
Read on »Finland & Cultural Diversity 2011
In many respects 2011 was a watershed year for Finland and Europe concerning the rise of anti-immigration parties and xenophobia. The biggest news to hit Finland this year was without a doubt the April 17 election, which saw the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS) party win 39 seats compared with only 5 in 2007. On July 22 Anders Breivik gunned down most of his 77 victims in Norway.
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
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- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
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