Irmeli Tuomarla, editor in chief

15.2.2007

In Finland hearing the immigrants´ voice is allowed or prevented by the main population. We select those whom we give the power of our votes to in Parliament, who decide on our mutual issues in society which is getting more and more diverse and in which equal opportunities ought to be secured for everybody.

Immigrants, especially immigrant women, are those who persevere in transferring their cultural heritage, habits and language from one generation to another. Besides, they also implant internationalisation in working communities and other operating environments outside the family. Even in our own near history, there are many energetic pioneering women whom I still admire, including, among others, writer-journalist Minna Canth and our first female member of Parliament Miina Sillanpää, who exactly 100 years ago was elected to the first unicameral Parliament in 1907. She worked for a total of 38 years as an MP and was elected Speaker twelve times. She was our first female minister too. This live wire was one of the 19 female MPs who broke ground to women, in terms of social influencing. Indeed, there are influential men and women among immigrants too. In the role plays of today´s politics they seem to be overlooked by those with a louder voice. Not even more serious factual journalism listens to them in spite of the fact that, on the whole, the media tends to treat immigrants more equally than before. On the other hand, superficial journalism flatters those who hunt for another kind of publicity following the spirit of the time. Monitori asked parliamentary candidates with an immigrant background, representing different political parties, to name the most important issue they would start advocating for if they were elected to Parliament.

Last October the government approved a programme on immigration policy whose continuation measures have already caused public concern. In this magazine Labour Minister Tarja Filatov expresses her contentment with the fact that the programme managed to create a step-by-step process to liberate immigration. In her view, not all difficulties due to employment-based immigration can be solved by implementing the programme. More efficient means can be found by making practical processes more flexible. The key organisations, including the Amnesty International in Finland, the Finnish League for Human Rights, the Central Union for Child welfare in Finland, the Refugee Advice Centre and the Finnish Refugee Centre, have tackled the essential issues and have had them published in their election views on immigration and refugee policy. The organisations demand that asylum applicants be no longer granted temporary residence permits which leaves them without fundamental rights. They also suggest the number of quota refugees and investments in immigrants´ employment be increased.

In our new series, Changes on the way, experts examine the history of immigration and refugee policy, its development and challenges. Prejudices and multi-based forms of discrimination encountered by immigrants are the stumbling stones in their integration. Through our constitution and international agreements on human rights, Finland is committed to following the principles of equality and non-discrimination. In terms of integration, anchoring them in everyday life requires readjusting the viewpoint. The responsibility for reaching zero tolerance is shared by both the main population and immigrants. On the back cover our new cartoonist Luca Cannavo participates in the debate through his comics called Rat life, whose self-irony and sarcasm tell us about real life which no doubt is quite rat-like.