Hundreds protest new govt´s tightening immigration policy

Several hundreds of people staged demonstration in Helsinki on Sunday afternoon protesting against the tightening immigration policy published by Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) led four-party alliance.

About 300 working immigrants living in Finland, including IT professionals, students and academic staff gathered in front of the Oodi Central Library in Helsinki city centre along with various banners and festoons and strongly criticized the hostile immigration policy announced by the four political parties.

Terming the policy as suicidal, the demonstrators said that it would not only suffer the immigrants but also put a negative impact on Finnish economy, internationalization and demography.

“When different countries including Germany are easing the immigration policy, the anti-immigration programme taken by the upcoming government will be suicidal for Finland where the population growth rate is minus,” said one protester, adding that such anti-immigrant move will discourage the international talents and skilled professionals to arrive Finland.

Another demonstrator said that although radical rightist Perussuomalaiset (Finns Party) openly speaks against the immigrants, publishing the policy proved that Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP), Suomenruotsalainenkansanpuolue (Swedish People’s Party of Finland-RKP) and the SuomenKristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats of Finland-CD) are also anti-immigrant parties.

The four political parties led by Kokoomus on June 16 published the program of the upcoming alliance government after holding negotiation talks for seven weeks at the House of Estate.

Leaders of the parties announced the programme , which included tougher immigration, residence and citizenship laws.

According to the programme, Finland’s annual refugee quota will be reduced to 500 persons from the existing number of 1,050 people.

the Government will tighten the requirements for permanent residence saying that Finnish citizenship is not something that will be granted automatically. It will require successful integration.

The government will amend the requirements for obtaining a permanent residence permit and in future it will be possible to obtain a permanent residence permit based on a six-year period of residence subject to certain requirements in addition to the current requirements.

These additional requirements are sufficient language skills demonstrated in a language test, a two-year work history without recourse to unemployment security or social assistance other than for a very short period of time, and a stricter integrity requirement.

Rejected asylum applicants will be prevented from switching to a work-related immigration procedure. It will be possible to remove a person who has been refused asylum from the country even if they have obtained a job during the asylum process.

The income limit for a residence permit for an employed person will be raised to the sector-specific minimum of the collective agreement, however, to no less than EUR 1,600 per month.