No, I don’t mean a limit. It’s not a ceiling on the number of refugees that can be admitted to the country. It’s a target that the Finnish government is supposed to meet. According to the English-language edition of Helsingin Sanomat:
Finland has taken in fewer refugees than its quota calls for almost every year in the present decade. The annual quota of 750 refugees has fallen short by 50-100 individuals in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.- - - - - - - - - -
The impending shortfall this year aroused considerable public debate earlier this month, with officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Labour blaming each other.
State officials have been somewhat vague about the situation in previous years. The Ministry of Labour claimed on Monday last week that “Finland has accepted 750 refugees each year at the recommendation of the UNHCR”.
Nevertheless, figures put out by the Labour Ministry show that from 2000 to 2005 Finland has failed to accept more than 290 refugees recommended by the UNHCR and for whom Parliament had earmarked funding.
“Naturally it is unfortunate if the quota is not filled. However, I believe that everything possible has been done in Finland so that this might happen”, insists Markku Wallin, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Labour.
Parliament sets the annual refugee quota, and budgets funding for settling the new arrivals. A shortfall of refugees one year does not increase the quota for the next.
According to Labour Ministry official Meri-Sisko Eskola, the main reason why the quota has not been filled in some years is that some of the trips by officials to select refugees for Finland have been delayed until the end of the year.
Eskola says that if the Finnish officials do not have time to interview a sufficient number of refugees that meet the requirements set by Finland, it can result in a fairly large gap.
“If the quota is 750, and we are offered 750 people, not all of them meet the security and integration criteria”, Vuorio says.
The ministries select refugees who they feel would not endanger overall security in Finland, and whose possibilities of integrating into Finnish society are seen as good.
At the Finnish Red Cross, Leena-Kaisa Åberg, head of the refugee and immigration section, says that a slight shortfall in the refugee quota is not completely unheard of internationally.
“This has happened in other Nordic Countries as well”, she says.
Åberg and Eskola suggest as a solution the idea contained in the government’s immigration policy programme, to switch from an annual to a three-year refugee quota, which would make it possible to make up for a shortfall in the following year.
Åberg notes that this would also make it easier for the UNHCR to find the kinds of refugee groups that meet Finland’s fairly stringent criteria.
Does this look like mass insanity to you, or is it just me?
We all know how bureaucracies work — when the agencies involved can’t meet their quota, they’ll fudge the qualifications of some “refugees” to make sure they get their numbers up. It’s the Soviet style of governance: ignore reality, make up the numbers, meet your quota, and cover your fundament.
Finland is fortunate that its level of refugee inflow is so much lower than that of Sweden or Norway. But, as the pressure mounts, the immigrants are going to be more and more from a certain religion of peace.
If I were a Muslim Brotherhood operative, I’d be exploring the guidelines in Finland’s refugee entrance requirements, looking for the loopholes so I could get my people through the door.
Hat tip: Harry Palmer.
26 comments:
And why would Muslim people want to go to Finland?
Aren't you being a little paranoid?
Why would Muslim people want to go to France or Germany or the rainy wastes of Scotland or frozen Sweden and Norway? But they do. Hmm. Maybe it has something to do with all the free money floating around. And the opportunity for guilt trips and whining.
A word of clarification seems needed here. The Nordic countries have signed a UN declaration which has nothing to do with the mass immigration of Muslims. We have obliged ourselves to receive a certain amount of real refugees presently locked up in UN camps all over the globe. Which means political refugees as opposed to "convenience" or "economic" refugees such as Muslims. Could be Christians, Hindus, Buddhists fleeing Muslim countries or white people fleeing Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. If Finland has the same procedure as Denmark a committee will select those people according to their "integrability", which pretty much excludes Muslims. Over the years we have received lots of refugees from i.e. Hungary (1956), Chile, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua etc... etc... No problemos.
The deluge of Muslims entering our lands sift in by all other means such as wide open borders from the EU (Spain, France and Italy), human-smugglers, family reunions, forced and arranged marriages, "guest-workers" (Turks) who just refuse to leave and so on. Much the same situation as the Mexicans entering the USA.
This is from Norway:
Aftenposten
"Nearly 300 women have sought help so far this year from Oslo's emergency clinic handling rape victims. That's a higher per capita rate than New York City's, and the clinic is having trouble meeting demand.
The Brussels Journal has everything under control:
Raped in Oslo
"Unni Wikan, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo, in 2001 said that “Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes” because Muslim men found their manner of dress provocative. The professor’s conclusion was not that Muslim men living in the West needed to adjust to Western norms, but the exact opposite: “Norwegian women must realize that we live in a Multicultural society and adapt themselves to it.”
See how easy it is? Norwegians (and Danes and Swedes) have lived there for centuries, the Muslims come, and so it's only natural that the the Scandinavians should change.
I have wondered why would people from a faraway hot climate choose to live in the cold dark northern countries. Hmmm. Wonders never cease.
"Nearly 300 women have sought help so far this year from Oslo's emergency clinic handling rape victims. That's a higher per capita rate than New York City's, and the clinic is having trouble meeting demand."
I feel so safe here in NYC. Love it. Hello, women in Europe, defend yourselves! It is not your clothing. Learn how to fight back.
"I have wondered why would people from a faraway hot climate choose to live in the cold dark northern countries."
I was wondering the same thing too, until I saw Finnish muslims in the Muhammad cartoon demonstration, when the temperature was -20 Celsius.
The demonstrators were wearing those nice winter coats paid by the Social Services, so I suppose they had no problems coping with the weather.
Finnish refugee quota has traditionally been significantly lower than in other Nordic countries. If the quota is not met the obvious solution would be to lower the quota. However, this is not something that Helsingin Sanomat would recommend as a solution. Instead, they dwell on technicalities like switching to a three-year quota.
I have been to Finland several times, and it strikes me as a nation which has done a fairly good job at protecting its cultural identity,especialy compared to others European countries.
What it has, though, are a lot of problems of its own, which is why stories like this make me shake my head. Finland has one of the highest suicide and alcoholism rates in the world, and they have the time to be concerned about not meeting their "refugee" quota? Perhaps Finnish bureaucrats are just being consistent: why not adopt the local trend and commit national suicide--by immigration?
Here's my advice to Matti Vanhanen and friends: fix your own country's problems before you make forced philantropy a national priority. No, of course the two things are not mutually exclusive, but given the direction in which other Eurabian nations are going, if I was a Finn I'd be chuffed to death about the fact that my country was not being swarmed by immigrants and "refugees." Sorry about the sceptical quotation marks, but I have learned to distrust these classifications. If it makes me cold-hearted, tough Turunmaa.
I have been to Finland several times, and it strikes me as a nation which has done a fairly good job at protecting its cultural identity,especialy compared to others European countries.
What it has, though, are a lot of problems of its own, which is why stories like this make me shake my head. Finland has one of the highest suicide and alcoholism rates in the world, and they have the time to be concerned about not meeting their "refugee" quota? Perhaps Finnish bureaucrats are just being consistent: why not adopt the local trend and commit national suicide--by immigration?
Here's my advice to Matti Vanhanen and friends: fix your own country's problems before you make forced philantropy a national priority. No, of course the two things are not mutually exclusive, but given the direction in which other Eurabian nations are going, if I was a Finn I'd be chuffed to death about the fact that my country was not being swarmed by immigrants and "refugees." Sorry about the sceptical quotation marks, but I have learned to distrust these classifications. If it makes me cold-hearted, tough Turunmaa.
Sorry for the multi-posts. My account is going crazy on me.
Wow, just imagine if the libs got that idea for the U.S.
Not so fast mr. Voltaire.
All nordic citizens drink alot, because you have to have some joy in your life in the dark wintermonths.
I´m a native finn and I tell you this:
We are not pussies like the rest of the nation states in Europe.
Finland have and never will make the kind of massive mistakes, that other countries such as Norway, Sweden, France, you name it.. have all made. Open the flood gates for massive multicultural immigration.
I think our people are allready wakening and eventually close ranks on this subject of multiculturalism.
I owe it to my son.
I used to consider myself liberal, but not anymore. We will not tolerate any politician for too long, anyone who tries to turn our country into mess.
Politicians are being politicians - talking shit all day long. They can and will however be kicked out of the office.
Let´s see the next parliamentary election :-)
Voltaire wrote:
"Finland has one of the highest suicide and alcoholism rates in the world, and they have the time to be concerned about not meeting their "refugee" quota?"
Maybe the cold and dark have something to do about those problems. However, the current young generation seems to drink less than their predecessors, which is a good sign.
One thing that must be understood is the fact that Finland has risen from relative poverty to high standard of living in a very short time compared to our Nordic neighbours. There have been setbacks like the heavy recession in the early 90's. The rapid changes in society take their toll.
noway wrote:
"Finland have and never will make the kind of massive mistakes, that other countries such as Norway, Sweden, France, you name it.. have all made. Open the flood gates for massive multicultural immigration."
This is likely because of the remote location of the country. Foreign influences arrive very late and are toned down in the course of time. That's why mass immigration has not been a problem until now.
This also means that outdated ideologies like multiculturalism are on the way in as they are on the way out in the rest of Europe.
I just don't see that the same kind of sorry denial of reality as in Sweden is possible here.
Finnish Parliament just ratified the so-called "EU Constitution" (they are not allowed a referendum), but somehow I just can't imagine a seething-sauna with burqa-babes and halal-vodka....
humanitarian-
• adjective: concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare.
xenophobia
• noun: intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
dehumanize
(also dehumanise)
• verb deprive of positive human qualities.
Unfortunately, being a "genuine refugee" as legally defined, doesn't mean you're a good person. When I was in Helsinki a few years back, there was a new but rapidly growing Somali neighbourhood, something that filled me with foreboding. I fear that Finns are not well suited for surviving the immigrant influx, although their chances are probably better than Sweden because the Finns' experience with defending against Russia has given them greater group cohesion.
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