In the news

On Sundays I read newspapers. The quiet library is a nice burrow to hide out in. All sorts of people go there. The place is crowded but still very calm. The architects have really put a great deal of though in what the building is used for. There are big, yellow chairs in which I could spend all day. And best of all: there are no freakin' kids around. They have their own spot.

In the news: Astrid Thors (Swedish People's Party), who is minister of migration & european affairs, has submitted a bill on residence permits to the parliament for review. There have been many interpretations on what the bill actually states, but many politicians seem to be in agreement that it allows for a too "liberal" refugee policy. Anyway, in news articles, the bill is presented to make residence permits easier to obtain for refugees. It will be easier for the person who has been granted a residence permit to bring her/his family to Finland. Those who oppose the bill make a great point out of "criminals being allowed residence permits if some technicalities prevent Finnish governments from sending them back". I sense some populism going on here.... The Coalition Youth League (Kokoomus/Coalition = conservative party) accuses Thors' bill of being too lax and, additionally, that it contains a number of loopholes. They propose that Thors resign, the reason stated being that she has a "deviant notion of legality than most Finns". And what is more, they advocate that a "too liberal" policy will lead to "social and cultural problems".
Source1. Source2

Even the mayor of Helsinki, Jussi Pajunen, has said things on his blog that indicates that his view on immigration are far from positive (it is not an innocent thing to say that every fourth inhabitant of Helsinki in the year 2025 is of immigrant background - he says it, well, in a very loaded context.). Conservative bloggers talk about Thors' bill as opening up the prospect for criminals and other scum living off earnest, Finnish taxpayers' hard work.

As if this were not enough: a petition on the Internet expressing a disapproval of Thors' bill warns the Public about the slipping slope of "liberal policies". Over 13.000 people have signed the damn thing.

What happened? One of the parliament's comittees (Hallintovaliokunta) rejected Thors bill, in consequence of which the bill was compromised. Source. Source. (If I am not mistaken, both the Centre and the Coalition party were opposed to the original bill)

A background to all this is that Finland is a country that accepts far fewer asylum seekers than do, for example, Sweden. For the very few who are granted a stable residence permit, the existing laws have created a lot of problems. Many refugees live under uncertain circumstances, in which bureaucrats' decisions are pending endlessly and under which granted rights are few. There are the so-called B-permits, that don't allow people to work. The new, compromised bill has a solution for that, whereas it does not make it easier for families to join their relatives who have been granted residence permit. There were also changes with regard to the possibility to be granted a stable residence permit - Thors was too lax in that regard, too, the committee has decided. Politicians argue that a compromise will make the law more in line with the standards prescribed by EU.

I don't even have the strength to comment on all this. I hope you will understand. I am not too familiar with the original bill, so I cannot say anything about how progressive it really is. But the discussions surrounding it give me the creeps.

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On a different note, I read an article stating that a very great number of rapes take place on board of the Viking Line cruisers. What upset me, except for this fact, was how the Viking Line representative responded to this predicament. He said that a lot of people travel with Viking Line and that only a very, very few of them are raped. Bad. God. Damn. Answer. Sir.