The National Coalition Party (NCP) has announced "I’m sorry" the terminology used in the nine-point proposal on immigration and integration policy, after criticizing the proposed measures and the term used by the party.
The document titled Differentiate social security for immigrants and native Finns (roughly translated "Differentiation of social security for immigrants and Finns") included a proposal that the conditions for obtaining a permanent residence permit should include criteria such as sufficient knowledge of the Finnish language and knowledge of Finnish society.
The proposal also suggested that immigrants should not receive as much social security contributions as the rest of the population during the integration process.
"Before acquiring sufficient Finnish language skills and adequate education, social benefits, in this case integration benefits, would be 80 per cent of the unemployment benefit received by the indigenous population. When the targets are met, a 100% level of payments is also possible," document number 5 was mentioned in the proposal.
An NCP press release outlining the proposals said the initiatives were similar to Juha Sipilä (Cen) administration in 2016, which proposed combining social security benefits with education, language skills and adequate knowledge of Finnish society and culture.
The party noted that the Sipilä government’s proposals did not oppose the Parliament’s constitutional committee at the time, even though the Finnish constitution guarantees equal rights to all citizens, and said it intended to submit the proposal to parliament after the summer holidays.
Congressman Pia Kauma (NCP), which led the party ‘s working group in drafting the proposal, told the commercial broadcaster MTV that the measures were aimed at solving the low employment rate of people from foreign backgrounds in Finland, which he said was significantly below the level of other Nordic countries. lands.
"The unemployment rate of people with an immigrant background is more than twice as high as that of Finns," Kauma told MTV and added that Finland’s current integration policy gives freedoms to immigrants, but does not force "adequate duties and responsibilities."
Social media counterattack
However, there was considerable opposition to the social media’s proposals, and in particular to the party’s term “native Finn” (translated as “native Finn” or “ethnic Finnish”).
In particular, the party was asked to explain what it meant with native Finnishnessor “ native Finnishness ”, including By the MP Joonas Könttä (Cen).
"How to #commission [the NCP] Check Finnish origin and how far the family’s roots must go, and whether there are any other criteria" he asked on Twitter.
In response to social media inquiries, Kauma said the party regretted the choice of the term and added that it was not intended to refer to ethnic origin.
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"Term "native finnish" was used in our proposal for integration policy. We have now clarified the meaning of the term "A Finnish citizen who permanently resides in Finland" to avoid misunderstandings," Kauma wrote on Twitter.
Kai Mykkänen, Chairman of the NCP parliamentary group, also wrote on Twitter that the party regrets the use of the term, adding that "due to an error, the sentence can be interpreted in a way we do not mean."
He further clarified that the policies proposed by the National Contact Point were aimed at distinguishing between social security contributions that people received after integrating into Finnish society and those received by permanent residents.
"Permanent residence in Finland does not require "native Finnishness", whatever that means. Instead, in our proposal, permanent residence is linked to obtaining a permanent residence permit or citizenship and living in Finland (to which support is already tied to citizens)," Mykkänen wrote.
Source: The Nordic Page