A few weeks ago, our housemate, Ahmed (names changed to protect identity), came home excited. "I am going to get payed!"
He had been volunteering at a chain of charitable flea markets for months (let's pretend it's called "FADI"), putting in between 4-8 hours a day, carrying heavy furniture donations in their warehouse. When his family started facing financial difficulties back in Iraq (his family decided to move away from a dangerous area, shortly after which, a bomb went off near their home, and so they were unable to sell their house), he decided to ask DAFI whether they would actually hire him.
A verbal contract was made for ONE week of work. I'd never seen Ahmed quite as happy as when he worked there that one week.
A couple weeks later, things got messy. "They cannot pay me," he said one evening. "I don't have a passport, so they cannot give me salary because I cannot open a bank account. Also, my social worker will cut all my money for the month if I get paid. So FADI told me it was volunteer work."
I was astounded, so I asked a few clarifying questions. Why can't they give you your salary in cash? Who said they can't? Why can't you just go buy something for the owed amount and give them the receipt instead? If you are legally allowed to work after 6 months with no passport, then surely that means there also has to be a way for you to get paid for it?
So DAFI had promised him work on the basis that he was legally allowed to. When pay day came around, and it was discovered that Ahmed had no bank account, they said he must open one. But he can not open one, because he has no passport, says immigration. DAFI says paying salary in cash is not legal. Perhaps we can pay the salary into 'Harry's' account instead, and you can have it at the next pay day?
Somebody please correct me if I am wrong, but this is my understanding of the law as I understood after a little googling and reading the web pages of the occupational safety and health administration of Finland.
1. The employer cannot suggest a bank account into which to pay the salary, and furthermore, one's salary must be available on pay day.
"Wages may be paid in cash only for compelling reasons, for instance if the employee does not have a bank account or the employer does not have the employee’s bank details. The employer must obtain a receipt signed by the employee or some other means of verifying payment if wages are paid in cash."
Labels: asylum seekers, Finland, forced labour, human rights, justice, labour, labour law, law, refugees
fon @ 1:05 AM link to post * *
My first experience of racial violence that I can remember was also accompanied by my first experience of justice and heroism. I want to tell you that story.
Just to give you some background, I grew up in a multinational bubble. I've moved around the world from pretty much day one of my life. My first kindergarten was international, even though we lived in Finland at that time. After that, I went to first grade at an international school in Ethiopia, and then one in Zambia, and so on and so forth.
At some stage - I was between 7 - 9 years old at the time - my family came to spend a few months in Finland. My dad stuck me in a local school for a while. We either lived in Zambia at the time, or were about to move there, and my skin was nut brown from the sun. When I am darker, people can't see the European half in me.
I was bullied a lot. But that's not the main focus here.
At some stage when the school closed for the summer, or maybe just the weekend, a few boys from my class came to ask me to go biking with them. When we got to the school yard, they pushed me off my bike, to the ground, and pulled out water guns and shot water at me, taunting me and calling me a refugee (as if that were an insult!).
And that's when something happened, something that has really shaped who I am. A bigger boy swooped in, told them off, helped me to my feet, and lifted my bike off the ground. He asked if I was OK.
The incident taught me something important. It doesn't matter if it's not 'your battle'. That's not an excuse. I wasn't a refugee, so it wasn't technically my battle. But it still affected me, and thus turned it into my fight, whether I wanted it or not. It wasn't my hero's battle either. He had the position of privilege that comes from belonging to the powerful majority. He could have ignored it. He had a choice, and he chose to make it his battle. That's what made him a hero.
And that's the kind of society we should be building. One where people like that little boy step in and stop bullies, because what we are fighting for isn't about us or them: it is about human dignity.
After all these years, I want to find him, and I want to thank him. He was last seen between 1991-93 on the yard of Kirstin Koulu, Suvela, in Espoon Keskus. I guess he was around 10 - 13, so he would be around 34 - 37 now. So please, share this, and help me find my knight on a bike!
Labels: bullying, Finland, hero, justice, rasicm, reward, TCK, thanks
fon @ 5:41 PM link to post * *
My Finnish passport was my first. But I've never felt like a Finn, because every time we visited the country growing up, I was reminded about being a foreigner. As a matter of fact, that Finnish passport I had back then explicitly stated 'Alien passport'.
So my reader will hopefully understand me when I say that 'foreigner' is very deeply a part of the 'Finnish' part of my identity.
To the point: last night's election result scares me, as it probably scares many others who are not mainstream & 'average' Finns. Remember those monsters hiding under the bed when you were a child? I get a similar feeling of unease from the Finnish parliament.
From time to time, we spent a month or two in Finland as I was growing up. One of these times, I attended a Finnish public school. Now I can't help wondering whether one of my classmates who pushed me off my bike and taunted me with calls of 'Vietnamese refugee' is amongst those in parliament.
I can't help but wonder whether someone like that boy who told me he was better than me because I am Chinese voted to get 'my kind' out of the country.
I wonder if the people in that team I worked with, who kept telling me my input on the draft of our text was not needed because I am not a native speaker, are walking around my neighbourhood, relieved by the election results.
I wonder if that 30-something man who said to me as a 16-year-old girl "you Thai ladies know all about this kind of thing" as he grabbed me and kissed me is now making decisions about my life.
I can't help but wonder how many of the people I pass on the street hate me, because I am different. Because I am Chinese, Vietnamese, don't speak Finnish as well, and am a Thai slut here to steal their men and now, their jobs.
Yes, I am scared. Those monsters in the dark didn't disappear. They moved on to scarier tasks.
Labels: discrimination, elections, Finland, nationalism, parliament, rasicm
fon @ 4:45 PM link to post * *