Afghan-born Zarmina Razai works on behalf of immigrants in Helsinki

print this

By Marja Salmela
     
     During the day 26-year-old Zarmina Razai works as an interpreter at the Finnish Immigration Service, and in the evening she hurries to work a shift at a Helsinki pharmacy.
     Razai, who fled from Kabul in Afghanistan to Finland nine years ago, is also studying health care.
     “Working slows down my studies, but fortunately, I am in the final stretch”, she says. In the future, she hopes to study political science at the University of Helsinki.
     
Next year Razai will have even more to do, as the Helsinki section of the National Coalition Party chose her to chair the city’s consultative committee on immigration and integration.
     In recent times there has been intense debate in Helsinki on immigration. Political decision-makers want problems to be raised openly. This enhances the role of the committee.
     “I can manage, because I want to improve the position of immigrants”, says Razai, who was also chosen as a member of Helsinki’s Health Care Board.
     She has a clear goal: “It is most important for refugees to be allowed to work.”
      Razai gives an example. Her 18-year-old brother Ahmad, who is still in school, has sent out dozens of work applications, but employers have not responded to them.
     “Apparently this is simply because his name reveals that he is a foreigner. Nevertheless, he is a Finnish citizen and speaks perfect Finnish.”
     Other immigrants have similar experiences, Razai says. She finds the situation to be strange. She would like to put immigrants to work.
     
“Why are immigrants made lazy?” she asks. “Many of them are diligent, and are used to working in the ir home countries, where there are no social benefits, and where money is not available without work. Newcomers cannot understand that lazy people are paid money.”
     Razai says that employers who shun immigrants easily claim that the new arrivals do not speak the language.
     “Language courses need to be arranged more efficiently than before, and people can learn the language while working.”
     
Razai herself learned Finnish while going to school in Kontiolahti in North Karelia, while living in a family group home with her brother.
     The Taleban had killed her father, and her mother had stayed behind in Kabul. Her older brother disappeared during the month that their month of flight. He ended up in Sweden.
     “I had to start my life from zero. I had to take responsibility for myself and my brother.”
     
After graduating from high school, Razai would have wanted to stay in North Karelia, but there was no work to be found. Fortunately a friend managed to arrange a job for her at a pharmacy in Helsinki.
     Razai feels that refugees should not be allowed to move to Helsinki from reception centres before a job or a place to study is available. “Otherwise the migration will be expensive for Helsinki.”
     Taking the same view is Razai’s fellow party member, Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen. It is unusual for immigrant women to join the National Coalition Party, but Razai wanted to join the party after reading the platforms of all of them.
     “I found my values there: work, enterprise, and caring.”
     She got nearly 300 votes in the municipal elections. In the next elections, Razai will try again.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 20.12.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  A white election (1.11.2008)
  Woman smuggled from Afghanistan in 1999 gets annual award (22.3.2007)
  More children seeking asylum in Finland (25.2.2008)

Links:
  Finnish Immigration Service

MARJA SALMELA / Helsingin Sanomat
marja.salmela@hs.fi