Disabled immigrants in danger of marginalisation

By Päivi Repo
      Immigrants are easily marginalised, and disabled immigrants are even more so.
      They do not know their rights and are often unable to fend for themselves.
      Many of them do not have any common language with authorities.
     
”I have heard of many sad fates”, says Ingrian-born Mia Pöllä from Hyvinkää, family coordinator of the Association of Disabled Immigrants.
      Pöllä does not regard her own destiny as sad, even though she is a jobless single parent with three children, who heard five years ago when she was 35 that she had an incurable disease.
      Today the disease is already so advanced that she needs support to maintain her balance while walking.
      ”I have nothing to complain about. I am happy, but I would like everybody else to be happy, too”, Pöllä notes.
     
Particularly those old and disabled people who have come from Russia are likely to fall below the poverty line, Pöllä continues.
      ”They become marginalised, as many of them do not speak Finnish and neither have they any opportunity to learn how to. They do not have any support network and they are unable to benefit from the EU food aid”, Pöllä regrets.
      It is also tough for the mothers of disabled children. They should manage alone in a foreign country with a strange language.
      They are always at home, as there is no support network available.
      ”It is so tough that it is difficult to explain”, Pöllä sighs.
     
Moreover, the situation can also be difficult for those who have moved into Finland after having made their careers in Russia.
      They often realise that they are not wanted here.
      Many of them try to get along with a national basic pension.
     
Pöllä herself came to Finland from Petrozavodsk in 1991, after having graduated from university. Petrozavodsk is the capital of the Russian Republic of Karelia.
      So far she has been unable to find a regular job despite her degrees in both Finnish and Russian, even though employees with Russian skills are always being called for by speakers in public forums.
      However, Pöllä’s language skills are useful at a club for schoolchildren, in which she helps the children in Finnish, English, and Russian. She also teaches Finnish to female refugees.
      It is sad that she is not paid for these tasks, which is why her family of four has to manage with a labour market subsidy. In other words, three adults and one little schoolchild have to live on less than EUR 1,000 a month.
      ”We are just trying to cope”, she says, adding that ”Money is not important in life, but it is easier when one has enough of it for living”.
     
Following her illness, Pöllä came to a dead end, which frequently happens to disabled immigrants: one official says this while another says that.
      The unemployment office would regard Pöllä as qualified for a disability pension as they are unable to find her a job.
      However, she is quite too healthy to take retirement - yet.
      ”I can remain in this condition for the next 20 years or I can fade in a couple of years”, Pöllä says.
      The health centre regarded her as too ill to be entitled to further examinations.
      ”I got a referral to a specialist when I called the patient ombudsman and the management. Not many immigrants would have known what to do in the same situation”, Pöllä explains.
      In the Association of Disabled Immigrants, Pöllä also attends to the affairs of some other members with disabilities.
     
To present it in a pointed way, one could say that the Finnish society makes Pöllä’s life difficult already in the third generation.
      Her grandfather Yrjö Mäkelä was transported by force from Loimaa to the Soviet Union in 1930 where he was executed as an enemy of the people.
      ”We have been hardened in many generations”, Mia Pöllä says with a smile.
      ”Even though we occasionally have difficulties, we manage quite well, as we have never lived in any luxury”, Pöllö notes.
     
     
FACTFILE: Negative treament, lack of information
     
     
Immigrants are discriminated against and mistreated in matters relating to housing, education, the availability of social and health services, employment, and family relations, said the Ombudsman for Minorities in her annual report in 2007.
     
Another publication titled Venäjänkielisenä Suomessa (”As a Russian in Finland”) reported in February that a person who comes from a foreign culture can find it difficult to understand the complicated social security system. Many interviewees said that they had been mistreated by Finnish social and health authorities.
     
The immigrants are entitled to the same services as the Finns, but some regulations can vary. For example, immigrants can be paid disability allowance only after they have been living in Finland for three years.
     
Every second foreigner over the age of 65 who is resident in Finland speaks Russian as his or her native language.
      They need information in their own language. However, pensioners are not eligible to attend the Finnish-language training for immigrants, even though the ability to learn does not vanish when one is getting on in years.
     
The report found further that even an entrance fee of eight euros can be too much for an old person who has to get along with a national basic pension.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 18.9.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Immigrants say child welfare officials lack cultural understanding (11.4.2007)
  Immigrants learn Finnish through handcrafts (4.2.2005)
  Finnish language teaching for foreigners in Helsinki found to be inadequate (22.8.2008)

Links:
  The Ombudsman for Minorities
  The Social Insurance Institution of Finland