Refugee reception centres turning into long-term concentrations of foreigners

Municipalities housing fewer approved refugees

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Reception centres, which are primarily intended as provisional housing for refugees and asylum seekers, are increasingly becoming long-termresidences. Local authorities are increasingly reluctant to implement national immigration policy of housing foreign citizens who have been given residence permits in Finland.
      About 500 asylum seekers who have been granted residence permits are still living at reception centres, which are intended as temporary accommodation. The number is expected to double by the end of the year.
     
Last year 6,000 asylum seekers arrived in Finland, and a few new reception centres sere set up in the country. This year the number of asylum seekers is expected to fall to 2,000.
      Most new arrivals enter Finland through Helsinki. Leena Markkanen, director of the Helsinki reception centre notes that once they are granted a residence permit, foreigners in Finland are free to move where they like.
      However, difficulties in getting housing mean that the practical options are limited.
     
Municipalities say that the state does not pay enough for the settling and integration of immigrants. Currently the state compensates for the costs of settling immigrants for the first three years. Local authorities say that the period should be five years.
      Municipalities calculate that the costs of immigrants’ services have risen by 50 per cent in recent years, but the state has raised its subsidies by only ten per cent.
      Reception centres have even begun offering rent guarantees to refugees who find a place to live.
     
Markkanen sees the situation as a human rights issue. Residents at reception centres have limited rights and services, while immigrants who have established a residence have the same rights to public services as the population at large, as well as various integration services.
      Anu Wikman-Immonen, a special expert at the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (KL), says that under present economic circumstances, municipalities have limited possibilities for settling unplanned immigrants.
      When no new home becomes available, the location of the reception centre becomes the community where the immigrant has residence.
     
Nurmijärvi, just north of Helsinki, is a community that is not accepting any more refugees or asylum seekers at present. Outi Mäkelä, the chair of the municipal board, is also a Member of Parliament representing the National Coalition Party.
      “Pressure is growing”, she notes, adding that she does not know why Nurmijärvi is not more welcoming to asylum seekers. “I have been in municipal politics for ten years and during that time there has never been any discussion about it in political decision making.”
      “Money is a big problem municipalities would need more money for integration, and I have understood that more money is coming.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Unexpected debate over quota refugees (25.2.2010)
  Helsinki finds housing of large Somali families challenging (16.11.2009)
  DEBATE: “Time running out on immigrant integration” (9.6.2009)

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