A large number of people of foreign backgrounds keep shying away from politics. Despite the government extended franchise, they keep saying “Politics is not my thing, I did not come to Finland for voting sake” What then is their thing?
What should bother the people of foreign background is the day to day running of the government which is embedded in the political structure of the country.
The government, in its magnanimity through the Ministry of Justice, is eager to see a great number of people of foreign backgrounds participate in elections and politics, but unfortunately, they are not ready, most especially those from Africa.
Before June 13th municipal elections, the Ministry of Justice released funds for campaigns aimed at encouraging foreigners participation in the elections through organizations like Moniheli ry, an umbrella body of almost 100 multicultural associations for election awareness and sensitisation campaigns. Diaspora Reporters ry, the publisher of Diaspora Glitz Magazine organised two election panels in Vantaa that had 11 candidates drawn from different backgrounds in attendance. The publisher, Obi-West Utchaychukwu also did a video to encourage voters from foreign backgrounds to participate in the elections.
The number of election panels in 2021 was more than what was recorded in 2017.
In 2017, a researcher, Merja Jutila Roon opined that foreigners are less interested than Finns in voting in municipal elections as a result of not getting enough information about their right to vote. However, despite the government efforts in changing the narrative of Finland being a political homogeneous society, people of foreign backgrounds are not yet ready to come on board.
According to Statistics Finland, for those entitled to vote with an immigrant background, turnout was only 23.3 per cent overall when compared to 25 per cent in 2017. Though the voting turnout was lowest since the 1945 elections, as 55.1 per cent of persons entitled to vote cast their vote that saw a total of 8,859 councillors elected to municipal councils.
Voting center. Image credit: YleRecall that the National Coalition Party became the biggest party in the Municipal elections with 21.4 per cent of all votes cast, which is 3.6 percentage points higher than the Social Democratic Party’s share of votes and 6.5 percentage points higher than the Centre Party’s share. The Finns Party increased its support most, by 5.6 percentage points.
Voters apathy among the immigrant community continue to increase, there are several factors responsible for this. Honourable Obi-West Utchaychukwu, the publisher of Diaspora Glitz Magazine was an election officer during the June 13 municipal elections in Vantaa. He was surprised at the low turnout of immigrants in Myrrmäki on election Day. Vantaa is the city with the highest number of immigrants and Myrrmäki is the second-largest neighbourhood in Vantaa after Tikkurila.
Why most foreigners are less interested than Finns in voting in municipal elections
Most foreigners who came to Finland for studies do not see Finland as their home because of the difficulty in finding a job that befits what they studied in school. Upon graduation, many of them relocate to countries like the UK, USA, Canada, etc. Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya and others fall into this category. More also, some of them who came for work-related purposes sees their stay in the Nordic country as temporal.
According to them, getting involved in politics is not part of the reason why they came. They came for the money and as long their work is not affected whether they vote or not, voting in an election is not their thing.
Another section feels that supporting and voting a foreigner will not change anything. The case is different for the Somalis, the best performing group politically, the majority of them came as refugees and had since integrated into society.
While most immigrants are going about saying politics is not their thing, it is good to remind them that major changes in immigration policies are underway. The news making the rounds on social media is that the National Coalition Party is proposing several changes to Finland’s current immigration policy.
The party has a list of nine items that it will present to the parliament in a bid to reform the country’s integration programme. These include making Finnish language training mandatory and reducing social security benefits for immigrants. The immigration policy is similar to those championed by the Basic Finns party. The changes are reportedly modelled on immigration policies followed by other European countries. People of foreign backgrounds should know that changing the narratives requires action not words
