Finns Party dismisses SDP’s tougher immigration proposals

Finns Party deputy chair Joakim Vigelius has dismissed the Social Democratic Party’s proposals for stricter requirements on immigrants as unconvincing and insufficient. He made the comments in Yle’s A-studio programme on Monday.

“They are unconvincing, at least considering that the SDP was already talking about tougher immigration policy some 15 years ago through its then-chair Jutta Urpilainen,” Vigelius said.

He said those policies had not been reflected in the government led by Jyrki Katainen, when the SDP was Finland’s second-largest party.

The SDP presented tougher immigration and integration policies last week. The proposals include linking social security to language skills, limiting the home care allowance and increasing the penalties for gang-related crime.

Vigelius said the proposals were exactly the same as those the Finns Party had advocated for a longer period and that had been implemented during the current parliamentary term. He also said the SDP had opposed some of those measures in parliamentary votes.

According to Vigelius, the SDP’s proposals were entirely insufficient in addressing immigration-related problems observed in the Nordic countries.

SDP Member of Parliament Eveliina Heinäluoma responded that the new positions had now been included in the party’s political programme, approved by its party conference, and would guide its work in possible government programme negotiations and election campaigns.

The SDP has not opposed in Parliament exactly the measures it has now proposed. Instead, it has opposed, among other things, tighter rules for permanent residence permits, restrictions on healthcare for people staying in the country illegally, cuts to reception allowances for asylum seekers, a higher income threshold for work-based immigration and a reduction in the refugee quota.

Heinäluoma also said that the SDP had supported linking integration policy more closely to employment when the government introduced related legislation. However, the party voted against the legislation because it included significant cuts to municipalities’ integration funding.

“Integration work is a central part of municipalities’ work and provides people with ways to find employment and gain language skills,” Heinäluoma said.

Vigelius did not rule out the possibility of the Finns Party and the SDP forming a government together. He said the Finns Party approached government cooperation pragmatically and that the most important issue was what could be included in a government programme and implemented in government.

Heinäluoma said she did not believe the parties’ values were compatible. She said the SDP’s policy was based on equality and respect for people, and that the party could not accept what she described as racist and wholly inappropriate conduct by the Finns Party.