Author: Wende Luvinga
Think Africa is one of the seven organisations selected to join the Regional Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) for Southern Finland (Uusimaa, Häme and Southeast Finland) for the period of 2020-2024. The advisory board engages in dialogue with immigrants, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, public authorities, political parties and NGOs in order to build trust and an open Finland. The regional advisory boards are coordinated by the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY-keskukset).
For the period between August to November 2020, Think Africa will focus on the issue of employment/workplace discrimination, by planning events aimed at increasing knowledge and understanding on employment rights and reporting discrimination. To achieve this, Think Africa is collaborating with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK). SAK has employee rights advisory services for immigrants. This service is free and open to all and does not require trade union membership.
On the 29th of August, Think Africa held a Town Hall meeting with representatives of African associations and communities in the capital region. A total of 20 participants representing 12 associations and communities participated in the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to inform them about ETNO and the Think Africa role at regional ETNO, as well as collect the participants view on the challenges and opportunities for addressing employment discrimination.
Following intense and fruitful deliberations, participants acknowledged the importance of the Trade Unions for information and protection of the rights of employees. However, the participants also mentioned that the Trade Unions should not be regarded as a panacea for all employment discrimination problems in Finland. Equally important is to address other structural barriers facing immigrants in areas of employment. Furthermore, the participants mentioned that Trade unions in Finland are conservative, and there is a need to update their operations and regulations to match the diversity of the current labour market.
Another challenge discussed at the town hall meeting was the inadequate Finnish language skills among immigrants and its relation to employment discriminations: insufficient language becomes
a barrier to access information about employees’ rights and the channels to ascertain these rights. Thus, the participants acknowledged the importance of proficiency in the Finnish language as one way to improve knowledge and skills and employment situation.
Apart from that, the participants pointed out the intersectionality of employment discrimination, which can happen on basis of personal identities such as race, gender, religion, disability, etc. Therefore, it was suggested, in addition to language proficiency, other measures that targeting employment discrimination should also address the intersectionality.
The participants also called for dialogues with other groups in the population to increase understanding and reduce biases in the Finnish society. One way mentioned was to jointly organise activities that aim to increase cultural understanding. AFAES ry was mentioned as one of the organisations that is working to increase understanding between African immigrants and the host population of Finland.
Besides that, participants agreed on the importance of Think Africa to facilitate information sharing both from ETNO to the community and vice versa. Proposal was given to create a platform for information sharing on integration issues. The most effective channels of disseminating information were proposed. Participants agreed that in addition to Finnish and English, the materials should be translated to French and Arabic whenever possible in order to reach out to many communities.
Think Africa will organise another event on non-discrimination at work towards the end of October 2020, the venue and date will be communicated on the Facebook page. Apart from that, Think Africa will share with the participants the relevant events organized by other institutions regarding employment rights in Finland.
In Helsinki, Finland, on 30th September 2020. Think Africa representatives to the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations in Southern Finland (Uusimaa, Häme and Southeast Finland)/Etnisten suhteiden neuvottelukunta (ETNO) Etelä Suomi (Uusimaa, Häme ja Kaakkois Suomi).
Email: info@thinkafrica.fi
