Ministeri Thors Urban Safety -seminaarissa

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Immigrants tend to concentrate in big cities. In Finland, too, half of the immigrant population lives in the Greater Helsinki Area. In this context, immigrant population refers to foreign nationals, people born abroad and non-native speakers. About one tenth of the people living in Helsinki are non-native speakers.

The overall goal of local safety efforts is to reduce the number of crimes, disturbances and accidents, and the resulting damage, and to maintain safety and increase perception of safety. These efforts are targeted at all local residents, communities and businesses. There will be no genuine cooperation if practices, methods and goals are not known by everyone involved. Local safety efforts can not succeed unless the other sectors of the society support a balanced development of the society.

Good social policy and an well functioning welfare society are the best guarantees for a safe society. An effective integration policy which takes account of the needs of immigrants is needed. In successful integration, immigrants are also provided with information on what our legal system is based and what duties are expected of people living here.

However, promotion of integration also calls for special measures because ethnic minorities in particular are at risk of social exclusion. These risks include participation in post-comprehensive education and labour market participation where the status of ethnic minorities is significantly lower than that of the majority population. Special attention needs to be given to social exclusion affecting youth.

Only a week ago did the Government submit to Parliament a bill for an act promoting integration of immigrants. This integration act supports and promotes both integration and social inclusion of immigrants. The act would be expanded to include all immigrants living in Finland. Under this new act, immigrants would receive basic information on Finland when issued with a residence permit or registering their right of residence. This information would also advise them how to apply for an initial assessment where the employment, training and other integration capabilities of the immigrant are evaluated for the first time along with their needs for language training and for other measures and services promoting integration.

On the basis of an integration plan, the immigrant would be referred to the actual integration training which includes both language training and civic training. I want to emphasise that all immigrants don't need integration training, and therefore the needs are assessed individually. It should, however, be noted that by expanding the scope of application of the act we would cover groups such as housewives who at present don't benefit from the necessary integration measures. The integration plan could also be drawn up to cover the whole family, and this way the situation of the whole family would be considered, and all family members would benefit from the measures.

The act would also include provisions on a temporary experiment (Osallisena Suomessa), which would improve integration training by testing new training models and ways to organise training. The experiment aims to improve the quality of integration training and develop training methods and systems.At present, integration training isn't always sufficiently effective, customer-driven and persistent. The experiment pays attention to immigrant children's pre-primary education and sufficient teaching of Finnish or Swedish as a second language and teaching of their native language. In addition, the experiment focuses on supporting young immigrants moving from early childhood education to basic education and from basic education to further education.

The question of residential segregation is also closely connected with safety of life and a safe living environment. This seminar will surely discuss how good urban planning can prevent concentration of socially excluded population groups and those at risk of exclusion in the same residential area, and often, unfortunately, concentration of immigrants in these same areas. It is impossible to prevent altogether the number of immigrants in some residential areas from being clearly bigger than in others. But, the adverse impacts of such a development can and should be combated. Severe social segregation may at worst result in the transmission of social exclusion to the next generation. It may increase tendency to crime and stigmatise the whole area.

The negative impacts of segregation also easily result in increased tension between the majority population and ethnic minorities in the area. We can reduce street violence and public disturbance by increasing police presence, but we must combat the root causes.

If a negative trend emerges, it is important to concentrate additional resources on the services of the area, to reward the staff working under challenging conditions and to engage representatives of all citizens in the development of the area and to improve the residential environment - in other words to make it an attractive and good place to live in. And, these measures should be aimed at the whole population in the area, not just at the immigrants. Good examples of such measures can also be found here in Helsinki, where special efforts in urbanplanning and housing have been taken to prevent spatial segregation of immigrants.

I would also like to raise a few specific questions that relate particularly to the insecurity and safety threats of ethnic minorities and immigrants. These may differ from insecurity experienced by the rest of the population because of a different culture, religion and traditions. But we must remember that the specific threats experienced by ethnic minorities may be very different even within minority groups and be directed in different ways.

Building trust between inhabitants and authorities is central. That can include taking advice from those who have experienced racism and discrimination. It would be important that there were one body in all cities and municipalities - either an authority or organisation - which had the responsibility for dealing with these cases, giving advice and taking matters forward if necessary. It is clear that the information and services provided by the police in racist crimes and those based on discrimination are important in building trust. It is in no-one's interest if members of minorities are afraid of police and other authorities.

Safety of immigrants may also involve very concrete matters. Rescue services brought into focus that, for example a considerable use of oil in cooking on a stove causes a relatively large number of fires particularly by immigrants. Effective education and information are of course essential here, but it seems that written manuals are not sufficient and personal guidance is needed. Voluntary organisations could play an important role here.

We shouldn't be afraid of addressing issues relating to cultural characteristics where the threat may come from within the group itself. Honour-related violence is one of them. It is a special question and the authorities need a lot more information, knowledge and operational models to prevent and tackle the problem and to protect people from it. We should aim at guaranteeing everyone's safety equally, and this truly means that we must also address the internal safety threats of minorities and those coming from the families regardless of the culture concerned.

It is absolutely essential that everyone has access to the safety services provided, irrespective of their language and ethnic background. We must be able to assess the needs of the population in the area, and plan the services promoting safety according to those needs.

The Ministry of the Interior has developed instruments and tools to incorporate the special safety questions relating to the status of ethnic minorities and immigrants into safety planning. One example is a guide called safety of ethnic minorities and immigrants in local safety planning, which was published last year.

It is a practical guide for preparing local safety plans, and its fundamental aim is to include ethnic minorities and immigrants themselves in the safety work. Ethnic minorities and immigrants have a twofold role in the process: a contributor and an object to be considered in safety planning. It is obvious that trust between those working with safety issues and minority groups cannot be built without continuing and open interaction and cooperation.

As we are talking about a group of people who are at greater risk of social exclusion than the rest of the population and who cannot always be reached by the authorities, the importance of organisations must also be highlighted. In Finland, as in other countries, organisations have opened the eyes of the authorities to new threats of safety and started to help people on the basis of their own needs. Although it is important that the knowledge and methods of the authorities are developed, it is certain that we will also need in the future the knowledge of the third sector and their potential to provide low-threshold services to those groups of people who the services provided by the authorities don't always reach. I would like to mention explicitly women who have been subjected to or threatened with violence, victims of human trafficking, beggars, and migrants without proper documents who are still relatively invisible in Finland. The knowledge and contacts of organisations will also be needed in the future to reach these groups.

A good example of a local safety plan which pays particular attention to relationships between population groups is that of the City of Espoo. Prevention of disagreements and conflicts between different population groups has far-reaching consequences for a balanced development of the area and society as a whole. Another aid that I want to emphasise is an excellent and very practical guide which provides solutions to everyday ethnic conflicts ("Puhumalla paras - ratkaisuja arjen etnisiin konflikteihin"). This book identifies typical situations where conflicts may arise such as at school, in the residential area, within the family, in the workplace and on the street. It tackles typical everyday conflict situations and provides clear solutions to them. It also reminds us that we should try to solve problems with common sense and through discussion before they lead to a conflict. The use of culture-interpreters is a good way of solving problems and preventing misunderstandings based on cultural differences.

When we require that immigrants who move to Finland and to our cities must integrate here, we must ensure equal opportunities for them to get training and employment and to live their lives safely. Respect for human rights should also be visible in practice, in everyday lives, and not only in legislation and speeches. Similarly, we must also require respect for human rights of people who move here.

Mobility of people poses constantly new challenges to us and it requires that both the authorities and organisations are able to quickly recognise phenomena and to respond to new needs. I believe that the best way to achieve this is through effective cooperation, through sincere cooperation within a spirit of mutual trust with each other, and with cities and both the old and new residents.

A multicultural and safe society is a society where different cultures can prosper freely and contribute to the society in a positive way.