Zaidan Ahmed
They Need Only 10 Percent To Stand Again As Productive Individuals

Refugees are not people who just look for the hand that feeds them and puts money in their pockets. They all come from rich countries. They have studied in schools and universities and they have professions and jobs. Every human in this world works on themselves from the first moment they realise that they really want to live, so they have to be answerable to the laws and demands of this life. There or here, they are the same.

So these humans I talked about have come to Finland with all their capacities and plans which will be used soon in the Finnish environment at the right time. That is why after they get their residency permit, the first thing they do is go to the Finnish schools, learning the language in a bid to engage and integrate into society as an active member.

What do refugees need? And why don’t they stay in Turkey, the first destination they came to, isn’t it safe?! (Life through your lens.)

Life is wider in its meaning than only a tent and the sun. The real definition of life is that dynamic process which cannot simply entail chasing food and water presented by humanitarian organisations. It is not life, where are the schools, where are the jobs, where are the places that people could resume or continue their professions? For example, doctors from the Iraqi city of Mosul who fled from ISIS are not allowed to carry on their career in Kurdistan, a bordering so called autonomous region that understands firsthand the futility of attempting to ‘rebuild’ a life close to ISIS territory. Although initially attempting to help refugees in the nearby ISIS-controlled Ninawa province, its governmental staff have since fled due to violence and instability, cementing the fact that it is not possible to resettle in a neighbouring region. Refugees hope for a country that can provide a small space for a safe life.

Life has its own qualities which should be nurtured for that blessed seed to bloom, enabling that flower to grow. Children need to go to school, workers want to work legally and equally, and doctors need to save lives. And all these qualities of life are here in Europe, because Europe has fostered and maintained human dignity which is the core of life. They came here for abstract reasons, more than concrete ones, such as, freedom and dignity: the life through our lens.

Don’t let anybody to put you in a specific box!

Are you African or Arabic? Are societies built on the ethnicity of individuals, or rather the capacities and qualifications that individuals have?

Let’s consider the first civilisations and realise how they thrived! No doubt according to the specialists, the key was trade, which is more than transporting goods and grains, but more broadly encompasses cultural exchange. The foundation of human progression is the accumulation of developments from different nations, across different stages of history.

With the respect to what is happening in the modern world, and especially in Finland, it’s more logical to be optimistic rather than give in to our fears. We reject the pressure to leave this place and sail into the horizons, and instead wish for a better understanding of how diverse multicultural societies, like the USA, have used difference to their advantage to become world powers.

Are we trapped by our fears and rumors?

Fortunately, all the examples we have refer to one truth: the most multicultural society is the one most able to sustain itself strongly on different levels!

It is rare that individuals will seek to challenge the laws and conventions of a functional society. In comparison, Iraq’s state systems have been dysfunctional since 2003, with disastrous results. With good machines in the factory, and good systems in place, the outcomes will not surprisingly be of the same quality and quantity, every single time.

This is exactly how the law works in any country! We shouldn’t be worried about refugees and how they were in their countries, but we should ask ourselves how our system works. If the foundations of our countries are strong and just, then this enables people to live truthfully and without fear. In our essence, we respond to and embody the systems of the countries in which we live.