Manifesto for Free Movement
While globalisation seeks to unleash the flow of capital and information and the movement of commodities the global migration control has grown more and more. Control mechanisms uphold dictatorships and zones of cheap production and seek to prevent people from moving and seeking a better life. Immigration laws that make people illegal create flexible and precarious labour force with weak bargaining power to the mercy of the employers.
In this situation we must already for our own good place ourselves next to all migrants and refugees and against Finland and European Unions hostile immigration politics. Only those attempting to control need to ask why people move; what is essential is the desire for a better life. Regardless of their birthplace every human being must have a right to move and settle where ever they wish/want.
Deportations Must Be Stopped
Directorate of Immigration (Ulkomaalaisvirasto – UVI) deports hundreds of asylum seekers from Finland every year. Among the deported have been people who have lived and built their life in Finland for many years. The officials seek to carry out deportations in secrecy. They appeal to confidentiality not to protect the people but to stop any discussion about their arbitrary decisions. UVIs actions must be brought to light and arbitrary deportations stopped.
Detention Centres Must Be Closed
All around Europe asylum seekers and other immigrants are being closed into detention centres. Detention is a gross violation of Western principles of justice because detainees are not held imprisoned on account of any criminal charge or conviction. Their crime is simply being foreign.
End to the Externalisation Process
European Union tries to transfer border control to neighbouring countries using financial and political pressure. A strict visa policy combined with tightening border control forces people to use life threatening modes of transport. Illegal immigration is produced by the exact same politics that claim to control it. This also applies to trafficking: permit systems and border control create the circumstances in which it is possible to force to sex work and prevent people from escaping the circumstances into which they have been caught.
Residence Permit Must Be Untied from Employment Contract
Since many types of residence permits are tied to an existing employment contract, losing a job means being deported. Migrants have to accept almost any work at almost any price under the threat of deportation and have no say in their working conditions. In most countries those who are forced to an illegal position do not have any access to even the very basic services such as health care. All temporary and conditional permits, such as the Finnish b-permit, must be converted to permanent permits. All migrants without papers must be legalised in the whole Europe and without conditions.
Towards an Open Citizenship
Talk of human rights has been revealed empty when it comes to immigrants without papers. Horrific historical precedents show that human rights are not respected without the protection of citizenship. This is why the concept of citizenship must be expanded. The citizenship of Europe belongs to each and every person living in the Union area..
