Responding to the emerging SDP platform on employment-based immigration, Centre Party Chair and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said that the statements made by the SDP’s Eero Heinäluoma were offensive.

Commenting from a party convention in Lappeenranta, Vanhanen said that the SDP was playing the politics of confrontation. “It is distasteful to see the SDP trying to stir up political sentiment,” Vanhanen said.

The PM said that Centre Party candidates would not campaign on an anti-immigrant platform. “We will not participate in inciting voters,” Vanhanen declared.

Zyskowicz Defends Government Policy

Speaking to YLE, National Coalition Party MP Ben Zyskowicz also commented on the SDP position on work-based immigration.

“First, Heinäluoma is wrong in stating that government policy is to bring people from abroad to work. Second, citizens from other EU countries can already freely enter Finland to work,” Zyskowicz pointed out.

Zyskowicz also rejected accusations from True Finns Chair Timo Soini, who said that National Coalition Party policy on immigration was unclear.

Zyskowicz said that work-based immigration is welcome in Finland, since it is a law-abiding country where established terms and conditions of work ensure that workers can take care of themselves and their families.

Green League's Sinnemäki: SDP Echoing True Finns' Rhetoric

Green League Chair and Labour Minister Anni Sinnemäki took aim at Heinäluoma’s assertion that racism in Finland would be fueled by foreign workers snatching jobs from Finns.

“I think it’s rather odd to claim that incoming foreigners would cause an increase in racism. It doesn’t seem like a logical conclusion,” said Sinnemäki.

The Green League chair said the claims that government was luring foreign workers into Finland simply don’t hold water.

“The government is changing certain bureaucratic practices, which have to do with applicants from outside the EU seeking open positions. If for example a Russian doctor were to find work in a remote health centre, the goal is that the bureaucracy would not be as complex as it was before,” she explained.

Sinnemäki said that the recent hard line positions on immigration championed by SDP Chair Jutta Urpilainen and Eero Heinäluoma indicate that the party has taken up the immigration rhetoric practiced by the True Finns.

Left Alliance Astounded

Paavo Arhinmäki, Chairman of the Left Alliance said that he was amazed by the position outlined by SDP MP Eero Heinäluoma.

Arhinmäki said that the majority of foreign workers in Finland came from the EU, based on the free movement of labour across the economic and trade grouping. He pointed out that Heinäluoma himself could not deny this fact.

According to Arhinmäki, the core of the problem remains that immigrant labour is often abused by employers who pay lower wages and engage in tax evasion.

He called on Heinäluoma to address the core of the problem, which is businesses that take advantage of cheap labour, and the policies that facilitate them. “Blaming unemployment on immigrants will not improve the situation,” he added.

Criticism from Within

For his part, Teemu Hirvonen, Deputy Chairman of the Social Democratic Party’s Youth League distanced himself from the anti-immigration platform put forward by Heinäluoma.

Hirvonen said that there was no need to create friction between Finns and immigrant workers. He pointed out that Finland still has relatively few immigrants. And he noted that the ageing population means that in the future the country would need to replenish its workforce with workers from abroad.

SDP & EK: Immigration Will Grow

On Monday, the two largest labour market groups have joined the chorus of criticism of comments on immigration by former SDP chair Eero Heinäluoma.

Last week the chair of the SDP's parliamentary group said that employment-based immigration was dangerous in light of current widespread unemployment.

The largest labour federation, the SAK, and the Confederation of Finnish Industries, the EK, both say that work-based immigration into Finland will increase in the coming years. The SAK points out that, for instance, there is a need for more workers in the social and health care sectors.

Related story: Heinäluoma Outlines Hardened SDP Position on Immigration