A Councilman Does Not Speak Finnish - Municipality to Hire a Live Interpreter
The Eastern town of Lieksa has been the epicenter of a lot of controversy related to immigration in Finland. Some years back the impoverished town decided to fix their economical problems by housing vast amounts of newly arrived asylum seekers. How does taking loads of uneducated poor people who don’t speak the language boost the local economy? Because the state pays for their upkeep for three years and upgrading their housing with the state money boosts local economy. → Profit.. However the local youth doesn’t seem to be too impressed by the arrangement.
The influx of primarly Somalian immigrants has made it’s mark in the local politics too. The Communist Party has one council member in the city council and he is a recent migrant from Somalia. Mahamed Abdullahi was the most popular communist candidate narrowly beating two other popular candidates collecting 73 of a total of 284 communist votes.
Mr Abdullahi is a student in his thirties and undoubtedly a young man aiming to make a difference. However something is holding him back. It’s the fact that he needs an interpreter to follow the Finnish discussion in the council. The town has decided to pay for the interpreter. The town states that the interpreter is not to be present in the council meetings but to interpret via telephone. I have a hunch that it will not work that way.. This service is officially expected to cost 1000-2000 Euros annually, but many suspect that will be the monthly cost.
One question that comes to mind is that if the council man does not speak good enough Finnish to follow a conversation, how did he convince the electorate of his capabilities as a politician or the validity of his agenda.
Link in Finnish