In October 2022, we organized one of the Immigration Dialogues in our office. This event was planned by the Ministry of the Interior to expand awareness of the changing nature of immigration and to promote integration and the inclusion of immigrants. Among others Finnish organizations and administrations, MonaLiiku was chosen to prepare one of main the discussion. 

During the discussion, people from all over places could speak up about their experiences as immigrants in Finland.

This event has allowed people to ask for the creation of tools that foster open-minded interaction between families migrating to Finland and the receiving society. Indeed, migrants' families have been too long in the same position, and it has created mistrust towards the surrounding society. We all talk about some measures that must be taken to recognize this and what rehabilitative actions to this issue could be proceeded.  

The importance of sport in the immigration process 

Some other points were highlighted such as the well-being of immigrants' children and the fact that sports should be seen as a platform to establish preventive measures and interventions that helps detect personal challenges of the individual. The emphasis was placed on the importance of sports clubs in allowing people to freely be themselves and that sports environments can function as a protective environment in a person’s life during the integration process by offering a social community. 

Although, sport clubs can also limit the person development in terms of language learning and active participation in the society. We also discussed the need to develop more inclusive sport opportunities for people of different backgrounds and abilities that don’t really exist for now.  

In the end, the Immigration Dialogues were a great opportunity to talk about some main issues in the actual immigration process and build a constructive culture of dialogue. A summary of this meeting will be submitted to the parties sitting in Parliament and is going to be used in the forthcoming comprehensive reform of the Aliens Act and in the preparation of Finland’s comprehensive immigration policy. 

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