Lebanese asylum-seeker Ali Kassem got some questionable publicity recently: he is one of the men who held a hunger strike at Helsinki's Orthodox Uspensky Cathedral to protest the rejection of their asylum applications. A final decision on their appeals is expected in a few months.

   

Kassem, a house painter by profession, is one of the few asylum-seekers in Finland to get a job that corresponds to his professional skills. A year and a half ago he was hired by Raimo Pakkanen, the owner of a painting and sand-blasting business in Punkalaidun.

   

Pakkanen also hired two other Lebanese asylum-seekers who work at his business in Hyvinkää. He says that they do their jobs well - often better than many Finns.

   

Kassem is happy that he has not had to be idle during the three years that he has been in Finland.

Not all asylum-seekers are as lucky

as Ali Kassem. While many would like to work while they wait for a decision on their applications, the lack of language skills, combined with negative attitudes on the part of some employers are a problem.

   

Another factor is that many of the small communities in which many refugee reception centres are located suffer from severe unemployment.

   

Marja Vakkala, head of the Punkalaidun refugee reception centre, says that many employees feel that they cannot trust foreigners. Municipal employment offices, meanwhile, tend to give priority to unemployed Finns.

Asylum-seekers are allowed

under Finnish law to seek employment after living in Finland for three months.

   

Director Marko Honkonen says that there is a popular prejudice that asylum-seekers are generally Third World people with no professional skills.

   

"In fact, we get professionals from different fields, from surgeons on down, and many applicants are very highly trained."

   

Still, very few find work in their own fields, and the high turnover rate keeps the asylum-seekers from being hired in fields where employers want people for long-term positions.

In May a project

called Becoming Visible was launched at Punkalaidun and four other refugee reception centres. It is aimed at activating asylum-seekers and improving their job opportunities.

   

"We hope to change attitudes among employers. After all, the benefits are mutual: entrepreneurs get diligent and well-motivated workers, and the asylum-seekers get something to do and a possibility to learn the language while they work", says Johanna Tervo, the head of the project.

   

Several residents at Punkalaidun have found agricultural work, including the seasonal activity of picking strawberries.

When a refugee reception centre

was established in Punkalaidun, there was much suspicion in the rural community of 3,600 residents. Raimo Pakkanen said that he had no suspicions when he hired Ali Kassem, although language was a problem: "Ali spoke only very little Finnish, and I don't speak anything else. But if we didn't understand something, we used our hands".

   

Now Kassem has learned plenty of Finnish words, and Pakkanen is learning to understand the unconventional word-order of some of the sentences of his employee.

   

Pakkanen feels that asylum applications should be processed more quickly. He also feels that working should count in an asylum-seeker's favour when the decision is made.