Really moving to Helsinki: Malmi!

And finally after our vacations in Greece, we really moved to Finland... End of August. First of all, I didn't know from where to start. So, I googled to see what a person could do when he-she moves to Finland... Well, I googled, my boyfriend googled, my boyfriend's mother googled... and guess what: everyone of us found different things that should be done. To be exact, a web page said, first go to maestratti (national registry), and then to the police, another one said, first to the police and then to maestratti and so on...

Then we decided to go to the police in Kerava and ask. The woman told us that we should go to the police station of Jarvenpaa that was open some crazy morning hours and you could only get there by car. Then I called to Jarvenpaa, to be sure... They told me that I had to go to maestratti first.

Then next morning, I went to Maestratti... There the employer tells me that I have to go to... Malmi police station to get a registration number and he gave me a paper with the discription of how to arrive there. Then he asked me to fill a form with the date of my arrival and he told me that I couldnt register if I hadnt been in Helsinki... at least 3 months. Then I told him, that... how could they know how much time I am here if I am from the European Union and there is no way that they can know when I came... I dont even need a passport to come... Then he smiled and told me that I can write whatever I think but that this is what they said to him. Then of course I wrote that I came 6 months ago and headed for Malmi District...

Malmi is a ruther decadent suburb of Helsinki 15 minutes with the train from the center. When I went there I realised why this place is not in the center of Helsinki(as the rest of the services of the city): it would terrorise the middle-high class Finn to see so much foreigners together in a small room for too much people, standing on foot inside and outside, on the street, women with babies, children running around, an empty reception office and no one there to ask for information. Only once in a while a girl was putting her head out, she would say a number and vanish again. There I saw some spanish young people and went to talk to them. They where...ERASMUS students... and they had been sent to wait to this queue too.. They had been waiting since 9 oclock in the morning and it was 3 and they werent sure that they could enter today, maybe tomorrow morning... They just couldnt, of course, believe that this was happening to ...Finland! They also had to pay 40 euros fee for getting the registration number for these...3 months that they would spend here, as all the EU citizens that move here. For not EU it is a lot more expensive, depends on the country you come from, there was a list of prices...

I left Malmi devasted and with a strong will to go back back to Spain... What the hell, I thought. Who do they think they are? How much people they think that want to move here? In a country of 5 millions people and vast space, they cant take care of the few immigrants that arrive here? Unfortunately, what I get to see more and more here is that FInland is a rather xenophobe place that hasnt been used to receive immigrants, neither from EU neither outside of EU, and most of all has no idea what to do with them... Even getting a registration number can take weeks, personally to me, a European citizen, it took one month, even with the help of my Finnish boyfriend and all of his family... To make a small comparison, in Spain, it took me just... 1 hour to get my registration number (NIE), waiting to a separate queue for European citizens, in one of the most beautifull streets of Barcelona, 5 minutes from the beach, for FREE (now it costs 5 euros) and... guess what! The same day, two hours later I also had in hands my social security number too (that includes full free healthcare for everyone), just two blocks away from there!!


(I havent managed still to have a social security card here, eli KELA kortti, even if I have been working here, even if I have been trying 3 months now... They just sent me a 3 papers note last week that they will study my...case in the middle of January... Until then, I hope I dont get sick because in this case, I have to go back to Spain just to see a doctor- and take some sun :)....)

To continue my Malmi adventure, later I went home and decided to return another day, because, as everyone said, if you want to register in the same day you have to wait to a queue BEFORE it opens to public, that means on the street at 7 in the morning so that you are one of the first to have a number.

And then we had a big revelation: A. 's mother, discovered that you can book -from internet too- a time in Malmi police station and you can go there in that time and apply to register! OK, everything OK we thought... BUT, the only time they could offer us was... 3 weeks later! I thought, Oh dear, lets try to do it the civilised way... We can wait a bit...

Here to mention one very important thing that you need to know before moving here and go to Malmi: YOU CANT JUST MOVE HERE. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BIG REASON. LOVE NOT INCLUDED. OR YOU HAVE A JOB, OR YOU ARE A STUDENT. BY NO CIRCUMSTANCES, EVEN A EUROPEAN CITIZEN, CANT GET A REGISTRATION NUMBER IN FINLAND WITHOUT ONE OF THESE 2 CONDITIONS. So, in my case for example in these 3 weeks I had to wait, I was trying to get a job contract in...whatever so that they give me this...f...registration number. And now, guess what! You CANT FIND A JOB WITHOUT A REGISTRATION NUMBER!

Well, in the end I was extremely lucky to find a job of one week that the only thing they needed was to be native greek... and they did to me a super basic contract... And with that, 3 weeks later I went to Malmi to ...fight for my rights.

I went with my boyfriends mother as she was very suspicious by now that it wouldnt work, and went in the time, date we had booked. We waited for half an hour and nobody said anything, on the reception still nobody. All the doors in this place were opening only from the inside, so it was impossible to ask anything unless somebody would pomp out of a door. Again the same as before: a head saying a number and get lost again. It was so Kafka... Then A.'s mother after a while got kind of stressed and started knocking a door. After 10 minutes somebody came and then told us to wait a bit more. Then somebody came and took us inside: he said that he had forgotten our appointment! It was a corridor with small cabines protected with glass and cameras and televisions where you could see yourself. This guy asked me "Why did to Finland?" then for a contract and then he was very bored, took some copies, we paid 40 euros and that was it. I am sure though that without this basic contract I would have never taken this number...

And my fears have been truthfull : I met a girl from an EU country, that had had the same story as me, come with a Finnish boyfriend, and she had already been in Malmi... 3 times. They wouldnt accept the short term work contract she had and even if she had payed the 40 euros, she was in a ... queue to study her case... In the end, she had to go with the father of her boyfriend (poor parents) and he had to sign that she...is not sleeping on the streets and that he will give her some basic money for...food until she gets a better job!!!! And this is a REALL story.

Another friend from EU too, had to go with her boyfriend and her boyfriend had to show to the police station his ... bank account, that he has enough money to sustain her until she gets a job...

Finland 2008

My first week in Finland

In this blog I would like to take a note of my experience in moving to Finland. As an introduction: I am from Greece and we met with my Finnish boyfriend A. in Spain and after 4 years we decided to move to Finland. I had been learning Finnish in Barcelona for 2 years, I already spoke some when I came and I had-and still have-a big admiration for the Finnish culture and people. I was really interested to explore this country, meet my boyfriends family and find some work here. Everybody talks about the nordic countries how they are advanced in the social services, organisation etc. and thats why I came with big expections to face... the caos! From my personal experience, it is far more easy to move to Spain or Greece ( both known as lazy, unorganised countries) as a European citizen than in Finland. And in my blog you will find out why:)

My story begins on June 2008 when I came for vacations here before moving. I was living in Kerava, 35 kilometres from Helsinki, practically a suburb as most of the people who live there work in Helsinki. Then one day I woke up with a terrible urine infection- I had chronic urine infection in the past- and I had fever and couldnt really move from the toilet. My boyfriends parents were on holidays and we decided to go to the nearest terveyskeskus, city healthcare center in Kerava. We went there with our bikes.

Before us there were in the queue only three boys that one of them had twisted his foot. Even if he couldnt walk the nurses told him that he should go to the terveyskeskus of his hometown. The boys were young and were laughing because...he just couldnt walk. Then they lent him 2 sticks to walk but telling him many times that if he doesnt return them back he will get a fine. After that, it was our turn.

I said that I was in a lot of pain probably because of urine infection. They asked me for the kela kortti, finish social security, and I told them that I am just visitor, but I have the spanish one with me. Then they just told me that they cant help me even if there were no more people there. The only way would be that I pay 150euros(??) even if it was just a prescription for antibiotics. Then they indicated me that just next to the terveyskeskus there is a private doctor that will be....cheaper. I started crying but this didnt seem to bother them at all and their last words were that : Only if it is a matter of life and death we would be obliged to help you. As you can imagine after that we left completely destroyed. I just couldnt believe it. This has never happened to me in any other country I happend to be with a similar "urine infection story": not in Spain, neither Marroc, Algeria, Greece... In Algeria by the way, that they ARE NOT European Union, apart of giving me for free health assistance and antibiotics, they did to me an ecography just to be sure it was not something more important...Then, we went out and the private doctor was closed, it was around 5 in the afternoon and I was completely desesparate because I JUST KNEW THAT WITH A PILL OF ANTIBIOTICS ALL OF THIS WOULD END IMMEDIATELY. But, in Finland you cant get any medicine without prescription. Soo, we called my boyfriends uncle and we had to go with his car to Helsinki center, to a private hospital, wait 3 hours in the queue as there were a lot people there waiting and pay 50euros. And this was just the beginning...