Finland: Siltanews – News Desk
In the quiet of Central Finland, some 260 kilometers from Helsinki, three children ride their bikes in a line behind their father, the rhythm of the pedals echoing in the crisp air. Their destination this time isn’t the small local library – just a short walk from home – that had once fed their curiosity but had since grown too familiar. Instead, they are heading to the city library, a place where bookshelves are brimming with new adventures and untold stories.
“Before I even got a bank card in Finland, I got a library card,” Ziaulhag laughs as he recalls the memory of those early days still vivid in his mind. “My father has always stressed the importance of reading and education and how knowledge is a powerful tool”, adds Ziaulhag’s daughter, Manijeh.
For the family – father, mother, and three children under the age of seven – books were a shared passion, a constant throughout their journey. But their own path from Kabul, Afghanistan to Jyväskylä, Finland was anything like a straightforward novel.
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, Ziaulhag and Manijeh’s family’s life became filled with danger and dread. The family fled on a perilous journey of escape, passing through Pakistan, and they eventually found themselves in Iran, where they were recognized as refugees.
After several interviews and information sessions, Finland accepted the family for resettlement under its resettlement program. Refugee resettlement is the transfer of refugees, who are unable to return home or stay in their first country of asylum due to safety concerns, to another state that is ready to offer them permanent solutions for protection. The refugee quota for Finland is designated each year and the country makes the decision based on, amongst others, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)´s suggestions. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) assists Finland during selection missions and the chosen refugees through every step of the resettlement process.
When the family arrived in Finland in April 2000, there was still snow on the ground. Ziaulhag remembers how the cold seemed to seep into his bones through his light travel clothes. They settled in Jyväskylä, a municipality in Central Finland with a population of approximately 149,000 people, where the city and various organizations supported them closely with integration into the tight-knit community.
Like many five-year-olds, Manijeh quickly adapted to her new environment, making friends at daycare and picking up one of the world’s most difficult languages, Finnish, while at play. “At home, we spoke Dari—except when Dad wasn’t around. If it was just us siblings, we always switched to Finnish,” Manijeh recalls.
There has been a growing realization of just how crucial local language skills are for successful integration into Finnish society. Today, IOM Finland organizes pre-departure orientation (PDO) for quota refugees before they arrive in Finland. The pre-departure orientation sessions include Finnish language basics, as well as information about Finnish culture, education system, job market, and public services.
In those early days, finding work wasn’t easy for Ziaulhag. He had been an oil engineer in Afghanistan, but the skills he brought with him didn’t translate easily to his new life. “Our family joke has always been: how on earth did we end up in a country that has no oil?” Manijeh chuckles.
Driven by his passion for reading and continuous learning, Ziaulhag’s diverse career path eventually led him to work in immigrant counseling, where his personal integration experiences and language skills became his greatest assets.