*closed* answers received :)

[Karhunkoski]

. This attitude that some inmigrants have it´s giving a bad image of inmigrants in general, and it´s really unfair.

Agree with that.

I sometimes wonder why I've worked from the day I stepped in to Finland 15 years ago and stress almost daily about working my *ss off so that my pension is soemthing liveable when I retire.

It's called pride in oneself, and luckily for society you're not alone.

There was a big write up in the Turn Sanomat today about various political parties. I have to say that the PS are looking more and more.... likeable might be a good word?

Yup, it's the same story across much of Europe. Now that leaders like Merkel and Cameron publicly admit that multiculturalism has failed, it is a sure sign that change is in the air. And as the PS spiel contains a lot of points that the average joe would call "sensible", it wouldn't be suprising if they romped home. My only dilemna is which PS candidate to choose.

[Camilee]

[quote="Rip even the basic unemployment benefit (what you get if you have not paid the optional unemployment fund fee(*)) is, and AFAIK has been for long time, much more than that. Or do you mean 350€/month for three months?

You may have been additionally eligible for the housing benefit; I do not know if you checked. As you apparently had some money to live on you could probably not have got the Income support (toimeentulotuki) of from the city social services.[quote][/quote]

Rip, I don´t know what is this optional unemployment fund fee that you are talking about. As I said, every KELA office said to me something different and confusing. I didn´t know any finnish person at that time to help me to translate or giving me some advice or information about what to do.

I got 350e for the whole period (3 months). I asked for some benefit in May and I received the money in November.

I´ve never asked for the money from the city social services, at that time I had some money saved, but not anymore.

I know that all the taxes from my salary comes to people that they don´t work, but I can say that I´ve been almost always working in this country, and in my home country as well. I just expected at the time that I didn´t had any job to have the economic support that I deserved, but it seems that it always comes to the ones that they don´t.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

Yup, it's the same story across much of Europe. Now that leaders like Merkel and Cameron publicly admit that multiculturalism has failed, it is a sure sign that change is in the air. And as the PS spiel contains a lot of points that the average joe would call "sensible", it wouldn't be suprising if they romped home. My only dilemna is which PS candidate to choose.

I never had you down as a communist....I guess it's in the genes though.

You want to get over your disturbing obsession with muslims and immigrants, and spend time looking at their other policies.

[Karhunkoski]

and spend time looking at their other policies.

I have, and I mostly like them. The question is, have you read the whole 69 pages? Don't worry, it hardly mentions Turkey, or Islam for that matter

[Karhunkoski]

Now that leaders like Merkel and Cameron publicly admit that multiculturalism has failed

It's not that multiculturalism has failed...how can it fail when it's so abstract. It's not a new concept but what is the "success" of it that people talk about?
People living side by side, doing their own thing with no one bothering too much about what going on on the other side of the fence. Both sides agree to disagree on the minor stuff but agreeing on the major things and respecting what's already written in law.

I believe what Merkel and Cameron mean is that efforts to bring about largescale multiculturalism have failed. Of course different cultures have often managed to live happily side by side for millennia. Most people of our generation never gave it a second thought and we had never even heard of the word "multiculturalism" until fairly recently. In the past the word just wasn't needed.

[Rip]

It's usually about 60% of your pretax earnings per month for 500 days (or something like that).

I believe what Rip was refering to was this.. it's an optional fund but one which everyone should consider joining so that they're not forced to live on the scrapings that come from KELA.

A big one is YTK http://www.ytk.fi

This was what I meant. People with certain educational or professional background might have some other option with slightly smaller annual fee, but YTK is OK for everybody. The benefit level (as a function of the pre-unemployment salary) and work history requirement is the same for every fund. Those who are member of some trade union are already members of their trade area fund, but others can join for example YTK.

Even the basic unemployment benefit (for people who have not paid the optional fund fee, but have been previously employed) is currently about 550€/month (pre tax), which does make me wonder if the 'Camilee' got that she would have been entitled to?