Reading time: 3 minutes Exactly 5 years ago in August, I came to a country about which I didn’t have much knowledge. I took this photo just before landing in Helsinki’s Vantaa Airport. This was my very first impression of Finland. 5 years later yesterday, I had the privilege to apply for Finnish citizenship! Here is a short story on how and why… This means that in some months, I will be counted as a Finnish citizen - in addition to my Turkish nationality! I will be entitled to further socio-political rights: I can vote in general elections, stay in Finland and the EU without visas or permits. Well, I guess I will enter the EU before Turkey does. Joking aside, it is not as easy as it sounds. I had to have minimum B1-B2 level Finnish language proficiency (trust me, it took me 2 years!), a decent job and study life, paid all my bills, legally resided for minimum 4 years without having any criminal record of having committed any crimes just to prove that I am a decent person. Regardless, I fell in love with Finland over the years. Its nature, honest people, calm political, legal, and socio-economic context… Very much different from what I had experienced in Turkey. This is not to discredit Turkey, my home country, but to emphasize that some people are born more privileged than others. Just because of where I was born, I have faced structural barriers for my entire life - that is quite burdensome. Almost every year after I turned to 18, I had to apply for visas and permits, prepare pages of documents just to travel and prove that I am not gonna stay “illegally” in some country. Having lived in Finland for the past 5 years as a “legal” resident, I have enjoyed the freedom of traveling within the EU and the Schengen area. But being a non-EU citizen, I have never enjoyed my rights as the EU citizens do. Nearly every year, I had to apply for permits just to “live” in this country. Just because of where I was born, I was to pay 24.000-Euro tuition fee for a two-year master’s degree program - if I was not one of the selected ten students at Tampere University to receive full scholarship. Because since 2017, higher education in Finland is not free of charge for non-EU citizens. Just because of where I was born, I have to obtain visas to attend conferences in the UK, the United States, Canada and many others. As a legal academic studying how borders are constructed and affect everyday life, facing structural barriers is highly frustrating. Well, I did not choose to be born in Turkey. Yes, I did not choose to be born in Turkey. Additionally, I was not among the “privileged” in Turkey either. I had a tough life since childhood. So, I studied my *ss off to have a decent life, graduated from one of the best law schools in Turkey. Yet, I did not have “uncles” to hire me nor did a future await me in Turkey. So, I decided to move abroad. And I chose to live in Finland: it is my home now. I am also not underestimating the hardships or the benefits of living in Turkey. Geography may be fate, but changing that fate is in one’s hands. So, just live wherever you feel home - your “home country” or elsewhere. But so long as we rely on the Westphalian model of citizenship, structural barriers will continue to exist for “thr excluded”. As a legal resident, I have been selectively “included”. But whenever a matter concerns my nationality, I encounter obstacles even in Finland, my country of residence. So long as the world is not an open public sphere regardless of where one was born, nationality, citizenship, and the rights attached to them will continue to be a privilege. Perhaps, one does not have to make sacrifices to have a dignified life and to choose where one wants to live. Of course, yesterday was a big day for me. But tomorrow is uncertain. Because until I am given the citizenship status, I will continue to deal with manifold forms of borders surrounding me and pages of documents to prove that I am a decent and legal person, yet again. Author
Berfin Nur Osso is a Doctor of Laws (LLD) candidate at the University of Helsinki, researching about the intersections of international refugee law, EU asylum law and policy, legal and political theory, and border studies.
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AuthorI am a Doctor of Laws (LLD) candidate at the University of Helsinki, researching about the intersections of international refugee law, EU asylum law and policy, legal and political theory. Drawing editorial cartoons is my passion. Archives
August 2022
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