G.A.P’S LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR ITS BOARD MEMBER
Globe Art Point’s letter of support for its board member Daniel Malpica
Globe Art Point. is deeply concerned about unjust implementations of immigration policies for foreign-born artists and cultural workers in Finland. We have witnessed failure and lack of transparency in the entire process dealing with Daniel Malpica‘s case.
The exact number of foreign-born artists, cultural professionals and operators in Finland is unknown, yet their contribution to the Finnish art scene and therefore to its international reputation is undeniably visible.
Migrant artists and cultural professionals that have chosen Finland as their second home are more likely to face discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and abuse at all stages of the migration process. Therefore, we demand equality in having the fundamental rights for all persons, regardless of their migration status to be free from discrimination based on race, sex, language, religion, national or social origin or any other status. Protecting this right is not only a legal obligation, but a matter of public interest and of moral responsibility.
G.A.P calls upon Finnish Immigration Office / Maahanmuuttovirasto (Migri) to reconsider their practice and to work towards ensuring that their regulations conform with human-centric approaches and with the constitutional values for human rights.
G.A.P further calls on Finnish Immigration Office to transparently elaborate on their criteria for acknowledging work of professional artists and cultural workers.
The Globe Art Point recognises the difficulties which cultural workers and institutions face, and stands ready to continue working to improve the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and human-centric approaches on the issue of migration in the arts scene.
We invite all our colleagues to take a stand for those who are not treated equally and to work actively to improve the well-being of each and every individual in the Finnish arts field.
The Board and team of Globe Art Point
For more information regarding Daniel Malpica’s case:
Finnish PEN (in English)
NUORI VOIMA (in Finnish)
Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish)
Since this article was published, Daniel received a two-year residence permit in mid February 2020. Here is a follow up article on his case.