Lina was one of the founders of the human rights campaign We see you in Finland in 2016. Her role was to bring out stories about the asylum politics and the people suffering from it through storytelling, songwriting, public speaking and through creating to and inspiring others to create events to raise awareness and show solidarity with refugees.
Vi kommer minnas allt
The campaign “We see you” was launched in August 2016 as a reaction to the asylum politics in Finland being drastically tightened. Lina wrote the song “Vi kommer minnas allt” (We will remember everything), a musical letter, to Finland´s prime minister at the time, Juha Sipilä which drew attention to the cause and the campaign.
Different groups in especially the Swedish-speaking part of Finland joined the campaign. They took part in a social media campaign, created and/or attended events. An attached campaign - “We see you Migri” was also created where asylum decisions were read out loud in theatres and churches.
Listen to the song “Vi kommer minnas allt” below, together with paintings by Iraqi artist Salwa Jabbar.
The song is also available in versions in Finnish and English.
We see you - the book
About 30 people - activists, artists, refugees, researchers - contributed to the book “We see you” that came out in 2019. The book is in Swedish and English and was celebrated with a release concert with stories and song at Lilla Teatern in Helsinki.
Boken är ett collage av röster, minnesfragment och känslointryck från hösten 2015, när Finland nåddes av den så kallade flyktingvågen och We See You-kampanjen startade, fram till slutet av 2018. Vardagen och erfarenheterna av att ha levt nära asylsökande och sett konsekvenserna av den förda politiken dokumenteras ur volontärers och flyktingars perspektiv. Boken är en självbiografisk ögonvittnesskildring och en gemensam diskussion kring människovärde, mänskliga rättigheter och etiska frågeställningar.