Finland is bidding immigrants a warm welcome. The attractions of working in Finland include good working conditions and high employment security. Even the intriguing Finnish language poses no barrier to newcomers willing to make an effort. Last year some 22,500 people migrated to Finland.
Finland has woken up to the fact that when the post-war baby-boom age groups retire, it will face a labour shortage that its own younger generation will be unable to fill. For example, if all the jobs that will be vacated in nursing over the next few decades had to be filled with Finns only, then one in four of Finland’s young people would have to train to be nurses. Since that situation is obviously a non-starter, there is a clear and present need to recruit people from abroad. Other sectors too, such as construction, are facing a labour shortage.
The idea of taking either a short-term or a permanent job in Finland, or actually settling here, is not as extraordinary as it was a mere ten or twenty years ago. The attractions of working in Finland include good working conditions and high employment security. Even the intriguing Finnish language poses no barrier to newcomers willing to make an effort, although admittedly it may slow them down a bit.
Labour mobility has in fact speeded up considerably with enlargement of the European Union. In 2006, some 22,500 people migrated to Finland, over a thousand more than in the previous year and a good 10,000 more than the number of people who emigrated. Finland has been, and still is to some extent, a culturally, ethnically and linguistically homogeneous country; the attitude towards newcomers has been largely one of caution among both officials and the population in general. Now, however, Finland has decided to bid immigrants a warm welcome. The political programme of the second government of Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, which took office in spring 2007, makes a clear transition from a policy on aliens to a policy on immigrants.
Employers seek staff at job fairs
"When Finland joined the EU in 1995, free movement of labour meant primarily that Finns went off to work in other European countries. With further enlargement of the Union, though, the trend has reversed," explains senior inspector Tiina Oinonen from the Ministry of Labour. She is the Finland Project Manager for EURES, the European Employment Services for the whole European Economic Area.
More than 800 advisers in public employment services in the EU Member States are involved in EURES. In Finland there are 25 of them at employment offices in major towns. These experts help companies looking for workers from outside Finland and people in Finland seeking jobs abroad to find the necessary contacts and channels.
"Things are changing fast: whereas in the early stage of Estonia's EU membership people left there in search of better earnings, Estonia is now facing a labour shortage itself, and pay levels are rising," Oinonen explains.
In recent years, it has become common for numerous countries to arrange recruitment fairs. Among the countries where Finnish employers have attended fairs are Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Hospitals all over Finland have actively tried to encourage Finnish expatriates in Sweden to return home.
"Those who come to talk to potential Finnish employers at fair stands include young people in particular who have studied in Finland through, say, the Erasmus exchange programme. They have pleasant memories of Finland and often speak some Finnish, too."
Polish metalworkers for Ostrobothnia
Some good results have been achieved. Tiina Oinonen mentions a project to recruit metalworkers from Poland for small and midsize engineering works in Ostrobothnia, in western Finland.
"Initially, the men came alone, but now some of them have brought their wives along. Recruits are found accommodation and are given language courses in Finnish, though a Polish interpreter is available to help them get started. Both employers and new co-workers have given them a warm welcome, inviting them their summer cottages and to get to know the the local countryside," says Tiina Oinonen.
The European Social Fund has helped provide integration services for the Polish metalworkers. They are housed in small rural communities where it is easy to find services and make contacts. Of course, there are more services for immigrants in towns and cities, but in those places immigrants are often left to their own devices in finding them.
In the sectors suffering the worst labour shortages, European recruitment is not enough. A case in point is Esperi Care, an ambulance operator and healthcare service provider, which is in the process of recruiting a hundred nurses in the Philippines, mostly to work in a privately run senior citizens' home in Helsinki. Adult education centre Adulta, which operates in the municipalities around Helsinki, plans to start training Chinese metalworkers and nurses for jobs in Finland.
Learn the language and have your paperwork in order
Though immigrants are supported in many ways, coming to work in Finland does of course require a certain spirit of enterprise and an open mind. The most important issue, and the biggest, is language. There are very few jobs in which it is possible to work without knowing any Finnish at all, and for reasons of occupational safety alone it is vital to be able to communicate.
Local authorities, and indeed many employers too, provide immigrants and their families with language training, either gratis or at very low cost. There are individual differences in how fast one learns a new language, of course, but Tiina Oinonen reckons that with six months of intensive effort one should learn enough to get by at the average workplace.
Finland sets great value on vocational training, and in many fields and positions there are statutory qualification requirements. All persons who have studied and gained a qualification outside Finland would therefore do well to check in advance that their qualifications are officially accepted in Finland.
Integration services for immigrants are provided by law, with local authorities and employment offices carrying the prime responsibility for organizing them.
So what does Finland have to offer workers from abroad? Why is it worth coming to Finland?
"Finland can offer good, high-quality working conditions, employees have a secure status, children and adolescents have good educational opportunities, public services run smoothly, and we have many successful, internationally respected companies…," Tiina Oinonen states.
…and then of course there is our wonderful northern countryside with its multitude of recreational and sporting opportunities, a lively cultural and organizational life, a wide range of inexpensive study choices, clean and comfortable housing, and a society that really functions well in every way. Welcome to Finland!
Fact box:
10 steps to working and living in Finland
