Exordium: Finland’s readiness to recruit international workforce - Part 4

I began with a wider overview of labour market in Finland and certain recruitment practices that can be addressed. Those are actionable changes that would not only make recruitment more inclusive, but would also bring value to a company and lead to growth (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

In this last piece, I discuss the challenges that immigrant job seekers face.

Biases towards an immigrant as a job seeker

In order to tackle the issue of immigrant employment, first and foremost it is important to look at the objective fact, that as of June 2021, the unemployment rate among immigrants in Finland was 27.5%.1 Compared to overall unemployment rate of 7.6% nationwide at the same time,2 it is only reasonable to conclude, that there are additional barriers which pertain solely to immigrants, rather than the overall state of economy or the consequences of Covid-19 pandemic.

Being a complex topic, the issue of immigrant employment can be divided into subcategories to facilitate a better understanding of the problem:

• Immigrants as a solution to the problem of ageing society
• Finnish language skills
• Concern for education quality
• Personal biases

Immigrants as a solution to the problem of ageing society

Similar to other European countries, Finland’s population is significantly ageing,3 which causes a concern for lack of enough work force to support the welfare system and take over some of the jobs. It is mostly associated with less qualified and lower paid work force.

Theoretically, low- and non-educated immigrants should be able to begin a working life in the host country fairly quickly. Therefore, calls for easing immigration policies sounds like the right approach. However, the unemployment rate of immigrants currently living in Finland being so much higher than the national rate suggests otherwise: there already is a labour force residing in the country, but for some reason they are not part of the labour market.

A good example to illustrate the issue is the United Kingdom in the context of Brexit. After the UK left the European Union, it was made obvious, that ageing society had less to do with the challenges the Brits are facing than anticipated. It’s not that there are no younger, healthier people to do the hard labour that needs less qualification and therefore is lower paid. The problem is, that people do not want to work in those positions in the conditions that they are offered.4 Finland in that respect is not much different, and until there are policies in place to improve integration of foreigners, the current recruitment strategies will keep disenfranchising them.

This image of immigrants seeking mostly low qualified work positions also overlooks the more educated foreigners, who are searching for entirely different type of work. The challenge that educated professional foreigners face in Finland is the career ceiling, because they are much less likely to be promoted to a managerial position. Even in progressive and highly international industries such as IT sector,5 the career ceiling causes nearly 40% of highly educated, experienced, and skilled workers to move out of Finland after 5 years.

Finnish language skills

Prime example of unreasonable expectation not in line with the actual qualifications of the position in question is the high level of proficiency in Finnish.6

Studies show, that employers, even those suffering from work force shortages, want their employees to have high level of Finnish language skills,7 by which they usually mean native. In the meantime, close to 40% Finnish companies8 are not confident in their own internal capacity to lead a working life in English.

Common European Framework of Reference implicitly defines B1 as a minimum needed at the workplace: “Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work<...>.”9 Fluent Finnish proficiency, which is often arbitrarily listed in job descriptions, would require level B2 and higher.10

One of the major problems is that immigrants do not have Finnish language training options that would reach to level B1. The publicly offered language training at most can reach level A2 and even private sector training options to reach B1 or beyond are extremely limited and costly. There is also a separate issue of highly educated people finding more suitable Finnish language courses in the country.11

Language skills more often than not are already better than the subjective self-evaluation would suggest. Finnish language necessity would objectively be justified only when: working in Customer Service with company promising service in Finnish; where majority of responsibilities require reading comprehension of documents written in Finnish (legal text, regulatory text, labour code); or by law the position has a strict requirement to be performed in Finnish.

In the long term, public language training offerings must be extended to B1, but in the meantime the companies truly have to evaluate their requirements for Finnish language proficiency for any given position. Similarly, the same arguments apply to the requirement of fluency in Swedish.

Concern for education quality

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report shows, that there is a distrust in the education quality that an immigrant has obtained in their home country.12 It is probably more prevalent in cases, when degrees have been obtained outside of the Developed Countries. But it also shows, that recruiters are ignoring available work force without ever giving them a chance to demonstrate their qualifications.

And yes, there is a legitimate concern in regard to the quality of education in any accredited institution. That is also demonstrated by the documented problems residents of foreign background experience in Finnish education system.13

In fact, OECD has suggested14 that mere interaction with foreigners in the context of work life, that has been relatively low, would have a significant effect on improving integration and reducing personal bias-based discrimination.

Personal biases

Immigration and immigrant integration are complex issues that have already received both national and international attention. Studies employ a variety of research methodologies to analyse the broad problems that both foreigners and the host country face. Statistical analyses, surveys and experiments15 with the actual labour market in Finland all yield the same results: there is significant discrimination towards immigrants, that is at least in part based on their ethnicity.

Closing statement

This status quo impedes all stakeholders:

The State which is trying to solve social, economic problems.

Businesses that lack workforce.

And in the meantime, there is a large group of people who already have a residence permit in Finland and struggle to lead full lives.

The good sign is the awareness of the problem and multiple organisations being involved in the search for solutions. Labour market is a major aspect affecting quality of life for the individual and the state as a collective. Understanding of subconscious biases and more equal balance between hiring companies and job seekers might just possibly be a part of the solution.

Edit. Read previous parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

1Nichols, S., Virsinger, P. “Always standing on the fragile side of ice”: Immigrants’ integration into the labor market in Finland – Report. p. 7. https://www.tek.fi/sites/default/files/2021-10/Immigrants%E2%80%99%20integration%20into%20the%20labor%20market%20in%20Finland.pdf

Teknologiateollisuus pelk?? Suomen n?ivettyv?n osaajapulaan – Nokia: Jos emme saa ty?voimaa, ty?t tehd??n sitten muualla. Yle News. 2021-09-21. https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12108445

2Statistics Finland. Labour force survey 2021: Monthly unemployment rate 2009M01 – 2021M10. https://findikaattori.fi/en/34

3Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. Ageing policy. Last updated: 2021-11-18. https://thl.fi/en/web/ageing/ageing-policy

4Shortage problem: What’s the UK running low on and why? BBC News Services. 2021-10-15. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58721085

Social care: Official advisers want immigration rules to be eased. BBC News Services. 2021-12-15. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-59674900

5Nichols, S., Virsinger, P. “Always standing on the fragile side of ice”: Immigrants’ integration into the labor market in Finland – Report. https://www.tek.fi/sites/default/files/2021-10/Immigrants%E2%80%99%20integration%20into%20the%20labor%20market%20in%20Finland.pdf

6Finnish employers often require native-like fluency from immigrants, restricting job prospects. Yle News. 2021-09-04. https://yle.fi/news/3-12085416

7Tomperi, H., Nichols, S., Virsinger, P. Language requirements & prejudice hinder recruiting immigrants. TEK News and blogs. 2021-09-23. https://www.tek.fi/en/news-blogs/language-requirements-prejudice-hinder-recruiting-immigrants

Nichols, S., Virsinger, P. “Always standing on the fragile side of ice”: Immigrants’ integration into the labor market in Finland – Report. p. 21 https://www.tek.fi/sites/default/files/2021-10/Immigrants%E2%80%99%20integration%20into%20the%20labor%20market%20in%20Finland.pdf

8Vieraalla kielell? ty?skentely pelottaa – ty?voimapulasta huolimatta yritykset eiv?t uskalla palkata ulkomaalaisia, koska englantia ei osata, kertoo kysely. Yle News. 2021-11-08. https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12174397

9Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Global scale - Common Reference levels. https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale

10Union report: Migrants suffer lower pay, prejudice, discrimination in Finland. Yle News. 2021-09-24. https://yle.fi/news/3-12114024

11Ty?el?m?n kovat kielitaitovaatimukset haastavat korkeakoulutettuja maahanmuuttajia. Opetushallitus. 20021-02-12. https://www.oph.fi/fi/uutiset/2021/tyoelaman-kovat-kielitaitovaatimukset-haastavat-korkeakoulutettuja-maahanmuuttajia

Lehtimaja I., Korkeakoulutetun maahanmuuttajan oikeus oppia suomea. Kielivirkosto. 2017-10-12. https://www.kieliverkosto.fi/fi/journals/kieli-koulutus-ja-yhteiskunta-lokakuu-2017-2/korkeakoulutetun-maahanmuuttajan-oikeus-oppia-suomea

12V??n?nen, T. Can immigration save the ageing economy of Finland? The labor market integration of immigrants in the 21st century and the impacts of immigration on public economics. Master’s Thesis. University of Fribourg, University of Tampere. 2018. p. 39.

13“Finland has failed in integration,” states education policy chief at OAJ. Helsinki Times. 2019-03-08. https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/16245-finland-has-failed-in-integration-states-education-policy-chief-at-oaj.html

Study: Children of “immigrant background” have lower grades, more mental health problems. Yle News. 2020-11-26. https://yle.fi/news/3-11667354

14OECD. Finding the Way: A Discussion of the Finnish Migrant Integration System. 2017. p. 17.

15Union report: Migrants suffer lower pay, prejudice, discrimination in Finland. Yle News. 2021-09-24. https://yle.fi/news/3-12114024

Study: Reluctance to hire foreigners often reflects employers’ lack of English. Yle News. 2021-11-08. https://yle.fi/news/3-12178505

Job hunters switch to “Finnish-sounding” surnames to avoid discrimination. Yle News. 2021-11-22. https://yle.fi/news/3-12198076 Researcher: “If there’s a worker with a Finnish name, they’ll probably be hired”. Yle News. 2019-10-21. https://yle.fi/news/3-11026589

Anonymous recruiting to increase in City of Helsinki hiring processes. City of Helsinki. 2020-12-22. https://www.hel.fi/uutiset/en/kaupunginkanslia/anonymous-recruiting-to-increase-in-city-of-helsinki-hiring-processes?pd=v