Irmeli Tuomarla

Astrid Thors, Minister of Immigration and European Affairs, has taken on a big task to advocate a new, active immigration policy. She has endeavoured to shake off the label of Finland as an emigration country with high unemployment rates. The Minister has persistently brought forward the pursuits, included in the government programme, to remove the immigration barriers step by step.

- The present consideration of the availability of labour in the labour market in which granting a work permit is preceded by the valuation of authorities whether there is a need for any workforce in the applicant´s field would be abandoned by degrees. According to the government programme, a strategy would have to be composed to promote immigration. As to the activities of authorities, a functional model will be prepared during the next few months to provide industrial safety authorities with sufficient monitoring means to prevent two kinds of labour markets from being born and at least those in which employees´ rights are treaded down merely because of ignorance.  

Astrid Thors reminds, that it´s the authorities´ duty to inform applicants about the working conditions in Finland, to create good and practical counselling systems, to make them aware of their rights as well as duties and assist in organising and delivering language tuition.

– It´s a good way to be integrated through work, she says.

What benefits will be gained by the adjusted administration?

Minister Thors won´t list the advantages. Instead, she offers a more overall vision to develop migration affairs.

– It´s obvious various administrative fields will face great challenges in the future too. The world is moving forward faster than the administration manages to respond. In fact, employment-based immigration has altered the shape of administration.

According to Astrid Thors, the new immigration administration will have to respond to all the challenges, including those of employment-based immigration. The ministry has to be active in this.

–I hope we could find a joint strategy for immigration and could better see how various measures need each other´s support. Perhaps we might be able to even lower the boundary walls of co-operation.

One of the biggest challenges of the new administration is how to accomplish a practical system of monitoring integration affairs. At the first stage the structure of the ministry will be looked into after which the whole administration is examined at the next stage.

– The immigration administration will require a regional level which the integration measures can lean on. Reception centres, for instance, could be such regional operators. While I was visiting Tampere recently I noticed how important it would be to benefit even more from the multicultural resources available at the reception centres in the future, in other words, everything that has been created in the centres. The adopted working methods could also support different kinds of integration, not just the reception of asylum seekers.

– When the role of the Employment and Economic Development Centres obviously seems to be changing and the whole regional administration will be turned upside down, we will have to engage actively in looking for our correct position in regional administration.

Regarding changes taking place in the Directorate of Immigration, Ms Thors says the debate about the entire matter is still open. In fact, the current name can be changed into the Migration Authority very easily, but she hopes that it would mean more than just changing the name.

People must be allowed to come to Finland in pursuit of work

In Astrid Thors´s opinion, a visa for applying for work would be a good means to promote employment-based immigration.  

– We are competing on labour together with our neighbouring countries. That´s why it would be essential for applicants to be able to come to Finland to find out if there is suitable work available and not just via a workplace which has been acquired in advance. This would be a new kind of active immigration policy, the Minister reminds.

Thors emphasises that employment is a crucial part of integration. The government aims to extend the right to work of foreign nationals, regardless of how and under what status they have entered the country. As one of the goals, she mentions the reduced use of temporary residence permit, that is, B permit.

– The B permit doesn´t allow applicants to study or work. People shouldn´t get into such a ’limbo situation’. The use of B permits would be clearly limited to situations in which residence in the country is temporary, due to technical barriers or health reasons. A permanent residence permit would be granted to those whose deportation isn´t possible within reasonable time, but a prevailing situation in the country of return could no longer be regarded as a technical barrier of deportation.

“Applying for work anonymously might be worth trying“

In Finland, the workforce is ageing more rapidly than in the rest of Europe. A million people will retire in 2000-2015, which corresponds to half of those employed at present. Those who come here because of work or in pursuit of work are welcome, but we also need the contribution of the immigrants already living here.

– The percentage of unemployment is triple compared to the rest of the population, but it´s rapidly being reduced with the shortage of labour, Minister Thors points out.

– When discussing an active immigration policy, I have often stressed we must attend to the reception of refugees as well as to removing the employment barriers of the immigrants residing here. Despite the problems in applying for work, I´m not yet prepared to enact a law on applying for work anonymously. In fact, municipalities could try it.

The public administration itself has a lot to improve in its recruiting policy because the employees tend to be "rather white".

Thors suggests that the new immigration administration should show a clearer example and employ staff with an immigrant background.

– In terms of the public administration, in the service sector where the immigrants´ immediate contribution would be necessary it ought to be considered what kind of job descriptions could be adopted to benefit from their skills so that we could prove that there is two-way integration. When recruiting personnel, attention should be paid to this, despite the pressures connected with the productivity programme, to cut down on the staff. Immigrants have been active in getting in touch with me and have hoped, even demanded a new grip on the issue!

A European integration model is an impossible thought

– At the moment, it´s hard to say where in Europe such a country or a model of integration exists we could learn from, says Astrid Thors doubtfully and adds that many words of praise could be said about the Finnish model.

– In Finland we still have multiculturalism under control because we have the ability to grasp and see the needs of various groups even better than in other European countries. The European debate has brought forward the problems of the second and third generation immigrants. We could learn from their causes and consequences and possibly avoid making their mistakes unless they reflect a deteriorating dialogue between the cultures.

As to integration, in Finland we have emphasised the needs of mothers staying at home as one of the areas of priority. In addition, we have endeavoured to avoid conflicts between generations and generally highlighted the fact that a person would be able to act in our society the way he or she wants.

– In terms of selecting the language, I have always pointed out that each arrival can decide, which language, that is, Finnish or Swedish, he or she wants to speak. There are also a number of workplaces where the working language is other than Finnish or Swedish. We could make a better use of the immigrants´ native languages, but we shouldn´t apply a cultural test as they do in Denmark. I can´t see that a cultural examination of any kind would be necessary in the context of nationality tests.

The Minister appeals to the readers of Monitori and asks them to tell us about their experiences of good integration models in practice.

We, too, have our own ghettos

In Astrid Thors´ mind, the housing policy is an issue which would have to be paid special attention to. We ought to be able to prevent our ghettos and the related problems from being born.

Last spring the European Commission published a second edition of the Manual on Integration, targeted at decision-makers and operators. What´s the use of distributing such European operations models then?

– A great fear in the `world of projects` is that only those dedicated to the matter familiarise themselves with the reports. As such, the manual is useful because it collects ideas and models on how different social systems in Europe have solved their integration issues. It doesn´t provide a comparison of the success of integration. Besides, this can´t be made because compatible indicators are hard to find. Employment has generally been used as one indicator, but it doesn´t tell the whole truth about integration. Compiling the information for the manual is a process in which matters are discussed between various countries. I think it´s important.

An open debate is welcome!  

Minister Thors hopes the public debate will be relevant.

– With the growing importance of immigration in politics, there is a need for a greater political responsibility and monitoring than what just legislation could provide. That´s how we could increase openness and know better if it concerns a political decision or an individual solution.

The role of the media is important.

– Regarding the debate on racism, it´s essential that an open discussion would create better understanding. An active strategy is required here to present multiculturalism more clearly either as a separate strategy or as part of the whole immigration strategy.

The racism report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, published in May with a focus on Finland, paid attention to the position of Romanis, racist bullying at school, the position of Russian minorities and the news coverage of media.

– During the past summer racist crime was brought out into the open once again. Unfortunately, the number of those encountering personal racism has grown bigger than it used to be. On the other hand, people dare to tell about their experiences more openly. The authorities, police and prosecutors are now more prepared to discover racist features in crimes.

Thors is aware of the need to strengthen the resources of the Minority Ombudsman to improve in tackling any shortcomings there are.

– What I consider absolutely important is enlightenment and the role of our schools in it. The Ministry of Education takes a serious attitude to the matter. I hope to be able to collaborate with the education sector which is engaged in basic work on these issues. In my opinion an extensive participation of organisations in combating racism and maintaining an open debate is essential.