The City of Helsinki Immigrants Information Point is to be moved from the Itäkeskus shopping centre in Eastern Helsinki to the city centre.
This is the decision of the City of Helsinki Social Services Department and the Immigration Affairs.
”The aim is to further improve the services provided for the city’s residents”, explains Helinä Hulkkonen, acting director of Social Services Helsinki.
“We have good experiences from the operation in Eastern Helsinki and we wanted to utilise the concept to serve the entire city.”
According to Hulkkonen new premises for the activity are currently being sought in the Kaisaniemi district.
“Kaisaniemi is extremely commutable from every direction”, said Hulkkonen, in a possible reference to the presence there of a Metro station. It is also relatively close to the main railway station. Annika Forsander, director of Immigration Affairs for the City of Helsinki, says that the idea with Kaisaniemi is to make use of other activities aimed at immigrants.
In Kaisaniemi there is already in operation the Enterprise Services for Immigrants unit and the International Cultural Centre Caisa.
The Itäkeskus service point has given advice in matters related to the use of the Helsinki Registry Office and the Finnish Immigration Service.
In Kaisaniemi, Forsander would like to see the tax authorities and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland's services added to the list of provided advice.
In Itäkeskus, the news of the possible move was not received with much enthusiasm.
“We have stated that we do not want to move”, says Immigrants Information Point Supervisor Christina Huotari.
Huotari is worried for the numerous immigrant-background residents living in Eastern Helsinki.
“With small children it would be pretty difficult to travel from Eastern Helsinki to the city centre and then back again to pick up older children from school.”
