Integration training fails to significantly improve employment prospects of refugees

Employment among Iraqis 62 per cent

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The government wants to extend integration training to all immigrants when the law on the matter is amended next year.
      Currently, students, as well as those coming to Finland for work, and their families are not entitled to training to help them adapt to Finnish society. Training is available only to those who are served by Finland’s employment offices.
      Another aim of the planned changes is to make the training that is offered more versatile. Currently, many find the courses that are available to be too difficult, too easy, or otherwise inappropriate. There is no intention to make integration training mandatory.
     
The aim of the orientation courses is to give immigrants the basic information and skills they need to function in Finnish society. The most important of the skills is knowledge of the language.
      Success is difficult to assess, as Finland has not wanted to introduce the kinds of tests that are in use in Denmark and The Netherlands.
      An immigrant is generally seen to have adapted to Finnish society well, when he or she has found work.
      The original goal of the law setting up the orientation measures was that an immigrant should find employment within three years.
     
Sufficient orientation is also economically beneficial, as jobless immigrants impose costs on society, without bringing in tax revenues.
     There is also a danger of social problems from falling outside the mainstream of society.
     If employment is used as the measure of the success of integration, 80 per cent of immigrants can be seen to have successfully integrated, but there are sharp contrasts between different groups and nationalities. The Ministry of Employment and the Economy says that 53 per cent of Somalis in Finland were unemployed in last year. Among Afghanis, the unemployment level was 54 per cent, for Iranians it was 47 per cent, and for Iraqis, it was 62 per cent.
     
The unemployment levels have remained high throughout the decade. Lack of experience in integration is not the problem; the first Somali refugees arrived in Finland in the early 1990s.
     “Specifically those with a refugee background have difficulties in integrating. They often have traumatic experiences, and Finnish attitudes against them are the most severe. Adapting can last as long as ten years”, says Mervi Virtanen, Director of Immigration at the Ministry of the Interior.
     Virtanen says that the integration of refugees is slowed by the fact that many lack reading and writing skills. About 700 immigrants each year take part in literacy classes, while the number of refugees arriving in Finland each year is about 1,500.
     
Many mothers of refugee families stay at home taking care of the children, and do not attend the classes. The exact number of stay-at-home women is unknown, but one indication is that two thirds of those who attend orientation classes are men, even though the gender ratio among immigrants is half-and-half.
      “Integration aims at the labour market. If someone has many children, is it even sensible to assume that the person will sit for seven hours a day attending a course? Integration should be examined on a family basis, and services should be arranged for this group”, notes Annika Forsander, Director of Immigration Affairs at the City of Helsinki.
     
The most difficult problem in integration is that immigrants have to wait between three and six months to get into the training programme.
      The situation is even worse for refugees who cannot read or write. During the waiting period, the immigrants do not necessarily get any information about Finnish society. The only sources of information are relatives and family members who have come to Finland before.
     “Asylum seekers might wait for several years for training. At first, their desire to work can be great, but the enthusiasm wanes when they have to wait”, Mervi Virtanen says.
     “People basically want to integrate.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Thors open to changes to immigration legislation (16.12.2008)
  A third of Finland’s immigrants live in Helsinki (6.12.2008)
  Study shows immigrants have good capacity for work (11.11.2008)
  Higher employment level for immigrants would save Helsinki millions (3.10.2008)

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