No work for a dream immigrant?

Ryan Savage

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By Jarkko Jokelainen
     
      An educated, young American man who speaks English as his mother tongue: he has moved to Finland completely legally and of his own free will.
      This is the kind of immigrant that people would seem to want to have here. Aren’t these the kinds of skilled people that we need in our increasingly international companies, where the official language has switched over to English?
      One would think so.
     
California native Ryan Savage, 29, became unemployed in March 2010. He moved to Finland four years ago and currently lives in Helsinki.
      For over a year he has been sending job applications to Finnish companies, without success. For over a year he has been struggling to make ends meet on his own savings and his wife’s income. The labour exchange, the Social Insurance Institution, and the Immigration Service have bounced him around, and he still is not sure if he can get unemployment compensation.
     
It all started one summer that he spent as an exchange student in Vaasa. The 15-year-old, who had grown up in Long Beach, California, became close to his host family in Vaasa, and Finland became a familiar holiday destination.
      Just over four years ago an English language masters’ programme at the University of Tampere caught his eye, and Savage decided to submit an application. He already had a previous university degree from California.
      “I had forgotten about the whole thing until months later I got a letter from the university saying that I had been accepted”, Savage laughs. “I had always wanted to live in Europe and I wanted to get a master’s degree, so I thought that I need to take this opportunity.
     
The course was completed in two years, but Savage is still here.
      The story is a typical one. He found a spouse in Helsinki. Of all immigrants ending up in Finland, an estimated one in four – about 50,000 people – are here for the same reason. By way of comparison, about 32,000 people moved to Finland as refugees between 1973 and 2008, and some of them have moved on.
      “I don’t think that I would be here without my relationship. I had planned to graduate and move on.”
     
At the end of his studies Savage got a job at the Tampere office of the forest industry company UPM-Kymmene, where he worked in finance.
      After moving to Helsinki, he grabbed onto a temporary post at the UPM Helsinki office left open by a woman on maternity leave. When the temporary post ended in March 2010, the real difficulties began.
      “I went to the labour office immediately to find out what possibilities I had. I had worked in Finland and paid taxes for two years, so I thought that I would be entitled to some kind of unemployment compensation.”
     
Savage filled an application and waited for his turn only to find out that he was in the wrong place.
      “The official looked at my passport and told me to go to the immigrants’ labour office. I went there and heard that they cannot help me because my residence permit is temporary.”
     
Savage was sent to the Immigration Service, where he needed to apply for an open-ended residence permit in order to be entitled to unemployment compensation. To get that, the relationship that he was in would have had to continue for two years, but the time was not yet up.
      When Savage was finally contacted by the office in December 2010, he was told to leave his passport for the visa application. This was delayed, as he was just leaving to take a free-lance job in the United States. It was not until February 2011 that he got he new work permit, and contacted the labour office.
      Savage is still waiting for a meeting that would allow him to register as an unemployed job seeker. The effort has continued for over a year.
      Meanwhile, Savage is actively looking for work.
     
Much has been said Savage’s experiences are not very encouraging in this regard. He has primarily sought work in international companies, or Finnish companies where English is the corporate language. In spite of this, his applications have foundered on his lack of language skills.
      “I would understand this, if speaking Finnish were of primary importance for the job, but most of the jobs that I have applied for do not require it”, he says with amazement. “In spite of this I usually get a response, where they mention language skills, and give it as a reason why they have decided to hire a Finn.”
     
Savage suspects that the language issue is not the ultimate reason. Many of his foreign friends have spoken the language, but even then food has not been available, and they have ended up moving elsewhere.
      “I have heard many say that the issue might ultimately be a question of trust. Finns trust other Finns. This is demographically such a one-sided country that people who come from somewhere else do not get the same trust.”
     
There is some irony that Savage’s job have foundered on this. In the United States he worked for the finance company JP Morgan Chase and with Southwest Airlines, where he was responsible for personnel management. Much of the work was dealing with issues of multiculturalism and equality issues.
      “I imagined that Finnish companies might have interest in this area, because all over the place people are saying that Finland needs skilled immigrants”, he says. “In addition, studies have shown repeatedly that a diverse labour force helps companies succeed. Why don’t Finnish companies see this opportunity?”
     
The sand is running low in Savage’s hourglass.
      If no solution comes to the situation soon, he will be forced to return home. That would mean either an end to his current relationship, or a need for both to move.
      “In such a case, Finland would lose not just one, but two educated people”, Savage points out.
     
Savage also emphasises that he is grateful that he has a choice. Not all immigrants have such a choice.
      “The situation with refugees is heartbreaking, because they do not have the possibility of returning home. Regardless of their educational background, their only possibility for work in Finland would seem to be in the cleaning business.”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.4.2011
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Recession increases unemployment among foreign residents (15.9.2010)
  Qualified immigrants to be given work to match their educational achievement (10.6.2009)

JARKKO JOKELAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jarkko.jokelainen@hs.fi