I’ve been thinking recently about the obstacles and problems foreigners face in Finland and how they can affect migration here. I’ve worked as an immigrant adviser for the last 2 years and have helped people to overcome the struggles. I keep myself updated with the statistics and matters connected with the immigration issues in Finland and I try to look vaster, referring my observations to other Nordic countries and EU-countries. I came to some conclusions and in this article I want to share what I’ve noticed.

As an immigrant adviser, I have dealt with the problems people face if they want to move to Finland, for example, on work basis. I myself had a very good start here as I got a job still back in Poland that required move to Finland. Before that, I hadn’t actually considered Finland as an option for my family, though we wanted to try something new, somewhere else and got an idea to move to some other country around 2013. We knew pretty little about the job market in Finland, and Norway seemed much better option at that time as we had some positive feedbacks from our friends and we knew that it might be a good choice. We had no connection with Finland and none of our friends had any experience with Finland. That might be crucial in the beginning. Just to know someone who can say that yes, you can succeed and live happily in Finland. Polish diaspora in Finland is pretty small and honestly wouldn’t be of much help. They rather either have a Finnish spouse; have lived here for many years already or there are men delegated to work on for example, construction sites. There are also students, but not many to my observation. Moreover, diasporas usually are not integrated much. Many times have I heard from foreigners that they can’t get any help from their countrymen.

Moving to Finland isn’t an easy task for EU-residents either. First you need to have a good reason like work. But there aren’t as many job offers available for people outside Finland. Then, if you want to move here and look for a job, you need to find it in 3 months to get registered. And if you don’t find? Well, life here isn’t the cheapest, so your savings will go quickly.

Even for jobs in cleaning services you need to know Finnish, and yet not everyone wants to be a cleaner. Learning Finnish takes years which you already don’t have at the start, if you want to support your family. Finding a job outside the capital region where most of foreigners live, is a matter of luck.

Again, I was so lucky to find a permanent job, but if I were thinking of working as a teacher here, which is my leading profession, I would need to validate my Polish diploma, which is firstly a costly thing (more than 400e) and a long-lasting procedure. How can I afford it when I am unemployed and how can I wait that long having no job? Luckily, I realized it quickly and not started the procedure. Having over 20 years of experience in teaching, working as an apprentice (such offers from the employment office) was neither an option for me. The situation might be of course different if you are young and have no big commitments. Then, you can taste an adventure and try your chances in Finland. In worst scenario, you’re free to move somewhere else.

Registration of residency is also a great obstacle for many people. Application is difficult and then you need to visit the Migri office that is busy all the time and then you fall into a 3-month queue. And you’re forced to leave Finland having no job and no savings. Total failure. Latest novelty I came across is the fact that you need to visit Migri even if you’ve lived in Finland for over 5 years as a permanent resident just to apply for a document that states that. It doesn’t matter that you can check it at Suomi.fi and that it is written there that your residency is permanent. If you don’t want to have problems at the Finnish border during the corona-times, better apply for the paper. Of course, it means that you have to fill the application, book your time at Migri, travel there and then wait for the paper about 4-5 months. It really seems ridiculous and many people get to know that when they are trying to return to Finland. There was nowhere info about it before.

Tax matters another problematic thing. I actually thought taxes in Finland work pretty Ok, but recently I have dealt with a problem of a self-employed from EU country wanting to work in Finland for a Finnish company. I spent about an hour on tax office phone desk, being switched to next “specialist” who might be able to answer a simple question: does a self-employed person need to inform the tax office about his work being done in Finland if he pays taxes in the company registration country. Well, it seems that he or she has to fill in 4 forms, send copy of different papers plus passport and then file it through safe-email at the Finnish tax office. Another similar case I had with a person wanting to register his company in Finland, he visited Migri, where he was told to apply for the Finnish ID at a tax office (even though the law says he can apply for it at Migri as well). Then the tax office said they are unable to proceed if he doesn’t have the ID and told him to apply at Migri. Being stuck between two offices, I recommended trying at Digital and Population Data Agency as the third of the options given at Suomi.fi website.

May some Finnish people wish Finland for the Finns only, but the truth is that without foreign population Finnish economy will not grow, unless the production of new Finns starts immediately. Countries develop much better with mixed-origin population and that is a fact, whether we like it or not. The population should however be work-oriented, not around social-assistance concentrated. What if a young Finnish mother says that the family benefits she receives are higher that her wages would be, what is the sense for her to find a job? She feels happy at home with her children and professional career is not her dream any more.  (That is a true case – such an opinion I got once from a young Finnish mother). Sure, not everyone wants a career.

Finland is though a great country to live and that’s a fact. I understand the bureaucracy pretty well, as even worse is in my home country.  The problem is just the fact that the population of Finland seems to be too small to deal with the economics in the future. That is also why Finnish government is recently trying to find some solutions to the problem. There are different projects supporting the process and much is said about attracting foreigners to Finland. On the other hand, those unemployed ones already living here are asking for support as well. I’m not an expert in the field, just a simple observer, but is anyone going to force employers to hire a foreigner? Not really. Will anyone accept a foreigner with weak language skills to be a part of the society? Seems not much possible.

So why come to Finland to live? Well, reasons are many once you’ve struggled through the beginnings. You live in a safe and clean country. You have access to many services to support your well-being. It’s not a difficult thing to buy a home here if you have a job. If you lose your job but have been a work union member you have the right for a decent unemployment benefit. If you were not a union member in a similar case, you also receive support from the government that allows you to live, develop and find something new. Your children will have access to great education and will have good childhood here. People seem to trust the government and the specialists in many fields are people who are qualified for their positions (as opposite to my home country). Other equally important reasons are that Finland is the motherland of Linux, Nokia, Moomins and Angry Birds and ranked as the happiest country in the world!

Here are also some interesting and recent articles from  Finland on the matter of immigration I came across while writing this article:

• Finland, the least desired country in Western Europe to emigrate, 5.4.2021, Foreigner.fi

Only 3% of the country’s population are non-EU citizens.

Only 2% of Finland’s population are from other EU member-states.”

• 433000 foreigners lives permanently in Finland by the end of 2020, 31.3.2021, Foreigner.fi

At the end of 2020, a total of 432 847 people of foreign origin were permanently living in Finland, according to the most recent population structure data released by Statistics Finland. The official total population of the country on that same date was 5,533,793 and the proportion of foreign-language speakers in the total population is 8%.

According to Statistics Finland’s data, in 2020 the biggest foreign-language speaking groups were Russian speakers, 84,190 persons, Estonian speakers, 49,551, and Arabic speakers, 34,282.

• Government: “Finland’s population would shrink without immigrants, 10.3.2021, Foreigner.fi

More net immigration will be necessary to maintain a stable population in the future. A potential target could be to raise net immigration to 25,000 people by 2030,” the report concludes.