Interview with Minister of Immigration Astrid Thors

This interview is culled from The Helsinki Times

Helsinki Times (HT): Does the government have an overall policy dealing with all aspects of immigration?

Astrid Thors (AT): We are in a transition period with regards to migration to Finland. Previously, immigration was due to family reasons and protection issues, i.e. refugee resettlement. But now it is changing and we see the gaps in services, the Labour Ministry and various municipal organisations and those who supply services.

HT: You speak of gaps in services. What does this mean?

AT: Most of the services concentrate on those people who cannot live on their own devices. The gaps I am talking about are information gaps, service gaps and the right and availability of language education.

HT: What is the government doing about this?

AT: We are now having a review of the integration policy. The intention is for the government to present a white paper to parliament for debate in the autumn. Many regions and municipalities need closer cooperation between employees and authorities of different sectors that are responsible for migrants.

HT: Do you believe that the current Finnish language training programmes are sufficient?

AT: In Finland, Finnish and Swedish are constitutionally recognised languages. We have more protection of Finnish because of the historic traditions of the language. We are able to receive knowledge of the domestic languages, but we are stuck with some errors in the system of language training.

HT: What do you mean by that?

AT: We have a system that looks at people who are not employed. Additionally, there is no linking of past experience of students to the type of course they take. Such linking with things like knowing at least one foreign language, tertiary education levels, and also teaching students from the same language groups, rather than mixed in with all different language groups, have to be considered.

HT: Immigrants have indicated to us that it is difficult to get into language courses. Would you agree with this?

AT: A large part of newcomers are simply not eligible for state supplied education. There is a shortage of approved courses. Also, there are other problems, like if you get employed and lose your right to government sponsored language training as a result of it.

HT: Many sources talk about the recruitment of foreigners to come work in Finland. What about those who are already here, what is the job picture?

AT: When looking at employment statistics of migrants, in the 2005 EU statistical review Finland had the highest rate of unemployment of non-Finnish residents amongst OECD nations. What are the obstacles for employment of non-Finns? I have considered three major possibilities: the immigrant’s education is not recognised due to it being a long and time consuming process, other kinds of discrimination, and the language barrier being too high.

HT: Migrants think there are improvements that can be made to government services relating to getting jobs. What is your view on that?

AT: We are worried that the human resources capabilities of the Labour Ministry are insufficient to work properly with immigrants. We need to look to use our resources more effectively.

HT: As Minister of Immigration, what is your role?

AT: My role is interesting. I have over-arching responsibility for integration policies. Resources for these policies are in one department, and the operators for these are in another one. Despite discussions, for many years we have not been able to find a better structure.


Risto Haataja - HT
John Palmen - Lehtikuva