
JobBuddies Materials
These pages offer a summary of some of the research and discourse in Finnish society about the topic of immigrant employment.

Research & Articles
Here you can find some recent research on topics related to the JobBuddies project.
Erfarenheter av internationell rekrytering bland små och medelstora företag | Statistiska centralbyrån SCB (Sverige), November 2025 (in Swedish)
Den här rapporten är en del av SCB:s myndighetsgemensamma arbete med regeringsuppdraget om att attrahera, etablera och behålla internationell kompetens, Work in Sweden. Rapporten handlar om små och medelstora företag och deras behov och erfarenheter av internationell rekrytering. Rapporten belyser också de utmaningar som arbetsgivarna ser och deras inställning till internationell rekrytering.
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Pre-analysis plan – Effects of Finland’s 2025 Decree on National Labour-Shortage Sectors | Labore (Ohto Kanninen, Hannu Karhunen, Sanni Kiviholma, Jeremias Nieminen), October 2025
This is a pre-analysis plan for a quasi-experimental study evaluating the effects of Finland’s 2025 “Decree on National Labour-Shortage Sectors.” Typ-ically, recent labor immigrants can only work in the occupation for which their residence permit has been granted. The new shortage list allows immi-grant workers to switch their occupation to those listed in a nationwide list of shortage occupations. There are currently 9 occupations (4-digit level ISCO classification) on the list, and the list will be updated annually. We will study the effects on worker flows and average earnings in the affected occupations. We will use a difference-in-differences strategy, comparing occupations listed on the shortage list to those not on the list. We utilize information from re-gional guidelines about occupations which have already been classified as labor shortage occupations by the regional authorities. In this pre-analysis plan, we show the pre-trends for our main occupation-level analyses, and the estimate for 1 partially treated month, before the data for more post period months becomes available.
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Taloutta ja työelämää 2025: Maahanmuuttajanaisten työllistyminen | STTK, September 2025 (in Finnish)
Tähän E2:n tekemään tutkimukseen on haastateltu työllistyneitä ja työtä hakevia maahanmuuttajanaisia sekä työvoima- ja kotouttamispalveluissa työskenteleviä asiantuntijoita. Rahoitukseen kohdistuvat leikkaukset ovat asiantuntijoiden suurin huolenaihe ja este sujuvan työllistämisen tiellä. Toisaalta tutkimuksesta nousee useita esityksiä, miten juuri maahanmuuttajanaisten työllistymistä voisi edistää.
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Labor Policies and Immigrant Employment | Journal of Economic Surveys (Sanni Kiviholma, Hannu Karhunen), September 2025
This survey describes the recent literature on integration and active labor market policies that strive to enhance the employment of immigrants. We searched several databases, and after screening, 63 studies satisfied our predetermined inclusion criteria. The first criterion is that the studies examine policies in Europe. Second, the search was limited to studies published between 2005 and 2024. Third, our primary outcome of interest is employment. Other outcome variables are income, labor market participation, and duration of unemployment. We focus on studies that offer experimental or quasi-experimental evidence on the effects of policies on the employment of immigrants. We divide the policy measures into the following five groups: integration programs, language training, benefits, childcare, and residency policies. Our main finding is that well-executed integration measures can improve the labor market attachment of immigrants, speed up the process of entering employment, and improve the quality of attained jobs.
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Labour market flows run deeper: Participation has raised both employment and unemployment | Bank of Finland, June 2025
A key feature of recent developments in the labour market in Finland has been an increase in the participation rate. Inflows into the labour force have exceeded outflows. For some time already, this has been evident particularly as a rise in employment, but in recent years also as a simultaneously high rate of unemployment. The increase in the participation rate is due to people retiring later than before, the more active participation of the youngest cohorts, and the notably high proportion of people of active working age among immigrants. In the current weak economic conditions, the higher labour market participation has also contributed to a rapid rise in the unemployment rate.
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Kotoutumiskoulutuksen kehittämisen ja lainvalmistelun tueksi tarvitaan tilastotietoa | Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, May 2025 (in Finnish)
Pääministeri Petteri Orpon hallituksen hallitusohjelman mukaisesti kotoutumispolitiikka perustuu kielen oppimiseen, työntekoon sekä suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan perehtymiseen ja sen sääntöjen noudattamiseen. Hallitusohjelmassa on useita maahanmuuttajien kielitaitoon ja kielitaidon osoittamiseen liittyviä kirjauksia. Merkittävimmät näistä ovat kielitaitovaatimukset nykyisentasoisen työmarkkinatuen ja pysyvän oleskeluluvan saamisessa. Tilastot kotoutumiskoulutuksessa saavutetuista kielitaitotasoista ovat hyödyllistä taustatietoa hallitusohjelmakirjausten valmisteluun ja kotoutumiskoulutuksen kehittämiseen.
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Maahanmuuton yhteiskuntasopimus | Finland Chamber of Commerce, March 2025 (in Finnish)
Maahanmuuttoa koskeva pattitilanne tulee ratkaista maahanmuuton yhteiskuntasopimuksella. Yrityselämälle maahanmuutto on välttämätöntä. Sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluita ei voida ylläpitää ilman maahanmuuttoa. Suomen julkisen talouden näkökulmasta ei yksinkertaisesti ole varaa siihen, että työikäisten määrä vähenee Suomessa, kuten väistämättä kävisi ilman maahanmuuttoa. Samaan aikaan suuri osa suomalaisista näkee maahanmuutossa myös ongelmia. Iso osa suomalaisista arvioi, ettei Suomessa käytävä keskustelu maahanmuutosta ole riittävän suorapuheista ja ongelmia avoimesti esille tuovaa. Kaikkialla länsimaissa yhteiskuntien toimintakykyä koetellaan, koska maahanmuuttoon liittyvät kysymykset aiheuttavat yhteiskunnallista epävakautta.
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Guide for Municipalities: Multilevel Governance and Cross-sectoral Cooperation to Promote Integration and Good Relations | Council of Europe, March 2025
This guide to multi-level governance and cross-sectoral cooperation gives municipalities perspectives and tools to plan policies, structures, services and practices that promote integration and good relations within the framework of national action programmes. It has been developed within the framework of the European Union / Council of Europe Joint Project “Building an Inclusive Integration Approach in Finland”.
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Seeking Real Equality: a Practical Guide for Finnish Municipalities to Combat Discrimination | Council of Europe, January 2025
This practice guide has been prepared within the framework of the European Union / Council of Europe Joint Project ‘Building an inclusive integration approach in Finland’. The practice guide is to serve as a resource for the municipalities involved in the project, and other municipalities in Finland, to: build on their work over this project; deepen their learning and engagement with the issues of individual and systemic discrimination; and act as exemplars of good practice for all municipalities.
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A Comparative Analysis of the Reception of Immigrants into Finnish Working Life in 2016 and 2024 | Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, January 2025
The report examines the receptiveness of working life in Finland towards individuals of foreign backgrounds. The research data consists of 10,000 fictitious job applications submitted to publicly advertised positions by equally qualified applicants of Finnish, English, Russian, Iraqi and Somali backgrounds. The experiment tested job vacancies in the restaurant and catering, retail trade, cleaning, clerical and customer service sectors. A previous study conducted in 2016 (Ahmad 2020) identified significant ethnic disparities in hiring practices, which persisted in 2024. However, these disparities have notably decreased, particularly for applicants of Iraqi and Somali backgrounds. In 2016, Somali applicants had to submit 3.94 and Iraqi applicants 2.91 times as many applications as equally qualified Finnish candidates to receive an interview invitation. By 2024, these figures had dropped to 2.48 and 2.06. Conversely, applicants of Russian background experienced a slight decline in callback rates. These findings suggest a shift towards greater inclusivity in the Finnish labour market, potentially driven by evolving hiring policies, growing acceptance of diversity and/or increased labour demand in the sectors studied. Despite this progress, Finnish applicants continue to enjoy a clear advantage over equally qualified second-generation immigrant candidates in the Finnish labour market.
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Doctoral thesis on trust in encounters between refugees and bureaucrats in Finland and Sweden | Åbo Akademi University, December 2024
M.Soc.Sc. Liselott Sundbäck’s doctoral thesis in Social Policy will be put forth for public defence at The Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies at Åbo Akademi University. The thesis is entitled “Unfolding trust in institutional encounters between forced migrants and street-level bureaucrats in Finland and Sweden”.
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E2 Tutkimuksen tuore raportti kertoo: Suomalaisille pk-yrityksille ulkomaalaisen työvoiman saatavuus on jopa kohtalon kysymys | E2 Tutkimus, November 2024 (in Finnish)
Osassa pk-yrityksistä ulkomaalaiset työntekijät näyttäytyvät jopa ainoana keinona saada työvoimaa. Toisille yrityksille kansainväliset rekrytoinnit puolestaan ovat keino lisätä yrityksen kilpailukykyä. Pk-yritysten toimialakohtaiset tarpeet ovat erilaiset. Erilaisia yrityksiä yhdistää kokemus työyhteisön kansainvälistymisen myönteisistä vaikutuksista liiketoimintaan ja työyhteisön ilmapiiriin. Rekrytoinneista koituva työmäärä ja niihin liittyvä byrokratia kuitenkin kuormittavat yrittäjiä.
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Employers’ perspectives on hiring immigrants – Experiences from the Nordic countries | Nordic Welfare Centre, December 2023
A report about Nordic employers’ views on hiring low-skilled immigrants. Addresses labor shortages while promoting inclusive recruitment practices. Advocates for employer-led initiatives to foster immigrant integration, emphasizing the benefits of diversity and the commitment of employers to drive positive change beyond mere workforce needs.
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“Why are only we expected to adapt?” The well-being of foreign employees in Finland – existing challenges and new solutions | Tankesmedjan Agenda, September 2022
Finland desperately needs more workers. But it is not enough to simply hand a dictionary and a collective agreement to those who move here to work. In preparation for this report, researcher Ingrid Biese and journalist Jeanette Björkqvist met with a group of people who had come to Finland from different countries and backgrounds. They talked about racism in everyday life and at work, exclusion from the work community, lack of information, and misleading job descriptions. “Why are we the only ones expected to learn? Why don’t Finns need to learn to better understand where we all come from?” – Workers with a foreign background. Using existing research, statistics, and unique interview material, the authors paint a picture of the reality for many who have moved to Finland for work. The report also presents tips and measures that employers can benefit from in concrete terms.
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