By Julia Qesteri
The second JobBuddies breakfast seminar was held on 21 May at Luckan’s Torget. It offered an opportunity to reflect on the results of two completed mentorship groups and to explore the broader landscape of immigrant employment in Finland. The JobBuddies team reported on the success and some challenges of the project’s 2 first efforts of group mentorship. It also featured four expert speakers who contributed insights from practice, policy, research, and administration, building a multidimensional understanding of the opportunities and barriers faced by immigrants seeking work in Finland.
Mika Mustakallio from Remmi Työpalvelu Oy drew from his experience as a mentor in JobBuddies’ first mentorship group for IT professionals. Mika emphasized the importance of alignment between job seekers and employers. In today’s economy, the employment match increasingly requires a full set of conditions to fall into place: relevant skills, appropriate timing, cultural understanding, and mutual readiness. His reflections highlighted the need for both sides of the employment equation to be prepared and proactive. For immigrants, this means strategic readiness to enter the job market with the right tools; for employers, openness and flexibility in recognizing diverse talent.
Satu Salonen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment presented the Finnish government’s current approach to attracting foreign talent and supporting international labour mobility. Her presentation touched on Finland’s participation in third-country partnerships as well as domestic efforts to increase the country’s attractiveness to foreign workers through Business Finland and Work in Finland platforms. She also focused on the 2023 Action Plan Against Labour Exploitation, which represents a strategic shift in labour policy, moving beyond recruitment to including also the protection of foreign workers’ rights.
The Action Plan introduces a set of 33 measures aimed at preventing labour exploitation through stronger legislation, clearer employer obligations, and improved oversight. It promotes multilingual guidance for workers, ethical recruitment standards, and inter-agency cooperation to detect irregularities. The Plan acknowledges a growing need to address systemic vulnerabilities and to ensure that the drive to attract international talent does not come at the cost of basic protections.
Sofia Gylfe from Arcada’s EASWork Project shared key findings from the EASWork project, which engaged with 20 organizations to map the obstacles immigrants face in securing employment. Through collaborative research, the project identified a range of structural and procedural barriers, including language requirements, lack of local networks, unrecognized qualifications, and gaps in employer awareness regarding inclusive recruitment practices.
What distinguishes the EASWork project is its delivery of practical, concrete recommendations. Rather than offering broad strategic advice, the project produced specific, actionable proposals for each challenge area. These include streamlining job applications, offering targeted language support, creating entry-level opportunities like trial jobs or internships, and embedding inclusive onboarding procedures. The recommendations are designed to be easy to implement and adaptable to different organizational contexts. They stress the role of employers as central actors in enabling—or blocking—access to the labour market.
Harry Berg – Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) discussed recent updates to the framework governing work-based immigration in Finland. One major development is the requirement for employers to notify Migri via the Enter Finland platform if an employment relationship ends before the expiry of the residence permit. This rule ensures that the immigration status of the individual can be reviewed in a timely manner, and that the necessary protections are in place.
Following the end of employment the residence permit based on work may be withdrawn, but the permit holder is entitled to a protection period – three months for permits under two years, and six months for specialists, managers, or holders of longer-term permits – during which they can seek new employment to remain in Finland. Furthermore, those employed in nationally identified labour-shortage sectors may switch employers within the same sector without applying for a new permit. This can enhance job mobility and can reduce administrative burdens in sectors facing recruitment challenges, but the majority of the labour-shortage sectors are protected professions, so the switch between fields is not exactly easy.
Harry was very eager to point out that administrative processes have also been partially automated, with digital systems now accelerating many types of residence permit applications. Decisions are still reviewed by human officials, but this shift is intended to increase processing efficiency. The overall aim is a more responsive and streamlined system that balances oversight with functionality. The future will tell how this system will fulfill expectations.
The seminar highlighted the need for increasing alignment between grassroots mentorship initiatives, state policy, research-based recommendations, and administrative reforms. All 4 speakers and the JobBuddies project team showcased the fact that successful employment of immigrants requires a systems-level approach – one that includes not only individual readiness and motivation, but also institutional flexibility, legal safeguards, and employer engagement.
The presentations collectively point to a maturing understanding in Finland of the complexity of immigrant employment. It is no longer sufficient to speak only of labour demand or individual skills gaps; attention must also be paid to systemic access, cultural expectations, and the legal infrastructure that governs immigration and work. This seminar demonstrated the value of multi-stakeholder dialogue in identifying both obstacles and solutions in a rapidly evolving labour market in Finland and especially its capital region.