Veronika Honkasalo, a deputy chairperson of the Left Alliance, attended a panel discussion organised as part of Kuntamarkkinat, a forum held annually by the Association of Finnish Cities and Municipalities, in Helsinki on 18 September 2024. Honkasalo on Thursday drew attention to international studies that indicate that investments in integration services are worthwhile. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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THE MINISTRY of Economic Affairs and Employment on Wednesday announced it has begun work to reform integration services in line with the government programme of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP).
The reform will fundamentally shift more responsibility for integration on immigrants themselves and introduce stiffer obligations to the integration process.
“As part of the reform, the integration services act and system will be adjusted such that the emphasis will be shifted from a system that focuses on the rights of arrivals to one that focuses on the obligations and responsibilities of arrivals,” the ministry stated.
The government is simultaneously set to slash spending on integration services by 58 million euros, to 442 million euros a year. The government programme outlines that that integration policy should be based on learning the language, finding employment, and learning and adhering to the rules of Finnish society.
The reform was discussed by lawmakers on YLE A-studio on Thursday.
Veronika Honkasalo, a deputy chairperson of the Left Alliance, stated to the public broadcasting company that she disapproves of the inherent implication that immigrants are principally inactive.
“That’s what we tend to think about people who’re unemployed for example – that we have to do more to activate them. But we can’t activate them unless our services are of a high-enough quality and they are available,” she underscored.
Jani Mäkelä, the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group, said he knows many immigrants who have integrated well to society.
“None of these immigrants think that these kinds of integration services are necessary. They themselves started working and looking into matters. [They] got their lives together in Finland, because they’re the ones who wanted to move here. They boldly started using the Finnish language,” he stated on YLE.
Minister of Finance Riikka Purra (PS) has similarly indicated that spending on integration service is a waste of money.
Sonja Hämäläinen, the director of immigration affairs at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, rebuffed such arguments by pointing to a Finnish study that found that integration services have had a substantial positive impact on employment, for example.
“The investments return in full as employment,” she said.
Studies by the OECD similarly indicate that investments in the integration of immigrants are worthwhile, added Honkasalo. “My wish for […] Mäkelä is that, although we can disagree on things, there should be some kind of factual basis for arguments.”
Finland, she also estimated, has failed to recognise and take advantage of the skills of people who have entered the country as asylum seekers, for example.
“Also this group includes highly educated people – physicians and lawyers. They rarely find work that matches [their qualifications]. Our integration system should do a lot better job at recognising people’s skills early on,” she stressed.
Honkasalo told YLE that she has met young asylum seekers who feel that they are not welcome despite “having done everything that is expected of them by the Finnish society”.
“My thinking,” retorted Mäkelä, “is that if Finland offers these people asylum, subsistence and education, shouldn’t the foremost feeling be gratitude.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
