Minister of Employment Arto Satonen (NCP) spoke to reporters at a news conference in the Parliament House in Helsinki on 22 March 2024. Satonen on Wednesday declared to YLE that the government has no intention whatsoever to amend or scrap its proposal to revoke work-based residence permits for immigrants who fail to find new work within three or six months. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
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THE GOVERNMENT of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) has no intention of backing down on a proposal that would force foreign workers to leave the country if they fail to re-employ themselves within three or six months of becoming unemployed, reports YLE.
The proposal, along with other immigration policy adjustments, has come under renewed criticism in recent days in the wake of surveys questioning the international appeal of Finland.
Minister of Employment Arto Satonen (NCP) on Wednesday told YLE that he does not accept the criticism that the country is actively undermining its image and driving out international talent. Finland, he argued, remains an appealing destination for international talent in light of statistics.
Finland placed 51st out of 53 countries covered by the latest iteration of Expat Insider, an annual survey of the expat experience by Internations.
Satonen pointed out that while the country came in ahead of only Turkey and Kuwait, the ranking was also not kind to the likes of Canada (50th), Germany (49th) and Norway (48th). He also argued that comparisons make little sense except for other Nordics.
“If people value a low cost of living and low taxes, then no western country can compete,” he remarked to the public broadcasting company.
The Expat Insider table was topped by Panama, Mexico, Indonesia, Spain and Colombia, with Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates rounding out the top 10.
Last Tuesday, Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland (TEK) and Union of Professional Engineers in Finland (IL) revealed that as many as 89 per cent of technology experts working in the country are concerned about the ongoing societal debate on immigration. Over four-fifths of the respondents also viewed that the country was unlikely to become better for immigrants in the next five years.
The proposal to revoke work-based residence permits after a three or six-month period of unemployment has drawn the most criticism, including from startups and industries more broadly, from large cities such as Helsinki and Tampere, and Business Finland.
“The entry in the government programme alone has created challenges for Work in Finland’s mission to attract skilled talent because the international talent who are already in Finland have felt that the entry reflects a lack of respect and that Finland is uninterested in holding on to them,” reads a comment submitted on the bill by Business Finland.
Satonen nonetheless firmly rejected the possibility of scrapping or even amending the re-employment requirements, arguing that the requirements match those in other parts of the Nordics. Newly unemployed immigrants have three months to re-employ themselves in Sweden, six months in Denmark and Norway.
“Given that these countries have this kind of a mechanism, I doubt that this’ll have a significant impact on how attractive Finland is perceived,” he said.
The Finnish proposal differs from the examples in that it would obligate employers to inform immigration authorities of the redundancy of a foreign employee under the threat of fine or other punitive measures.
Satonen admitted that the country image is generally important and that work-based immigration is necessary given the demographic development.
“We aren’t heading towards a situation where no one’s coming here, but we’re filling open jobs relatively well through work-based immigration – as the increasing numbers from this year illustrate,” he said to YLE.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
