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🇫🇮 Finland /Culture & Society

Integration in Finland requires more language teaching

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • The current approach to integrating immigrants into Finland risks failure due to reduced funding for literacy and language education, particularly impacting those needing foundational skills.
  • A focus on rapid job market entry without adequate basic literacy and Finnish language proficiency creates a gap, leading to potential exclusion, especially for women who may interrupt their education to care for children.
  • The author advocates for increased, time-allocated literacy and basic Finnish language instruction, alongside flexible, workplace-integrated training models, to ensure successful integration and prevent the loss of valuable human capital.

Finland's integration efforts for immigrants face significant challenges, with a risk of increased failures due to cuts in literacy and language education. This situation is particularly concerning as resources for foundational skills are being reduced, jeopardizing the successful employment and integration of newcomers.

The study of language and work life should be learned quickly, but when the basic skills are missing, time simply runs out.

— Hillevi KilpeläinenExplaining the challenges faced by immigrants with insufficient foundational skills.

The current language education model in Finland is heavily geared towards rapid entry into the workforce. However, this approach overlooks a critical gap: immigrants who have not yet mastered basic Finnish literacy and numeracy struggle to acquire job-ready skills within the limited hours allocated for instruction. This haste to prepare individuals for employment without building a solid foundation can lead to individuals falling through the cracks and becoming excluded from the system.

Women are especially vulnerable to this risk. When they stay home to care for children, their language education can be interrupted, leading to a significant decline in their acquired language skills. Similarly, men can also fall behind if foundational literacy is not adequately established. The author stresses that skipping these essential groundwork stages is detrimental to long-term integration.

Finland cannot afford to lose these people – neither those who need time to learn to read and write, nor those who already have a degree.

— Hillevi KilpeläinenEmphasizing the importance of supporting all immigrants, regardless of their initial skill level.

Beyond those needing basic literacy, Finland risks losing skilled individuals with strong educational backgrounds from abroad. The writer shares an experience with a course that included women from 11 different countries, ranging from those learning to read and write to those with university degrees. Despite their varied backgrounds, many face the same hurdle: difficulty finding employment despite numerous applications. The author argues that Finland cannot afford to lose either group – those who need time to build foundational skills or those with existing qualifications. Successful integration requires a substantial increase in time and resources for literacy and basic Finnish language education, coupled with flexible, workplace-based training models like apprenticeships, where language skills can develop in tandem with on-the-job learning.

Study where language skills develop at the workplace in cooperation with the educational institution's teaching would be the best solution, in my opinion.

— Hillevi KilpeläinenProposing an ideal model for immigrant integration and language acquisition.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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