The Minister of Employment: "Finland needs labour migration"

At the beginning of 2020, responsibility for labour migration matters was transferred from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

Now, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment plans to increase labour migration and to improve the labour market skills of immigrants already living in Finland. But efforts to increase labour migration require a systematic long-term approach, and intensive cooperation between three administrative sectors, the Ministry says.

“Finland has never conducted a comprehensive assessment of legislation and processes with the objective of streamlining the work-related residence permit procedure. This work is now being carried out under my leadership, and I expect to see good results,” says Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen.

By autumn 2020, the Government expects to be able to show that it can put in place decision-based measures corresponding to 30,000 new people in employment. "Labour migration will contribute to an increase in the number of employed people, but moderately," the Ministry said in a press release.

“Labour migration is only part of a bigger picture, but it helps us to address an urgent need: to attract talent to Finland and to facilitate recruitment,” Minister Haatainen explains.

Speed up residence permit process

Measures to promote labour migration include streamlining the work-based residence permit procedure, and attracting and retaining international talent in Finland.

According to the Government, in spring 2020, legislative projects to speed up the residence permit process will be set up, and a project to implement non-legislative amendments to support the achievement of the one-month target period for permit processing set in the Government Programme.

In addition, the actions included in the horizontal Talent Boost programme will promote international recruitment, support receptiveness and diversity in working life, and help to build better business and innovation services.

“Finland needs labour migration. Nonetheless, all our efforts must be geared to ensuring that the same terms of employment are applied to immigrant and Finnish workers,” Minister Haatainen concludes.