Capturing the full potential of international labour is essential

Att fånga den internationella arbetskraftens fulla potential är nödvändigt. Sammanfattning på svenska nedan.

Kansainvälisen työvoiman täyden potentiaalin saavuttaminen on tärkeää. Yhteenveto suomeksi lopussa.

Finland is struggling with both a fiscal sustainability gap and a documented shortage of professionals to grow our companies. Labour immigration carries the promise of international talent for our companies and thus more taxpayers for the government and the cities. Researchers and business leaders alike agree that there is a need to enable more work-related immigration. We should hurry to take important measures such as faster residence permits, cut bureaucracy, and make it easier for international students to stay and work in Finland after graduation. Initiatives like this have my full support - attracting international professionals to Finland is essential. However, to fully capture the potential of international labour we must also go back-to-basics and fix our issues regarding integration to the Finnish labour market.

There are several structural issues facing non-Finnish workers. A foreign name will severely decrease chances of landing an interview. Underemployment is widespread, meaning that foreigners have to accept jobs that are well below their competence or level of education. International professionals see their careers progress slower than native Finns. Getting stuck in gig jobs, making it difficult to plan for the future, is another problem. These barriers to recruitment and labour market integration imply that we don’t make the most out of the talent available.

With saying this, some jobs do require a command of Finnish and/or Swedish. But a lot don’t - organizations striving to be successful in the future should scrutinize their practices to make sure they don’t require language skills that are not vital to the job. Also, we must make sure that there are low-threshold possibilities to learn our native languages for the many internationals that want to do so.

When striving to attract international professionals, we should not forget the low-hanging fruit. There are already plenty of international professionals in Finland, whose full potential is not utilized. These can for example be spouses that have moved here following their partners’ career and refugees with a higher education degree struggling to find a job that suits their educational level and experience. Another low-hanging fruit is international students studying at our institutes of higher education. Thanks to our universities, student unions and -associations, international students often want to stay in Finland. Up to 90% of international students want to stay here upon graduation, but only half of them find employment. We need to do everything we can to keep these bright minds in Finland!

Many regulatory pitfalls for us to capture the full potential of international labour are unfortunately decided on parliamentary level. Nonetheless, elected officials in Helsinki should be vocal advocates for making immigration and integration, to both society and the labour market, easier. As the stand-out international city in Finland, Helsinki stands to gain the most.

Helsinki City Council should also focus on what it can control. Helsinki needs to arrange and sponsor international labour integration initiatives together with universities, companies, and the third sector. We should resource mobility and integration services adequately and ensure that our employment and education programmes reach their target audiences. Extra attention should be paid to for example immigrant women that take care of their children at home, as currently we are not reaching them as well as we should. Every foreign born person finding employment in Helsinki means one more tax-payer and benefits with regard to integration.

The city of Helsinki is Finland’s largest employer with around 38 000 employees. Helsinki should be a forerunner for taking diversity into account in hiring policies and using equal recruitment processes to prevent unconscious bias. A step in the right direction is Helsinki’s successful anonymous recruitment pilot.It should now be deployed on a much larger scale to actually create impact, 41 anonymous recruitments in an organization of Helsinki City’s size is not yet a paradigm shift.
 
Employment is also key to overall integration. Integration is a multi-faceted concept, one that should be approached with both heart and mind. Many foreign born individuals still report racial discrimination. A study from some years back puts Finland in a shameful pole position among EU-countries for the amount of racial abuse individuals of African descent face. International professionals often highlight that they struggle with finding apartments as compared to their Finnish colleagues. Notably, we still have some attitudes to fix in order to be more welcoming to the people we want to attract - just being vocal about these issues and giving room to reflect on our actions is not the solution, but it is a step in the right direction.

Labour immigration and attracting top international talent is essential for us to be able to fund our welfare state and remain competitive in the future. Capturing the full value of international labour is therefore a truly patriotic duty. Currently, we are crying out loud for more work-based immigration and more international professionals, but we still struggle with labour market integration. We are in a situation where we’re falling down from a plane, with our parachute only partially open. Let’s open it properly!

Svenska

De flesta verkar vara överens om att Finlands ekonomi behöver mera internationell arbetskraft och mera internationella proffs. Jag likaså, och för det behöver vi ta flera åtgärder på det nationella planet. Helsingfors beslutsfattare ska vara aktiva ambassadörer dessa åtgärder. För att de ska fungera måste vi dock först fixa våra strukturella problem relaterade till en internationell arbetsmarknad. 

Vi vet att ett utländskt namn gör det svårare att få en arbetsintervju, att personer med utländsk bakgrund fastnar i jobb under sin utbildningsnivå, har svårare att avancera i karriären och oftare fastnar i snuttjobb. Vi måste ge bättre förutsättningar för internationella arbetstagare att nå sin fulla potential!

Suomeksi

Useimmat ovat samaa mieltä kansainvälisen työvoiman ja kansainvälisten osaajien tärkeydestä Suomen taloudelle. Yhdyn mielipiteeseen ja tarvitsemme kansallisella tasolla ratkaisuja helpottamaan kansainvälisten osaajien tulemista ja olemista Suomessa - Helsingin päättäjien tulisi aktiivisesti ajaa näitä asioita.

Meidän pitää kuitenkin ratkaista myös rakenteelliset ongelmamme liittyen kansainväliseen työmarkkinaan. Tiedämme, että ulkomaalainen nimi vaikeuttaa kutsun saamista työhaastatteluihin ja että ulkomaalaistaustaiset henkilöt ovat usein työtehtävissä, jotka eivät vastaa heidän koulutustasoaan, etenevät hitaammin urallaan ja jäävät useammin kiinni pätkätyökierteeseen. Meidän tulee tarjota kansainvälisille työntekijöille paremmat edellytykset menestyä!!