Priorities in integrating migrants
in the City of Vantaa
Integration of Refugees and Migrants to the Finnish Society –
What are the priorities and means?
Hannele Lautiola
Head of Multicultural Affairs
15th, April, 2016
Integration in the City of Vantaa
1. Vantaa in numbers
2. Integration oficially
Priorities
 Employment
 Integration of second generation
 Good ethnic relations /
NGO parnership
 3 examples
3. Conclusions
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1. City of Vantaa (1)
The fourth biggest city in Finland
Inhabitants
Area, km2
214 605
240.4
• An independent city since 1974
• part of metropolitan area, neighbour of the capital Helsinki
• highest unemployment rate in the metropolitan area
• dynamic growing city, population growth 1.8 % in 2015
(national level 0.3 %)
Source: Statistics Finland, data from the turn of the year 2015/2016
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1. City of Vantaa (2)
• Highest amount of foreign language speakers in Finland,
- 15.4 % of the population speaks a foreign language as native
language
(national level 6 %, Espoo 14,2 %, Helsinki 14 %)
- Almost 33 000 inhabitants
• in Vantaa
foreign nationals: 10 %
foreign language speakers 15,4 %
• the city population grew in 2015 with 3800 inhabitants
(includes 2700 foreign language speakers)
Source: Statistics Finland, data from the turn of the year 2015/2016
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Biggest foreign language groups
Kieli
2009
2014/2015
Russian
3547
6436
Estonian
1805
6537
Somalian
1532
2188
Albanian
1057
1705
Vietnamese
763
1179
Arabic
649
1270
English
626
1064
Kurdish
589
978
Turkish
528
815
Chinese
384
715
Foreign language speakers 30 262 in the end of 2014, Centre of
Statistics
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2. City of Vantaa
Integration Program
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Goals and Pillars of Integration
Employment, Skills and
An Inclusive City
Networks and Partnerships
Higher level of employment
for migrants
City services are shared, special
services are offered as needed
International co-operation
networks strengthen
Conditions for migrant
entrepreneurship improve
The focus of integration is family
Collaboration with the state
strengthens
Goals of the Integration Program
Future
Vantaa attracts skilled
international migrants
Everyone benefits from
education and training
Share of migrant background
personnel employed by the
City of Vantaa increases
Vantaa is a safe and pleasant
environment for everybody
Promotion of interest of the
Helsinki Metropolitan Area
Good ethnic relations are actively strengthens
cherished
Collaboration in the Helsinki
Everyone has a chance to belong Metropolitan Area in developing
services continues
to the community
Partnerships diversify with NGOs
Diversity skills in workplaces
improve
Foundation for migrant integration in Vantaa
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Integration at three levels
1.
European Union
- Common Basic Principles, funding, partnerships
- Eurocities, Urbact network: Arrival Cities
2.
National level
- national legislation, sharing of responsabilities between ministries and
between cities and state level
3.
Local level
- people, communities, the problems if integration is not succesful
The reality
- Public services are suffering from economic decline – leads to fewer services
in the suburbs and danger of residential segregation
- Not enough resourses for basic integration services
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Vantaa priorities
1. Employment among immigrants
 One of most important dimensions of
integration
 Metropolitan area, working area
 Employment management is characterized by
project dependency
 Vantaa is one of the partners of a large ESF- consortium “ At
Work in Finland” together with metropolitan area cities,
Chamber of Commerce and trade union SAK and many others
(2016-2018)
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2. Integration of second generation
 Finland is famous for scoring high in
international OECD PISA –assessment
 But we have new studies showing that for
migrant backgroud children it is not at all as
positive
 The principle in Finnish and Vantaa school
system is ”same schools and services for all ”
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3. Strengthening good ethnic
relations in Vantaa (1)

Vantaa faced the only ethnic conflict in Finland in the end of 1990, in
Hakunila suburb area (skinheads against somali youth)
Refugee influx, crisis in 2015-2016,

hate speech specially in social media

BUT also: a never before seen wave of good will and voluntary work
• coordination of voluntary work with asylum seekers together with Red Cross and
Local Lutheran Church
• 200 active volunteers, 20 Finnish language courses led by volunteer teachers
• Today about 1000 asylum seekers stay in 4 different refugee centers in the area of
Vantaa
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3. Strengthening good ethnic
relations in Vantaa (2)
 How to mediate the general discussion? How
to work against rasism?
 How to maintain and strengthen the wave of
good will?
 Our response:
- Structures to strengthen participation
- Diversify partnership with NGOs
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Structures to strengthen
participation
Advisory Board of Multicultural Issues
 close connection to municipal decision making
and City Council
Local Roma Workgroup
 recommended by the National Roma Policy
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Partnership with NGOs
NGOs can offer:
1. connection to the people
2. culture and language skills
3. the voice of the immigrants
4. evaluation of public services
3 examples of NGO – City parnership from Vantaa:
 Experiment ground for partnerships in projects
 Bridge between officials and inhabitants
 Connections to make dialogue possible
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
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Hakunila International Society
- possibilities for new experiment projects
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Nicehearts ry –Neighbourhood mothers project:
strengthening networks and solidarity between women
(European Social Fund)
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R3 Maahanmuuttajanuorten tuki ry
Connecting inhabitants and decision makers
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Conclusion
 Successful integration is a key question for
Vantaa
 We are worried about the economic resourses and
the hostile public discussion
 Promotion for good relations is very important
 Partnership with NGOs is our way of
strengthening good relations
 Learning from Europe is very important
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Thank You
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