ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the migration policy in Finland and its impacts on multicultural education and employment policies. Finland used to be a country of emigration until early 1990s without any particular active migration policy. Since then Finland has nevertheless changed to become a country of rapidly growing immigration and an aging population. Officially Finland promotes a two-way integration strategy in migration and multicultural education policies. This means that migrants integrate better into Finnish society if they can preserve their own cultural and linguistic heritage. This ideology has nevertheless been challenged in contemporary debates due to the increased number of refugees and the rise of new nationalist parties. Finland also has a rather short history of labour migration policy although its importance has been acknowledged due to the aging population. In this chapter, we look at how the history of migration has changed the migration policies and structures and how it intertwines with the practices in multicultural education and integration.
