ABSTRACT
Immigrants are an essential part of functional labour markets and their importance will increase in an ageing society. Turku, the main centre in the county of Southwest Finland, is one of the economic growth centres of Finland and attracts immigrants from abroad and in country-internal migration. Moreover, the city has a specific multicultural character with an interesting historical background as a gateway for new influences.
It is estimated that if current growth expectations materialize, 30,000 new jobs could be created in the county over the next five years. With special measures already being taken in the field of labour recruitment, it is clear that more effective means need to be put in place in the coming years to utilize the region’s own labour reserves and increase regional and occupational mobility to meet the needs of Southwest Finland.
In this article, we analyse immigrant integration from the perspective of language and work by focusing on the significance of language, language skills and language awareness. Another theme is learning at work and working-life-oriented learning of adults. Learners may be individuals, groups, organizations and regions. To provide a background we give an overview of the employment of immigrants with respect to different demographic variables in Turku, Southwest Finland. There are also comparisons to Finnish natives.
The article is based on the data collected in the AboaNova project that aimed to promote integration of immigrants in the Turku region and was funded by the European Social Fund. We have also used the official statistics of Statistics Finland as well as special longitudinal, register-based data bought from Statistics Finland for the Coming of Age in Exile (CAGE) – Health and Socio-Economic Inequities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies project funded by NordForsk.
