Why can it be difficult for an immigrant to find work in their own field?

Immigrants often work in jobs for which they are overeducated. This is particularly the case in the cleaning, construction and restaurant industries. However, there is not enough work in these sectors for everyone. For this reason, attention should be paid more actively in the future to ensuring that immigrants are employed in tasks corresponding to their skills.

You should also develop your skills while looking for a job

South Korean Kyeonghwan Kim has a degree in business administration from his home country. During his studies, he was an exchange student in Finland, and he permanently moved to Finland in 2023 for family reasons. Kyeonghwan Kim is looking for a job in Finland that matches his education.

– I was looking for an internship during my university studies. Every time, the obstacle to getting an internship was that my Finnish language skills and work experience were not sufficient. I thought, and others also told me, that it could be easier to get a job after graduating. Once I had graduated and applied for a job, 90 per cent of employers did not respond and 10 per cent said that my experience was insufficient. So getting through the door can be challenging, even if you’ve established networks and tailored your application and CV to the specific position.

Kyeonghwan Kim has developed his language skills and speaks Finnish quite well today. However, he regrets that sometimes discussions related to the recruitment process with employers make him so nervous that the employer may not get the best possible picture of his Finnish language skills.

– Foreign jobseekers must be prepared to develop their skills. If the employer requires fluent Finnish language skills or knowledge of certain Finnish laws, for instance, it is necessary to learn them. I believe that many foreign jobseekers are willing to do this.

Sharing information about positive recruitment experiences is important

Teemu Saarenpää, who works as a business coordinator in employment services, believes that the biggest obstacle to the employment of immigrants is attitudes, not the lack of jobseekers' qualifications.

– Employers are concerned over what happens when a foreign person becomes part of the work community. They may consider whether it will change the ways of working or the atmosphere. In addition, I have noticed in my work that there may be harmful biases towards immigrants. Perceptions of, for example, citizens of countries from conflict areas may be formed based on what we see in the news. Such attitudes make it difficult to find employment, and we should overcome them.

The discussion also highlighted the fact that most of the job postings published by employers only contain Finnish-language text. This is often the first obstacle for foreign job seekers in the job application process, as they have to spend a lot of time understanding the posting text before they can apply for a job. 

Vesa Palander, Director of Business and Economic Development Services at the City of Turku thinks that the threshold for hiring the first foreign employee can be high if the employer has not travelled much and is not familiar with different cultures.

– Therefore, it is important for employers to share information with other employers about successful immigrant recruitment and the increasing diversity of the work community. I have heard of many cases where the experience of hiring a foreign employee has been really good and the employer has found that the recruitment process was not as difficult as they had thought.

Ville Vihervaara, who works at Kongsberg Maritime Finland Oy, mentions that one of the challenges faced by employers is that hiring the first foreign employee can often lead to a lot of new arrangements in companies.

– When we were hiring our first foreign employee, we didn't have anything ready for them. The various materials and forms were in Finnish, and translating everything into English was a lot of work. In addition, meetings in which we had previously spoken Finnish had to be held in English after hiring the new employee. It was difficult for our employees to start speaking English because they were not used to it.

Job-seeking tips for job immigrants

The panel discussion provided tips for foreign job seekers.

• Get to know the recruitment cultures of Finnish companies in advance. There are differences in recruitment methods between different countries.
• Find out the company’s operating models and values and the skills valued in the company. Think about how you can match them to your own behaviours, values and skills.
• Make your job application and CV concise and accurate. Write short sentences. It is easier for the employer to review such job application documents.
• Remember that there are also other ways to search for a job than browsing job postings. Building local networks is beneficial. You can use social media, especially LinkedIn, to help you. You can write your open application there, among other things.

At the end of the panel discussion, business coordinator Teemu Saarenpää reminded everyone that our demographic structure is changing.

– The change is already visible in universities, for example. This means that, in a few years’ time, university graduates will not only be Finns, but a considerably more diverse group. I hope that at that time we will be in a situation where competence plays a key role in hiring employees.

A panel discussion on the employment of immigrants and the related challenges was held at the SHIFT recruitment day in Turku.

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• Coming to Finland from abroad
• Services to support job seeking