Migration Integration in Finland

Until the 1980s, Finland was a land of emigration, with Finns first emigrating at the turn of the 20th century to North America, then Australia, and in the 1960s and 1970s to Sweden, where about half a million people moved for work and quality of life. Immigration to Finland began in the 1980s, first from Chile, Vietnam, Somalia, the Balkans, and then Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In the 1990s, tens of thousands of Russians with Finnish origin moved to Finland. Currently the most spoken foreign languages in Finland are Russian, Estonian. Arabic and Somalian. The presentation offers detailed information about immigration to and in Finland, as well as information on how immigrants do in Finland, in terms of work, living, and social and political engagement. 

Dr Pekka Kettunen works as a Visiting Researcher at the Migration Institute of Finland, in Turku, Finland. His research mainly focuses on public administration, organizing, implementing and evaluating public services. In recent years he has engaged in migration and integration studies, and has analysed the Finnish integration system, and in particular the role of local government in this field. In addition, in 2021 he edited a book on political engagement of immigrants in Finland. Dr Kettunen has published over 150 scientific works in Local Government Studies, Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, Evidence & Policy, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Border Crossing, and International Journal of Public Sector Management. In addition, he has contributed to edited books by Palgrave: Kulhmann et al. Local Public Sector Reforms in Times of Crisis: National Trajectories and International Comparisons, in 2016, and Bergström et al., The Future of Local Self-Government. European Trends in Autonomy, Innovations and Central-Local Relations in 2021.