International Helsinki

 

My Helsinki is international

An open, international Helsinki is also economically viable. When people move to Helsinki with new needs and ideas, it will generate new jobs and enterprise. They only need a chance to participate.

In an international city ideas run free. The international population living in Helsinki receives a lot from us, but also gives us a lot. More than 10 % of the inhabitants of Helsinki speak a language other than Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue. The largest language groups are Russian, Estonian and English.

We should make much better use of the skills, new perspectives and language competences of the internationals. It is much harder for an immigrant or an international student to get a job that matches their qualifications than it is for a Finn. It is also difficult to get a place on a language course, even when one is highly motivated. Finns and different immigrant groups tend to live in increasingly separate areas in Helsinki, so that there is a lack of positive interaction and thus breeding ground for prejudice.

An open, international Helsinki is also economically viable. When people move to Helsinki with new needs and ideas, it will generate new jobs and enterprise. They only need a chance to participate. Supporting integration will pay off.

Helsinki should:

  • Improve the availability of Finnish courses
  • Contain the differentiation of residential areas by planning both rental and privately owned apartments of different sizes in each area
  • Support integration and employment actively by organizing, for example, networking opportunities and events and improving multilingual communication
  • Make sure all children get to become familiar with internationality already at school, because the world and working life are international
  • Adopt English as a third language on the side of Finnish and Swedish
  • Make influencing and finding information about municipal politics possible for those who don't speak Finnish
  • Make getting a home municipality right or a travel card quicker and less bureaucratic
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