Find­ing Home and Pur­pose: My Path from the UK to Fin­land

Hi, I’m Emma Far­row. I’m British and have been liv­ing in Fin­land since March 2020. I hold a Master’s degree in Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence.

Why libraries? Because they con­nect peo­ple to infor­ma­tion, empow­er­ing them to make informed choic­es. Libraries are wel­com­ing spaces for every­one and play a vital role in build­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

My first pro­fes­sion­al role was in a uni­ver­si­ty library, where I trained peo­ple and lat­er earned a qual­i­fi­ca­tion to teach adults by study­ing part-time for two years. I loved that job, but I had a desire to explore the world. When I saw an advert for librar­i­ans to vol­un­teer abroad, I applied. This led to two life-chang­ing years in a hos­pi­tal library in Sri Lan­ka, spark­ing my pas­sion for inter­na­tion­al work. From there, I joined an inter­na­tion­al devel­op­ment char­i­ty, col­lab­o­rat­ing with inspir­ing librar­i­ans across Africa, Asia, and Latin Amer­i­ca.

This glob­al expe­ri­ence didn’t just trans­form my pro­fes­sion­al life—it also shaped my per­son­al jour­ney. Dur­ing an Eras­mus staff exchange, I met my Finnish part­ner, a con­nec­tion that even­tu­al­ly brought me to Fin­land.

Work­ing through the pan­dem­ic
When the pan­dem­ic began, I was work­ing in Eng­land as a knowl­edge and evi­dence expert for the pub­lic health author­i­ty (sim­i­lar to THL). A new team was formed to review the rapid­ly grow­ing research on COVID-19. As the UK went into lock­down, I began work­ing remote­ly from Fin­land. For over two years, our small team ana­lyzed about 1,000 arti­cles week­ly, dis­till­ing 40 key find­ings into a Fri­day digest. Each Mon­day, we start­ed all over again. It was intense, but work­ing in a peace­ful, nature-filled envi­ron­ment made it more man­age­able.

Learn­ing Finnish
After months of remote work, I was eager to inter­act with peo­ple and engage with Finnish cul­ture and lan­guage. Iron­i­cal­ly, my first Finnish teacher was a robot at a lan­guage café host­ed by Lap­pi voca­tion­al col­lege in Tornio! The robot would patient­ly repeat words until I pro­nounced them cor­rect­ly.

Next, I enrolled in a year-long inte­gra­tion and lan­guage train­ing pro­gram with Lap­pia in Kemi. While I’ve adapt­ed to many roles through­out my career, learn­ing Finnish felt like my tough­est chal­lenge. Chang­ing my mind­set was key—I stopped view­ing Finnish as “too dif­fi­cult” and embraced mak­ing mis­takes. Now, I encour­age oth­ers to speak as much as pos­si­ble: talk to your­self, your pets, read sto­ries aloud, and prac­tice with peo­ple.

Step by step, my Finnish has improved. I’ve start­ed enjoy­ing plain Finnish books from the library and watch­ing Finnish films. I even joined a bird­watch­ing course, which was won­der­ful, though stand­ing qui­et­ly in forests didn’t offer much speak­ing prac­tice!

Pro­fes­sion­al growth in Fin­land
I’ve par­tic­i­pat­ed in sev­er­al projects, includ­ing OTE [Ohjau­sosaamisel­la työl­lisyy­den edis­tämistä], a Finnish-lan­guage ini­tia­tive for career advi­sors in Lap­land. Though I hes­i­tat­ed to apply, the facil­i­ta­tors and par­tic­i­pants sup­port­ed me, pro­vid­ing resources like pre-shared slides to help me keep up.

Dur­ing a Start­up Refugees work­shop in Kemi, I stepped in to assist the facil­i­ta­tors. This led to part-time work as a Com­mu­ni­ty Leader for the orga­ni­za­tion. Start­up Refugees sup­ports inter­na­tion­als in find­ing employ­ment, enhanc­ing skills, and start­ing busi­ness­es in Fin­land. For instance, their upcom­ing Arts and Crafts Mar­ket in Oulu will show­case new entre­pre­neurs’ tal­ents. I feel lucky to work with such a pas­sion­ate team that val­ues every immi­grant as a “brain gain” for Fin­land.

Why Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu?
My Finnish stud­ies con­tin­ue, part­ly through an online course at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, where I had the chance to do a lan­guage place­ment. I had been fol­low­ing Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu for some time, join­ing events like their one-year birth­day cel­e­bra­tion. When the oppor­tu­ni­ty arose to intern with them, I couldn’t pass it up.

The team at Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu is a mix of Finns and inter­na­tion­als, reflect­ing the ethos “Noth­ing about us, with­out us.” They pro­vide vital sup­port for inter­na­tion­als, from guid­ance to social and net­work­ing events like board game nights. As an intern, I’ve had the chance to use my pro­fes­sion­al skills while improv­ing my Finnish—a win-win!

Since mov­ing to Fin­land, I’ve lived in Liek­sa, Tornio, and Kem­in­maa. Spend­ing a month in Oulu has offered me new experiences. I’ve explored the city’s cycling net­work (and got­ten lost!), vis­it­ed the art muse­um, joined the Vil­la Vic­tor cof­fee club, lis­tened to live music, and seen the Lumo light fes­ti­val.

Oulu has been a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence so far, and I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to learn more—both in Finnish and about the local cul­ture. Maybe even some Oulu slang!

Text edit­ed by: Jes­si­ca Segu­ra Polo