Results of Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu’s Mul­ti­lin­gual Immi­grant Sur­vey

Research Find­ings on the Inte­gra­tion of Immi­grants in Oulu and Their Experiences

Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu want­ed to hear from immi­grants in Oulu about their experiences liv­ing in the city to bet­ter under­stand the chal­lenges and key fac­tors of immi­grant inte­gra­tion. The sur­vey was con­duct­ed in the spring of 2024, using both elec­tron­ic and on paper for­mats in ten dif­fer­ent lan­guages. Of the respon­dents, 61% answered in Eng­lish, 13% in Finnish, and 26% in oth­er lan­guages.

Diverse Respons­es from Res­i­dents in Var­i­ous Sit­u­a­tions

A total of 448 peo­ple who had moved to Oulu for var­i­ous rea­sons par­tic­i­pat­ed in the sur­vey. 38% of respon­dents moved to Oulu for work or study, while 36% cit­ed fam­i­ly rea­sons for their move. Addi­tion­al­ly, sev­er­al respon­dents (15%) moved to Oulu for asy­lum or tem­po­rary pro­tec­tion.

The sur­vey received a broad range of respons­es from dif­fer­ent age groups. Major­i­ty of the respons­es came from indi­vid­u­als aged between 35–49 (52%) and 18–34 (38%). Most respon­dents were women (57%).

The employ­ment sta­tus of respon­dents var­ied. The largest group of respon­dents, com­pris­ing 27%, was employed. Stu­dents pur­su­ing degrees account­ed for 26%, the unem­ployed 20%, and those in inte­gra­tion train­ing 19%. Among the respon­dents, the will­ing­ness to work was strong; 86% of those not already work­ing or retired were ready to accept a job if offered.

Chal­lenges and Key Fac­tors in Immi­grant Inte­gra­tion in Oulu

Respon­dents were also asked about their per­son­al assess­ment of how well they felt inte­grat­ed into Oulu. 76% felt well or ade­quate­ly inte­grat­ed, 21% felt their inte­gra­tion process was still ongo­ing, and only 4% felt poor­ly inte­grat­ed. When asked what fac­tors they believed had facil­i­tat­ed their inte­gra­tion, friends (40%), work­place (30%), and edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties (37%) were the major fac­tors cit­ed.

Ease of using Eng­lish dai­ly in Oulu (28%) and the per­cep­tion of Oulu as an immi­grant-friend­ly city (28%) were also not­ed as facil­i­tat­ing inte­gra­tion.

Dif­fi­cul­ties find­ing a job (65%), mak­ing friends (espe­cial­ly Finnish friends) (40%), and the lack of infor­ma­tion avail­able in Eng­lish (26%) were cit­ed as bar­ri­ers to inte­gra­tion.

Job Search­ing Dif­fi­cul­ties in Oulu

About 73% of the respon­dents had tried to find a job, while 22% had no expe­ri­ence of job search­ing. Accord­ing to the respons­es, job search­ing is dif­fi­cult for immi­grants in Oulu. When asked about the easy aspects of the job search process, a sig­nif­i­cant major­i­ty of those who sought work (87%) could not name a sin­gle easy aspect. Many chal­lenges were not­ed, with lan­guage bar­ri­ers (35%) and access­ing the job mar­ket (18%) being promi­nent.

Infor­ma­tion Sought from Var­i­ous Sources, Chal­lenges in Using Online Ser­vices

Respon­dents com­mon­ly sought infor­ma­tion from the City of Oulu’s web­site (71%), friends (68%), and Face­book (54%). Oulu.com and its ihoulu.fi web­site was also fre­quent­ly used (52%).

When asked what addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion they would like, of the 224 respon­dents who answered this ques­tion, 34% want­ed more infor­ma­tion on employ­ment and career ser­vices, 11% on edu­ca­tion and children’s issues, and 10% on prac­ti­cal every­day mat­ters.

Those who found online ser­vices dif­fi­cult to use cit­ed a lack of Finnish lan­guage skills as a bar­ri­er (54%). Poor­ly designed web­sites, unclear instruc­tions, and the need for tech­ni­cal guid­ance also made using online ser­vices chal­leng­ing.

How Will We Use the Results?

Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu would like to thank each respon­dent: every response is valu­able in devel­op­ing the ser­vices of Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu and improv­ing the qual­i­ty of life for those who have moved to Oulu.

Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu will fur­ther ana­lyze these results based on dif­fer­ent group­ings and key fac­tors. Devel­op­ment actions will begin after the sum­mer. We will also com­mu­ni­cate the sur­vey results inter­nal­ly and to part­ners dur­ing the fall.

*Per­cent­ages are round­ed to the near­est whole num­ber.

For more infor­ma­tion

Fangy­ing (Fan­ni)  Li
Project Spe­cial­ist

Edu­ca­tion­al and Cul­tur­al Ser­vices, Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu
p. 040 617 4470
fangying.li@ouka.fi