“Wel­come Home”: Finland’s 6 largest cities invite recent arrivals to use inte­gra­tion ser­vices

The six largest cities of Fin­land have come togeth­er to cre­ate a warm-heart­ed cam­paign to encour­age new inter­na­tion­al res­i­dents to use the cities’ many help­ful ser­vices for new­com­ers. At the start of 2025, over­all respon­si­bil­i­ty for the pro­vi­sion of statu­to­ry inte­gra­tion ser­vices was trans­ferred from the state to munic­i­pal­i­ties.

The Finnish cities of Helsin­ki, Espoo, Van­taa, Tam­pere, Turku and Oulu have teamed up to release a joint cam­paign designed to call atten­tion to recent leg­isla­tive changes that trans­fer select ser­vices to the country’s munic­i­pal­i­ties.

The Wel­come Home cam­paign encour­ages new­ly arrived res­i­dents to take full advan­tage of the respec­tive cities’ many help­ful ser­vices for new­com­ers. Among oth­ers, the cities’ statu­to­ry inte­gra­tion ser­vices can assist eli­gi­ble job­seek­ers and peo­ple out­side the labour force with adapt­ing to Finnish soci­ety, learn­ing the Finnish or Swedish lan­guage, and find­ing a job.

The Wel­come home cam­paign will launch on the city’s dig­i­tal chan­nels on 10 Feb­ru­ary and con­tin­ue for approx­i­mate­ly two weeks. The mes­sage will be com­mu­ni­cat­ed in sev­er­al lan­guages, rep­re­sent­ing the lan­guage spo­ken most wide­ly in each of the par­tic­i­pat­ing cities. It seeks to con­vey to cur­rent inter­na­tion­al res­i­dents or peo­ple who are plan­ning to move or stay in Fin­land that the over­all respon­si­bil­i­ty for the pro­vi­sion of statu­to­ry inte­gra­tion ser­vices now lies with Finland’s munic­i­pal­i­ties. The cities in ques­tion also hope to con­vey that they will be reli­able and respect­ful part­ners in assist­ing their new res­i­dents to cre­ate and enjoy a good life in their new home­town.

Every tenth res­i­dent of Fin­land now speaks a for­eign lan­guage

In 2023, the last year for which sta­tis­tics are cur­rent­ly avail­able, Finland’s pop­u­la­tion grew by almost 40,000 per­sons – the largest increase since 1956. This was in part explained by the arrival of peo­ple flee­ing the war in Ukraine, who became eli­gi­ble for res­i­dence in that year. Accord­ing to Sta­tis­tics Fin­land, every tenth res­i­dent of Fin­land now speaks a first lan­guage oth­er than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. Among the six cities par­tic­i­pat­ing in the cam­paign, the for­eign-lan­guage pop­u­la­tion is 27 per cent in Van­taa, 24 in Espoo, 20 in Helsin­ki, 15 in Turku, 10 in Tam­pere and 6 in Oulu.

Anoth­er impor­tant goal of the Wel­come home cam­paign is for the cities to send a mes­sage that all migrants are wel­come, no mat­ter what their back­ground or the rea­son for arriv­ing. Finland’s six largest cities recog­nise that new­com­ers to the coun­try are impor­tant for many rea­sons.

– The city of Oulu aims to pro­vide all non-native speak­ers with good liv­ing and hous­ing con­di­tions. Oulu is an inter­na­tion­al city where every­one has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to express them­selves and find suit­able hob­bies, study places, and employ­ment. Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu offers guid­ance and advice to all non-native speak­ers on week­days from 9 am to 3 pm, says Arto Will­man, the Immi­gra­tion Man­ag­er of the City of Oulu.

The Oulu City Strat­e­gy 2030 empha­sizes the city’s role as a north­ern, sus­tain­ably grow­ing inter­na­tion­al cen­ter. The strat­e­gy aims to build inter­na­tion­al suc­cess sto­ries togeth­er and bold­ly uti­lize the oppor­tu­ni­ties of dig­i­tal­iza­tion. Inter­na­tion­al activ­i­ties aim to increase the city’s inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion and devel­op a city where inter­na­tion­al­ism and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism are rec­og­nized as strengths.

Help­ing new­com­ers forge their own path

Inte­gra­tion is the process of peo­ple find­ing their own place in their new home coun­try. The recent­ly renewed KOTO24 Finnish Inte­gra­tion Act that in part inspired the cam­paign defines inte­gra­tion more nar­row­ly, how­ev­er, as it lays out the spe­cif­ic statu­to­ry ser­vices soci­ety must offer to migrants to the coun­try. It also out­lines which groups are enti­tled to these ser­vices.

Peo­ple who have come to Fin­land and are active­ly seek­ing work or are out­side of the labour force are encour­aged to con­tact the city and begin using statu­to­ry inte­gra­tion ser­vices as soon as they arrive in the coun­try. They should have received their first res­i­dence per­mit less than three years ago, but the inte­gra­tion ser­vices spe­cial­ist con­duct­ing the ini­tial assess­ment can make excep­tions if a need for statu­to­ry inte­gra­tion ser­vices can be estab­lished. For exam­ple, par­ents or guardians that have been here longer car­ing for lit­tle ones at home are often still eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate.

Each of the large cities par­tic­i­pat­ing in the “Wel­come Home” cam­paign nat­u­ral­ly pro­vide a wide range of oth­er ser­vices to help new arrivals of all kinds set­tle in and enjoy a good life in their munic­i­pal­i­ty. Peo­ple arriv­ing from abroad who have already secured a job or study place also have a range of new­com­er ser­vices to choose from have been designed to ease their tran­si­tion.

City rep­re­sen­ta­tives are stand­ing at the ready to direct peo­ple to the appro­pri­ate new­com­er ser­vices, as well as to answer what­ev­er ques­tions new arrivals may have about employ­ment, lan­guage class­es, hous­ing issues, children’s day­care and schools, and health­care mat­ters.

Read more about the ser­vices on ouka.fi