Thread: Finland Urged to Become More Immigration-Friendly

I agree completely, either assimilate into the local culture or return home, otherwise it is colonisation / invasion!

I live in Ireland and I am trying to learn Finnish. Although its going slow, I am sure that if I was in Finland, I'd learn very fast; thats only because I want to learn.

thats a damnd true guys and we all agree about it , But I dont think Finland is like the USA or other countries cause in Finland foriegners are obliged to learn the languages cause its the way to live here and the only comunity u can find in Finland who dont speak Finnish mostly are the English and Irish ppl , specially as we know lots of them but they are doing well also ,cause the one who lived in HKI and can go to MOly Malon ( the Iris Pub )and then u will be lucky to find any of the bar tenders or the ppl working there speak any Finnish or even the foriegners whos hang out there . but that doesnt mean they are ofending the Finns but its just they found their way to make business without using the language .

I can understand why Finland hesitates a bit with immigration.. we have a lot of trouble lately (in my province, in Canada). and I think often they dont realise that they are lucky to be there and respected. as a french canadian, we had to fight to be considered as equal to english canadians, and its been not eve 40 years we are considered as equal, and now comes those large group of immigrant wanting us to chanve our Way of Life so it fits them better... you cant just go somewhere and try to kill the culture there, and ask for things to change so it was like in your home country.. if you decided to leave, its because you didnt like it there (in most cases). Its a shame that nowaday we tried to accomodate them so much that we had to take away part of our history and culture... (for example crosses in the town hall, or in schools had to be removed, we cant put a christmas tree in a workplace) and they cant accept to make compromises... (for exemple, schools have asked kids not to have their "kirpan", thoses knifes from Muslim religion, if I remember right (dont kill me if thats not it!), because they dont want bad things to happen with knife, but they refuse to.)

so I understand the fact that Finland wants immigrants that are skilled, and are interested in the culture.
I would really love to move to Finland and work there. but for that, I have to practice more finnish, but I will spend a year in a university in Finland to study finnish more.
I just love the culture so much, and I already miss the country I consider like my own. I miss my family there, and can't wait to go back again! and hopefully, move and work there someday.
You are posting too fast!
and don't take it as I don't like immigrants, I have a lot of friends from different countries, Im just saying its hard to accept that some newly come people try to change the way we are when we fought for centuries to be where we are now...
(just wanted to make this clear, I didnt want people to think I was rude)
You are posting too fast!

Originally Posted by afinnegirl

I agree with Annika! I don't like it in the US that there are people who've lived here +40 years and still can't speak English. I wouldn't put up with it in Finland either. It IS ignorant and selfish. How the heck are you going to adapt to the culture of the country if you can't speak the language?

One thing I find appalling in the US is that people who barely speak English can still become a citizen of the country, although they do have a ridiculous test of your language skills for the citizenship application.

I don't quite understand what T-Bag is trying to say about people having an education and knowing Finnish, but still not finding work in their field. I can understand if it has to do with them being a doctor or a lawyer, which are specific fields and Finland is quite strict on the education for them, but if you are let's say an economist, I don't see a problem finding a job.

My final comment is that if you can't learn the language and can't find a job in the country without it and you don't like it, go back home.

I agree also with what you are saying. but I can understand that people cant be perfect with finnish at first, its not a very common language so there isnt much finnish classes around the globe. but definitely, living in Finland helps you a lot to improve the language. Ive stayed 6 weeks and it helped me a lot! Ive learnt it by myself before, and I am planning on studying it still!
I know an italian guy that moved to Finland 5 years ago, and now, he speaks finnish fluently. so its all a matter of desire and interest.

I think everyone in every contry should be able to speak english and use it as an international device of communication. There would be no problems like this.

Also, it is easy to understand why finnish people (especially the young ones) learn english so easily. All the programs on the finnish television are shown in their original language, subtitled in finnish. A lot of these programs are in english.
So it is easy for a finn to say "I learnt english, you learn finnish". But if you think about it - which one is really easier? The one language you hear every day all over europe for example, is english.

So I am just wondering why international companies do not hire educated adults if they don´t speak finnish?
I understand the need for talking some finnish if you work at a coffee shop and serve coffee to customers. Maybe there you would need to say at least "olkaa hyvä".

The point was that everyone should learn english at least and that goes for the finns too.