More and more immigrants choose the countryside
Immigrants, who have traditionally remained in the capital city region and other larger cities in Finland, move ever more frequently to the countryside.
The location of domicile has surprisingly little significance in the social integration process of the immigrant. The level of activeness within the local population and employment opportunities of the immigrants are a far more important factor in the settling process.
While nearly half of all the immigrants in Finland live within the Helsinki metropolitan area, more and more immigrants prefer to move into smaller towns and into the countryside. Immigration has for the first time become an integral part of Finnish rural policy. The Finnish government supports immigrants' employment-based migration into the countryside.
- The measures of assisting immigrants with their social integration do not depend on the location of their domicile, rather, they depend on the immigrants themselves. There is a huge difference between the social integration of quota refugees and labour based migrants, notes Inga Nikula-Sjökvist who is in charge for the social integration project for immigrants.
The immigrants' social integration in their new home country is not a one-sided process. The local people have an important role to play in it.
- Greeting one another is the first, simple step. Through being able to communicate even a little bit with other community members the immigrant may find new friends and a suitable environment, where he or she can feel at home. This could be for instance within a local action group or an association, affirms Nikula-Sjökvist.
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