Description:

In my presentation I examine careers of highly educated immigrants in Finland. The amount of immigrants in Finland started to rise fast at the turn of the 1990's. At the same time the number of highly educated immigrants also increased. Today nearly one fifth of the immigrants in Finland have an academic degree. As previous studies (Jaakkola 2000; Forsander 2002; Haapakorpi 2004) reveal, despite of good education and long work experience, it is hard for highly educated immigrants in Finland to find work that they are qualified to do. Their situation in the labour market is often weak compared to the original population and also compared to the immigrants' earlier situation in their native countries. The unemployment rate is notably lower among Finnish people (9 % in 2004) than it is among immigrants (29 % in 2004) - even though it has been decreasing during the last ten years. It is not possible to find only one reason to explain immigrants' unsatisfactory situation in the Finnish labour market. There are many factors like place of origin, varying reasons for coming to Finland, language skills and education. However, it is a long process to reach a competency of labour market. The main purpose of this presentation is to describe what kind of careers highly educated immigrants' have in Finland. The research question is: What kind of work careers can be found among highly educated immigrants?

Methodology or methods/research instruments or sources used:

The empirical data used in this study is based on inquiry, which was collected among highly educated immigrants in the autumn 2004 (n=95). These immigrants had taken an academic degree in their native countries. From their educational background, the largest occupational groups were doctors, teachers and engineers. The inquiry had questions about immigrants' university degree, work histories in Finland, periods of unemployment in Finland etc.

Conclusions or expected outcomes or findings:

I examine immigrants' work histories paying attention to how immigrants' work in Finland has corresponded to their education. Based on this information highly educated immigrants can be divided into three main groups: careers that correspond the education, careers that partly correspond the education and careers that don't correspond the education at all. Each of the three main groups have been divided into two subgroups, so that the six different careers were discovered. Those careers are steady, transitory, temporary, downward career and careers of seekers and unemployed.

References:

• Forsander, A. (2002). Luottamuksen ehdot. Maahanmuuttajat 1990-luvun suomalaisilla työmarkkinoilla. [Conditions of trust. Immigrants in the 1990's Finnish labour market.] Väestötutkimuslaitoksen julkaisusarja D 39/2002. Helsinki: Väestöntutkimuslaitos, Väestöliitto.
• Haapakorpi, A. (2004). Kulttuurista rajankäyntiä. Nuorten ja korkeakoulutettujen maahanmuuttajien koulutus- ja työmarkkinahistoria ja -orientaatio. [Cultural demarcation. Educational and labour market history and orientation of young and higher educated immigrants'.] Raportteja ja selvityksiä 43/2004. Helsinki: Palmenia.
• Jaakkola, T. (2000) Maahanmuuttajat ja etniset vähemmistöt työhönotossa ja työelämässä. [Immigrants and the ethnic minorities in the recruitment process and in the working life.] Helsinki: Ministry of Labour.