Giving migrants in Finland a chance to demonstrate their skills

Many migrants bring with them skills that could be productively put to use in Finland – both formal qualifications and informal skills. As progress is made towards speeding the transition of new migrants into employment, long-run efficiency will require efforts to ensure migrants move into employment that is appropriate to their qualification and competences. Recognition is important part of this but, alongside this, it is important that migrants have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills – both cognitive and non-cognitive, formal and informal – through employment spells with Finnish employers. Chapter 4 looks at the challenges migrants face in demonstrating their skills – translating them for the Finnish labour market and gaining their first foothold in employment. The chapter investigates constraints on the demand for migrant skills as well as the policy responses that attempt to tackle them including wage subsidies and anti-discrimination policies.