APN Podcast: Finland's foreign worker paradox

Finland says it wants to attract more workers from abroad, but APN hears how government policies and negative discussions around immigration could be having the opposite effect.

Protesters on the steps of Parliament.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Finnish Parliament Building last summer to protest against the government's tightening of immigration laws.
Yle News

This week's show is all about work.

The All Points North podcast hears from foreigners in Finland struggling to land a job in a tough labour market while vacancies continue to fall and an increasing number of people face redundancy.

"I tried my best, like I gave it my all. I was incredibly visible on LinkedIn," Shreyas Ramachandran Srinivasan told the show about his lengthy 14-month job search as a tech worker.

While Finland says it needs international workers as it falls behind other countries in attracting top talent, the government is at the same time looking to tighten work-based residency rules, making the country less appealing to foreign workers.

"Finland has taken years and years to build up this reputation as the happiest country and I feel it's already been damaged, or at least, it's not going to be fixed quickly, this reputable damage," explained Owain Hopeaketo of TEK, a union for engineers and architects.

Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is it getting more difficult to find a job in Finland?

As always, we round up the main stories of the week and give listeners our weekly tip for what to stream on Yle Areena.

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This week's show was presented by Zena Iovino and Ronan Browne, with additional reporting by Priya Ramachandran D'souza. The sound engineer was Joonatan Kotila.

If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts, contact us via WhatsApp at +358 44 421 0909 or at yle.news@yle.fi and allpointsnorth@yle.fi.

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