Low-income foreigners will find it more difficult to bring their families to Finland from November, when the income requirements go up.
This is bad news for many people working in the social and healthcare sectors, such as a group of Filipinos who Yle met at the airport this week. Many of them hoped to bring their families to Finland.
For example Race Ann Mayo, who will work as a practical nurse in North Savo, told Yle she wanted to bring her 17-year-old and 11-year-old children to Finland.
Family reunification in Finland is tough for social care workers, however. According to Barona, the agency recruiting Mayo and others, they are paid according to the practical nurse pay scales.
Their monthly salary will be a little over 2,300 euros, leaving them with a net income of around 1,860 euros.
To get a residence permit for family members an applicant needs to prove sufficient income. That number is calculated based on the size of the family.
For example, a family consisting of one adult and two children should have a net income of 2,300 euros from 1 November. The current requirement is 1,900 euros.
The Finnish Union of Practical Nurses, SuPer, estimates that a practical nurse working for one of the wellbeing services counties (the regional bodies charged with organising health and social care) can expect to make around 2,034 euros per month, including overtime and other salary supplements.
That would not be enough for a single parent to bring two children to Finland.
A family consisting of two adults and two children should net 2,910 euros per month to be eligible for family reunification. If income fluctuates month by month, the Immigration Service (Migri) uses the average net income for its calculations.
Migri: Children's interests first
Migri's Process Owner in charge of family reunification, Riikka Parviainen, says that the increase in income requirements is overdue.
It was last updated in 2013.
"The demand for secured income is based on the desire to ensure that the client will not end up claiming income support," said Parviainen, referring to Finland's social benefit of last resort.
The income requirements are based on Kela's calculations of average outgoings and income from people who receive income support.
Parviainen says that the requirements are an indicative guide, and applications are assessed individually. Exceptions can be made, for example, when assessing a child's specific situation.
"Above all the child's interests come first," said Parviainen. "For example if the child is in danger of being left without a guardian or if there are health-related reasons. That does not mean, however, that the children's interests mean that every family is able to get an exemption from the income requirements."
The according to the government programme, the goal is to increase work-based immigration especially from four target countries, one of which is the Philippines. The other three are India, Brazil and Vietnam.
Barona's head of international recruitment, Elina Koskela, says that more attention should be paid to easing family reunification.
"This will inevitably become more of an issue as numbers of internationally recruited workers increase alongside specialists," said Koskela. "There are a lot of people with families and we should try to use all available means to help people get their families to Finland."
Koskela says that the high income requirements for family reunification affect workers in the service sector, industrial sectors as well as the social and healthcare sectors.
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