Decrees on integration services circulated for comments until 14 August
The new Integration Act, which will enter into force at the beginning of next year, will be supplemented by five decrees pertaining to multilingual civic orientation, the amount of imputed reimbursement and its distribution, and the assessment of skills and service needs related to integration. In addition, decrees would be issued on the fee payable to the representative of a child or young person who has arrived in the country as an unaccompanied minor and on the information to be stored in the national integration data repository.
Multilingual civic orientation should mainly be implemented as instruction in the immigrant’s mother tongue or in a language that the immigrant knows well. It should include at least 70 hours of teaching or independent studies.
According to the decree, the imputed reimbursement would be reduced due to the shortening of the payment periods and the cuts to interpretation costs, as outlined in the Government Programme.
The third decree would lay down more detailed provisions on the assessment of skills and service needs related to integration, which will replace the initial assessment currently in use. In future, the initial interview should include the immigrant being informed of the binding nature of the integration plan and the related rights and obligations of an immigrant.
The decrees are circulating for comments between 1 July and 14 August 2024. The Government plans to issue the decrees in autumn 2024. They would enter into force together with the reformed Integration Act on 1 January 2025.
Read more:
Press release by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on 1 July 2024: Decrees specifying the Integration Act sent out for comments
Request for comments at lausuntopalvelu.fi (service for online consultation, in Finnish).