The objective of the Integration Act is to support and promote immigrants’ employment or entrepreneurship, competencies and working life skills, the realisation of their inclusion and equality, and their health and wellbeing as well as their opportunities to be active participants in Finnish society.
Immigrants are to be offered measures and services that promote and support integration, especially in the early stages of integration. The services and measures promoting integration are brought together in the municipal integration programme which consists of elements such as assessments of skills and the need for integration services, integration plan preparation, multilingual civic orientation and integration training.
The aim is that the measures and services laid down in the Act will promote immigrants’ opportunities to achieve a status in society equal to that of the rest of the population, in terms of both rights and obligations. The Act also aims to promote the availability of necessary quality services promoting integration as well as multi-sectoral cooperation among actors promoting integration.
Further aims of the Act include promoting equality and non-discrimination as well as good relations between population groups and the receptiveness of society. The objective is that the measures laid down in the Act support immigrants’ inclusion and opportunities to exert influence as well as two-way integration.
The Act also seeks to promote the coordination of the planning and development of integration promotion with other national, regional and local planning and development.
The Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration also applies to persons residing in Finland temporarily
The Integration Act applies to all persons who in Finland hold a valid residence permit referred to in the Aliens Act. The Act also applies to persons whose right of residence has been registered or who have been issued with a residence card under the Aliens Act. The Act furthermore applies to citizens of the Nordic countries whose right of residence has been registered as agreed between the Nordic countries regarding registration of population.
The Act does not apply to Finnish citizens unless they are victims of human trafficking.
Persons who have temporarily moved to Finland are also entitled to the measures and services referred to in the Act. Services are provided on the basis of assessed individual needs.
Additional information:
Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration
The Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration guides integration work
