📋 Tender Overview
The new Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration, which will enter into force at the beginning of 2025, will be supplemented with five decrees concerning integration services. The aim is to increase immigrants' own responsibility and strengthen public finances in accordance with the Government Programme.
From 2025 onwards, immigrants will be able to participate in multilingual orientation to society as part of integration services. The decree would lay down more detailed provisions on the content and implementation of multilingual orientation to society. Immigrants would receive information about the values and norms of Finnish society, individual rights and obligations, employment and other activities in Finnish society.
Multilingual social orientation should mainly be implemented as a form of education and in the immigrant's own mother tongue or a language he or she knows well. It should include at least 70 hours of instruction or independent study.
The second decree would lay down provisions on the amount of imputed compensation and its distribution between municipalities and wellbeing services counties. The imputed compensation would be reduced because the payment period will be shortened and interpretation costs will be reduced in accordance with the Government Programme. The central government pays imputed compensation to municipalities and wellbeing services counties for integration services they organise, for example, for beneficiaries of international protection, persons with a refugee background and persons under temporary protection who have a municipality of residence.
The third decree would lay down more detailed provisions on the assessment of skills and integration service needs, replacing the current initial assessment. The assessment would continue to include an initial interview and, if necessary, more detailed measures. In future, the immigrant should be informed at the initial interview of the binding nature of the integration plan and the related rights and obligations of the immigrant.
In addition, decrees would be issued on the remuneration of the representative of an unaccompanied child who has become a minor and on the data to be stored in the national information pool on the promotion of immigrant integration.
Comments can be submitted until 14.8.2024
The decrees will be circulated for comments 1.7.-14.8.2024. The Government is expected to issue decrees in autumn 2024. They would enter into force in connection with the reform of the Act on the Promotion of Immigrant Integration on 1.1.2025.
