Finland: Reviewing the construction of current migration discourse

The strongest strength of Finnish integration policy [on MIPEX] was in political participation...However, the overview of the migrant discourse, for example, would suggest that the contribution of migrant organisations to the discussion on migration issues was not very active. On the other hand,  the  discourse showed  some developments going on to promote inclusion of migrants through e-participation.
At the level of legislation and policy measures, the policy area related to anti-discrimination was also assessed as a particular strength. An important authority in this regard is  the Ombudsman for Minorities. Among the NGOs that are supposed to support the migrants in their possible cases, the discourse was contributed by Refugee Advice Centre and Freedom of Movement network. However, according to the contributions to the migrant discourse attention has already been paid to the prevention and abolishment of discrimination in the working life.
In the policy area of education the strengths were in an inclusive education and in addressing the  academic needs of pupils with migrant backgrounds. However, the weaknesses were identified in the area of intercultural education and that schools do not do enough to harness the opportunities offered by diversity (see also Graeffe and Lestinen, 2011; Lestinen, 2011).  The overview of the discourse showed that attention is paid to the academic support of the pupils and on the development of language teaching and learning. However, in addition to training of teachers with a migrant background to support their recruitment in schools, the challenges of intercultural education in practice or harnessing new opportunities in schools were still  not visible in the discourse. Vice versa, there was a theme focusing on the influence of immigration on the choice of schools among original population.
The weaknesses of Finnish integrations policy were found in the policy concerning eligibility for long-term residence, equal residence rights of family members of migrant workers and access to nationality. The issues raised by these precisely defined challenges in policy areas that were pointed out by the MIPEX were not visible in the contributions to the migration discourse to any notable extent...
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