Tehy is calling for employers to put more focus not only on language training for immigrant employees, but also on multicultural training in the workplace.
Raquel Torres is one of around twenty nurses from the Philippines recruited by the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District. Before coming to Finland, they attended a nine-month language course. Once here, their language lessons continued and at the same time they completed college courses to obtain Finish nursing degrees. Torres now works as a surgical nurse.
"Even though the language is different, the procedure is the same. An ear operation here at this clinic is done in the same way, only the names of the instruments are different," Torres points out.
A range of problems
The study published on Monday by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals Tehy found that immigrant nurses face a range of problems. Getting a degree obtained abroad accepted is difficult, and just over a quarter (26%) of those who responded to the survey say that they have experienced discrimination in the workplace. According to Tehy's head of international affairs, Sari Koivuniemi, the biggest problem still comes from deficiencies in providing training in the Finnish language.
"No one really has responsibility for teaching the language. Employers bounce it back and say it is ours. The union's view is that language is a tool. As such, employers are responsible for providing language teaching. Right now, there is just too little of it," says Sari Koivuniemi.
"learn everything first"
Direct recruitment of nursing personnel from abroad is still rare, but with Finland suffering from a shortage of nurses, attention is turning to other countries. Tehy published a similar study seven years ago and this new survey found that many of the same problems still plague the professional community. Employers have not given enough attention to multiculturalism.
"The next group coming here should learn everything first. It is not enough to just know the language. One should know the culture, how Finns work, the food. Everything about Finland should be known. The first six months were really hard for me," says Raquel Torres.
