Decrees specifying the Integration Act sent out for comments

The new Integration Act, which will enter into force at the beginning of 2025, will be supplemented by five decrees on integration services. The aim is to increase the immigrants’ own responsibility and strengthen the general government finances in accordance with the Government Programme.

Beginning in 2025, immigrants can participate in a multilingual civic orientation as part of integration services. A decree would lay down more detailed provisions on the content and implementation of the multilingual civic orientation. Immigrants would receive information on the values and norms of Finnish society, the rights and obligations of individuals, employment and other aspects of participating in Finnish society.

Multilingual civic orientation should mainly be implemented as instruction and 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.

The second decree would lay down provisions on the amount of imputed reimbursement and its distribution between a municipality and a wellbeing services county. The imputed reimbursement would be reduced because of shorter payment times and lower interpretation costs, as outlined in the Government Programme. The central government pays municipalities and wellbeing services counties an imputed reimbursement for integration services they provide for persons receiving international protection, persons with a refugee background and persons receiving temporary protection who have a municipality of residence. 

The third decree would lay down more detailed provisions on the assessment of the need for services related to integration and skills, which would replace the initial assessment currently in use. The assessment would continue to include an initial interview and, if necessary, further measures. In future, the immigrant should be informed in the initial interview of the binding nature of the integration plan and the immigrant’s rights and obligations related to the plan. 

In addition, decrees would be issued on the fee payable to a representative of an unaccompanied minor and on the information to be stored in the national integration data repository.

Comments to be accepted until 14 August 2024

The decrees will be circulated for comments on 1 July-14 August 2024. The Government plans to issue the decrees in autumn 2024. They would enter into force on 1 January 2025.

Inquiries:
Nea Brandt, Senior Specialist, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 295 047 239 (until 11 July 2024)