A Comparative Analysis of the Reception of Immigrants into Finnish Working Life in 2016 and 2024

The report examines the receptiveness of working life in Finland towards individuals of foreign backgrounds. The research data consists of 10,000 fictitious job applications submitted to publicly advertised positions by equally qualified applicants of Finnish, English, Russian, Iraqi and Somali backgrounds. The experiment tested job vacancies in the restaurant and catering, retail trade, cleaning, clerical and customer service sectors. A previous study conducted in 2016 (Ahmad 2020) identified significant ethnic disparities in hiring practices, which persisted in 2024. However, these disparities have notably decreased, particularly for applicants of Iraqi and Somali backgrounds. In 2016, Somali applicants had to submit 3.94 and Iraqi applicants 2.91 times as many applications as equally qualified Finnish candidates to receive an interview invitation. By 2024, these figures had dropped to 2.48 and 2.06. Conversely, applicants of Russian background experienced a slight decline in callback rates. These findings suggest a shift towards greater inclusivity in the Finnish labour market, potentially driven by evolving hiring policies, growing acceptance of diversity and/or increased labour demand in the sectors studied. Despite this progress, Finnish applicants continue to enjoy a clear advantage over equally qualified second-generation immigrant candidates in the Finnish labour marke.