Statistics Finland studies immigrants

The data collection for the Survey on work and well-being among persons of foreign origin started on 13 January 2014. This is the largest survey carried out in Finland concerning the entire population with immigrant background. The data collection of the interview survey lasts throughout the year. Statistics Finland carries out the data collection. The survey is conducted in collaboration between Statistics Finland, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

"Previous immigrant surveys have provided data on single language or nationality groups. With this survey on work and well-being among persons of foreign origin, we can assess the labour market situation, health and well-being of the entire population with immigrant background and compare it to the entire population's situation", explains Senior Statistician Liisa Larja from Statistics Finland.

"Currently, very little population-level data are available because in the largest population surveys there are so few immigrants in the sample that no reliable results can be gathered concerning immigrants. The risk is that the differences in well-being between different population groups go undetected."

Information on immigrants' living conditions is needed

As the number of the immigrant population grows we need more information for monitoring integration and developing services. The survey provides data, for example, on immigrants' health and ability to function, type of employment relationship, well-being at work, livelihood, ways of life, quality of life, trust in the authorities, as well as on their experiences of the quality of public services.

In addition, the survey also contains special questions related to integration. They examine, for example, the person's educational background, studies and skills in Finnish or Swedish. Respondents are also asked about their experiences of discrimination, whether they feel overqualified for their current job, what kind of obstacles they face in getting a job, and whether they feel more Finnish or citizens of their country of birth.

A total of 6,400 persons of foreign origin have been randomly drawn to be interviewed in the survey. Persons of foreign origin is a new statistical concept and it refers to persons, whose both parents were born abroad.

Interviews are carried out in 12 languages

The aim has been to make immigrants' participation in the survey easier in many ways. In addition to Finnish, the questionnaire has been translated into 11 languages and statistical interviewers that know these languages have been hired to conduct the interviews. Statistics Finland has also adopted a new video conference application to arrange remote interpretation for the respondents living across Finland.

The interviews are usually conducted in the interviewee's home. The data are collected by Statistics Finland's own, nationwide network of interviewers. As in all statistics production of Statistics Finland, the data on individual respondents will be treated as strictly confidential and information concerning an individual respondent cannot be distinguished from the survey results that will be published in the form of statistics.

Initial results from the survey will be published in the autumn of 2015.

In addition to the conductors of the survey, the data collection is financed by the EU's Integration Fund and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Additional information: Senior Statistician Liisa Larja, tel. +358 9 1734 3461

Home page of the data collection

Introduction in Finnish of the survey on the web pages of the National Institute for Health and Welfare: http://www.thl.fi/uth