I ask my friend Mohamed from school, can I interwiew him. We are study in the same team in master’s program. He told me, he is an Egyptian man and he was born in Cairo. Today he lives in Finland. He has a finnish wife and three children. They have helped he integrate in to Finnish society. He has a bachelor's degree in food science & technology /engineering.
He moved to Finland in 2015. The beginning was difficult when they lived in a small town. He told me that the integration training was poor, and he learned very little Finnish because the teacher was Russian. he believes a finnish teacher would have been more helpful in this case. Finding a job was extremely challenging. Mohamed made countless job applications, always receiving rejections, and never even got to the interview stage. He thinks his name, Mohamed, affected this. When he called workplaces, the person on the other end seemed eager to end the call as soon as he introduced himself. It was always emphasized that good Finnish language skills were essential, even though he tried his best to speak Finnish in these interactions.
He told me, in his current workplace, for example, there are Ukrainian employees who don’t speak Finnish or English, yet they were welcomed into the job “with hugs and kisses.” This raised the question to Mohamed: Areimmigrants in Finland treated differently depending on where they come from? "The above issues have been difficult for me. It feels like life here has been a constantstruggle," says Mohamed.
Mohamed told me, when he got a place to study at HAMK this fall, the teachers there were professional and very helpful. He adds: "It has been easy to collaborate with my classmates because they are smart and mature people."
I asked do you feel at home here? He said yes, I feel at home in Finland, and Finland is my home country.
I couldn't resist asking for some tips for studying foreign languages. These are Mohamed’s tips:
• It’s good to expand your vocabulary by watching children’s programs and movies in Finnish
• reading in Finnish, for example, in newspapers.
• Speak as much as possible with native speakers.
• When translating studymaterials, always try to understand the context and carefully select the correcttranslation.
• Use study materials that offer both text and audio. Reading and listening together improves comprehension and pronunciation. It’s okay if you don’t understandevery word; try to get a general understanding of the content. Understanding developsover time as you become accustomed to new vocabulary and structures.
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare tells imperfect language skills prevent employment, at the same time the lack of a job prevents the development of language skills. (THL, 2024) Developing language skills is a significant part of integration. Opportunities to talk with native Finnish speakers would be very important in terms of language development. In addition to language skills, new social relationships and the courage to go, for example, to study are created.
(THL, 2024) https://thl.fi/aiheet/maahanmuutto-ja-kulttuurinen-moninaisuus/kotoutuminen-ja-osallisuus/tyoelama