Does your status as an EU citizen lessen the bureaucratic nightmare faced when moving to Finland?

CURRENTLY in Finland there are just over 60,000 non-Finnish citizens employed in the country. This works out at around 2.6 per cent of the working population. With the numbers of foreigners altogether in the country running at around 3.2 per cent, this shows a healthy representation of foreigners’ contribution to the nation.

Does going the distance make the heart grow fonder?

ARRIVING to a new country to live, as many of us know, is an often confusing cocktail containing one pinch of excitement mixed with a splash of uncertainty and a generous portion of conflicting emotions. Having packed up your old life back home and bid a tearful farewell to loved ones, it’s not long before life has turned itself on its ear, as you soon become acquainted with a multitude of cultural differences on offer here in Finland.

With the literacy rate of the Finnish population among the highest in the world, it’s only fitting that residents here enjoy a comprehensive library system.

Reading is a global pleasure. Many keen readers enjoy buying books, new or second-hand, at bookshops and book fairs. Similar to many other countries, here in Finland you can also indulge your enthusiasm for the written word for free. Some people who move to Finland to live, study or work here are surprised by the country’s splendid public library system that is amazingly versatile, surprisingly modern and yet free of charge for users, being tax-funded. All you need is a library card, and then you are free to borrow items like books or CDs from lending libraries.

With the Minister of Education recently stating that Finland needs  the number of foreign students here to increase in future, just how will an already difficult job market cater to this influx of international resources?

Regularly appearing at the top of various polls, the Finnish education system has acquired an international reputation for its high level of quality. Thus, among the higher education student body today, currently there are some 15,700 foreign students enrolled here in Finland, divided almost equally between university and polytechnic institutions.

Although perceived as new arrivals here, Muslims actually have deep roots in Finland.

IF THE PAST is a foreign country, getting there can be tricky business. Guidebooks are sketchy and incomplete, and sometimes even finding the place on a map can be difficult – literally true in Finland’s case, as the former colonial subject of two empires with fluctuating borders. Another complication is that history is often less a story about the past than it is a function of anxieties of the present.

The boon of the information age has seen the popularity of internet dating propelled from the fringes of social acceptance to being a part of everyday life.

UP UNTIL recently, meeting potential partners in a bar or nightclub was the accepted way of bringing new people into your life. Things certainly have changed. Of course, one can still make one’s way down to a bar and try one’s hand in the minefield of game playing, posing and strutting of stuff, but more and more people these days are turning to the internet to fulfil their needs, ...

With the vast number of the population in Finland aging, immigrants may just be the answer to the concerning lack of care personnel.

IN the 19th century, Horace Greeley advised the American youth of his time to escape the impoverished and crowded cities of the East Coast and “go west, young man.” In Finland nowadays, while the prosperous southwestern triangle between Helsinki, Tampere and Turku is neither poor nor terribly crowded, officials like Marianne Mäntylehto might advise you to go north. And maybe study nursing.

With immigration policy being one of the hottest topics in the upcoming elections, SixDegrees decided to take a closer look at the parties’ views and representation of immigrants.

THERE was never any doubt that immigration would be one of the most contentious issues of the 2011 election. With the rise and rise of Timo Soini and the right wing True Finns, other parties and politicians have been sent scrabbling to come up with a message that sells. In some cases, there has seemed to be a willingness to compromise core values in order to do so.

NATURALLY, it is in a country’s best interests not to make it too easy to obtain citizenship, while any system for evaluating prospective citizens will of course have its supporters and detractors. Recent vague suggestions hinting at the possible introduction of a citizenship test in Finland has raised the profile of this issue in the media, and has made many ponder at what point Finnish nationality should be granted to a foreigner.

According to Statistics Finland, 3,400 foreign citizens permanently resident in this country received Finnish citizenship in 2009. This figure was 3,250 less than in 2008, although the numbers in 2008 were themselves particularly high. By far the largest group of foreign nationals receiving said nationality were Russians followed by Somalis, Iraqis and Afghanis. From within Europe between 100 and 200 Estonians, Serbs and Swedes received a Finnish citizenship.

As the world food market continues to wobble after the 2007-2008 global food crisis, just what has become of the simple supply and demand theory of production?

THE NEXT time that you are seated at a restaurant and don’t manage to consume all of your meal, spare a thought for the distance your food has traveled – along with the much shorter distance it will now travel to the bin.

It is currently estimated that between 25-50 per cent of all food is wasted between the producer and the consumer. With this in mind consider the fact that 925 million people worldwide are suffering from chronic hunger. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) confirmed that...