Integration services help immigrants

When you have arrived in Finland and registered your right of residence or you have been granted a residence permit, you will be given information on Finland, your rights and obligations in Finland, and services that will support your integration.

You will be provided information and assistance on integration services by guidance and advice services in your municipality of residence or local employment services. They will provide information on how integration services are organised in your home municipality.

You can also search for activities that support settling into your new environment. On the fintegrate.fi serviceOpens in a new window., you can find, for example, language clubs, peer support activities, hobbies, and counselling.

During an assessment of skills and the need for integration services, it is determined whether an immigrant needs support in their integration.

The employment authority carries out the assessment of skills and the need for integration services for immigrants who are unemployed jobseekers. During the assessment the immigrant’s skills and prerequisites for employment or starting studies will be assessed.

Municipality is responsible for carrying out the assessment of skills and the need for integration services for the immigrants who get social assistance or home care allowance, minors who have arrived in Finland without a guardian, victims of human trafficking and others in need of the assessment.

If it is determined during the initial assessment that you need support with integration, a personal integration plan will be drawn up for you. The plan is drawn up together with either the employment services or an integration specialist in the municipality. Your integration plan will include, for example, information on what training or education you need in order to integrate.

Please note that an integration plan must be drawn up within three years of the time at which you receive your first residence permit or your right of residence has been registered.

On the basis of your integration plan, you will be steered to the integration training that best suits your needs. The training includes either Finnish or Swedish language studies and how your employment or entrepreneurship can be enhanced. If necessary you are also offered literacy education.

As of 2025, multilingual civic orientation is offered to all the new immigrants as part of the integration plan. Civic orientation provides immigrants with information on

• the Finnish society,
• living, studying and working in Finland and
• the rights and obligations of an individual.

This orientation will take place in your mother tongue or in another language that you know well.