During the next 6 months, the Greens will update the older immigration policy programme. The vice chair of Green Sisi Antti ‘Jogi’ Poikola gave the following speech for the Green Party Council 23.11.2025. See the YouTube stream.
We need to boldly think about Finland’s positive transformation as immigration increases. This challenges our society from many directions, and it should be seen as an investment that, when done well, pays itself back many times over.
Besides the big picture thinking, here few more concrete proposals:
- Pragmatic and useful language-learning support for immigrants who work
- Support for international students’ language studies and incentives for companies to hire them. This would be a low-hanging fruit with lots of benefits.
- Language-learning support should also be available for the families of those who come to Finland on work permits.
- The current government’s immigration policy decisions should all be reversed. At a minimum, the 3–6 month rule has to be abolished.
- The full responsibility for steering Migri should be placed under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (TEM).
- Investments in talent attraction (the number of specialists). The Talent Boost and Work in Finland programmes are important.
- The Greens should promote a fast pathway to permanent residence, adopting the so-called “Canada model” in Finland.
- Unfortunately, labour exploitation is always present wherever there is immigration. We have to take this seriously and invest properly in oversight and sanctions.