“To Get a Foot in the Door” - New Host Country Educated Immigrant Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Employability in Finland - Article 3

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

This article identifies factors that promote or hinder employment opportunities for immigrant teachers educated in the host country. Data come from online questionnaires and focus group discussions with two student cohorts after one year of graduating from English-medium teacher education in Finland. Employment outcomes range from full-time permanent teaching posts to unemployment, with no mainstream classroom placements in Finnish-medium schools. Qualification scope and substitution references aid hiring, while insufficient Finnish or native English skills hinder access to work.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Immigrants in the Finnish Labour Market

Employment factors for new host-country educated teachers

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 40 | Issue 3 | Article 3 | | --- | --- | 2015 “To Get a Foot in the Door”: New Host Country Educated Immigrant Teachers’ Perceptions ofTheir Employability in Finland Kaisa Hahl University of Helsinki, Finland, [kaisa.hahl@helsinki.fi](kaisa.hahl@helsinki.fi) Heini Paavola University of Helsinki, Finland Recommended Citation Hahl, K., & Paavola, H. (2015).“To Get a Foot in the Door”: New Host Country Educated Immigrant Teachers’ Perceptions ofTheir Employability in Finland. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40 (3). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v40n3.3](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v40n3.3) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss3/3](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss3/3) Australian Journal of Teacher Education “To Get a Foot in the Door”: New Host Country Educated Immigrant Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Employability in Finland Kaisa Hahl Heini Paavola University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract: This article sets out to find factors that promote or hinder employment opportunities for immigrant teachers educated in the host country. The data were collected through online questionnaires and focus group discussions among two student cohorts. After a year of graduating from English-medium teacher education in Finland, the employment situations ranged from full-time permanent teaching posts in Finland to unemployment. Although the majority was successful in securing at least some work, no one was teaching in mainstream classrooms in a Finnish-medium school. The scope of teaching qualifications and references from substitutions were considered factors for employment. Lacking “strong enough” Finnish skills or native English skills was experienced as the main hindrances to employment. Although generally the participants did not perceive their nationality a hindrance to employment, ‘nativeness’ in certain languages seemed to play a role. Being a native English (or sometimes another major language) speaker promoted job opportunities in international schools. Introduction Societies and labour markets enjoy increased diversity but employment is distributed unequally between different population groups. Immigration has grown around the world but immigrants continue to have higher unemployment than the original population (Fleischmann & Dronkers, 2010) . Generally, a lack of various resources, such as language skills, education, work experience, social relationships and networks, is raised as explanation or excuse for immigrants’ weaker employment status (Liu, 2007; George, Ghaze, Brennenstuhl, & FullerThomson, 2012)—in addition to employers’ lack of trust toward immigrant workers and negative attitudes and prejudices in society (Heath & Cheung, 2007) . Although Finland is a relatively new immigration destination country, it has experienced rapid growth in foreign-born residents in the past decades. What makes the context relevant for readers elsewhere is that Finland’s situation is similar to other small population countries that have had few ethnic minorities of their own but now deal with a population that is increasingly multicultural and multilingual. As both of Finland’s officiallanguages (Finnish and Swedish) are small on a global scale, the immigrant experience in Finland is comparable to that in countries where immigrants typically have little prior familiarity with the local language. The ensuing demographic changes from the growth in immigration are seen and felt, among others, in schools. The schools are in need of teachers with immigrant backgrounds in order for the school staff to mirror the demographics of society and include both visible and Vol 40, 3, March 2015 36 Australian Journal of Teacher Education invisible minorities (Sleeter & Milner, 2011) . This article sets out to learn how first generation immigrant teachers—re

FAQs

What does the article aim to determine about immigrant teachers’ employment?

It examines factors that promote or hinder employment opportunities for immigrant teachers educated in the host country.

How was the data collected for the study?

Through online questionnaires and focus group discussions with two student cohorts.

What were the main hindrances to employment reported by participants?

Lacking sufficiently strong Finnish skills or native English skills was experienced as the main barrier.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine