Three County Derry women have recently been sharing their knowledge after taking part in a fact finding mission to Finland.
Mairead McCormack and Mary Brolly from Glenshane Community Development Limited and Patricia Cameron, the Good Relations Officer of Limavady Borough Council travelled to Finland as part of a programme to develop expertise in the European Union regardi
ng Migrant Integration and Intercultural Education, organised by the North West Academy.
“Similar to the UK, the Finnish economy needs more people to work in it because the baby boom generation is beginning to retire and these jobs must be filled,” explained mairead.
“Finland differs from the UK in how it allows migration from the A8 countries (the East European countries which acceded to the European Union in 2004) with its work permit system compared to the UK’s policy of permitting east Europeans general access to the labour market.”
The Northern Ireland group met with various organizations during its week long visit and heard how Finland operates an Integration Plan to successfully assimilate migrants into its society over a three year period including housing support.
“Like Northern Ireland, Finland was previously a country of emigration so there are many similarities between both regions but each deals with immigration in very different ways and the visit was an opportunity to share best practice between the central organisations from each territory,” added Mairead.
The full article contains 236 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.
