some questions

[williamm]

Hi,

I'm from Sweden but I have finnish citizenship and for the last two years I'm studying with intention to apply to a university of applied sciences in Finland. However, I had misunderstood the continuation of my high school studies, so from how it looks now I will either have to study each subject myself and then pay to do a test in them, in order to be done before january. Otherwise, I will be done in the middle of next year. Either way I intend to apply to a university of applied sciences in Finland, I'm not sure of which one, but I have found numerous that have english as education language in information technology.

After reading some other threads here I have some questions:
If I do finish before january, and just assuming I wouldn't get in a school after entrance exams, does that have any impact on applying the year after? I'm asking this because, if I finish before january, I'd have 2016 and eventually 2017 to apply, while if I don't finish the studying before january I'd "miss" a chance to apply in the start of 2016. I don't go by the assumption that I would fail, but it's good to know.

Since I am a citizen I understand that I can take study loans? I wonder how much that actually covers, I don't have alot of money saved, and if I would wait to 2017 I'd be able to save some more money. Would study loans cover everything like living, generally?

I also wonder about studyinfo.fi since it seems like I need to have a finnish mobile login for it, and I don't have that. Does it have any impact on applying, like I read that if you apply to multiple schools the entrance exams are shared? How would I apply without studyinfo.fi? Most school websites seem to redirect to stufyinfo.

thank you in advance

[williamm]

As a citizen you can get the student allowance (not just the loans). The answers to your social money questions are available on the Kela site in Swedish or English: http://www.kela.fi/web/sv

By the way - you didn't ask, but do you intend to learn Finnish and stay here long-term? Because you would be eligible for an integration plan from the TE-office, which would include free full-time Finnish lessons - but obviously, it can't be done at the same time as university. They do an individual integration plan with you (ie a 30 minute chat), and it's possible that you might be given approval to do these Finnish lessons on the full unemployment benefit (no promises, as the unemployment benefit is usually not available to under-25s who haven't completed a degree, but these things are negotiable when the under-25 is in the integration programme and doesn't speak Finnish).

The thing with the integration is, it can only be done in the first three years of arriving in Finland and there's a long wait for the lessons once you get into integration (ie, you DO NOT want to study at university for two years and then hope to get into integration, because the integration would finish before you got into a Finnish course or learned much of the language).

Thank you for your reply,
yes I do intend to learn Finnish and live my life there. If it is complicated with free Finnish lessons then I'm not sure, either way that doesn't change my mind. I am and have been learning for a while by myself, and I will continue to do so but I did intend to find some sort of course when I finally move there.

and after looking at the study loan site it seems like the base amount is 335 euro and there's 26-201 euro extra if you need for living, and then 400 euro loan per month, so it seems like I can do that if I understood it correctly.

[Kifkfo]

So Finnish nationals with fluent official language can get to integration?!

So are all Swedish-speaking Finns entitled to integration? Or Finnish-speaking Finns?

Do they have this kind of waste of taxpayers' money in the USA, where immigrants of all backgrounds integrate well compared to Finland?

Why the state should finance language classes for new arrivals? Let's just cut the free money. Immigrants can keep their language, but if they want to interact with the government, they need to do it in Finnish. So, eliminate the current system of 3 languages, which is costing !"#¤% of money. Every @#$% government website is made three times. What's the value of learning Finnish, when for example every release Tilastokeskus makes is available in English and Swedish also?

[williamm]

So Finnish nationals with fluent official language can get to integration?!

So are all Swedish-speaking Finns entitled to integration? Or Finnish-speaking Finns?

Do they have this kind of waste of taxpayers' money in the USA, where immigrants of all backgrounds integrate well compared to Finland?

Why the state should finance language classes for new arrivals? Let's just cut the free money. Immigrants can keep their language, but if they want to interact with the government, they need to do it in Finnish. So, eliminate the current system of 3 languages, which is costing !"#¤% of money. Every @#$% government website is made three times. What's the value of learning Finnish, when for example every release Tilastokeskus makes is available in English and Swedish also?

Not to start an argument but of course the value of learning Finnish for those who intend to live in Finland is important. I personally don't expect to get any free lessons as I didn't know that was a thing, I intended to pay for those. I want to move to Finland and be a part of society, and I don't intend to live in a swedish speaking area.

[Kifkfo]

Why the state should finance language classes for new arrivals? Let's just cut the free money. Immigrants can keep their language, but if they want to interact with the government, they need to do it in Finnish. So, eliminate the current system of 3 languages, which is costing !"#¤% of money. Every @#$% government website is made three times. What's the value of learning Finnish, when for example every release Tilastokeskus makes is available in English and Swedish also?

This is one of the more stupid statements I've seen. You expect immigrants to interact with the government in Finnish but you don't want them to learn it. Has it occurred to you that the cost of integration is lower than the cost of having them stay unemployed forever?

The original poster is a Finnish citizen. Why shouldn't they get services provided by the Finnish government? Or do you just not "get" it, in Finland, people pay taxes and get services. Unlike the USA where if you're sick and have no money for treatment, nobody cares if you die.

I did not say that I don't want immigrants to learn Finnish. I don't like that public money is used to these integration programs. Unemployment is not costing anything, if there would be no free money. If they do crime, deport or kill them, depending on the crime. Why immigrants should be integrated? If they can legally support themselves, let them live in 'chinatowns'.

I find it astonishing that Finnish citizen, who speaks official language, can get to integration program. I think it's wrong to steal someone's money to give VERY expensive cancer treatment for someone else.

I don't like that government money is used to devalue the Finnish language, for example providing all kinds of services like this http://www.fineli.fi/index.php?lang=en in any other language than Finnish. Our ministers and presidents are speaking publicly other languages than Finnish. Compare to Hollande, Sarkozy, Obama, Bush, Merkel, Putin, Stalin, Erdoğan, Abe, Jintao, Berlusconi, Cameron, Jinping, Tsípras. Government funded investigations into use of taxpayers' money are done SOLELY in ENGLISH!!! Examples: study regarding SHOKs, study regarding development aid (Results on the Ground? – An Independent Review of Finnish Aid by Finnish-sounding name Ritva Reinikka) which was in the news today. I did not find the report on the Internet, I would like to see it.

What is "the USA thank dog"?

[williamm]

Why the state should finance language classes for new arrivals? Let's just cut the free money. Immigrants can keep their language, but if they want to interact with the government, they need to do it in Finnish. So, eliminate the current system of 3 languages, which is costing !"#¤% of money. Every @#$% government website is made three times. What's the value of learning Finnish, when for example every release Tilastokeskus makes is available in English and Swedish also?

This is one of the more stupid statements I've seen. You expect immigrants to interact with the government in Finnish but you don't want them to learn it. Has it occurred to you that the cost of integration is lower than the cost of having them stay unemployed forever?

The original poster is a Finnish citizen. Why shouldn't they get services provided by the Finnish government? Or do you just not "get" it, in Finland, people pay taxes and get services. Unlike the USA where if you're sick and have no money for treatment, nobody cares if you die.

I did not say that I don't want immigrants to learn Finnish. I don't like that public money is used to these integration programs. Unemployment is not costing anything, if there would be no free money. If they do crime, deport or kill them, depending on the crime. Why immigrants should be integrated? If they can legally support themselves, let them live in 'chinatowns'.

I find it astonishing that Finnish citizen, who speaks official language, can get to integration program. I think it's wrong to steal someone's money to give VERY expensive cancer treatment for someone else.

I don't like that government money is used to devalue the Finnish language, for example providing all kinds of services like this http://www.fineli.fi/index.php?lang=en in any other language than Finnish. Our ministers and presidents are speaking publicly other languages than Finnish. Compare to Hollande, Sarkozy, Obama, Bush, Merkel, Putin, Stalin, Erdoğan, Abe, Jintao, Berlusconi, Cameron, Jinping, Tsípras. Government funded investigations into use of taxpayers' money are done SOLELY in ENGLISH!!! Examples: study regarding SHOKs, study regarding development aid (Results on the Ground? – An Independent Review of Finnish Aid by Finnish-sounding name Ritva Reinikka) which was in the news today. I did not find the report on the Internet, I would like to see it.

What is "the USA thank dog"?

but you are first complaining about people learning it free, and then you are complaining about the language being translated? one of them needs to happen for people to integrate into society. either way as I said I intend to join some course for it whether or not it's free, but not all do, like I read some thread two people chosing not to learn finnish because it was too difficult, but they were only staying for a couple of years. if english can be used to communicate with the government sections, is not as important, because people need to be able to feel that they're a part of the society, otherwise they might find it difficult to get a job etc, and that costs alot more than the finnish lessons in the long run. either way if Finland wouldn't have any wellfare for immigrants/everyone, that's not something that would change today. and even if I'm from Sweden I don't see positively on the fact that finnish people are forced to learn swedish in school etc, it would be better if everyone got motivated to learn the majority language, as like you can see in Sweden the immigration results in areas consisting of a big variation of different cultures and languages, and that doesn't seem to go very well. a big concentration of one language speakers reduces the need for them to learn the majority language, which causes the problems later on, I think

[Kifkfo]

Do they have this kind of waste of taxpayers' money in the USA, where immigrants of all backgrounds integrate well compared to Finland?

They don't even have official language in USA, integration is based on locality and community

You expect immigrants to interact with the government in Finnish but you don't want them to learn it. Has it occurred to you that the cost of integration is lower than the cost of having them stay unemployed forever?

with the way he wrote, I'd not be surprised if he says "why Finland is paying unemployment benefit to immigrants, this should stop, let themselves support financially" typical short sighted PS !"#¤%.

Government funded unemployment benefits should not be paid to anyone. The ansiosidonnainen päiväraha is almost entirely paid by the government. One could take private insurance, but that would be costly.

Why there's swearword filter? Perussuomalaiset is a socialist party.

All government documents and publications are done in English in the USA, many if not most states have official language. But how's that relevant? I want to know whether immigrants get free language lessons in USA(or China).

[Pursuivant]

To the OP - have you looked ARCADA polytechnic? Its actually Swedish language and has a few very interesting programmes as well.

[Beep_Boop]

I like this Kifkfo guy. So ignorant and short-sighted.. it's quite amusing. I wonder if he'll be our new 'onkko'. Only time will tell.

[williamm]

To the OP - have you looked ARCADA polytechnic? Its actually Swedish language and has a few very interesting programmes as well.

Hi, yes I have looked at Arcada and Novia, but Novia didn't have Information Technology. I will apply to Arcada but I will also apply to other ones, Turku University of Applied Sciences, VAMK, I have bookmarked some I will apply to, I think I need to see like housing situation and those kind of things, but for my chances I think I will apply to all initially