Swedish language as Integration?

[Beep_Boop]

AFAIK, nope.
I had a similar discussion with an employee from TE-palvelut. What Finland considers as integration is basically getting a job (which is idiotic, but that's a story for another day). For that reason, TE-palvelut oversees this "integration" process and assures it is successful. For the best results in "successful integration" by getting a job is knowing Finnish rather than Swedish (simple math). So they decided that integration is learning Finnish and then getting a job, so that's it.

I'm pretty sure it should be written somewhere, but it's too late for me to Google.

[onkko]

Someone comes to the country and are put into the integration course, can they choose they want to study Swedish instead of Finnish language for integration ?

If they or integration "people" are idiots then yes.
What you can do with swedish in finland... some limited areas where they speak odd swedish. De facto finnish is 99% and swedish is just "it always has been"

[Rosamunda]

According to my Swedish teacher the possibility of doing a Swedish integration programme opened up about two weeks ago. I guess it will take a while to roll out the courses. But there is clearly a demand especially on the west coast where a lot of the refugees may eventually find employment -eg in Ostrobothnia. I don't remember reading anything in the press about it but I guess you find something on the relevant websites.

There are 21 students in my Swedish class. All are foreigners (the class is taught thru English rather than Finnish) and - by the way - everyone is working from nursing to IT, engineering, teaching,etc etc. Some speak Finnish already but not all. It's a työväenopisto course.

[dsi11]

I learned Swedish much quicker than Finnish upon arriving in Helsinki and thought I would start to use it around the town... big mistake! Most Finns have no interest and will switch to English instead.

[Rosamunda]

I learned Swedish much quicker than Finnish upon arriving in Helsinki and thought I would start to use it around the town... big mistake! Most Finns have no interest and will switch to English instead.

Well that happens to me whether I speak Finnish or Swedish...

[Jukka Aho]

According to my Swedish teacher the possibility of doing a Swedish integration programme opened up about two weeks ago. I guess it will take a while to roll out the courses. But there is clearly a demand especially on the west coast where a lot of the refugees may eventually find employment -eg in Ostrobothnia. I don't remember reading anything in the press about it but I guess you find something on the relevant websites.

The papers have been running success stories about the Swedish-speaking West Coast municipality of Närpiö (Närpes by its Swedish name.) The town is now renowned for its diverse but apparently well-integrated immigrant workforce, which has sprung into existence during the last three decades.

Jobs are mainly available in the field of greenhouse farming (tomatoes etc.) or related functions. From what I have gathered, the immigrants are there to stay and to build a life for themselves as members of the local community - as workers or entrepreneurs, buying homes for themselves, etc. Or that, at least, has been the general tone and trend of those articles; I have never visited the place.

I got the impression the immigration to Närpiö started out with Bosnian and Vietnamese refugees, back in the 90s or earlier. The local industry has from then on been keen on hiring/importing more immigrant workforce from those countries, utilizing the connections those original refugees had to their old countries. Despite the beginnings in refugees, the later immigration to Närpiö has primarily been work-based.

(Närpes/Närpiö is also known for its peculiar, archaic dialect of Swedish which is spoken locally and which apparently requires some adjustment even if you already know Swedish.)