Recognition of linguistic diversity and justice in integration services in Finland

The integration services in Finland are currently undergoing a substantial reform as beginning in 2025, municipalities rather than the state will be responsible for them. The law states that these services must promote employment, working life and language skills, and everyday civic skills of immigrants while considering equality, non-discrimination and inclusion, wellbeing and participation in Finnish society. At the practical level, the new legislation means municipalities must provide e.g. individual integration plan, and multilingual civic orientation courses for newcomers, but also guidance and advisory services for all migrants. (Laki kotoutumisen edistämisestä 681/2023). In our presentation, we scrutinize the current public (integration) services Espoo, the second largest city in Finland, offers for migrants to support inclusion in Finnish society, with particular focus on communication in service encounters and practices such as use of interpretation services, and digital technology in actualization of linguistic justice. We seek to answer the question of how linguistic diversity is considered in the development and realization of these services, in which the relationships between migrants and service providers are underlined by power asymmetries. We also reflect on how linguistic diversity (or lack of it) might contribute to trust between different stakeholders. Our findings are based on observations in service situations and semi-structured interviews with service providers and migrants. The presentation is part of a transdisciplinary research project “Trust-M – Designing Inclusive & Trustworthy Digital Public Services for Migrants in Finland” (https://trustmproject.aalto.fi/) carried out in collaboration at Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Tampere University, and the city of Espoo. The project aims to create digital tools for public services to enhance more inclusive services for all customers. It has received funding from the Strategic Research Council (2022–2025).