News
Wrap-up of the Finnish national EMN seminar held in Helsinki on the 26th of November
The Finnish National EMN seminar held on the 26th of November in Helsinki attracted about 60 interested participants. They represented the administration, municipalities, research institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Dr. Kielo Brewis, head of the Finnish national contact point for the EMN, welcomed all the participants after which Riitta Koponen, Director of the Immigration Administration Unit at the Ministry of the Interior officially opened the seminar.
Ann Singleton from the University of Bristol, England was the key note speaker at the seminar and the topic of her presentation was "Policy Needs for Migration Research". An abstract of her presentation in English can be found here.
After Ann's presentation the Finnish EMN-team presented the current work of the national contact point. The presentations in Finnish can be found in the "Ajankohtaista"-section here.
After lunch Dr. Annalisa Sannino from the University of Helsinki gave a presentation on the topic "Experiencing and formative interventions: Facilitating access and integration in Finnish work life". Her research based partly on personal experiences, is part of a project funded by the Finnish Academy called "Opening up pathways to competence and employment for immigrants (OPCE)".
Sari Hammar-Suutari gave a presentation in Finnish regarding her doctoral dissertation and a research project, which aims to investigate how both immigrants and members of the native population active in work life in six different sectors of the economy perceive the intercultural interaction in the workplace. Her presentation in Finnish can be found from the link to the "Ajankohtaista"-section above.
Dr. Kielo Brewis held the final intervention of the day by presenting the topics for EMN thematic studies chosen for next year, which both relate to labour migration. This was followed by a Q&A-session in which the participants were able to ask questions to the different presenters or simply give their comments to the themes discussed. The issue of the role of the media in the immigration debate was mentioned several times; how it affects the popular opinion and on which facts it is based.
Ann Singleton was given the opportunity to say the last words, and she thanked the interested audience for their insightful questions and comments and also mentioned that she has participated in training representatives of the media under the Ethical Journalism Initiative.
