Background information

Due to the war in Ukraine and the following wave of people fleeing the war, the government of Finland has decided to ease the entry into the Finnish labour market for refugees.

Temporary protection is based on the EU Directive on Temporary Protection 2001/55/EC.

Under the Aliens Act 301/2004, a person has the right to work in Finland if they have a residence permit on the basis of temporary protection but does not state when such a right is applied although this has traditionally been interpreted as connected to receiving the residence permit. The requirement of processed residence permit application is now being removed.

The current policy is rather a reinterpretation of the Aliens Act in order to streamline it’s implementation with the principle of the Directive on Temporary Protection. However, an amendment to the Aliens Act is underway.

Content of measure

The government of Finland has decided to grant refugees the right to work in Finland immediately after they have submitted their application. The police and border guard will start writing a certificate to the refugee to show that they have submitted an application for temporary protection. The certificate gives the applicant the right to apply for work in Finland. This is to say that they do not have to wait for a residence permit before finding work, as the processing time can be long.

Those that have submitted their application for temporary protection before the new policy was announced may receive the certificate of registration from the Finnish Immigration Service. In Finland, this is the first time that residence permits are given on the premise of temporary protection. The Finnish Immigration Service has made changes to the technical systems to speed up the processing of temporary protection applications.

The government has earmarked several hundred thousand additional revenue to migration in the fiscal budget of the coming years. The total budget for the next budget year is €780 million, which is based on an assumption of 60,000 persons applying for temporary protection and 6,000 for asylum.

Use of measure

By 16 May 2022 a total of 23,390 applications for temporary protection had been received by the Finnish Immigration Service, out of which 23,097 were from citizens of Ukraine.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Migrants or refugees in employment	Applies to all businesses	Migrants or refugees

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government EU (Council, EC, EP)	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Informed	Informed
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

No information available regarding the involvement of social partners in the reinterpretation of the existing policy framework.

Views and reactions

No information available.

Sources

• 10 March 2019: Ukrainians also need support at the workplace (Ukrainalaiset tarvitsevat nyt tukea myös työpaikoilla) (www.sak.fi)
• 14 March 2022: Security through work -project (Työstä turvaa -hanke) (ek.fi)
• 05 April 2022: Over two billion euros allocated to defence, an increase in social benefits, billions more in debt - this is what the government decided(Puolustukseen yli kaksi miljardia euroa, sosiaalitukiin korotus, miljardeja lisää velkaa – Tästä hallitus päätti) (www.hs.fi)
• 05 April 2022: These eight things you should know about the governments new fiscal decisions (Nämä kahdeksan asiaa sinun kannattaa tietää hallituksen tuoreista talouspäätöksistä) (yle.fi)
• 08 April 2022: People fleeing Ukraine may start working immediately after applying for temporary protection (Ukrainasta paennut voi aloittaa työnteon heti tilapäistä suojelua haettuaan) (tem.fi)
• 16 May 2022: Statistics over temporary protection (Tilapäisen suojelun tilastot) (migri.fi)