Ukrainians settling in Finland build their future in Helsinki

This week marks the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. More than six million people have fled the country since the start of the war. Some 57,000 of them have come to Finland and roughly 2,500 have settled in Helsinki.

One of these arrivals is Kateryna Hun, 33, who moved to Helsinki with her family from Vinnytsia, a city in Central Ukraine.

Now a resident of Helsinki, Hun chose Finland because she had heard many good things about the country and had the impression that Finns were polite people. Her decision was also aided by the fact that she already had friends living in Finland.

After a couple years of living here, Helsinki has started to feel like home.

Ukrainians are active jobseekers

Having previously worked in the restaurant sector, Hun quickly found work in her own field of expertise. She found her job on her own by following social media channels and the TE Services’ job advertisements. She found the process easy.

Hun first worked as a cook at Café Meridian in eastern Helsinki for six months. When her employment contract there ended, she moved on to Döner Harju, a restaurant located in the district of Kallio, where she has been working for a year now.

“Finns are easy to work with. People coming from Ukraine also have good opportunities to advance in their career. I started out as a cook, but after some time, I was promoted to the position of shift manager. I am currently training myself for the duties of head chef,” Hun says.

In addition to initiative, having good language skills makes finding employment easier, but Hun says that employers should not be afraid to hire workers who do not speak Finnish.

She herself did not speak very good English when she came to Finland, but she quickly brushed up on her language skills while working. She already knows some Finnish and is constantly learning more.

Helsinki Employment Services supports integration

Specialist Alina Jokela from Helsinki Employment Services confirms that what Hun says applies to many other Ukrainian arrivals as well. For the past year, Jokela has been working in the Ukraine team of Helsinki Employment Services, where she has been responsible for the employment of clients under the age of 25 who have moved to Helsinki because of the war.

While the majority of Ukrainians were not sure at the beginning of the war whether they wanted to stay in Finland or eventually return to Ukraine, Jokela says that as the war has continued, many have decided to stay and build their future in Finland. The fact that close to 1,500 Ukrainians have made Helsinki their new registered municipality of residence reflects this trend.

“Ukrainian people want to find employment and study Finnish or Swedish. Many have recently decided that they want to stay in Finland. We assist them to start their integration process,” Jokela says.

Helsinki Employment Services supports Ukrainians as they find their bearings in Finnish society by charting clients’ individual needs and circumstances. In addition to job-seeking, clients receive help with matters such as having their degrees from other countries acknowledged in Finland, receiving further education or taking part in language courses.

Employers welcome Ukrainians with open arms

Ukrainian people have tended to find jobs in the construction and cleaning sectors and, like Hun, in the hotel and restaurant sectors, as many of them have a degree in this line of work and prior work experience from their home country.

Jokela applauds employers who have readily welcomed Ukrainian war refugees and provided them with work. Her hope is that good experiences with Ukrainians will encourage employers to also provide other newcomers to the country with work with equal open-mindedness.

The number of people coming to Finland from Ukraine has decreased considerably since the beginning of the war. For this reason, people arriving from Ukraine will be referred to the same services as other new arrivals in the future at Helsinki Employment Services. This will have no effect on any of the city’s services provided to people fleeing Ukraine.