Gender equality

The reasons for not having access to integration services are different for women and men. Women risk being excluded from integration services for reasons such as:

Immigrant mothers looking after their children at home do not always have time to participate in training during their integration period.
Women are more likely to immigrate as spouses. In such a case introduction to integration measures and the service system may be less thorough than for those who arrive as refugees, for example.

Men risk being excluded from integration services because

men are more likely to immigrate for work and find jobs more often than women. In such a case introduction to integration measures and the service system is different from the introduction received by those who arrive as refugees, for example.

Language skills are an important part of integration. Gender-related differences have been observed in language skills, both regarding spoken language and literacy (Migrant Health and Wellbeing Study Maamu 2012). Women experience difficulties with learning the language more often than men.

Young men need support for school attendance

Young men are more likely than women to drop out of school because they want to get a job (Survey on work and well-being among people of foreign origin (UTH) 2015). However, those who drop out of school risk being excluded from the labour market. Persons who have migrated to Finland from conflict zones find it difficult to integrate in the Finnish education system, and special attention should thus be paid to their education and training (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2016).

Young women, on the other hand, drop out of school because they start a family early (UTH 2015).

The fields of education pursued by students with an immigrant background are strongly divided by gender, which is typical for Finland in general. Men obtain qualifications in the technology sector, women in the fields of social and health care and services. Interestingly, in qualifications completed before immigrating to Finland, the fields of education are not as strongly divided by gender. (UTH, 2015)

Women struggle more to find jobs

The UTH survey indicates that the employment rate of women with a foreign background is more than 17 percentage points lower than this rate for women with a Finnish background. The employment rate of women with a foreign background improves slightly over the years as they live in Finland. One of the reasons for women’s poorer employment rate is that they often start a family at a young age, and may thus acquire little education, training and work experience.

The wages of women with a foreign background are lower than the average women’s wages and the wages of men with a foreign background (UTH).

The employment rate of men with a foreign background was almost as high as the rate of men with a Finnish background (UTH).

Women have slightly more health problems than men

The UTH survey found that men experience their health as slightly better than women. Women reported at least one long-term illness or health problem slightly more often than men in the survey.

Mental health problems are slightly more common among women than men. One out of four women with a Russian background has serious symptoms of depression and anxiety. Immigrants with a Kurdish background also experience these symptoms more often than the entire population on average, women more frequently than men.

Women with a foreign background feel excluded from the health services. Service counselling should be provided to ensure that young women also receive the services they need.

Women have a particular need for information about healthy lifestyles

Women, and in particular women coming from countries outside of Europe, might benefit from receiving more information about a healthy lifestyle as early as possible. This group tends to take less exercise than the rest of the population, and more of them are overweight and obese.

Immigrant men exercise for health as often as men with a Finnish background, but smoking is relatively common among men in different immigrant groups.

Discrimination and violence

Discrimination on the grounds of ethnic background and gender occurs in Finland, especially in the labour market. Women with a foreign background encounter labour market discrimination more often than men due to the gendered and ethnic segregation in the Finnish labour market. (Centre for Gender Equality Information data aggregate 2017.)

Women with a refugee background are at risk from particular threats and problems due to their gender, including gender-related persecution, discrimination and sexual violence. Women have a higher risk of becoming victims of rape than women in the core population. In immigrant groups as well as in other population groups, women are also more likely to be victims of domestic violence. In addition, women and children are exposed to honour violence, forced marriages, polygamy and genital mutilation. (Centre for Gender Equality Information data aggregate 2017.)

Crime is a gendered area of life when it comes to both committing offences and becoming a victim of crime, both among the core population and immigrants. According to data from 2014, a larger proportion of racist offences targets men (Tiherväinen 2015).