Integration as agency: helping students forge their own paths in Finland

When starting the life in a new country, integration is often seen as the endpoint of learning a language or securing a job. However, what if integration would be seen less as fitting into pre-defined boxes and more about creating your own path and comfortable sense of agency?

Providing students with pathways to integrate

Integration can be defined as learning to read the culture’s basic text and making it one’s own (Faz 1996). However, it isn’t about hitting a checklist — learning the language, paying taxes, or securing full-time work. Instead, it is about navigating one’s way through a complex landscape, empowered to make choices based on individual needs, aspirations, and circumstances (Ager & Strang 2008). At the core of a students integration is agency—the ability to shape your own path rather than being shaped by external pressures (Samman & Santos 2009). This shift from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more flexible, person-centered process acknowledges that everyone’s journey is unique.

While learning Finnish or Swedish can open doors at both the municipal and national levels, it is just one piece of the puzzle. Understanding how systems work, from healthcare to social services, is just as important. And equally important is knowing how to navigate life outside of these formal structures — how to stay connected, find community, and do what you love. Take winter, for example. For many, the long, dark months can feel isolating, but this is also where agency comes into play. From finding creative ways to stay connected to learning how to access local services for mental well-being, students can craft their own ways of coping.

Within Haaga-Helia integration is both an individual and multi-directional process. One must understand that integration exists on numerous levels: cultural, linguistic, financial, etc. Our approach to designing services and content related to student integration is to provide students with pathways to integrate into Finnish society. This could be for example better understanding how to navigate colder months from a cultural and social perspective or how to better prepare to integrate into Finnish work life through the Employment in Finland Moodle-course.

Welcome to Finland orientation sessions

Arriving in a new country presents a number of challenges, which can wary from linguistic, cultural and procedural, and potential barriers to finding one’s integration pathway. It is apparent that international students encounter high levels of personal stress and isolation related to essential as well as higher level physiological and psychological needs, particularly in their first term of study (Arthur 2017).

To provide students with the toolkit to navigate their own integration path Haaga-Helia organises orientation sessions for international degree student that are designed to cover both practical, cultural, social and employment related steps of the integration process. Our orientation sessions for international degree students, Welcome to Finland, take place at the start of both the Autumn and Spring semesters. They are held on four of Haaga-Helia’s campuses, along with online sessions for students who are unable to obtain a residence permit prior to the start of the semester. The event is organised as a collaborative effort between Haaga-Helia’s international services and career services. In each session, we provide a mix of the required integration steps such as local registrations and procedures, along with local practicalities, networking opportunities, well-being support and an introduction to employment in Finland. Our aim is to give students the information to complete the administrative integration steps and provide them with tools to start their own integration journey.

Processes, procedures and networks for agency

Once a student enters Finland from another country, there is a number of necessary steps to complete for agency in daily life. From the required local registrations to opening a bank account, these steps must be completed in specific order. It is key that students get trustworthy and truthful information from both public authority services, The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri), the Digital and Population Data Service Agency (DVV), The Finnish Tax Administration (Vero), and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela). The information in our Welcome to Finland sessions comes directly from the public authority services. While the required public authority fulfills some of the legal integration obligations, having access to a Finnish phone number, local bank account, and strong identity credentials is what truly gives a new international degree student agency in starting life in Finland. Understanding the proper processes and procedures to take these steps, gives students the ability to have agency in their own integration journey once they start their studies.

In addition to providing students with the necessary information from the beginning of their studies, we include a networking component in the Welcome to Finland session. Its aim is to provide students with a first social connection in a new country of residence. A core aspect of having a sense of belonging in one’s new home is having a strong social network, something international degree students may need to rebuild once moving to Finland.

Finally, each Welcome to Finland session contains an introduction to both Haaga-Helia’s employment and student wellbeing services. By introducing these free student-centric services to the students, they understand that Haaga-Helia is here to support them. Employment is one challenge through which the integration process can accelerate, however, finding work in a new country requires adapting one’s skills to a new market.

Finding social integration pathways

The long, frigid and dark winters can be obstacles for all who live in Finland. Whether one has lived in Kajaani their entire life or has recently relocated to Helsinki from Dhaka, it presents challenges for all. Providing resources for our international degree students to find their own social integration pathways is the goal of the Winter in Finland event. The event is co-organised with the City of Helsinki at their Pasila Library branch. Together with student unions Helga and IDS-Helga, Haaga-Helia’s student wellbeing services and international services inform students about how to navigate difficulties they may face during winter.

The role of a municipality in one’s social and cultural life can vary from country to country. In Finland municipal services are open to residents and provide newcomers with a plethora of social and cultural options. Municipal services allow students to find pathways for social connection and entertainment. The introduction of HELMET, the Helsinki capital region library system, expands beyond books, movies and magazines but includes the possibility to rent objects, rooms, and creative spaces. Whether a student wants to rent a music studio to record or a gaming system to connect with new friends, the HELMET system allows them to do so for free.

At the event, Haaga-Helia’s wellbeing services introduce their services. Free access to mental health services is a right for students in Finland and this may be new for some students. Additionally, a panel discussion featuring other international haagahelians provides students with information and support. These real-life experiences provide students with directions how to take their own integration path. Our speakers represent individuals with diverse interests, both cultural and social, showcasing to students that they can tackle the multi-directional nature of discovering an individual integration path.

Agility in developing services that enhance agency

The Welcome to Finland sessions were held at the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year. Early sessions only had 20 students, and by Autumn 2024 the event had expanded to four campuses and online sessions, which welcomed 164 international degree students. The event’s relevance has grown internally in Haaga-Helia and amongst the incoming students. These events’ feedback resulted in positive qualitative responses, such as ‘I now feel more comfortable in Finland’.

To further develop the Welcome to Finland and Winter in Finland concepts, we aim to involve more municipal representatives in the event to better connect students to their services through personal connections. By better understanding both the needs of our international degree students and remaining agile in developing our services, we can continue to provide their agency in navigating their lives in Finland.

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