Helsinki’s vitality and growth is founded on the city’s ability to attract professionals, businesses and investment. Finland’s capital is strengthening its attraction and retention power in many ways so people and businesses moving here from abroad will commit to staying in Helsinki long-term.
The vitality of tomorrow’s Helsinki is being created today. This requires both anticipation and adaptation with regard to various societal changes. For some time now, internationalisation has in large part propelled economic growth in the capital. It will continue to do so far into the future.
Helsinki is investing in promoting the city's appeal and attracting employees from abroad, so that international companies, recruits and their families will feel at home in the capital and consider living here permanently.
The city is bolstering its attraction and retention factors by providing newcomers to Helsinki with a range of useful services and networks. These services take into consideration the needs of new arrivals to the country, the employers who recruit them and the operating conditions of businesses in a variety of ways.
An event titled Talent Boost Summit 2025 was arranged in late October to bring together decision-makers, employers and various experts. The goal was to brainstorm ideas on how to strengthen international know-how in businesses and encourage employees from abroad to put down roots in Finland.
Glenn Gassen, Helsinki’s Director of Migration Affairs, pointed out the importance of organisational and individual support for encouraging international employees to stay.
“If we want to attract the best talent in Finland, we must support the integration of international students, people who have moved here to work and their spouses. We want them to feel at home in Helsinki since day one. The children need access to daycare or schools. The spouses need networks and career counselling. We need to also build structures that support newcomers’ language acquisition at work places,” Gassen said.
The Summit compiled concrete measures to better match international employees with the demands of the Finnish labour market, an area where Helsinki has already actively developed several solutions.
Helsinki’s population is ageing, which means the city is going to need an influx of new employees in several market sectors in the coming years. Indeed, Helsinki has to attract international employees with the necessary know-how to ensure that it will be able to maintain a sustainable dependency ratio.
Helsinki has implemented several measures to boost the city’s appeal and improve labour force availability.
The city has promoted international recruitment by hiring 130 care professionals from abroad to work in sectors with labour shortages, and Helsinki was also the first city in Finland to launch an initiative to recruit early childhood education instructors from abroad.
Helsinki is cooperating with the state, Finland’s five other largest cities and the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce to enhance employers’ readiness to hire international employees and safeguard the future availability of employees with the necessary know-how.
The city is also supporting employers by making it easier for them to hire international students. Securing employment quickly encourages international students to commit to staying in the capital long-term, which benefits the city in many ways.
A lot of paperwork is involved with moving to a new country, and it often takes time for newcomers to settle in. The sooner international transplants can access useful services, the easier it will be for them to start building their new lives in their new municipality of residence.
In order to ensure that people settle into their new surroundings quickly, International House Helsinki (IHH) conveniently gathers all the relevant authorities and advisory services for international newcomers to the metropolitan area under one roof. New arrivals to the country can, for example, register their right of residence, if they are EU citizens, or apply for a Finnish personal identity code or tax card with just one visit to IHH.
“The planning of a move to Finland should ideally begin already while people are still in their home country. International House Helsinki offers a comprehensive selection of Pre-arrival Support Services that make our clients’ transition as smooth and easy as possible,” says IHH's Team Lead Juho-Tuomas Järvikangas.
Approximately 40 per cent of all people who have moved to Finland use IHH services each year.
The amount of support that the family of an international employee receives is a big factor in their collective decision to stay in Helsinki long-term. In terms of retention, it is essential that every member of the family can find friends and something meaningful to do. If one of the adults in the family cannot find work or doesn’t feel like they belong, the family is more likely to move elsewhere.
The City of Helsinki’s Spouse Program offers different kinds of events and shared activities that provide career guidance, networking opportunities and peer support to partners of people who have moved to the metropolitan area from abroad.
Established five years ago, the Spouse Program community has already grown to over 2,500 members. Two-thirds of the participants in the Spouse Program activities are women, the majority of whom have a degree in higher education and wish to continue their careers in Finland.
“Many newcomers arrive in Finland from countries with labour markets that are more open. The situation is quite different here, as there are many hidden jobs. You need to know the right people to become aware of these openings, and someone who has just moved to Finland hasn't yet had the opportunity to develop these kinds of relationships,” says Spouse Program Planner Dario Saki de la Lastra.
The career guidance offered by the Spouse Program has so far succeeded in securing work for over 200 international partners and spouses. Jobs make it easier for the whole family to put down roots in Helsinki and commit to staying.
Boosting Helsinki’s vitality and accelerating its growth requires that people and businesses in the city can develop new ideas, innovations and know-how and then also translate them successfully into practice.
The Startup Soft Landing service of the city's business advisory service Business Helsinki assists international growth companies to expand to the capital region. The service is intended for firms that already have sufficient funding and whose founders are prepared to move to Helsinki.
Startup Soft Landing assists growth companies to, for example, procure the necessary residence permits, network with local investors, and understand and adapt to the Finnish and European business environment. The service has already assisted over 30 companies to expand into Helsinki.
The aim is to strengthen Helsinki’s competitiveness by promoting the ability of metropolitan area businesses to offer innovations and solutions that serve international markets. This also strengthens Helsinki's profile as an effective and dynamic city for growth companies now and in the future.
