Finland's future gov't to promote work-related immigration

Finland's incoming government will promote labor-based immigration, said Center Party chairman and would-be prime minister Juha Sipila on Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the three new ruling parties -- the Center Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party -- discussed immigration policies during the government formation talks on Wednesday.

Sipila said at a press conference held after the discussions that the future government would try to promote work-related immigration in order to enhance employment and economic growth in Finland, as well as to tackle the severe challenge posed by an aging population, according to Sipila.

Earlier, during his recent election campaign, Sipila raised proposals to make work-based migration more liberal. He even maintained that Finnish employers should relax their Finnish-language requirement and accept English in the workplace.

However, the parties outlined that immigration must be "controlled," saying they aimed to keep the number of quota refugees at the same level as in recent years, said Sipila.

A paper on immigration policies published by the Finnish government on Wednesday said the new cabinet intended to adopt tuition fees for university students from outside the European Union or European Economic Area.

The paper also said Finland was encouraging graduates to work in Finland by extending a tax deduction policy to them. Endit