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the normal cultural services. These include developing
communications and supporting the services with
a low threshold. Everyone needs targeted services
sometimes.
The goal of the cultural sector integration
programme is to support the individual journey
of each immigrant in becoming an inhabitant of
Rovaniemi. Something that touches one person deeply
may have no effect on someone else. The programme
also pays attention to the different needs of different
age groups. The children’s culture, in particular, must
reach all children in Rovaniemi regardless of the
background or income level of their families.
The structure of the programme comes from the
idea of stages and turning points in putting down
roots in a new area. The cultural life must be present
at all stages, and a certain kind of allocation of
services can be particularly effective at each stage. The are foreign nationals. This is a bit less than in the
programme aims to identify these moments and offer
suggestions for actions. The programme also describes
background structures that must be in place for the
actions to succeed. The sub-headings are descriptions
of a successful future. The main text offers solutions
for reaching them. The reader can form an idea of the
goal state of the programme by skimming through the
headings.
Integration involves all of society
The Immigration Strategy for Lapland 2017 describes
the desired state for Lapland clearly: Lapland is
a region with many values and cultures, where
everyone has equal opportunities and prerequisites
for living and working. The Rovaniemi cultural sector
integration programme is in line with the goals of the
immigration strategy for Lapland and participates in
its implementation.
The direction of the activities of the City of
Rovaniemi is guided by the city strategy. When the
cultural sector integration programme was being
drawn up, the city strategy was being updated for
the years 2015–2018. In order to fulfil its strategic
objectives, the city has several programmes. Ensuring
integration is a cross-administrative issue, and in
order to realise this goal, Rovaniemi has drawn up an
integration programme for the years 2014–2020. The
integration programme is a statutory requirement for
the municipality, and it must also include culture. The
Kultti project had time to include some proposals for
actions into the general integration programme. The
rest of the proposals will be included in the updates
of the integration programme. The cultural sector
integration programme is a development programme
that is specific to the field.
An inspection board monitors the implementation
and effectiveness of the decisions made by the City
of Rovaniemi. In its assessment report for 2012, the
board suggests that the city should move away from
heavy and corrective services to lighter and more
preventive services. Promoting integration and
communality through cultural means is one answer to
the inspection board’s suggestion.
1.2. The starting
points are good
Immigration enriches the urban culture
Rovaniemi has over 60,000 inhabitants. 1,400 of them
whole of Finland on average, but it corresponds to
the situation in other cities of the same size. Annually,
over 300 people move to Rovaniemi from abroad. A
significant share of the increase in the city’s number
of inhabitants is due to immigration. All immigrants
have their own particular backgrounds and reasons
that have brought them into the Arctic Circle. The
largest groups of nationalities in Rovaniemi in 2011
were Russia, Iraq, Sweden and Myanmar. All in all,
there were citizens of 88 different countries living in
Rovaniemi.
Approximately one third of the immigrants in
Rovaniemi are refugees. In the 2000s, the city has
received 50–80 refugees per year. Most of them are
quota refugees. The reception centre for asylum
seekers operated by the Red Cross Finland has one
hundred places for customers in Rovaniemi. However,
the asylum seekers are not recorded in the statistics as
inhabitants of Rovaniemi.
There are approximately six hundred international
students studying annually in the higher education
institutions at Rovaniemi. They live in the city for
different periods of time. In addition, the higher
education institutions employ dozens of international
teachers and researchers every year. Many other fields
also bring foreign workers to Rovaniemi. In the region
of Lapland, foreign nationals have been employed
particularly in administration, the accommodation and
food business, health and social services, trade, and
industry.
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