Utgivare & utgivningsdatum Statsradets kansli, 15.1.2018 In terms of economic migration, roughly four phases may be recognized in recent immigration discussion in Finland. At the first phase in the early 1990s, the immigration policy discussion was strongly social policy-based and focused on refugees and asylum seekers. More eco- nomic and innovation policy oriented tones emerged in the early 2000s when mainly the in- ternationalisation of Nokia brought up the question concerning the need to attract highly skilled professionals (e.g. Forsander et al., 2002; Raunio, 2005), but still not many govern- ment actions were taken. This may be considered the second phase. The third phase may be seen when actual Government migration policy programme (Ministry of Labour, 2006) and related Action plan on Labor migration (Ministry of the Interior, 2009) provided the official frames for the new Finnish policy approach with strong emphasis on labour migration. Nu- merous regionally oriented development projects (e.g. European Social Fund supported pro- jects) were conducted to implement the policy goals and to develop related services for labour migrants and their families. The latest phase may be seen in a current policy design that started after the global economic crisis when economy started to recover and start-up oriented ecosystems emerged. During this phase, students and labour-based immigrants were the main annual immigration groups. Until 2015, these economic migration flows were accompa- nied by the historically high influx of refugees from crisis zones. These developments provided a new context also for the Finnish economic immigration policy (e.g. Raunio, 2015). was strongly social policy-based and focused on refugees and asylum seekers. More eco- These changes in the competitive landscape globally have important effect on comparative advantage of Finland and companies locating in the country in future. While high level of education, knowhow and technological advances continue to be necessary elements of Fin- land’s competitiveness, it is becoming harder to gain differentiating edge in international com- petition through the traditional strengths of the country only. There is required enhanced ability to interconnect globally, sensitivity to local conditions in different market environments and flexibility to combine variety of inputs in innovation. Wider global pool of knowledge and talent opens new opportunities to diversify and strengthen innovation-driven economy in Finland — provided that we manage to attract and retain increasingly mobile talents across the world (Figure 2). The innovation economy is a relevant term in the context of immigration as the goal is to not only attract highly skilled labour or “talent”, but also foster the development of environments and ecosystems where these global knowledge holders are able to deploy and utilise their knowledge towards actual value creation. Figure 3. Recommendations for integrating international talent in Finnish business life and in innovation economy Figure 3 summarises the identified challenges, the proposed steps and structures nine rec- ommendations for action. Figure 4 summarises how Denmark sees its Growth Market Strategy that was launched in 2012. The growth market process starts with an intensification of the cooperation of Danish research and education with selected growth markets. Subsequently innovation centres were established in some of these selected countries and for each of these countries a fine-tuned strategy was developed. This intensified research cooperation will enable Danes to source knowledge and to enhance innovation activities of Danish and other companies. During the networking, talent can be attracted. From the very beginning, the ultimate goal of all activities are the marketing of products and services, more exports and FDI. The additional wealth generated through this long-term process can be reinvested in the Danish innovation system and society. Only if all stakeholders are activated talent policy can be successful International talent can greatly boost innovation activities and international growth of compa- nies since it brings diversity in companies that in turn affects performance (Momani & Stirk, 2017; Hunt & Gauthier-Loiselle, 2010). For instance, innovation platforms, ecosystems, net- works and professional communities in cities and regions play an important role in integrating the dormant international talent into the business life. The region and city-based actors, like regional development agencies, operate many of the incentives aimed at companies to utilise international talent. Table 2 summarises practices from selected countries that were seen important for their city regions. Table 2 offers examples of the most pronounced practices and it is not meant to be exhaustive of all available country initiatives. The same applies to all other review tables introduced in this section. international talent. Table 2 summarises practices from selected countries that were seen Table 3. Summary of good practices for innovation and entrepreneurship All of the reviewed countries have launched a start-up visa that attracts innovative entrepre- neurs into local ecosystems. The start-up visa scheme is a relatively new instrument; there- fore its success and defaults have not yet been systematically reviewed. Canada has the longest history of the reviewed countries, in where start-up visa, SUV as it is called in Canada, was launched in 2013 as pilot project that will end in 2018 (see more in Box 1). All the other countries have even less experience of the scheme. The Netherlands and Denmark intro- duced their start-up visa schemes only in 2015, Austria reformed its Red-White-Red card system to include start-up entrepreneurs in 2017, whereas Finland will launch its start-up visa during 2018. In the Netherlands, the start-up visa is called 'Residence permit for foreign start- up entrepreneur’ that follows a slightly different criteria than in other countries. It gives an neurs into local ecosystems. The start-up visa scheme is a relatively new instrument; there- One of the areas in which Finland, among many other countries, have room for improvement is to develop incentives for academia, as Vienna has made in its ‘Young Investigator’ initiative. Integration of university research infrastructures into local innovation ecosystems is important but in addition attractive career opportunities are needed in academia for the top international professionals.
