Browsing by Author "Luukkonen, Venla Vanamo"

The subject of this Master's thesis is the changes in education policy, such as the recent marketization and privatization of education. I explore these extensive structural changes in education at micro level by analyzing the impact of the privatization of immigrant integration training for both employees and students. Based on the data, I try to interpret the practices of integration training from the employees’ point of view. In addition, I consider what kind of subject positions are available for immigrants in the prevailing situation, where the aim is to integrate immigrants into Finnish society through integration policy measures, but where the main goal of education policy is to harness newcomers to the economy as resources. The research data consist of interviews of two teachers and two students and observing the immigration training during a week in a private company in southern Finland. In addition, I interviewed a training manager in another company. The methodological approach of the study is discursive. In recent years, the integration of immigrants has faced strong privatization, which, according to my material, has far-reaching consequences for the lives of both employees and students. The tendering procedure made the training fragmented and weakened teachers' working conditions and resources. Students felt the training useful but, for example, Finnish language teaching had to be improved in order to support the learning of the students' language and terminology in their own field and hence quicken access to vocational studies and work after integration training. The difficulty and lack of recognition of qualifications were also low. Based on the data, the presence of economically motivated speech in education was noticeable, whereby subject positions were conditional to the requirements of cost-effectiveness and marketization. In a market-oriented society, integration practices are at risk of isolating newcomers from society rather than supporting their integration. When designing and developing integration training practices, these should be taken into account in order for immigrants to have the opportunity to be an equal part of Finnish society.