Introduction
During a recent work trip to the Finnish countryside, I had the opportunity to support my colleagues in delivering training on risks of labour exploitation. While much of our work traditionally focuses on employers, authorities, and other professional audiences, this visit also included sessions with migrant workers.
Over the course of four small-group sessions, I spoke with more than 50 people. My discussions with migrant workers were not about their current employment, but about their broader experiences across different employers and types of work in Finland, including seasonal work.
What emerged from these conversations confirmed patterns we at HEUNI have been documenting for years, combined with important nuance that only appears when people are given space to speak more openly.
Short summary
- Rights on paper only become real when people know about them, trust them, and feel safe enough to use them (knowledge + trust + safety = access to rights);
- Support services exist in Finland; the support system for workers is quite strong and diverse, but the system can be difficult to navigate in practice;
- It’s encouraging that major buyers are increasingly recognising labour rights and forced labour risks in Finnish supply chains and using due diligence to take concrete action.
Awareness is already high, and rooted in lived experience
One of the strongest impressions was how aware participants already are of labour exploitation and trafficking in human beings in Finland. This awareness comes from two main sources: increased media attention, and personal or close-network experience. Many participants spoke about having experienced or witnessed various exploitative practices during their time in Finland.
Several participants had lived in Finland for over a decade. They understand how the labour market operates. They are not unfamiliar with Finnish systems, nor are they “newcomers” in need of basic orientation. Their experiences span multiple sectors and employers, including seasonal work.
The part of the training that introduces basic concepts and indicators of exploitation did not function as a simple knowledge transfer but created a shared language for experiences people already recognised. This shared language allows people to talk about harmful practices without immediately having to label themselves as victims or to frame their experiences in legal terms.
People asked concrete questions about everyday situations, shared examples, and reflected together on where boundaries should lie between acceptable and unacceptable practices.
Dialogue builds trust, and trust is a prerequisite for seeking help.
Creating safer spaces, even for an hour in the middle of the work week, for open conversation also means being transparent about motives and principles (whether as an employer or an external trainer) so that everyone shares an understanding of what they are working towards.
A recurring theme was finding clear, well-structured and reliable information
Most participants rely heavily on word of mouth. Information travels through friends, co-workers, family members, and community, as well as social networks long before it outreaching to official websites. While this informal circulation can be powerful, it also means that information may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect.
Access to help is not only about services existing. It is about people being able to find them easily, understand what they do, and trust that approaching them will not make their situation worse.
The support landscape in Finland, including authorities, NGOs, trade unions, helplines, and specialised services is quite wide at least in comparison to other EU countries. Seeing everything laid out in one place would be appreciated. Seeking help but contacting the “wrong” organisation and being redirected multiple times can lead to exhaustion and, in some cases, disengagement.
Fear shapes choices
At a policy level, participants expressed strong concerns about recent restrictions related to residence permits and citizenship.
Many described a simple but diificuly reality: fear of losing one’s job, and by extension one’s right to stay in Finland, keeps people in abusive or exploitative situations longer than they want to remain.
Another fear relates to visibility. In tight-knit workplaces and communities, contacting authorities or even NGOs may raise suspicion with employers. For some workers, this risk feels too high, even when conditions are clearly harmful. These fears shape everyday decisions and risk calculations.
Several participants mentioned a strong culture of not “snitching” and of staying loyal to the work collective. Reporting wrongdoing can feel like betraying colleagues rather than protecting oneself. This social dynamic is rarely visible in policy documents, yet it plays a major role in shaping behaviour.
When we discussed recent developments from Finnish Immigration Service regarding residence permit connected to exploitation, many participants were hearing about these possibilities for the first time.
As political will to tackle this issue has risen also at the state level at some point, reforms have been made but their existence is still not widely known. One example is the Certificate of expanded right to work in 2022 which marked an important improvement making it possible to stop working for the employer who has neglected their obligations or exploited you and to allow you to take a new job without needing to apply for a new residence permit.
Why working with communities is essential
From a communications and information perspective, when information primarily circulates through communities, those communities must be central partners in prevention. This means working directly with migrant groups, listening to how information flows in practice, and co-creating materials that are clear, practical, and available in relevant languages. It also means recognising the knowledge that already exists within these communities, rather than assuming a blank slate. When prevention efforts build on trusted networks instead of bypassing them, information travels further, misunderstandings are reduced, and support becomes more accessible in real-life situations.