The city of Riihimäki participates in THL's anti-racism accelerator

Riihimäki is becoming international at a fast pace. The increase in cultural diversity can also be seen in the city's basic services. This has brought the need to learn new ways of working.

The number of foreign citizens living in Riihimäki has increased from 2021 to 2023 by almost 350 people. In two years, there has been growth from 1 to 000 people. Growth has continued steadily during 1 as well. The growth has consisted of people who fled the war in Ukraine, international students of Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) and international experts. Especially in early childhood education and basic education, the number of children whose mother tongue is not Finnish has grown significantly in the last two years.

The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) is implementing a year-long acceleration process for 28 Finnish organizations on anti-racism. Riihimäki, who applied for the accelerated work, will receive targeted support with the other participants to strengthen the anti-racist approach.

Accelerator work starts at the end of November and will continue throughout next year. From the city of Riihimäki, employees from the field of culture and welfare and administration will participate in the accelerated workshop. The employees bring the lessons learned to the use of the organization more widely.

The city of Riihimäki sees internationalization as an opportunity to secure the city's vitality in the future. The city's population is growing only thanks to immigrants.

“Internationalization brings with it the needs of multicultural customers in the city's basic services. It is important to strengthen the way we meet them. From the city's perspective, this expertise is a significant holding factor. We need immigrants to build a solid foundation for our community. With high-quality service, we guarantee that immigrants will feel comfortable in Riihimäki,” says Integration Manager Juha Hiltunen.

You can follow the progress of the accelerator work on the channels of the integration services of the city of Riihimäki.

Immigrant services website
Integration services on Facebook
Integration services on Instagram