Politicians have recently expressed interest in scoring work-based immigrants, inspired by Canada’s points-based Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

Two of the four government parties have proposed adopting such a system. The idea was floated in August by the Swedish People’s Party, and last week, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) said the idea was worth considering. MP Mauri Peltokangas from the Finns Party told Yle earlier this week that he supports the concept, suggesting it should cover all forms of immigration, including asylum seekers.

However, officials have not yet discussed any details. What would scoring employment-based immigrants mean, and how could Finland go about it?

The starting point should be what problem the points system is intended to solve, says Katri Niskanen, chief specialist on work-based migration at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

The points system is an interesting option, she told the Finnish news agency STT.

In addition to Canada, various points systems are used around the world, for example, by Britain, Australia, Austria and Germany.

The scoring system assesses how well a potential immigrant would succeed in the job market. Points may be awarded based on language skills, education, work experience or ties to the country, for example. Such points are usually not the only way to enter a country, and they are not used in these countries for humanitarian immigration.

Salary requirements could be adjusted instead

According to Niskanen, points can be a tool for any kind of immigration policy. If a country wants to promote employment-related immigration, high points can provide additional benefits compared to other entry routes.

Points could also be used to limit labour-related immigration. However, Niskanen says that there are easier tools to do so, such as salary requirements that can be raised or lowered if necessary.

The Swedish People’s Party has proposed a parallel system of points to promote work-related immigration. Its chair, Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz, has envisioned that points would allow people to come to the country to apply for a job. Currently, as a general rule, people from outside the EU cannot come to Finland just to apply for a job, but must have one already lined up.

Orpo has also spoken about points in connection with work-related immigration. The so-called Canadian model was also proposed last year by Nasima Razmyar, deputy chair of the main opposition party, the SDP.

The chair of the Finns Party, Finance Minister Riikka Purra, said on Wednesday that she does not consider a Canadian-style scoring model to be useful.

“Absolutely not, as such. Of course, it would be good to do it in a basic Finnish way,” she told STT. The agency reports that the Orpo government is not preparing to impose a scoring system during the less than two years remaining in its term.

Niskanen points out that countries like Canada, Britain and Australia are different from Finland. They are major destination countries for work and education-related immigration, where commonly spoken languages, well-known cultures and expectations of easy integration are attractive.

“In these countries, scoring is typically aimed at identifying those individuals who will be most useful in the local labour market from a potentially large pool of applicants,” she notes.

Finland is a small labour market with an unfamiliar language. Niskanen, Finland’s problem is not an excess of good applicants wanting to move here.

Here, she suggests, the incentive should be some kind of reward, such as a permanent residence permit or the opportunity to come to the country to look for work. Niskanen says that such ideas have emerged in preliminary discussions.

Assessment would shift from employers to state

There are also question marks about who would actually award points and on what basis. According to Niskanen, it can be challenging for authorities to assess a person’s qualifications.

“As authorities, we should be able to justify why this person received 100 points for their work experience and this person received 70 points,” she says. “Of course, that can’t be some arbitrary consideration on a case-by-case basis.”

There would also be a major change in the immigration system, where permit processes have already been accelerated through automatic checking of requirements, for instance.

At the moment, when an applicant needs to have a job lined up, assessment of their qualifications is mainly up to employers.

According to Niskanen, officials must consider what added value there would be in having the state carry out such assessments. The state would also be taking a kind of risk.

“For it to be worthwhile for us to take people into the country without a ready-made job, there would have to be a fairly high degree of certainty that these people will actually be employed,” she says.

Otherwise, Niskanen said the system would be counterproductive and newcomers would become frustrated. In her view, landing jobs would also require companies to be more willing to recruit foreign workers.