The age structure of the municipalities' population and the decline in the birth rate will significantly weaken the availability of labor in the next few years. Population decline also weakens the conditions for organizing services. North Karelia needs immigration and immigrants from abroad settling in the region in order to promote the area's vigor and services. Second driver for the project is that the operating environment for organizing services will change significantly. The new law on promoting integration will enter into force from the beginning of 2025. The responsibility for organizing employment-promoting services will also be transferred to the municipalities from the beginning of 2025. This further significantly strengthens the role of municipalities in promoting integration and employment. In the future, the municipality's organizational responsibility includes, among other things, offering guidance and counseling to those who have moved from abroad, the obligation to organize multilingual social orientation in accordance with service and linguistic needs, the obligation to prepare a survey of service needs if necessary. The aim of the project is to promote the availability of labor by strengthening the provision of settlement services for workers moving from abroad and the settling of new municipal residents moving from abroad to the area. This is implemented by utilizing service design expertise, cooperation and joint development between municipalities, developing customer work and networks. The concrete goals are to develop a provincial model of settlement and integration services, to develop processes of settlement and integration services locally and provincially, and to strengthen local and regional cooperation, the operation of networks and customer participation As a result of the project, the municipalities participating in the project have functional service processes for the guidance of low-threshold immigrants, know-how for organizing and acquiring these services, and a regionally functioning network for strengthening the professional development and special know-how of those involved in integration.
