The type of support asylum seekers and quota refugees, with residence permits, need on initial phase of integration - what authorities and volunteers report.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide more information about the type of support asylum seekers and quota refugees need at the first phase of integration into Finnish society. The research further explains ways to promote operating models of integration and how networking between authorities and volunteers can improve the initial integration phase. This thesis was commissioned by Finnish Red Cross Starttivoimaa project. The Starttivoimaa project was a 3-year long project from 2016-2018, supported by AMIF (Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund).

The thesis was developed by investigative research and data analysis. Data was collected by questionnaire. The respondents consisted of 22 people; 7 were authorities from social services and 15 were Red Cross volunteers. The author of the survey met the respondents at Red Cross Starttivoimaa projects in four dif-ferent cities. Survey questions pertained to the Starttivoimaa project, Daily Help-services, the type of support asylum seekers and quota refugees with res-idence permits need on initial phase of integration, networking between au-thorities and volunteers and developing ideas about integration work.

Results indicated the 5 most common needs of the refugees upon initial integration were: daily help support, support with practicalities and customs of the land and new language instruction, support network, mental wellbeing and support with their cultural identity. Workshops were found to be a crucial part of the integration process. Workshops strengthened the immigrants networking abilities and provided help and resources to prevent them from becoming an outcast. Regular meetings were found to improve the cooperation between authorities and the volunteers and sped up the integration process. Individuality and participation should be a priority in the development of the integration plan. Additionally, utilising previously integrated immigrants to help support new immigrants was found to be important. Respondents recommended en-hancing and simplifying the process at the initial “integration point”. Immigrants indicated they would like an increase of information on local events and more opportunities to gather together with other immigrants.