Beyond Talent Boost: Finland’s Next Talent Question Is Blue- and Grey-Collar, and India May Hold the Answers
By Swarnakshi Luhach
The discourse surrounding talent in Finland has typically focused on specialists, students, researchers, and start-up founders. While this perspective remains important, it is becoming increasingly insufficient in addressing the country's evolving needs.
A pressing question now pertains to the everyday economy and the workforce required as Finland’s population ages. Specifically, who will fulfil essential roles such as caring for the elderly, operating industrial processes, maintaining buildings, supporting logistics, staffing services, and ensuring the functionality of local systems?
This highlights the significance of blue- and grey-collar mobility. These are roles that bridge traditional manual labour and skilled technical or service work. Occupations such as practical nurses, care assistants, process operators, construction workers, logistics workers, maintenance workers, facility-support workers, and vocationally trained technicians fall into this category.
Unfortunately, these workers are often overlooked as "talent" in policy discussions. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role in maintaining Finland’s economic and social resilience, making their recognition and support vital for the future.
Finland’s Talent Woes
The data puts the challenge into perspective. Finland’s population stood at 5,652,881 at the end of 2025. People aged 65 or over made up 23.8% of the population, and the demographic dependency ratio was 61.6. These figures describe a critical gap in the country where the number of people needing care, services and public support is rising in relation to the working-age population. [1]
As per OECD, Finland’s fertility rate fell from 1.9 in 2010 to 1.3 in 2023. Over the same period, the native-born working-age population aged 20–64 fell by about 10%, while the foreign-born share of the working-age population rose from 6.2% to 13.6%. In other words, immigration is already part of Finland’s labour-force story.
At the same time, the short-term labour market is not universally open. Migri reported that first work-based residence permit applications fell to 11,324 in 2025, around 25% lower than in 2024. Migri linked this decline mainly to Finland’s weak economic development, uncertainty among employers and high unemployment. Yet India remained among the largest applicant groups for work-based residence permits, and Indian citizens were again the largest applicant group for specialist permits.
This creates the real policy tension of high unemployment and labour shortages at the same time. That means the answer cannot be a simple call for more migration, but rather the solution probably lies somewhere in designing a better system.
Talent Boost has moved into a different phase
Finland’s Talent Boost programme is still active for 2023–2027, and its stated priorities include improving Finland’s attractiveness, making residence permit processes easier and more effective, retaining foreign workers, and preventing work-based exploitation. The programme also explicitly recognises that Finland needs work-based immigration from outside the EU and EEA.
While this serves as a valuable foundation to build upon, the subsequent challenge is of a more practical nature. Simply attracting and recruiting individuals is not sufficient to ensure their retention within the organisation or successful integration into Finland.
For blue- and grey-collar mobility, the harder questions emerge after the initial expression of interest. Does the person’s training align with Finnish standards and certification requirements? Does the employer fully understand the financial cost and legal responsibility of onboarding and mentoring a new worker? Is the language requirement realistic, given the person’s starting level? Is acceptable, affordable housing actually available near places of work? Can the worker move safely and access alternatives if the first job fails or proves unsuitable? Are municipalities prepared and resourced to support social integration, services and local orientation?
These are not peripheral concerns, but rather determine whether work-based migration becomes a sustainable, stable pathway for individuals and communities, or remains a fragile, transactional arrangement that risks failure and harm.
The shortage signal is selective
Finland’s June 2025 national labour-shortage decree gives a more concrete picture of where the need is currently recognised. The list includes general practitioners, medical specialists, audiologists and speech therapists, process operators for processing of metals, nurses, dental hygienists, funeral service workers, practical nurses and firefighters.
This is important because it narrows the conversation. A blue-and grey-collar corridor between India and Finland should not begin with a general claim that Finland needs workers everywhere. It should begin where three things overlap: verified Finnish demand, Indian supply capacity, and a realistic pathway for standards, language and employer absorption.
On current evidence, healthcare and industrial process roles appear more corridor-relevant than many generic service roles. Care has strong demand but a difficult pathway because language, patient safety and professional recognition matter deeply. Industrial process work may offer a more practical first pilot because the role can be more employer-led, technical, safety-based and easier to standardise. [2]
A corridor is more than recruitment
The India-Finland blue- and grey-collar opportunity should be understood as a system, not a pipeline. A pipeline suggests movement from one point to another. A system requires preparation, safeguards, feedback and accountability.
A viable corridor would need at least six conditions:
If any of these are weak, the corridor becomes unstable.
This is why the first pilots should be small, targeted and evidence-driven. A Finland-facing India mobility model should begin with one or two occupations, a defined employer group, a specific Indian training node, a clear language plan, a worker-protection protocol and measurable retention targets.
What this means for Finland and India
For Finland, the relevant question is no longer whether foreign workers are needed. Instead, the focus should be on how international mobility can genuinely enhance the labour supply without causing social or labour-market issues.
In India, the concern is not about having enough workers but about how Indian workers can access global opportunities through trusted, ethical, and outcome-based pathways.
For both countries, the mobility of blue-collar and grey-collar workers might become a crucial test case for practical cooperation. This approach integrates labour market needs, vocational training, demographic pressures, migration governance, worker protection, and local integration.
The potential for a successful collaboration is significant, but so are the associated risks.
Therefore, developing a serious India-Finland skills corridor should be done gradually, transparently, and with the worker at the centre of the process. The most effective model will not necessarily be the one that moves the most people the fastest. Rather, it will be the model that employers trust, workers can afford, municipalities can support, and both countries can uphold publicly.
Author(s):
Swarnakshi Luhach, Principal
