..and think who hasn´t not the right to have the language course! just because you come from an EU country!

Protectionism

Finns will only employ foreigners if the foreigner concerned has a unique set of skills that are not available within the local labour market. If a Finn goes up against an equally skilled foreigner the foreigner will not get the job. In all probability the foreigner won't even be interviewed!  
 
The type of course as described above is NOT designed to help you, the foreigner, gain employment; it's just an excuse. 
 
You are supposed to remain unemployed. It would not be right for you to steal a job from a Finn that also has the skill-set required to do the job in question. 
 
In Oulu the only employers that I know of that do not operate protectionist employment practices are: Nokia, Oulu Lyseon and various small businesses run by foreign entrepreneurs

protectionism is true

I think what Nigel said is true. Of course between a Finn and a foreigner the employer will choose a Finn even you are better educated than a Finn. But still they have to save their faces and put you in a course that´s give you everything and nothing at the same time. Actually as a foreigner of EU I feel really unprotected from government, unions and so on. I travel quite a lot because of my job - that by the way I FOUND... NOBODY HELPED ME TO MAKE CONTACT - and when I asked the day money (päiväraha) some of my employers said "is it ok if we give you half of it?" ....I mean would be ok for a Finn? and some of them without give me an explanation they just said to me NO even I am out of home about 10 hours...but because I am foreigners they feel to ask. I had to say yes cause if I wouldn´t accept I would lose my job. And also union and government it doesn´t protect those categories like my categories that have a contract only for certain periods of time. In my case for example if I don´t get enough students in my class I don´t get the course. In those two weeks or month when the students can inscribe to the courses the schools want that I give my word to them that I will there to work but they can´t promise me a certain amount of hour. I don´t have the right to be payed during holiday (like teachers in normal school they do I have to ask the unemployed money which the first week is my responsibility and it´s the 80 % of my salary and requests a thousands of paper work) I don´t get payed if I am sick.  
is this enough to say to you that we - foreigners - will be always OUTSIDERS?

protectionism is true

..but of course Finland has got also really good thing that probably we won´t have in our country...

protectionism is true

Language skills help with searching a job but are not a guarantee for anything. Even with fluent Finnish skills possible employers are often not very eager to take foreigners - either because of the accent, because of the foreign name or just because of the fact that we are "strangers". For most of them, it feels somehow safer to take local people - even though they might be less skilled.  
 
The answer of the työvoimatoimisto or other officials to this problem is usually more education. Be careful:  
You are put into one course after the other and can educate yourself until you are ready for pension... 
 
I think those courses are more a political issue than for helping unemployed people: It has to been shown that just something is done. If it is on the paper and a sufficient number of people have attended, then everything is ok.  
The content and if it really helps are different matters ..

not only an excuse...

I agree wholeheartedly with the above. I also found out, that most of these courses are only designed to "keep us busy" - a bit like those basket weaving classes for convalescents! The Finnish govmt pressures the employment offices to keep unemployed (Finnish or foreigners) people in these courses (one after another, after another) because that way their stats will show a low unemployment, and the rest as "students". 
When I was being offered dumb courses of which I had no interest in, and being pressured to "take something", I asked why I needed to be retrained when I have already worked in Oulu. I was told, "well maybe there is something else you have an interest in?" Almost in tears I responded that I am an excellent worker in my chosen profession, my Finnish employer was happy with me and I dont want to sit through more boring classes. After that the hint came through that I might lose benifits by refusing. So,Im now in another EU country..working part time...enjoying mild climate.

I have been proved wrong!

I read this article before we moved to Oulu a month ago and I thought it must be a bunch of unemployed people whinging because a job isn't being handed to them on a plate. Having arrived with sufficient means to support ourselves and as EU citizens, we are being told we don't have the right to reside here and therefore we cannot register for any of the normal things needed in daily life... including tax and work permits. 
 
I really love Finland. We moved here by choice, giving up well paid jobs at home and knowing that our equivalent jobs would pay less than half what we earned there. Our children are already in school here and we are actively seeking work.  
 
I wonder if self-employment is the only possible option open to us? If we start up a successful business, I hope we can employ some of you who deserve a break here.

New: 
 
Ask for the name of the person that told you have no right to reside in Finland. Then tell this person that they are breaking EU law. Then tell them you will bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights. Then watch the Finn panic (fun) and then backtrack.  
 
Stand up for yourself

Only good news here

Posts 7 and 8 have been adjusted to include the phrase 'I have been proved wrong!' I certainly did not write this phrase!

And remember

The teachers of this course are getting regular salaries and are like regular employees, yet their skill levels vary from fantastic to embarrassing. The clients of these finnish courses are silenced, and from my experience reminded that we are gtting money from KELA for this. But the really sad thing is all the people who are "Employed" teachers, secretaries, etc. to provide these often inadequite,ineffective, and abusive classes.

And remember

for those who are told that you have no right for this and that tell back that according to EU laws, you have the same rights as the Finns and they are breaking the law if they tell otherwise! I have been an expat in another country (Ireland) and I faced the same cr"*p as you face in Finland, so it's not just Finland that is very protectionist. At one point I had no income and went to the local job center and I was told I cant even get unemployment money because I have not lived in the country for 2 years nor worked there.. 2,5 years in Ireland and no job. Even with MSc degree! Does kansanopisto offer specialised courses? Would there be an idea to try to set one up?

And remember

Yes it reads quite clearly in the Finnish law when you are considered a "domiciled" resident of a county which gives you access to services. EU law has nothing to do with it - the law is same for everyone - you have to give into the system before you can expect to be taking out from it. As an EU citizen you are quite welcome to come over and search for work etc. but nowhere does it say we have to let you sponge off the welfare system. You are not "domiciled" here just by the virtue of showing up, or do you go on a tourist trip to Benidorm and expect the Spanis to give you a welfare check just because you are EU? You don't need a work permit, nor a tax number, you need to find a job not to be considered a tourist. Reading the law and understanding it is quite essential.

In response to Hank W.

I admire Finland in many ways, reaosn why I came here to rise my family here, that goes without saying. 
 
BUT- 
 
The "immigrants sponging off systems" discourse is not only offensive, it is also superfitial, very tiring and basically wrong. 
 
Don't forget that expats coming to Finland are human beings and that as such, they can't avoid needing shelter, food and services. 
 
Which means: 
 
We are leaving OUR money in the country by paying rents to Finnish based housing companies. We are cashing in "the system" by buying food and goods from Finnish stores. We are producing value by demanding services for which we pay, and whose demand creates employment in the country. 
 
Clothing, schooling, health products, cleaning products, energy, transport, infrastructure, tv, internet, telephone, advertisements... with our without Kela card, we are spounging IN the system by being living here, for that's how societies and economy work. 
 
Even if Kela paid benefits to that obscure immigrant-figure who comes "to sponge off the systems", he would still need to give all of it integrally back to the country by the above mentioned means, and, by handing the money back, even when that money came exclusively from the benefits, which by no means can be the case, just by keeping the money circulating, it would create value, an improvement of the services and a rise in employment to cover such demand.  
 
And Kela, let me add it, with the whole "immigrants who come to sponge off the system" discourses and suspiciousness, it is certainly not doing that; it is rather making quite difficult to get basic health care for expats and their families, and spreading very questionable morals and values into a society that used to shine for precisely the opposite reason. 
 
Ah, and now that you mentioned it, just for the general information, everyone is entitled to have by law access to health care in Benidorn, for the Spanish law considers that everyone, tourist or permament resident, legal or illegal immigrant, has the right to get sick, and it is expected from the humanity of the local health care system, to attend to them as humanly as possible.