Bloom Town Hall Analysis
Bloom Town Hall was held last week on Thursday, June 10th. It was organised to facilitate a meeting with the representatives of the City of Tampere and individuals with an international background. The City's residents were given a word to share their positive and negative perspectives about their life in Tampere, in order to improve services and content meant for the international audience.
Bloom ry, in collaboration with the City of Tampere, developed a survey that resulted in 51 responses from our community. The questions were as follows:
How do you think Tampere has (or has not) succeeded in promoting diversity and inclusion?
What kind of actions should Tampere take to become a more diverse and international city?
What are the most efficient ways to promote multiculturalism in Tampere?
What are the greatest challenges internationals face when starting a life in Tampere? How could the city help to overcome them?
What are Tampere’s greatest strengths in attracting people from abroad? Do foreigners know about Tampere and where/how do they get the information?
This year, the City renews its strategy: what message would you like to send to the people writing the strategy? What are the most important things that Tampere should try to improve?
According to the responses, Tampere is doing a good job in promoting diversity and inclusion of international talents, as well as supporting associations like Hidden Gems, International House Tampere, JCI United, Bloom and many others. On the other hand, retention in the form of professional opportunities and cultural content is what seems to bother most of the survey respondents, which seems to be counterintuitive, since the university in Tampere seems to be the biggest expat talent attraction.
Most internationals seem to struggle with isolation from Finnish work culture and learning the language due to lack of suitable language courses. The issue that concerns many is the long wait for visa approval which does a big number on the mental health of the same people who can get very little support because of unfinished procedures. There are many factors that seem to slow down integration in our beloved City like poor integration programmes, lack of cultural events and heavy stigma of who internationals are.
Luckily, Tampere´s international community keeps standing strong and fighting for its place. Lakes and forests right behind the corner, a peaceful life and safety are just some of things to keep praising. According to the survey, Tampere has much more potential than presented and advertised which we hope will significantly improve after such a successful Town Hall.
Written by Katarina Jurisic, Edited by Kelly Keodara
