Study title

Language Skills of Immigrant Clients of Finnish Public Employment and Business Services 2018

Dataset ID Number

FSD3540

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3540
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3540

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Jopasin, Esther Nzungwa (University of Jyväskylä)

Abstract

The survey charted the views of employees of Finnish Public Employment and Business Services (TE Services) on the significance of immigrants' language skills from the viewpoint of job seeking and customer service. The survey focused on the immigrants' Finnish and Swedish language skills.

First, the respondents were asked about their usual work tasks (e.g. whether they provided services personally, on the phone, online etc. and how often), how often they served immigrant clients and what languages they used with immigrant clients. Several statements on immigrants and customer service were presented next, for example, whether the respondents thought it would be more efficient if immigrant clients' services were provided by someone who speaks their language, whether they changed the way they spoke when serving immigrant clients, and whether they thought the work experience or educational degrees the immigrant clients had gained abroad could be trusted. The survey also included imaginary customer service situations where immigrant clients were served, and the respondents were asked whether they agreed with the conclusions described in these situations. Finally, the respondents were asked to evaluate the language skills of immigrant clients based on their experiences and to compare the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) proficiency levels (A1-C2) to the skill levels in the YKI test (National Certificate of Language Proficiency).

Background variables included when the respondent had filled out the survey (date), as well as the respondent's gender, age group, level of education, job title, mother tongue, and region where the respondent's workplace was located.

Keywords

employment; employment services; immigrants; labour market; language skills; minority groups; prejudice; trust

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Minorities (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Equality, inequality and social exclusion (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Language and linguistics (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Jopasin, Esther Nzungwa (University of Jyväskylä)

Time Period Covered

2018

Collection Dates

2018-01-01 – 2018-05-31

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Employees of TE Services in Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

A link to the online Webropol survey was sent to all TE Services employees by email. The link was also shared through TE Services' intranet (TAIMI) and the social media service Yammer.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

81 variables and 330 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of individuals, variables k7 denoting the respondent's mother tongue and k6 denoting the respondent's job title were categorised at FSD.

The archived data do not contain the responses to open-ended questions.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Jopasin, Esther Nzungwa (University of Jyväskylä): Language Skills of Immigrant Clients of Finnish Public Employment and Business Services 2018 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2023-05-10). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3540

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.