Multicultural Competency In Finland

In the last decade, the population in Finland has been gradually becoming diverse. A prediction made by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy (2015) states that Finland will have accumulated half a million foreign inhabitants by the year 2030.

According to the Official Statistics of Finland (OSF), in 2015 approximately 6% of Finland’s population were foreign-born, with different cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, and spoke in more than 31 foreign languages. (Population Structure 2014, Statistics Finland).

This change in population has required various personnel, such as nurses, social workers, and counselors, to obtain suitable qualifications in order to be able to assist this diverse population. These qualifications are especially

The American Counseling Association (ACA) has officially approved the multicultural competencies and has put much more emphasis on these competencies. Unlike the ACA, the American Psychological Association (APA), however, has only established non-obligating instructional rules for multicultural competencies (Ridley & Kleiner, 2003). Nonetheless, a noteworthy period of progress came forth with the publication of the “Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2003). Supporters of multiculturalism worked together to incorporate and combine multiculturalism into the field of psychology and specific for APA (Arredondo & Perez,

Multiculturalism as a whole has been compared and identified with diversity, which includes within it race, ethnicity, religion, language, class status, education, age, gender and sexual orientation, as well as other cultural aspects (APA, 2003). On a smaller scale, multiculturalism has been associated with majors cultural groups in the United States - Caucasian, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American (Arrendondo et al., 1996). There have been disagreements concerning whether the multicultural counseling competencies (MCC) should incorporate multiple aspects of identity such as gender, sexual orientation, age, etc., or whether race, ethnicity, and culture should be the focal point (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). Some researchers argue that if only the cultural factors are taken into account within the ethical code, the diversity factors are at risk of becoming abandoned (Weinrach & Thomas, 2002). Coleman (2004), however, claims that throughout history the cultural aspect within the field of psychology has been highly abandoned, and that in fact the competencies mainly assist to promote case conceptualization and