Integration of Non-Estonian Speaking Unemployed People into the Labour Market

The projects “Reduction of the Unemployment Risk of Non-Estonian Speaking Young People in Ida-Virumaa, Tallinn and Harjumaa through Estonian Language Training, Professional Retraining and In-service Training” and “In-Service and Language Training for the Non-Estonian Speaking Unemployed” implemented by the Integration Foundation try to include unemployed people of multiple risks (based on language, age, location) into the labour market, thereby creating the preconditions and opportunities for better integration of these people into Estonian society as a whole.

The reason why both these projects were launched is the fact that the situation of Estonians and non-Estonians in the labour market is very different – unemployment among non-Estonians is considerably higher than among Estonians. There are many reasons for this.

One of the reasons is the non-Estonians mainly live in North-eastern Estonia, which is the region with the highest unemployment in the country and where the share of non-Estonians is 80%, and groups of them also live in other regions (e.g. Loksa, Paldiski, Rummu and other settlements in Harjumaa). High regional employment has been caused by the restructuring of the economy in the past decades. Even though unemployment in the said regions has decreased within the last couple of years, in Ida-Virumaa it is still almost twice as high as in other regions of Estonia (except for Southern Estonia) and it also continues to be high in the aforementioned regions of Harjumaa. For example, as of the 3rd quarter of 2006, 8.5% of non-Estonians and 3.9% of Estonians among working age population in Ida-Virumaa had registered as unemployed (the average in Estonia is 5.4%). The rate of unemployment among young people, who are also one of the risk groups, is also more than twice as high as the average in Estonia. Statistics show that the rate of unemployment according to nationality and place of residence is very different. Our projects are trying to reduce these differences.

Another important reason of unemployment is the bad knowledge of the state language that prevents non-Estonians from finding jobs in their home regions and elsewhere in Estonia.

Since most unemployed non-Estonians live in Ida-Virumaa and Harjumaa, we have included the Tallinn and Harjumaa and the Ida-Virumaa Departments of the Labour Market Board, the Kohtla-Järve Town Government and Narva Town Government in the project as partners.