The cross-sectional interview data on immigrant economic adaptation in Finland

The qualitative interview data were gathered during 2016–2017 in Finland in order to investigate the connection between the labour market position of immigrants and their well-being and livelihood as well as the significance of economic adaptation to their overall acculturation to the new society. The data were collected under the Occupational Restructuring Challenges Competencies research project funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland (project number 303536). A total of 41 immigrants (aged 19–64) from various educational backgrounds were interviewed. The data include interviews with five groups based on their country of origin or the reason behind their migration. The groups are immigrants from Western countries, immigrants from the area of the former Soviet Union, immigrants from Eastern Europe, and immigrants with refugee backgrounds who, at the time of the study, had lived in Finland for a longer period. The fifth group consists of well-educated Iraqis who had migrated to Finland recently as asylum seekers and were granted asylum or subsidiary protection in Finland. Although the representatives of these five groups had resided in Finland for different lengths of time, they all had gained at least some experience of labour market integration in Finland. The interviewees were recruited from various events targeted at immigrants, with the help of immigrant-oriented foundations and personal contacts, as well as by using the snowball sampling technique. The data were collected by conducting semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The structure of the interviews somewhat varied according to the labour market status (employed, inadequately employed or unemployed) of the interviewees. The data describe, e.g., the participants' experiences of their psychological, socio-psychological, socio-cultural and economic adaptation in Finland, particularly how challenges in finding work and other employment related difficulties faced in Finland had affected their acculturation process. Moreover, the data describe their ways of making ends meet in Finland, their need for financial assistance and attitude towards take-up of social benefits, as well as their experiences of welfare traps