Care workers who arrived in Finland from abroad take fewer amounts of sick leave than their native-born counterparts, according to the results of a recent study.
Research by the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health examined sickness absences among healthcare workers over the course of three years.
During that period, around one third of care workers who were born in Finland were absent from their jobs due to illness for a period of more than 10 days at least once.
At the same time, about one-in-five care workers who immigrated from Africa, Asia and Latin America had taken the same amount of sick leave. The study further found that the lowest ratio of care workers' sick leave was seen among staff who immigrated from outside the EU.
The researchers said they found the results surprising due to the stressful nature of healthcare work in general, and that care sector workers from abroad are often in the toughest jobs.
"We know that on average, care workers and other healthcare employees who were born abroad more often work in tasks that are exceptionally stressful, even by industry standards," Antero Olakivi, a lecturer from the University of Helsinki, said in a press release.
"One would expect that this [situation] would increase the risk and amount of absences due to illness," he continued.
The study examined workers who were employed in home- and round-the-clock elderly care services as well as other jobs in the healthcare sector. Nurses were not included in the study, however.
Some reasons suggested
The researchers also found some reasons to explain the findings. It is possible, they surmised, that foreign-born care workers are not fully utilising their right to be absent from work due to illness.
Previous research has shown that people in insecure employment arrangements who work in stressful jobs with few substitutes for absences increase their risk of working while they're sick.
"This risk can be accentuated in situations of care workers who were born abroad. They include employees whose residence permits depend on fulfilling employment conditions," Ari Väänänen, research professor at the Institute of Occupational Health, said in the release.
According to the researchers, it's also possible that care workers who were born abroad are healthier than those born in Finland.
Such observations have been made about employees working in other fields who moved to Finland, according to Anne Kouvonen, professor of social policy at the University of Helsinki.
"On average, they are healthier than those born in Finland. The same probably applies to care workers," she said.
The study based its research on data from the Social Insurance Institution Kela and Statistics Finland. The study examined data concerning more that 78,000 employees in the healthcare sector.
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