Personae are fictional, conceptual designs of targeted user groups that help to clarify what people’s life is like, their behaviour, their needs, their expectations, and their goals. Personae enable the developers of a service or an activity to identify with the target-group users, to communicate effectively with them, and to constantly remember to integrate consideration for user needs into the service they are providing.
Latifa originally came from Morocco but lived in Belgium for a long time. She is studying Dutch to obtain employment and needs some guidance.
Fadumo is originally from Somalia and has lived in Finland for 20 years. She has six children. She wants to take part in adult education and find a job in a hospital or day care.
Mohammed arrived in Finland five years ago as an asylum-seeker. He has work experience from Iraq as a small-business owner but hasn’t had a job in Finland yet.
Ali fled Afghanistan as a 16-year-old and came to Sweden without his family. He attended senior high school, and now he wants a job.
Natalia moved to Finland from Russia five years ago. She was a comprehensive-school teacher in Russia, and now she works as a school assistant. She dreams about working as a teacher again.
Immigration in Belgium, Finland, and Sweden
What characterises Belgium, Finland, and Sweden as countries of immigration? Who provides integration services for immigrants in each country? Where do the immigrants come from, and why?
Belgium has a long history of immigration, which began before the First World War. The Belgian government organised several recruitment campaigns to attract foreign workers for the country’s growing coal industry.
In Finland, immigration has increased steadily since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Finland becoming a member state of the EU in the 1990s.
Since the Second World War, Sweden has been a popular destination country for immigration. Family reunification has for several years been the most common reason for migration to Sweden.