It is notoriously difficult for the ‘other half’ of Oulu’s expat technology-workers to find a job and some have to persist for years and years before finding any kind of work or setting up a business. So Hungarian Gabor Valter deserves some kind of expat award. The former school teacher – who has just begun to learn Finnish – has managed to get a job as a cleaner after just three months in the city.

Originally from Budapest, though living most recently in Glasgow, Gabor came to Oulu six months ago with his Scottish wife who wanted to do a five year Masters in International Education at Oulu University.

Photo by Isabela Ion

As a foreigner, his wife was funding herself and, with a little a girl to support as well, Gabor really felt he needed to get work. He was amazed by how different job hunting was from Scotland.

‘Informal’

‘Looking for jobs here is very different. It’s far more informal,’ he told me. ‘In Scotland every job in the country is at the Job Centre and that’s that. Here’s it’s about talking to people and getting to know people. Some jobs aren’t even advertised!’

Though he’s way over-qualified for the work, Gabor is a cleaner at the Onela nightclub. At first, he tried to get work in teaching but to no avail.

‘I came here in July and tried to get a job in education but all of the positions had gone or they said that they preferred native English-speakers,’ he recalled. Gabor has certainly led a very off-the-wall life and another issue is the fact that his teaching qualification is from something of an avant-garde college that – though recognised in Scotland where has been a Primary School teacher – is not recognised in Finland.

Gabor spent six weeks intensively learning as much Finnish as he could and applying for cleaning jobs in Finnish to a particular service company called ISS. He would frequently go to the company’s reception in person looking for jobs until, ‘the receptionist kind of got to know me!’ He applied to a certain job and after a while they got back to him with a completely different job and asked, ‘Could you do this?’

‘And I’m told that this makes me some kind of record-breaker!’ Gabor added. He had, in fact, come straight from work to do the interview with me.

Cleaning in Onela appears to be another stage in Gabor’s fairly fascinating life. He describes his main hobby as ‘settling-down and then moving on. I don’t need anything else! It’s all consuming! I think my family are used to it by now!’

Cultural Nomad

Gabor left Hungary at the age of twenty – nine years ago – and moved to Denmark with the intention of going on a course to do work in Africa. He ended-up enrolling on a course at a Danish teacher’s training college.

‘It was an interesting programme. It’s not actually recognised in all countries though. I think people think that it’s some kind of cult!’ he joked. ‘They have interesting methods of teaching . . . doing things rather than old-fashioned learning.’

As part of his teacher training course, therefore, Gabor went ‘to Mozambique for five months.’ He also travelled round Asia for four months. But they didn’t travel in an entirely conventional way.

‘We drove from Denmark,’ he said matter-of-factly, ‘through Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal.’

Gabor met his wife while working in Denmark and they moved to Glasgow – Scotland’s largest city – in 2003. Gabor, with a hint of a Scottish accent, tells me about how he worked as a Primary School teacher in Drumchapel and Easterhouse . . . some of the roughest and most notorious areas of the city.

But Gabor had got used to life in Scotland and when asked what he missed about ‘home’ its Scotland he immediately thinks of.

‘Chips and Curry’

He misses ‘Chips and curry! In fact my wife’s parents have sent us over some curry powder!’ He misses ‘deep friend Mars Bar’ (another Scottish ‘delicacy’) as well, ‘though you have to be careful about how many of those you have or it’s a straight road to heart disease!’

He also misses the ‘rush’ of cycling around Glasgow. ‘You’re taking your life in your own hands’ he smiles, ‘it’s a bit like parachute jumping . . . but in Oulu it’s so safe.’

In some ways, Gabor also found that it was easier to be a foreigner in Glasgow. He could still get a teaching job despite his English ‘not being that great’ when he arrived there, there was ‘far less paperwork’ involved in trying to get work and he found people to be more welcoming. ‘I’ve been in Oulu six months and I still don’t know my neighbours!’ he observed.

Go in Person

However, Gabor has been ‘quite impressed’ by some of the work that the city has done to help immigrants.

‘There are quite a few projects set up to help immigrants integrate and considering the size of the city that’s quite impressive. I can’t complain.’

Though he suggests that the City of Oulu could work with companies more to encourage and help them to take on well-qualified immigrants. It would also be better if there were more Finnish language courses and that they were better advertised. At the moment he is on a twice-weekly course but it is difficult because he can’t practice Finnish with his wife.

For the future, Gabor aims to learn Finnish and, if they stay, eventually do a Masters Degree in Education himself.

But Gabor certainly has some advice for foreigners with no work and – as a record breaker – he may be worth listening to.

‘Try everything in English and if that doesn’t work write in Finnish. Go for low-paid simple jobs and if possible go in person because it’s so easy to discard an email especially if it’s written in English.’ He adds, ‘if you go in person you will find a way to communicate and they may be bowled over by your confidence and persistence. That’s what got me a job!’

Gabor is not sure, though, how long he’ll stay but this is certainly another culture he can tick off his list as he continues his hobby of being a ‘cultural nomad.’

Edward Dutton