Portuguese Tiago Ferreira loves sarcasm and engaging in deep conversation. That is why he likes life in Finland.

What do you do here in Finland?

I study tourism and work part-time in a bar. In my spare time, I do a bit of photographing.

When and how did you end up here?

Beautiful women and oil are the things that most foreigners associate with Venezuela. However, there is even more about the Venezuelan character, which is symbolised by the colours of the flag. Yellow, which represents the sunshine we have during the whole year and which we try to display anywhere we are; blue, which represents the paradisiacal beaches, and red, the passion for life. And why not? We will need more than eights stars to represent the 18 crowns that beautiful Venezuelan women have brought from different beauty pageants.

Public administration produces scores of data, but most of it tends to stay closed in the archives. Now more and more of this information is being opened to the public, who are finding new, innovative ways of harnessing the data.

Swiss Travis Finneran moved to Finland in 2010. Like many immigrants, love is the reason he came, and also his reason to stay.

What do you do here in Finland?

I’m a sushi chef at sushibar+wine. I help design the menus and do research on developing new plates. My fiancé and I are also starting up a dog training school, Home School Dog Training, for rehabilitation of dogs that need special care, as well as basic training. Our school is a bit different because we don’t just train the dogs, we also help dog owners to understand their pets better. The bond between a person and their dog is crucial. Later on we hope to do rescue training as well.

Finland is not the first place that many Indonesians here have moved to, with some coming directly from countries such as Argentina. Once they have arrived in Finland, they insist however on maintaining a sense of Indonesian community. Today, the 350-400 Indonesians that now live in Finland gather regularly, as some move between cities such as Helsinki and Turku on business matters, while others spend their time in Jyväskylä for educational purposes.