However, there are major differences between Ukrainians' and Thais' work routines. While Ukrainians prefer to work on farms, Thais fancy collecting wild berries. Another contrast involves wages, as Ukrainians in the strawberry fields make double the wages of Thais in the forest, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this year has seen a sharp drop in the number of Thais willing to take a long trip to Northern Europe to work in challenging conditions for uncertain rewards. Additionally, the Thai government specifically issued a warning to potential pickers that they might actually get swindled in Finland, in addition to experiencing poor working conditions and chilly summer weather, the Finnish daily Savon Sanomat reported.
Några timmar i blåbärsskogen med barnen och vänner var riktigt fint 🌲#blåbär #sommar #ljuvligating pic.twitter.com/E3b3WW8xmg
— Magdalena Anderås (@magdalenanderas) July 26, 2017
According to Olli Sorainen, a senior official at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, this was the first time that potential berry pickers have been warned by Thai officials.
"There is some grain of truth in some of the claims, but I believe they were expressed in an unnecessarily colorful manner," Olli Sorainen told Savon Sanomat.
The pickers' status as entrepreneurs, however, saves the berry firms a lot of money, as the cost of social insurance and pension payments would make many firms unviable, Arctic International CEO Janne Naapanki argued. If guaranteed an hourly wage, pickers might get lazy, spending time in the forests rather than picking berries, he contested.
Interior Ministry official Harri Sivula said that nothing is being done to improve the lot of forest-based pickers.
"Thais come here voluntarily," Harri Sivula told Yle. "There's no political pressure to resolve the issue. This is not a big problem in society," he added.
The influx of Ukrainians may be considered as a token of the country's ailing economy. Following the 2014 Maidan coup, Ukraine has amassed more IMF debt than Greece and is struggling to reduce this financial burden by implementing hyper-austerity, which involves drastic cuts in public spending. At present, the unemployment rate in the country hovers at around 10 percent amid a struggling economy and galloping inflation.