International workforce has been identified as a solution to companies’ labour shortages and to maintaining the well-being of societies in many Western countries. Yet, highly skilled internationals face difficulties to enter labour markets outside their country of origin. Despite their education, highly skilled internationals are in a precarious position in comparison to the native workforce due to various structural forces such host country regulations, cultural peculiarities and unfamiliar norms and rules of working life. In such an uncertain institutional landscape, start-up companies are seen to potentially offer a route to labour markets for many, since inclusivity, openness and internationality are perceived as the elements of a global start-up culture. A cultural narrative of these born global companies illustrates entrepreneurs and employees working there passionately towards a common cause, with low hierarchies and blurred boundaries. This draws a picture of a good match between the needs of international talents and the offerings of start-up companies. However, the narratives of a start-up culture are often based on studying Anglo-American start-up communities or the founder perspective, suggesting that it is important to test and broaden the view with the voice of international employees working for start-ups in a different national context.

The aim of the paper is to examine start-ups as a potential path for international talents’ to entering the labour market in a new host country. Accordingly, our research addresses the question of, what are the experiences of highly skilled internationals in working in start-ups in Finland?

The paper draws from the experiences of seven highly skilled internationals who have been working in different start-ups in Finland. The interviews were selected from an empirical material of 61 interviews conducted in the winter 2022-23. The thematic interviews followed a narrative life story approach, and the transcribed recordings were analysed abductively.

The paper contributes to two streams of research: migrant studies and cultural studies on start-ups. We challenge the one-dimensional image of an inclusive working culture in start-up companies and suggest that start-ups represent, if not a ‘heaven and hell’ for highly skilled internationals, at least a working environment with both positive and negative elements. Further, depending on the ability of international talents to exercise their agency, work experience in a start-up company can pave the way into the labour market or make the integration more difficult.

Lessons for policy include offering more recruitment and HR training for start-ups and the entrepreneurial ecosystems and posing strict legal sanctions for the exploitation of employees, as well as providing international talents with publicly available advice and counselling about varying norms and practices in the labour market, individuals’ duty to resist any injustice at work and their rights of receiving help in case of experiencing any abuse at work. The future policy development should better understand what the necessary conditions are for building inclusive workplaces and ecosystems in relation to attracting and retaining highly skilled internationals in the host country labour markets.