Multicultural communities as well as multicultural student population are pertinent phenomena of moving people in the globalized world. Citizens are not just objects controlled by market forces and migration policies but they themselves are impacting on immigration processes as active participants. Transformation of multicultural communities is a profound and long-ranging process that in certain periods of time is changing societies and shaping people’s social environment. Migration and people’s mobility have increased manifold in the last ten years, for example Finland and Portugal becoming new immigration countries. In 2009 in Finland the number of other than Finnish/Swedish-speaking students in basic education has increased nearly 10 percent and in vocational schools 23 percent when compared to the situation three years earlier. For the past decade, Finnish cities have become increasingly multicultural and multilingual. In old and new receiving countries, immigrants suffer disadvantages in the labour market especially at the beginning of their working career. In Europe, the group at highest risk consists of young first generation immigrants coming outside the European Union. Their risks are related to school achievement, entrance to and completion of secondary education, and employment. Immigrants’ disadvantage seems to follow a similar pattern among the second generation as to those of the first generation, despite of higher educational attainment and better language skills. The unequal situation between immigrants and local population could be explained by migrants’ lack of human capital as well as prejudice and discrimination against them. During my presentation, I will discuss some problems of the European multicultural workforce based on previous studies, introduce my tentative research results found in the Finnish workforce and vocational education, and elaborate the concept of recognition as a resource of studying immigrant workers. Here recognition refers to the reactions of the multi-ethnic society to immigrants’ existence and competence. Schools play a central role in students’ life and are expected to open equal opportunities for education and for the labour market as well as to promote their welfare and active citizenship. At vocational schools, students encounter in a new way the predominant values and norms of the society and its workforce.