Immigration to Finland
Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of Finland.
The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behaviour.
Numerous polls in 2010 indicated that the majority of the Finnish people want to limit immigration to the country in order to preserve its regional and native cultural diversity.
[3] Under Swedish control, soldiers, priests and officers from Sweden started to arrive in Finland.
Many big modern-day companies in Finland were started by these emigrants, including Finlayson, Fazer, Fiskars, Stockmann, Sinebrychoff, Stora Enso and Paulig.
The largest groups were from Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and Denmark.
[5] The first refugee wave to Finland after the wars happened when the 1973 Chilean coup d'état started.
[11] The second, and much larger refugee wave happened when Vietnamese boat people came to Finland in the 1980s.
On 13 September 2015, it was reported that the local authorities had estimated the flow of 300 asylum seekers per day entering via the northern land border from Sweden into Tornio, which is the main route of migration flow into Finland.
In mid-October the number of asylum seekers entering Finland during 2015 reached 27,000, which is, in relation to the country's size, the fourth-largest in Europe.
[16] In late November, the number passed 30,000, nearly ten-fold increase compared to the previous year.
[19] In late October, The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) changed its guidelines about areas in Iraq which are recognised as safe by the Finnish authorities,[20] putting Iraqi asylum seekers under closer scrutiny.
[21] The Interior Minister Petteri Orpo estimated that two in three of recent asylum seekers come to Finland in hopes of higher standard of living.
In November, the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry stated that approximately 60–65% of the recent applications for asylum will be denied.
[22] Other refugee groups have arrived from Eritrea, Lebanon, DR Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Georgia and Pakistan.
[28] In November of 2023, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced the closure of all but the northernmost border crossing with Russia, amid a sudden increase in asylum seekers seeking to enter Finland via Russia.
Finland accused Russia of deliberately using refugees as weapons as part of its hybrid warfare following worsening relations between the two countries.
Frontex subsequently announced that the EU would assist Finland in securing its eastern border.
The most spoken immigrant languages are Russian (87,600), Estonian (50,200), Arabic (36,500), English (25,600), Somali (23,700), Persian (16,400) and Kurdish (16,000).
[59] Finland had the fourth highest naturalisation rate (proportionally to population of non-national residents) in the EU in 2020.
In the case of asylum seekers the reach positive effect to the economy takes longer, from three to seven years.
In Finland, asylum seekers face many restrictions on working that slows down their possibilities to contribute to the economy.
[68] In 2016, illegal drugs like Rivotril were beginning to be sold in Helsinki Railway Square, Itäkeskus and Kallio by foreigners from Central Europe.
[70] Even though less than 5% of the Finnish population consists of foreign citizens, they account for 25% of reported sex crimes.
[71] According to official statistics from 2005, 27% of all rapes in Finland were committed by foreigners, even though they only comprised 2.2% of the population back then.
[75] According to a study done by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in 2017, 60% of Sub-Saharan African immigrants in Finland had experienced discrimination in the past five years.
[76] 24.1% of Finnish women with a foreign-background and 32.4% of men had experienced physical or psychological abuse over the previous year in 2018.
[13] In a 2015 online survey by YLE, Finns were most accepting of German, Swedish, Estonian, British and US American immigrants.
In the same survey Iran, Iraq and Romania were the least accepted countries of origin of foreign immigrants.
[79] According to Eurostat 59.9 million people lived in the European Union in 2023 who were born outside their resident country.
