Immigration into Finland from other EU countries has been growing continuously.

Recently published statistics show that last year Finland experienced record immigration levels. According to the national statistics agency, 29,100 people immigrated to Finland from foreign countries during 2008, while 13,650 people emigrated from the country. The net gain of 15,450 is the highest since the end of the Second World War. The majority of immigrants have arrived from other European countries, mainly EU states. Sweden has the largest number of immigrants arriving here, with 3,715 last year, followed by Estonia and the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation has the largest total number of immigrants in Finland.

Regarding other continents, 2,258 people from Africa, 1,156 from North America, 5,384 from Asia, 303 from Oceania and 469 from South America last year moved to these shores. The largest numbers of people move here for work reasons. Finnish Immigration Service statistics show that residence permits were granted to 5,930 people last year on work-related grounds. Students and those moving for family reasons are also numerous. The Finnish Ministry of the Interior, which is the government department with overall responsibility for immigration affairs, specifically promotes immigration for work purposes, which coupled with the right of free movement in European states partly accounts for these figures.

Since 1997 immigration into Finland from other EU countries has been growing continuously, while emigration to EU countries has remained relatively stable. More recently, the high cost of living in Finland coupled with economic difficulties may be thought to have put the brakes on movement into Finland. Statistics Finland researcher Matti Saari suggest that the opposite is in fact true. “We had expected that the poor economic situation may have reduced the number of immigrants into the country, but in fact we were surprised looking at the latest figures that the trends appear to be continuing,” he said, pointing out that up to the end of May this year, 9,421 people had already moved to Finland in 2009. “The net gain looks to continue to increase at the moment,” he concludes, “but it may be that we still haven’t felt the full effects of economic recession or other contributory factors.”

Nick Barlow - HT