1. Immigration in
Finland
Maija-Leena Kemppi
Salpaus Further Education
Adult Education and Working Life Services

2. Immigration to Finland
O Today, people’s main motives for moving to
Finland are study, work and family. Despite
the fact that immigration to Finland on it’s
current scale is a relatively recent phenomen,
foreigners make up a significant proportion of
the population in some parts of Finland – for
instance in the Greater Helsinki Area.
O Immigration to Finland started to decline on
2009 and the trend continued in 2010. (2008
immigration 29114) A total of 25650 people
moved to Finland in 2010.

3. Foreigners in Finland
O The largest number of foreigners moving
to Finland are Russians. Finnish
citizenship is most often applied for by the
people from outside the EU, but among
the ten largest groups of applicants there
is one EU-country – Estonia.
O The number of asylum seekers continued
to decline globally. In 2010, a total of 4018
people sought asylum in Finland, (drop of
33 %).

4. Some facts
O Foreign nationals account for 3 % of the
population. Most of the people who were
born abroad were born in Europe (65 %).
Foreing-language speakers make up 4 %
of the population.
O At the end of 2010 with dual nationality
54,912.

5. Population By Citizenship, Native Language And Country
Of Birth
TOTAL POPULATION IN 2009 /2010 5,351,427
CITIZENSHIP
Finnish citizens 5,195,722
Foreign nationals 155,705 /2011 = 183,055
NATIVE LANGUAGE
LARGEST GROUPS BY CITIZENSHIP Finnish 4,852,209
Russian 28,210/28,425 Swedish 290,392
Estonian 25,510/29,080 Sámi 1,789
Swedish 8,506/8,510
Somali 5,570/6,593 LARGEST GROUPS BY FOREIGN
Chinese 5,180/ LANGUAGE
Thai 4,497/5,021 Russian 51,683
Iraqi 3,978/5,024 Estonian 25,096
Turk 3,809/3,973 English 12,063
German 3,628 Somali 11,681
UK 3,333 Arabic 9,682
Indian 3,168/3,468 Kurdish 7,135
China /5,559 Chinese 7,078
Iranian 2,495/ Albanian 6,736
US 2,378/ Other languages 207,037
Source: Statistics Finland

7. A new trend in migration –
mobility
O New trend wordlwide – mobility
O Nowadays many people want to move to
a second or third country, some go back
and forth between certain countries while
others move to their parents’ country of
origin.
O Researchers call these modern-day
emigrants transnationals. Some of them
apply for citizenship of another country
because it makes travelling easier.

8. General principles guiding immigration policy of
the Ministry of Education
 Fostering good relation between different ethnic groups
- two-way integration, measures targeted towards the original
population
 Taking into account the needs of immigrants within the
functioning of regular services and systems
- special targeted measures (special treatment, allocations)
only as secondary options
 Promoting the right of immigrants to their own language and
culture
 Equal treatment of immigrants regardless of the reasons for
immigration
 Efficient coordination of measures
 Taking into account experiences of other countries

9. Guidelines in the field of
education and research
 Sufficient availability of Finnish/Swedish language teaching in all
levels of education
 Studies concerning multicultural issues for all teachers. More
study places for teachers with immigrant background
 Further development of recognition of knowledge (ECVET 2014)
 -> VALIDATION OF PRIOR LEARNING
 Efficient guidance and counselling services  immediate
availability, focus on periods of transition (from one education
level to the next)
 Strengthening of education on internationalism and tolerance
 Promotion of mobility (students, teachers, researchers)

10. Adult education
 Vocational basic or supplementary education
 Upper secondary education
 Liberal education (folk high schools, summer universities)
 General language examination system  a prerequisite for
citizenship (64 providers of which 23 are folk high schools)
 Education of illiterate adults  cooperation between the Ministry
of Education and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy
 Training of teachers: an ESF-funded common model shared by 5
universities and 2 polytechnics

11. Adult education – targets (1)
 To strengthen language teaching of immigrants
 To develop the language examination system
 To integrate language teaching into vocational, higher adult
education and on-the-job training
 To strengthen guidance and counselling services, and increase
targeted services for immigrants having a higher education
background

12. Adult education – targets (2)
 To increase training for teachers with immigrant background or
teachers working with immigrants
 Transfers of administrative resources from the Min. of
Employment and the Economy to the Min. of Education which
concern teaching of illiterate adults
 More resources for upper secondary education institutes
 Changes in the legislation and funding of liberal adult education

13. More about immigration in
Finland
O http://docreader.readspeaker.com/docread
er/?cid=brzou&lang=en_uk&url=www.migr
i.fi%2fdownload%2f16939_maahanmuuto
n_vuosikatsaus_eng_netti_1_.pdf