Immigration to Finland

Number of Allophones, i.e. residents with another native language than Finnish, Swedish or Sami, in Finland, 1980–2011, according to Statistics Finland.[1]
Population pyramid segmented by background. Finnish background in colour, foreign background in grey.

Immigration to Finland is the process by which people migrate to Finland to reside in the country. Some, but not all, become Finnish citizens. 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.

As of 2021, there are 469,633 foreigners residing in Finland, which corresponds to around 8.5% of the population. 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.[2] It was estimated in 2016 that by 2050, there will be 1–1.2 million foreigners in Finland.[3]

  1. ^ Rapo, Markus. "Statistikcentralen -". Stat.fi. Archived from the original on 2017-12-25. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  2. ^ "HS.fi". Archived from the original on 2010-10-21. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
  3. ^ "Varissuo on maahanmuuton mallioppilas". Turun Sanomat. March 24, 2016. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 9, 2019.