Immigration reduces Finnish municipalities’ migration losses

Helsinki gains more inhabitants from abroad than through internal migration or from births

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Immigration is bound to even out the migration losses of Finnish municipalities and cities. Without immigration, the number of inhabitants in as many as 308 out of Finland’s 348 municipalities would have declined considerably, says political scientist, Dr. Timo Aro, whose doctoral thesis dealt with Finland’s internal migration and its impact on demographic developments in different areas.
     
Aro describes the present situation as a major historical turning point, which has not been discussed much in public.
      ”I find it somewhat paradoxical that immigration maintains population growth in Finland, as for more than a century the situation was the diametrical opposite, when Finns used to move away from Finland”, Aro notes.
     
According to statistics, more than a million Finns have moved abroad. ”Without emigration, the present number of inhabitants in Finland could be six to seven million”, Aro adds.
      Over the past 20 years, Finland has become a country that is gaining population growth primarily through immigration.
      At the beginning of the current millennium, the average net immigration was around 7,000 annually, while over the past few years the gain has doubled.
      Aro reports that the annual migration gain of the Greater Helsinki area alone is the equivalent of that of the population in Jokioinen [5,753], which is Finland’s median municipality in terms of population.
     
Over the period from 1980 to 2010, the population gain in Helsinki was 99,120. Out of this number, the proportion of natural population growth from births was 31 per cent and the gain from internal migration was 28.7 per cent, while immigration accounted for 39.8%.
      In statistics, immigration includes both foreigners entering Finland and Finns returning home after spending time abroad.
     
Among the 20 largest cities in Finland, eight lost population through internal migration and experienced a decline in natural population growth (the difference between birth and death rates), but were winners in immigration from abroad.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Survey: More than half want tighter immigration controls (31.3.2010)
  Foreign Minister Stubb defends immigration and multiculturalism (19.3.2010)
  Survey: Finns´ attitudes toward immigration have become more negative (15.3.2010)

See also:
  Immigration maintains urban population growth in Finland (21.5.2007)

Links:
  Demographics of Finland (Wikipedia)

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