According to official statistics released Wednesday, a record number of Russians moved to neighboring Finland in 2022, the highest in three decades.
According to Statistics Finland, 6,003 persons moved from Russia to Finland last year, making it the top nation of origin for immigration.
Overall, immigration to Finland increased, with about 50,000 people moving to the country, compared to an average of 29,000 to 36,000 in recent years.
Since the early 1990s, the annual migration from Russia to Finland has been less than 3,100 individuals.
“You can see that Russia has many push factors at the moment, which of course have to do with the war in Ukraine”, Johannes Hirvela, Director of Development at the Finnish Immigration Service, told AFP.
“Many Russians have arrived as asylum seekers,” he added, noting that at same time many were arriving for “work reasons.”
“Finnish employers have also left Russia, and some of them have wanted their Russian employees to work in Finland,” Hirvela added.
Russia was followed by Sweden, Estonia and the Philippines as the main countries of origin.
