Request to the municipalities: Include new citizens in Finland’s centenary celebration
Joint press release from the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and the Finnish Immigration Service:
The Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and the Finnish Immigration Service have sent all Finnish municipalities a recommendation on how to celebrate new Finnish citizens in the municipalities in honour of Finland’s centenary celebration year.
Each municipality and sub-regional unit can organise a celebration of their own choosing for their new citizens. The celebration can be anything from an event with coffee service or a seminar to a game of pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) between old and new citizens, or another joint activity. Whatever feels appropriate to make the new citizens feel at home.
The most important factor is to meet the new citizens in accordance with Finland’s centenary celebration year theme ‘Together’: get to know the new citizens and make them visible on a local level, present who they are and discuss together what being Finnish means today.
The Finnish Immigration Service has ordered municipality-specific information from the Population Register Centre on all the municipalities’ inhabitants over the age of 18 who have been granted Finnish citizenship during 2016. The municipalities can ask the Finnish Immigration Service for this information without cost.
About 10,000 new citizens every year
According to the constitution of Finland, Finnish citizenship can be acquired based on birth and the nationality of the parents. In addition, citizenship can be granted by application or declaration. About 12,000 persons apply for citizenship every year and about 10,000 persons get a positive decision on their application. The largest groups naturalised during 2015 and 2016 were Russians, Somalians, Iraqis, Estonians and Afghans.
Some of the municipalities and sub-regional units (for example the Turku region) have for a long time already organised a yearly celebration for its naturalised inhabitants, in honour of their naturalisation. However, the majority of new citizens have until now not been celebrated in a similar way.
For example, in the United States becoming a citizen has always been a cause for celebration and in Sweden yearly citizenship celebrations have been mandatory in all municipalities since 2015.
Congratulatory letter sent to new citizens during the centenary celebration year
The Finnish Immigration Service will also send a personal congratulatory letter to every person who receives a positive decision on their citizenship application during 2017, in honour of their naturalisation.
Attachments (in Finnish):
- Recommendation for the municipalities
pdf, 102,1 kBfrom the Ministry of the Interior, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and the Finnish Immigration Service, 2 January 2017 - Greetingpdf, 14,1 kBfrom the Finnish Immigration Service to be attached to all positive citizenship decisions during 2017
Further information for the media:
- Finnish Immigration Service: Hanna Kautto, Head of Press and Communications Services, tel. +358 295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi
- Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities: Jari Seppälä, Senior Communications Specialist, tel. +358 9 771 2010 or +358 50 66743, firstname.lastname@kuntaliitto.fi
- Ministry of the Interior: Mika Mäkinen, Director of Press and Communications Services, tel. +358 295 488 230 or +358 50 555 3425, firstname.lastname@intermin.fi
