Finnish Immigration Service in 2014: Over 20,000 residence permits, 8,500 people acquired citizenship
The Finnish Immigration Service issued a first residence permit to 20,371 foreign nationals in 2014.*
“In the light of the data, the situation with immigration seems to be stable at the moment,” said Jaana Vuorio, Director General of the Finnish Immigration Service. However, the number of asylum seekers has continued to grow in the EU, and even in Finland, the number of asylum seekers increased by 13% last year.
“The highest number of permits was issued to persons who applied for a residence permit on the basis of family ties (6,774), for studies (5,611) or for working (5,062),” summarised Senior Adviser Rafael Bärlund, who is responsible for the statistical summary.
The second highest number of residence permits was issued to persons who sought asylum in Finland. In total, 1,346 persons received international protection under Finnish legislation. They came mainly from Iraq, Somalia and Russia.
Finland increased its refugee quota in 2014 and admitted 1,030 quota refugees from Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.
The total number of returnees, i.e. mainly ethnic Finns (Ingrian Finns) and former Finnish citizens as well as descendants of Finnish citizens by birth, was 276.
In 2014, 8,499 persons acquired Finnish citizenship. The clear majority of them were Russians (2,343).
A detailed overview will be published in March
The data is included in the Finnish Immigration Service’s statistical summary 2014. “We will examine the statistical material and publish a more detailed statistical overview of immigration in March,” Bärlund said.
Unlike in previous years, the statistics on immigration from 2014 were published at the same time. The figures from 2014 were retrieved from the electronic system as soon as it was possible at the beginning of January.
*The police also issue first residence permits to family members of Finnish citizens. These figures are not included in the Finnish Immigration Service’s statistics. EU citizens and their family members are not included in the figure. The police register EU citizens’ right of residence and issue family members of EU citizens with a residence card.
Further information:
Director General Jaana Vuorio
Senior Adviser Rafael Bärlund
Head of Section Pauliina Helminen (immigration statistics)
Head of Section Riitta Koskela (asylum statistics)
Head of Section Kristiina Simonen (citizenship statistics)
Senior Adviser Visa Knape (reception statistics)
E-mail addresses: firstname.lastname@migri.fi
Telephone: +358 295 430 431
ATTACHMENT: Statistical graphs
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