A record number of Russians, by far the highest in three decades, have settled in neighboring Finland in 2022, according to official statistics released on Wednesday (May 24th).
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A total of 6003,50 people left Russia for Finland last year, according to Statistics Finland, making it the top source country for immigration. Immigration to Finland has increased overall, with nearly 000,29 people settling in the country, compared to an average of 000,36 to 000,<> in recent years.
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Since the early 1990s, annual migration from Russia to Finland has remained below 3100 people. "You can see that Russia has many push factors at the moment, of course related to the war in Ukraine," Johannes Hirvela, director of development at the Finnish Immigration Service, told AFP. "Many Russians arrived as asylum seekers," he added, many 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 is followed by Sweden, India, Estonia and the Philippines as the main countries of origin.