A recent analysis by Datahuone / Data Room, an independent unit under VATT Institute for Economic Research, and Think Africa has examined the development of immigration, immigrants’ full-time employment, and their participation in paid work since 2000. The analysis extended Datahuone’s earlier analysis (in Finnish) to explore the realities based on country of origin, categorised into regions, as well as provide an interactive and easily accessible dashboard (available here) of the data. Understanding the regional perspectives is beneficial for decision makers to understand the differences in immigrant labor market participation and where more support or services are needed.
A large proportion of new immigrants coming from Asia and Eastern Europe
The number of new immigrants has been increasing over the 20 years, with a majority increase over the last 2 years from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (increasing from about 10K in 2022 to 27K in 2023). This considerable increase is largely due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Second growth is observed from South Asia, and the least from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The number of new immigrants from Western Europe, North America and Oceania is fairly stable with small variations. Looking at the Middle East and North Africa we see that in 2016 there was a spike in immigration from 2700 to 8000, but since then it has been declining. The spike could have been due to a number of conflicts that were happening around the region leading to the Mediterranean refugee crisis, for instance the Libyan, Yemeni, and Syrian civil wars and the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) [Sources: 1 & 2]
More working-aged individuals are coming to Finland in comparison to 10 years ago, and are finding employment within a shorter time of arrival
Naturally the majority of immigrants to Finland are working aged individuals as that is the population group that is most able to move. We examined the development of full-time employment among immigrants in the seven years following their immigration between 2000 and 2021. According to the results, employment has been improving after entry across all the regions. In comparing those who arrived in the earlier years 2000-2004 versus the latter years of 2021, we see that the situation is particularly better among those from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (18% in 2000-2004 versus 60% in 2021). The lowest change is observed among those from the East African region where the employment rate among those who came in the period 2000-2004 is roughly similar to the employment rate to those who have come recently (from 26% to 28%).
As researcher Max Toikka hypothesised, “The reason for the favourable employment development may be, for example, that the immigrant profile has become more work-based or has a higher employment potential than before, or that the demand for migrant employees has increased.”
However, the cyclical situation affects the level of employment. For example, after the financial crisis, employment development was weaker than before. Employment of those who arrived during the crisis was particularly weak. The initial employment level and its development during the first years in Finland have been better in recent years compared to earlier.
Overall, employment of immigrants has increased in the 2000s, but not at the same rate for all immigrant groups
The employment rate of people with foreign backgrounds has grown by around 15 percentage points between 2000 and 2022. Although the employment rate is lowest among those from East Africa and Middle East and North Africa, the rates have been improving over the years. We see the highest employment rates among those from Western Europe, North America and Oceania across all the years.
Credits:
A collaborative effort between Datahuone and Think Africa ry, with Datahuone’s researcher Max Toikka performing the data analysis. The following data analysts conducted further analysis and build of the dashboard: Kwabena Asante, Komal Azram, Thacienne Uwimanayantumye, and Anna Vinogradova. Supported by Aderemi Fayoyiwa and project lead, Myriam Munezero. For any inquiries or suggestions, contanct: info@thinkafrica.fi
Data source:
Aggregated data from Statistics Finland available here: https://bit.ly/3YA75ff. Aggregated numbers have been calculated using Statistics Finland’s individual-level research datasets (datasets named FOLK Migration, FOLK Basic data, TAX_INCOMES) and population data provided by Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
Definitions:
Year of migration is the first year in which a migrant moved to Finland. The Migrant’s origin country is defined based on the nationality at the time of the first arrival. If nationality is not available, country of birth is used. The countries were grouped into the regions as shown in the below image.
Employment share is the number of employed working-aged individuals relative to the total number of working-aged individuals at the end of the observation year.
Share of wage earners is the number of working-aged individuals that received wage income during the observation month relative to the total number of working-aged individuals.
Country to Region Grouping:
