Record numbers of Russians, by far the highest in three decades, moved to neighboring Finland in 2022, official statistics published Wednesday showed.
A total of 6,003 people moved from Russia to Finland last year, according to Statistics Finland, making it the top country of origin for immigration.
Immigration to Finland was up overall, with almost 50,000 people moving to the country, compared to an average of between 29,000 and 36,000 in recent years.
Since the early 1990s, yearly migration from Russia to Finland has remained below 3,100 people.
“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 the 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, India, Estonia and the Philippines as the main countries of origin.
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