Immigration to Finland fell markedly in 2025, as the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) reported a broad decline in applications for work, study and international protection after record levels in previous years. Migri said the drop reflects a weaker economy and labour market, while the government led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has also tightened several immigration and citizenship rules since taking office in 2023.
Work permits and student arrivals fell with the economy
Migri received around 180,000 immigration-related applications in 2025 and approved roughly four in five of them. The biggest category was residence permits, followed by decisions on asylum and temporary protection, largely for Ukrainians.
The agency said labour-related immigration fell by about a quarter compared to 2024, linking the decline to weaker economic growth, higher unemployment and lower demand for foreign labour. The largest number of work-based residence permit applications came from citizens of India, the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Thailand.
International student applications also slipped, with Migri reporting a small decline after several years of growth.
Asylum and temporary protection remained lower but volatile
Migri said the number of asylum applications continued to fall in 2025, despite multiple ongoing conflicts. At the same time, it noted that asylum flows can change quickly if political or security conditions shift in major countries of origin.
Applications for temporary protection — mainly linked to Russia’s war against Ukraine — remained broadly at the previous year’s level, according to Migri.
Citizenship applications dropped after tighter requirements
A sharper shift was visible in citizenship applications. After record-high levels in 2023–24, applications fell by roughly one third in 2025, totalling just over 11,200.
The fall followed changes to the Citizenship Act that started taking effect in 2024 and were expanded in 2025. The Orpo government increased the minimum residence period for citizenship from five to eight years and introduced additional restrictions as part of a wider package of stricter immigration rules.
Deportations rose as enforcement tightened
While applications declined, Migri reported a significant rise in removals. Deportation decisions for people holding residence permits increased by more than 40% compared to the previous year, while the number of people removed without residence permits also rose.
Migri linked the increase to legal changes, more systematic follow-up monitoring, and a higher number of deportation requests filed by police. Citizens of Russia, Iraq and Turkey received the most deportation decisions.
How Finland compares with Nordic neighbours and the EU
Finland’s drop fits into a wider Nordic and European pattern in which asylum applications have generally declined since the peak years of the early 2020s, even as governments tighten rules and step up returns.
In Sweden, the government has reported that asylum applications fell substantially in 2025, reaching the lowest level in decades, alongside a broader policy shift aimed at reducing asylum-based migration. Denmark has also recorded historically low asylum numbers in 2025, with applications running at under two thousand by late autumn.
At EU level, Eurostat data show that first-time asylum applications in the bloc fell year-on-year in 2025, even as monthly figures fluctuated. The overall trend has been a decline compared with 2024, with the highest absolute numbers concentrated in a handful of member states.
For Finland, the key question is whether the 2025 downturn represents a temporary cycle linked to the economy — or a longer-term shift driven by tighter rules and changing migration routes. Migri has warned that asylum trends can reverse quickly, suggesting that migration policy in the Nordics and the EU will remain politically sensitive through 2026.
