One in five Finns is unable to make up their minds when it comes to deciding whether the government should ease immigration rules, a recent survey has found.
The survey was conducted by Maaseudun Tulevaisuus and published Monday.
Among those surveyed, 36.4% said that the next government should ease immigration, while 42.3% are opposed to further relaxing immigration rules, and 21.3% were unable to make up their minds.
Increasing immigration gathered more support among older generations. Among retirees, 50% viewed increased migration as a positive phenomenon.
The survey’s findings also pointed to a divide based on party affiliation. Green voters, for instance, were most favourable towards immigration (72%), while 69% of the Finns Party supporters said they opposed it.
At the same time, Finland is losing young talent, with most emigrants being highly educated people aged 20-40 who find lucrative jobs abroad, research from Finland’s Migration Institute finds.
Increasing the number of immigrants is thus necessary, particularly to ensure Finland remains a vibrant country, the Consultancy for Regional Development (MDI) wrote in a study published in October.
Immigration will be one of the main topics in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will take place in less than three months.
Employment Minister Tuula Haatainen (SDP) has gone as far as calling increasing labour immigration a ‘matter of destiny’.
But Haatainen’s calls were quickly slashed on Monday, with the Industrial Union saying the Finnish labour market was not yet ready for a considerable rise in work-based immigration.
(Pekka Vänttinen | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
