Growth in the number of employed people in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is largely based on workers with foreign backgrounds
More than one in five residents of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area have a foreign background. Immigrants are in an overall weaker position in the labour market compared to native residents. However, recent increases in the number of people with jobs are almost entirely based on people with a foreign background. In many occupational groups, the work of immigrants is invaluable. Finland-born young women with a foreign background are generally in a better position than the men of the same population group.
Immigrants and their children form a large, ever-growing part of the combined population of Espoo, Helsinki and Vantaa. At the end of 2022, 250,000 people of foreign origin lived in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, four-fifths of whom were born abroad. The share of immigrants who are of working age has grown to over one fourth. Vantaa has the largest share of residents with a foreign background at 25 per cent. In Espoo, 22% of the population has a foreign background, and in Helsinki, the share was 19%.
The Helsinki City Executive Office's new study, People with foreign backgrounds in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area(external link, opens in a new window): housing, employment and income 2022, discusses the integration of immigrants in Espoo, Helsinki and Vantaa and the life situations of Finland-born people with a foreign background.
The study contains information on employment, income levels and housing conditions. It is a continuation of previous studies by the Helsinki City Executive Office on the subject.