In 2004 there were about 108 0000 immigrants in Finland – including EU citizens – compared to mere 26 000 in 1990 according to Statistics Finland. Russians are by far the largest number of immigrants in Finland. It is now estimated that immigrants make up seven per cent of the population of the Helsinki Metropolitan area.

Ninety-one of known immigrant journalists were listed in the catalogue of the Finnish Journalist Federation in 2007 (SJL), all of them freelancers.

A recent survey of immigrant freelance journalists conducted for SJL indicated none of them survives on journalism alone. They are engaged in multiple jobs such as teachers, translators and other none core journalistic activities in order to make a living. As freelancers they are not covered by job-related health insurance and cannot obtain unemployment benefits when out of a job, because Finnish law categorises freelance journalists as entrepreneurs.

According to the PISA Programme for International Assessment, the total number of newspapers circulated in Finland in 2005 was 200 with a total circulation of 3 173 160. When magazines are included the circulation figure comes up to 15.3 million.

Facts and Figures:

• As at 2008 there were 218 626 foreign-born nationals living in Finland
• 190 538 who spoke neither Finnish, Swedish nor Saami as a mother tongue.
• 143 256 non-EU citizens
• The biggest group of non-EU citizens in Finland are Russians followed by
• Ministry of Labour statistics say the general unemployment rate of immigrants was about 29% at the beginning of last year. In comparison, the unemploment rate for the Finnish population was 9%.