Otto Andersson and Anders Adlercreutz of the Swedish People’s Party spoke to reporters in conjunction with the party’s summer meeting in Vaasa on Tuesday. The leaders of the junior coalition partner called for a re-think of the government programme due to estimates about a decline in work-based immigration to Finland. (Kalle Lydman – Str / Lehtikuva)
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ANDERS ADLERCREUTZ, the chairperson of the Swedish People’s Party, believes the government programme should be amended to boost immigration to Finland.
Adlercreutz on Tuesday argued that revisiting the programme is justified and necessary in response to recent estimates about a decline in immigration because the programme was also revisited in response to the erosion of the national economy.
The four-party ruling coalition estimated at the start of the electoral term that fiscal adjustments worth six billion euros would be required to balance public finances. Later, though, it decided on adjustments worth another three billion euros in response to mounting despair about the national economy.
“That of course meant that we revisited the government’s commonly agreed position on the economy,” he explained to Helsingin Sanomat.
“Now that the figures are coming in, it’s simply a must that we react to them. The government can’t operate based only on the operational picture it had in the spring of 2023,” he argued, referring to both economic data and estimates about a drop in work-based immigration in the coming years.
While Finland registered a net migration gain of 58,000 people in 2023, the Ministry of Finance forecasts in its latest economic forecast that the net gain will dwindle to 30,000 in 2024 and to roughly 25,000 in 2025. In the coming years, the net gain is forecast to fall roughly to the levels of the 2010s – to around 15,000.
Adlercreutz told Helsingin Sanomat that the government should commit to maintaining net immigration at 40,000 per year.
“The downward trend is a concern. This isn’t a so-called ideological question, but a necessity that’s based on figures.”
The coalition government, he reminded, has been able to make fairly difficult decisions to balance public finances and should thus be able to also examine immigration with “neutral and objective eyes”.
“Given that we know we should keep [net immigration] above 40,000 to be able to wipe out the sustainability deficit, we should adopt a goal like this,” he said to the daily newspaper.
The proposal is part of 26-item list of measures unveiled at the summer meeting of the Swedish People’s Party in Vaasa on Tuesday by Adlercreutz and Otto Andersson, the chairperson of the Swedish People’s Parliamentary Group. Andersson said some of the measures to increase growth, inbound investment and work-based immigration should be discussed as soon as at the upcoming budget session.
“We should now remove all ideological locks on both sides of the political spectrum and think about what it is that Finland really needs,” he underscored.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, the list contains a number of measures that deviate from the government programme. The junior coalition partner is proposing, for example, that the labour availability consideration for work-based immigrants be scrapped and that immigrants who complete a high-school or university degree be automatically granted a permanent residence permit.
The Finns Party has, unsurprisingly, shot down the proposal. Jani Mäkelä, the chairperson of the Finns Party Parliamentary Group, described it as a “deliberate provocation” in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
“It doesn’t sound well thought-out to start the parliamentary session with this kind of a deliberate provocation. They know themselves that the demand won’t move forward. It’s unusual that the new chairperson takes this kind of an approach. It doesn’t represent good coalition co-operation,” he remarked.
He also questioned the attempt to frame the issue as a necessity, rather than an ideological issue. Statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment reveal that the number of foreign nationals registered as unemployed job seekers stood at almost 50,000 at the end of July, an all-time record.
“The figures show that huge numbers of immigrants are unemployed,” he said.
Mäkelä told YLE that the proposed target is “utterly unfeasible,” pointing to the fact that it is not much higher than the number of births in the country. In 2023, Finland registered 43,383 live births, according to Statistics Finland.
“[The target] isn’t significantly higher than the current birth rate in Finland. There’s no way you can continuously bring that high a number of immigrants here,” he argued to the public broadcaster.
Minister of Employment Arto Satonen (NCP) reminded that Finland requires work-based immigration to cope with its demographic challenges, continue financing the welfare state, and maintain its appeal and competitiveness, according to YLE. Also he, though, expressed his reservations about a numerical target due to significant fluctuations in labour demand.
“For example, in the construction sector, which has had a lot of foreign labour, currently has a lot less of it. I reckon there’ll be much more of them soon, when construction re-starts,” he said to YLE.
On Tuesday, Adlercreutz and Andersson both also criticised the nature of economic discussion Finland, wrote Helsingin Sanomat.
“Doomsday rhetoric and the cataloguing of problems won’t take Finland forward. We have to recognise the opportunities and seize them,” the latter said, viewing that the outlook for economic growth depends also on the impression given by lawmakers.
“The economic policy discussion has been very much focused on fiscal adjustment, but the real world isn’t on the excel sheets of the Ministry of Finance,” said Andersson.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
