BASAAR Project Baltic Sea- Asia Agenda for Regions in a Globalizing World Asian Populations of the Baltic Sea Region Maija Merimaa - Taina Kiviniemi Helsinki City Urban Facts Helsinki,30 February 2010 BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Project Number CB3 Project Title Baltic Sea – Asia Agenda for Regions in a Globalising World Title of Deliverable Asian Populations of the Baltic Sea Region Work-package contributing to the Deliverable WP2 Knowledge Society Author(s) Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi Abstract Statistical report on Asian populations of the Baltic Sea region in 2000’s. Special focus on student populations. Keywords BASAAR, Globalization, Asia, Central Baltic Sea region Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi i 30.02.2010 BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Table of Contents Foreword .............................................................................................................................. 1 1 Finland .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Helsinki Region ........................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Southwest Finland .................................................................................................... 11 2 Sweden ........................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Stockholm and Uppsala ............................................................................................ 14 3 Estonia ............................................................................................................................ 21 3.1 Tallinn and Harju County .......................................................................................... 21 4 Latvia .............................................................................................................................. 25 4.1 Riga .......................................................................................................................... 25 30.02.2010 ii Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Foreword This report is one in a series produced by the project “Baltic Sea – Asia Agenda for Regions in a Globalising World” (hereinafter – BASAAR). The BASAAR project was co-funded by EU’s Central Baltic INTERREG IV A Programme 2007-2013 under the priority 2 “Economically Competitive and Innovative Region”. This priority focuses on enhancing the overall economic development and competitiveness of the programme area. It emphasises innovations and broad, qualitative co-operation. Moreover, the development of connections to facilitate cross-border co-operation and a better flow of goods and people is another focus, together with the utilisation of the labour force and the development of the tourism sector1. One of the main aims of the BASAAR project is to improve the capacity of the Central Baltic region to adjust to globalization, with special focus on how the developing Asian economies will affect the Central Baltic Sea region. The project was organised around three main themes: 1) Knowledge society, 2) Resource inventory and 3) Networks and flows. The findings related to the three themes were complemented by a scenario study presenting four long-term scenarios for the region and its relation to Asia. To get an independent view, Asian experts were invited to comment on the scenarios. The project results are presented in a set of three independent reports providing benchmark results, analysis and action recommendations related to each of the three project themes, an executive summary of all recommendations and the scenario report. Project reports are mainly intended to serve as background papers for planners involved in regional planning processes of the project partners and other organisations. All reports can be downloaded from the websites of the project partners. The BASAAR project partners: City of Helsinki Urban facts, Finland City of Stockholm, Sweden City of Uppsala, Sweden Harju County Government, Estonia Office of Regional Planning, Stockholm County Council, Sweden Regional Council of Southwest Finland, Finland Riga City Council, Latvia Riga Planning Region, Latvia 1 Central Baltic INTERREG IV A Programme 2007-2013, p. 56; http://www.centralbaltic.eu/programme, accessed on 30.01.2010 Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi 1 30.02.2010 BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Tallinn City Office, Estonia Turku Science Park Ltd., Finland Uusimaa Regional Council, Finland (Lead Partner) 30.02.2010 2 Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region 1 Finland Finland is a country with 5.3 million inhabitants and a rather small and mostly recently arrived foreign population. Still in 2008 the share of foreign citizens of the Finnish population was only 2.7%, while those with foreign mother tongue made up as much as 3.6% of nation’s inhabitants. As a result, there are about 143 000 foreign citizens in Finland, two thirds (64%) of whom are Europeans. During the last 20 years, the share of Asians of the foreign citizens has grown from 10% in 1990 to 21% by 2008. During the last decade the growth of Asian population has been particularly strong, and the number of both Asian citizens in and of Asian immigration to Finland has doubled during the 2000’s. All in all, in 2008, the Asians population of Finland consisted of almost 30 000 and Asian immigration of over 5000 individuals. Graph 1.1 Asian population in and Asian immigration to Finland in 2000-2008 Source: Statistics Finland There are seven Asian populations of over 2000 citizens in Finland. The biggest of these are Chinese (4620), Thais (3932), Iraqis (3238) and Indians (2736). In addition, there are over 2000 people from the Indian peninsula that are not from India, but from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Nepal. All in all, when counted together the population of Asians from Indian peninsula is as big as the Chinese population of Finland. Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi 3 30.02.2010 BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Graph 1.2 Asian population in Finland by nationalities in 2008 (n=29 597)2 Source: Statistics Finland The Asians are more important group among foreign students than in the overall foreign population: while the share of Asians of the foreign population is 21%, their share of the foreign tertiary level students is as high as 31%, and since 2005 Chinese have been the biggest particular group of foreign students (Statistics Finland). The high share of Asians of the students is partly explained by the age structure: from the graph below it can be seen, that the Asians are even more overrepresented in the age groups of 20-34 than foreigners in general. 2 This as well as other graphs depicting the constituency of the Asian population of Finland are slightly distorted due to the citizenships that have been granted to Asian citizens. Asian immigrant who have been granted Finnish citizenship are no longer visible in these statistics 30.02.2010 4 Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region Graph 1.3 Age distribution of Finnish, foreign and Asian citizens in Finland in 2008 Source: Statistics Finland The student statistics reveal that the most important sources for Asian students are China, India and the rest of the Indian peninsula. It can also be seen that the Chinese are clearly overrepresented within Asian the student population. The share of Indians corresponds to their share of the whole Asian population in 2004, while other nationalities from the Indian peninsula are slighlty overrepresented within the student population. Graph 1.4 Shares of different nationalities of among Asian students in 2004 (n=2249) Source: OECD The focus of this report is in skilled Asian immigration in two regions of Finland: Uusimaa region and Southwest Finland. Helsinki is the capital of Finland, and the Maija Merimaa & Taina Kiviniemi 5 30.02.2010 BASAAR Asian populations of the Baltic Sea Region share of people with foreign mother tongue is twice as big in Uusimaa region (7%) as in all Finland, while the share of foreigners in Southwest Finland is quite close to the Finnish average of 3.6%. Altogether almost two thirds (61%) of Asians in Finland lives in these two regions. Graph 1.5 Geographical distribution of Asian population in Finland in 2008 (n=29 597) Source: Statistics Finland 1.1 Helsinki Region Uusimaa, which includes the Helsinki metropolitan region, is often described as the engine of Finnish economy. It is also the most densely populated region fo Finland, with altoghert 1.2 million inhabitans (23% of popualtion). The share of foreign citizens (7,5%) and of people with forein mother tongue (5%) in the region are almost double in comparison to the Finnish average. All in all, half of all foreign citizens as well as of Asian citizens in Finland live in the Uusimaa region. The foreign citizens, however, are not distributed geographically equally around the whole region. On the contrary, 92% percent of them lives in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The Helsinki metropolitan area is also a major student hub,which grants the region a crucial role in attracting skilled immigrants to Finland. The Asian population of Uusimaa has grown at the same pace with the Asian population of Finland. The population doubled between 2000 and 2008, and the immigration grew four-fold during 2000-2008. As a result,