Today, the Pellervo Economic Research Institute (PTT) published a study titled Maahanmuuttajien merkitys yritys- ja elinkeinotoiminnassa (“The role of immigrants in enterprise and business”), according to which the role of immigrants in business has increased significantly in recent years. The study looked at register data from 2010 to 2022.
The study found that in 2022, 8.6 percent of all employees and 10.5 percent of all entrepreneurs were immigrants.
The share of immigrants among salary earners is high especially in international organisations and institutions, in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector, in accommodation and catering services as well as in administration and support services.
Immigrant entrepreneurs, in turn, are significant actors particularly in accommodation and catering services, transport and warehousing, and administration and support services.
In 2022, the most common fields of education for immigrant entrepreneurs were technology (11%), business, administration and law (9%) and service industries (8%). The register data is incomplete, however, as data on qualifications completed abroad are not systematically collected.
The most common countries of origin among immigrant entrepreneurs were Russia, Estonia, Türkiye, China and Iraq. The majority of entrepreneurs were men, with women accounting for 31 percent.
You can make money in tech
Immigrant entrepreneurs’ income has been higher compared to other entrepreneurs especially in accommodation and catering services and the information and communication sector, but also in industry, administration and support services, and professional, scientific and technical activities.
The information and communication sector includes tasks related to software and consulting services, for example. Professional, scientific and technical activities, on the other hand, include architectural and engineering services as well as scientific research and development.
"These jobs attract experts, who have more to give than the average person, so they also do well as entrepreneurs," estimates Mikko Särelä, Expert for industrial and innovation policy at TEK.
"This supports our message that experts in the field of technology and science are especially important for Finland, regardless of nationality. Everyone's skills are needed," Särelä continues.
Read more about the report (mostly in Finnish)
TEK has co-funded the research and participated in its steering group.