When it’s all said and done, it’s in Finnish hands whether they continue to reproduce or cease to be a people…
New statistics: Every seventh Finnish child is born to an immigrant mother
According to recent data from Statistics Finland, the share of mothers with a foreign background in children born in Finland has tripled in the 2000s.
The four sons and daughter of Ghislane Kyubwa greet the guests in Hämeenlinna Ojoinen.
“For us Africans, children are pride. That there are no children, is almost a shame. The family is not happy without children, says the Congolean Ghislane Kyubwa. She has a permanent residence permit.
According to the latest statistic (December 2018), every seventh child in Finland is already born to a mother who has moved from abroad. In Uusimaa and Åland up to every fourth. The proportion has grown rapidly in recent years.
From abroad, Finland’s obstetric figures would be considerably lower than in the current population.
In the 2000 century, the number of children born with a Finnish background has fallen by 24% over eighteen years. Women with foreign backgrounds have given birth to so many children that the total number of children born in Finland has fallen by around 15% altogether.
“There are still countries where family values are honored. Parenthood is seen as a self-evident, desirable stage of life. This is no longer the case in Finland, says the director, study Professor Anna Rotkirch on the population Alliance.
The number of immigrant mothers has increased
The large share of mothers with a foreign background in the birth rate is partly explained by the fact that they are more in Finland as a result of immigration. In 2001, there were 37,000 women of childbearing age, aged 15–49, who came from abroad. In 2018, there were more than 115,000 women, more than three times the number at the beginning of the century.
However, the number of migrants alone does not explain the high proportion of migrant children born in Finland. Women with a foreign background also have more children than mothers with a Finnish background.
The fathers of almost all children born to foreign mothers in 2018 are also from abroad.
– In some countries, the importance of fatherhood is very high. For men in particular, children are very important to their own identity, but of course children are also important to mothers, says research professor Anna Rotkirch.
In 2018, 10.2 percent of Finnish women of childbearing age were immigrants. However, they received 14.4 percent of all children born that year.
According to the latest 2019 statistics, the total fertility rate of all mothers living in Finland was 1.35 last year. In 2018 it was 1.41.
The total fertility rate describes the number of children, on average, that women receive during their childbearing years.
Most migrant women from European countries
The majority, over 60 percent, of all mothers of foreign origin who gave birth in Finland in 2018 have come to Finland from Europe. About one-third were Asian and one-fifth African.
There are over 1,200 mothers from EU countries, about half of them from Estonia.
By country, by far the most mothers are from Russia or the former Soviet Union. There are also many mothers from Estonia, Somalia and Iraq.
