No. 29

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Immigration to Estonia 2008–2013

Employers have pointed to the need to facilitate the immigration of top specialists, and to the shortage of skilled workers. Universities and research groups of centres of excellence have spoken about the facilitation of the immigration of foreign students and researchers. Different views on immigration have been expressed, but detailed information about immigrants is seldom given.

The article gives a statistical overview of immigration into Estonia during the last six years. Available data about immigration have been presented both about the immigration of the citizens of the European Union and the immigrants from outside the European Union. The origin of immigrants, their gender and age distribution and the reasons for coming to Estonia are dealt with.

Since Estonia’s accession to the European Union, movement of people has become more active: every year immigration, emigration and the returning of the citizens of Estonia increase by numbers. Analysis clearly shows the dependence of immigration on the geographical location of Estonia: during the last six years, the citizens of Finland (28% of the citizens of the EU) and the citizens of Russian Federation (40.5% of the citizens of third states) formed a significant part of the immigrants into Estonia, and most probably this tendency will continue. The citizens of the EU come to Estonia mainly to work or study, but among the citizens of third states there are many of those who come here for family reasons. Among the immigrants from outside the European Union, the citizens of Ukraine stand out by being mainly skilled workers with vocational education who come here to work.

Full article in Estonian

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