Somali community in Finland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Somalis are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Finland, and by far the largest group of people of non-European origin. Somali people started arriving in Finland in 1991, seeking status as political refugees. The first arrivals were university students in Soviet universities. Later more refugees arrived directly from Somalia, many of them by a program of family unification.

Between 1990 and 1995 the number of Somali citizens in Finland jumped from 44 to 4044. ^[1] In 2004 there were 4689 Somali citizens, but an equal number may have received Finnish citizenship. In 2006 there were 8 990 Somali speakers in Finland.^[2]