Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat highlighted that people from across Asia are increasingly coming to Finland to work or study.
The development, according to the paper, has seen an array of Asian languages become the most-common foreign tongues spoken in the greater Helsinki area.
Not long ago, the most common foreign languages in the region were spoken by people from Russia, Ukraine and other countries that belonged to the former Soviet Union.
HS defined Asian languages as those spoken in countries of South, East and West Asia. Middle Eastern languages were included in a separate group with languages spoken in North Africa.
In 2020, there were just under 40,000 people who spoke an Asian language in the capital area. Within two years, that figure grew to nearly 48,000. Meanwhile, in 2022, there were around 46,700 people who spoke Russian or another language of a country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Statistics provided by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) on residence permits and work-based residence permits also reflected this trend across Finland, but the agency did not zero in on Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.
Government initiatives aiming to promote work-based migration and attract foreign students to Finland mean that this trend of Asian immigration to the capital region is poised to increase in coming years, with HS anticipating that 10,000 more people from Asian countries will live in the region by 2030.
According to the City of Helsinki, the most common Asian languages spoken in the region in 2022 included Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai.
Stubb's new ride
Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat noted that president-elect Alexander Stubb does not currently own a car. Rather he has previously said that he borrows his wife Suzanne Innes-Stubb's electric car on the rare occasions when he has to drive.
However, the soon-to-be president will now have two cars — an armoured Mercedes sedan and an armoured minivan to shuttle him around as he carries out his presidential duties.
IS wrote that the sedan is nearly 12 years old and the Office of the President told IS that the vehicle is nearing the end of its life cycle. The newspaper described the car which served outgoing President Sauli Niinistö during his two terms as a "war horse".
The new sedan is expected to cost upwards of 500,000 euros.
Free rent and driving licences for high schoolers
As Finland's population becomes increasingly urban, smaller towns have tried to woo families with baby bonuses over the last decade or so.
Rural affairs newspaper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus wrote about how small municipalities aren't just trying to attract families, they're also offering incentives to encourange young people to finish high school in their communities.
Since kids in Finland are not limited by geography when choosing which high schools to attend, some smaller towns want locals to stay put and maybe even attract outsiders as well.
The municipalities of Merikarvia, Paltamo and Puolanka started paying graduates' driving licence costs. In Finland, obtaining a driving licence is relatively expensive and can cost around 1,000 euros.
Other small towns like Pomarkku, Vesanto and Pihtipudas take a different approach granting thousand euro scholarships to graduating high schoolers.
Some municipalities, like Rautjärvi, offer a free rental apartment to students during their studies.
All of these towns are small with only a few thousand inhabitants at most and have seen the student bodies in their high schools dwindle over the past few decades. The hope is that these types of incentives might reverse the ongoing trend.
However, Kyösti Värri, a special researcher at Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, told MT that these types of economic incentives might do little to curb the problems facing small town Finland.
"It doesn't help to use financial carrots to attract students from neighbouring municipalities if the total number of students in the area is falling", Värri said.
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