Finland plans to abolish integration payments for refugees

Finland intends to abolish funding for integration programmes for refugees and asylum seekers.

Finance Minister Riikka Purra has presented a draft budget for 2026 that would eliminate compensation to municipalities for providing integration services to immigrants, per Finnish media.

Integration compensations are payments the government allocates to municipalities and social districts for organising language courses, employment assistance, adaptation programmes, and family support. The Finance Ministry estimates that ending these payments would save €317 million over two years.

However, Sonja Hämäläinen, Director for Immigration Affairs at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, noted that most users of integration services are asylum seekers and refugees. At present, the majority of them are Ukrainians, numbering around 46,000 people.

By Khagan Isayev