International degree students in Turku

Abstrakti

The demographics of Finland are changing; the population is aging and labor shortage is believed to be a great problem in the near future. Finland is also in an economic recession. At the same time there are thousands of international students studying in Finland. Staying here after graduation, they could not only pay back the funds used for their education, but become employees, tax-payers, consumers, even employers in the country that needs all of these. The threat is that these students will leave, because they cannot find work. Many students of Turku also move elsewhere in Finland, mainly to Helsinki, where the employment opportunities are better. With them, Turku loses all the cultural and social capital that these people posses.