The government of Finland announced on Thursday (April 19) that they have submitted a series of proposals to the parliament, aimed at changing the rules for asylum seekers, migrants and refugees.

Parliament will still have to vote on the proposed changes, but since the government coalition holds a majority of seats in the parliament, it is seen as likely that the changes will be passed.

What are the proposed changes to asylum and citizenship?

InfoMigrants summarized the most important reform proposals.

• Less financial support for asylum seekers and refugees

The government wants to reduce the reception allowance for asylum seekers and refugees to the legal minimum "permitted by the Constitution and the Reception Conditions Directive," according to the interior ministry.

• Asylum and international protection granted for shorter periods

The Finnish government wants to reduce the length of residency permits for refugees and people with international protection, making it easier to withdraw the status.

"A refugee would be granted a residence permit for three years instead of the current four years. The length of an extended permit would be shortened from the current four years to three years," the Finnish Interior Ministry said in a statement released on its website.

For people with subsidiary protection, the first residence permit would only be granted for one year, instead of four. Subsequent permits would only be granted for two years instead of four.

• People will no longer be allowed to switch from asylum procedure to work or study permit

Finland's government wants to block asylum seekers and refugees from applying for a residency permit for work or education during or after their application procedure.

The interior ministry claims that this reform would "prevent cases where an applicant applies for asylum with the sole aim of finding employment or studying in Finland [and promote] rapid departures of rejected asylum applicants."

• International protection withdrawn or withheld more easily

Finland's government wants to change the laws on international protection to make it easier to revoke people's residency permits if they have committed a serious crime, are accused of committing a serious crime, or are considered to be dangerous.

The threshold to withdrawing protection would be slightly lower for those with only subsidiary protection, compared to people with refugee status.

The Finnish cabinet also wants to block people from applying for asylum in the first place if they are "considered to be a danger to society because they have committed a particularly serious offence," said the interior ministry,

• New border procedures for asylum seekers

The Finnish government wants introduce a new "border procedure [for] asylum applications that are lodged at or in the vicinity of the EU's external border and that are likely to be unfounded," according to the interior ministry. This procedure would take place at Finland's border with Russia and its international airports.

While the normal asylum procedure allows applicants to move freely within Finland, the border procedure applicants would be forced to stay at an assigned reception center at or near the border during the asylum application procedure.

These reforms would align with the recent EU asylum reforms, which include a border procedure for asylum seekers from countries with low acceptance rates.

• Longer residency in Finland required to get citizenship

The Finnish government also plans to extend the time of residence required to get the Finnish citizenship.

For most migrants and refugees, this means that they will now have to legally reside in the country for eight years instead of five years to be able to get citizenship.

For children aged 15 or over, spouses of Finnish citizens, stateless persons and people who meet a language proficiency requirement, the minimum residency period would be extended to five years from the current four, according to the Finnish interior ministry.

Not affected by the citizenship law reforms would be Nordic citizens and spouses of persons working at Finnish missions abroad, who would still only need two years of residency.

Under this directive, the government also wants to extend the de-facto residency requirement for refugees even further. They have proposed that "the time taken to process an asylum application [sh]ould no longer count towards the period of residence," the interior ministy said.

In the future, the Finnish government plans to introduce further reforms to make it tougher to get citizenship. The interior ministry said they want to "tighten the requirements related to integrity and livelihood and introduce a citizenship test."

Proposals on these further changes are expected to be submitted to parliament in the fall of 2024 and the spring of 2025. 

Asylum reforms in Finland: Much ado about few applicants?

The current Finnish government -- which is made up of mostly right-wing parties -- has said it wants to reform immigration laws to match those of the neighboring Scandinavian countries.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has made reducing irregular migration through tougher asylum and citizenship rules a priority.

Following a spike in arrivals of asylum seekers from Russia last year, Finland first closed some of its border crossings, then all. That closure was initially announced as temporary, but was extended indefinitely earlier this month.

The border closures were also recently expanded to ban some maritime traffic from Russia to Finland.

While an increase of asylum seeker arrivals and the subsequent border closures in Finland have made headlines in recent months, the northern EU country has seen a relatively small number of asylum seekers file applications -- compared to some other EU countries.

Last year, Finland received 4,450 first-time asylum applications, according to EU statistics office, Eurostat. This means that roughly one person sought asylum in Finland for every 1,000 inhabitants.

Cyprus -- the EU country with the highest number of first-time applicants per capita -- received 13 times as many applications relative to its population size.

Germany -- the EU country with the highest total number of first-time applications -- received four times as many per inhabitant as Finland.