Trends in international educational migration: a case of Finland

Introduction. Our paper is focused on the study of the current trends in educational migration in the context of Finland. We aim at identifying the factors that attract and keep educational immigrants in the host country. We suggest that educational immigrants are the most attractive category of immigrants due to their high adaptability and insertion into the labor markets in their respective countries of education. Materials and Methods. The research employs traditional methods of empirical analysis such as understanding and interpretation of the contents of documents, methods of graphical presentation of the data, analysis of Russian and foreign scientific literature, as well as the method of comparison of Russian and foreign theory and practice. The empirical basis of this study includes the results of a remote online survey using the Google Forms application. The sample of respondents is represented by the individuals residing in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and having in their profiles on the social media VKontakte a mention of the period of study in Finland. Results. We find that Finland pursues a successful systematic national policy to attract educational immigrants. This approach is designed to compensate for the unfavorable social and demographic situation in the country. Over the past ten years, there has been a tendency in Finland to increase the number of educational immigrants from Asian countries. The majority of foreign students are enrolled in the undergraduate programs of polytechnic universities and at the Master's programs of classical universities. There is a significant predominance of female immigrants in all areas of study in Finland. Discussion and Conclusion. Our results are of practical interest for the Russian government structures responsible for developing strategic guidelines for immigration education policy, as well as for organizations responsible for the development of interstate cooperation in the field of education and science. Heads and staff of international cooperation departments of higher education institutions dealing with the social adaptation of educational immigrants might take into account the identified difficulties of students in adaptation. The results of the study might also be of some interest to the representatives of the scientific community involved in educational migration.