Heinola’s municipal Chair Timo Ihamäki appears to have struck a chord with global emigration hopefuls in January 2014 when he said that that the city sought “good and healthy” immigrants to boost its resident numbers. He said that Heinola needed new residents in order to lift its population quota to the level required to retain autonomy over its social services and that adopting a quota of 100 refugees would allow it to do so.
Myriad letters have since been received by the city, in which people hoping to settle in Finland present themselves and their willingness to relocate. According to city director Pirjo Hepo-oja, the collection is wonderfully diverse, with letters coming from private individuals from countries all around the globe. The most distant inquiries have come from Brazil, but most of the letters have been sent from Eastern European countries.
“The outreach came when the refugee debate crossed into international news and information began to spread in social media,” Hepo-oja postulates.
All enquiries have been answered politely in the negative and state that Heinola has not made any decisions about receiving refugees. The letters don’t come from refugees or from organisations, but instead from hopeful private individuals.
However, it’s expected that the refugee question may indeed arise next Monday as the Heinola city board meets to go through its resident population committee’s presentations.
