Finland's government wants to introduce measures that will allow authorities to further monitor the progress of foreign students on residence permits, after the visas have been granted.
According to a press release by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the proposal aims to "prevent the misuse of permits" and would apply to students coming to Finland from outside the EU and EEA countries.
If passed into law, the reform means that a foreign student’s residence permit could be revoked if they apply for and receive basic social assistance, a last-resort form of financial aid.
"Automated post-decision monitoring would be used regularly to determine whether a student receives social assistance," the press release said, adding that the Finnish Immigration Service Migri would, under the new law, receive the information about a student's benefit applications directly from Kela.
According to the ministry, the aim of the proposal is to ensure that international students continue to meet the conditions under which the residence permits were granted, in particular in regard to securing their livelihood with their own funds.
This latest proposal follows a tightening of other rules affecting foreign students, in particular in relation to minimum income requirements and family reunification rules, announced at the end of last year.
Latest move an escalation of previous policy
Migri announced in September 2023 that it would begin post-decision monitoring of foreign students, in order to ensure that the permit conditions were being adhered to.
Between 2023 and 2025, the agency checked the status of some 40,000 residence permits issued to foreign students, finding that about 300 individuals had applied for the basic social assistance benefit.
The benefit, known as toimeentulotuki in Finnish, is handed out to people as a last resort when they cannot cover basic living expenses, such as food or housing.
Receiving the benefit on a one-off basis has not previously led to the revoking of a residence permit, according to Yle's information.
Last year, there were a total of about 76,000 foreign students in Finland.
The proposal was sent out for comments on Friday, with a deadline of 27 February for feedback to be submitted via the Lausuntopalvelu.fi service.
According to the employment ministry, the Finnish government wants to bring the bill to parliament during the spring term with a view to amending the law as soon as possible.
