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Turks in Finland
Total population
	est. 10,000 (2010 academic estimate)
Regions with significant populations
	Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo, Tampere, Turku
Languages
	Turkish and Finnish
Religion
	Predominantly Sunni Islam; Minority Alevism, Christianity, Other religions and Irreligion
Related ethnic groups
	Turks in Denmark, ; Turks in Norway, ; Turks in Sweden

Turks in Finland, also referred to as Turkish Finns or Finnish Turks, (Turkish: Finlandiya Türkleri; or Finlandiya'da yaşayan Türkler Finnish: Suomen turkkilaiset or Suomessa asuvat turkkilaiset) are the ethnic Turkish people living in Finland, including Finnish-born persons who have Turkish parents or a Turkish ancestral background. The majority of Finnish Turks descend from the Republic of Turkey; however there has also been significant Turkish migration from other post-Ottoman countries including ethnic Turkish communities which have come to Finland from the Balkans (e.g. Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Romania), the island of Cyprus, and more recently Iraq and Syria.

History

Turkish migration to Finland is a relatively new phenomenon in the country; the majority have predominantly arrived since the late 1980s and are made up of largely male immigrants.^[2] Thus, many Turkish adolescents have a Finnish mother.^[3] Between 1987 and 2012 there have been 8,904 Turkish citizens who have migrated to Finland.^[4] In 2019, Turkish asylum seekers are the second largest group after Iraqis. From January to August, 283 Turkish citizens have sought asylum, while for the whole of 2018 it was 293. Their number by the end of the year is projected to be 45% more than the last year. According to Finnish Immigration Service, many Turks are seeking asylum due to the Gülen movement.^[5]

Year	Number	Year	Number	Year	Number
Number of Turkish immigrants entering Finland by year^[4]
1987	25	2000	316	2013	603
1988	50	2001	341	2014	510
1989	83	2002	514	2015	427
1990	417	2003	354	2016	764
1991	394	2004	401	2017	925
1992	455	2005	504	2018	951
1993	238	2006	515
1994	364	2007	446
1995	167	2008	570
1996	235	2009	528
1997	375	2010	306
1998	196	2011	370
1999	297	2012	443

Demographics

According to Statistics Finland, the majority of Turks live in the Uusimaa region with smaller communities in Pirkanmaa, Varsinais-Suomi, North Ostrobothnia, and Kymenlaakso.^[6]

8,127 speak Turkish, making Turkish the 14th most spoken language in Finland. There are 4,794 Turkish citizens, while 7,472 are born in Turkey. There are 7,221 first generation Turkish immigrants in Finland and 2,135 second generation immigrants for a total of 9,356.

Turks by Municipality in 2018
No.	Municipality	Turks	%
1.	Helsinki	2,300	0.35
2.	Vantaa	1,119	0.49
3.	Espoo	726	0.26
4.	Tampere	456	0.19
5.	Turku	291	0.15
6.	Kerava	237	0.65
7.	Oulu	222	0.11
8.	Lahti	212	0.18
9.	Jyväskylä	201	0.14
10.	Lappeenranta	174	0.25

Society

65.5% of them are male while 34.5% are female. 22.2% are less than 14 years old, 76.7% are between 15 and 64 years old and only 1.1% are over the age 65.

The majority of Turkish immigrants are self-employed and are predominantly active in the restaurant and fast food sector.^[7]

Organizations

Suomen turkkilainen seura^[8]

Political activism

Turkey demanded that Finland ends its alleged support for the Gülen movement.^[9]

Notable people

Fikret Güler, Turkish taekwondo Grand Master
Mehmet Gürs, chef (Turkish father)
Tilma Hainari [fi], women's activist and public enlightener (her mother, Adolfina Sofia Soldan, was a descendant of Sadok Seli Soltan [de] who was the first documented Turk in Germany)^[10]
Ibrahim Köse, football player
Kaan Kairinen, football player (Turkish father)
Melek Mazici, visual artist
Anton Odabasi, basketball player (Turkish father)
Mert Otsamo, fashion designer (Turkish father)
Masar Ömer, football player
Teuvo Tulio, film director
Ozan Yanar, former member of the Finnish Parliament
Sini Yasemin [fi], singer (Turkish father)

References

^ Kütük, Zeki (2010), Finlandiya'da Yabancı Düşmanlığı, Sosyal Dışlanma ve Türk Diasporası, Türk Asya Stratejik Araştırmalar Merkezi, retrieved 8 November 2020, Toplam sayılarının 10 000 civarında olduğu tahmin edilen Türklerin...
^ Östen 2007, 548.
^ Phinney et al. 2006, 225.
^ ^a ^b Statistics Finland. "Immigration and emigration by country of exit and entry and by age and gender 1987 - 2012". Retrieved 2011-06-25.
^ "SKA: Turkkilaisten turvapaikanhakijoiden määrä räjähtänyt Suomessa muutamassa vuodessa – jo toiseksi suurin ryhmä".
^ Statistics Finland. "Country of birth according to age and gender by region 1990-2012". Retrieved 2011-06-25.
^ Östen 2008, 53.
^ "Finto: Yhteisöt: Suomen turkkilainen seura".
^ "NATO'ya girmek isteyen İsveç ve Finlandiya, terör örgütlerini himaye ediyor". Anadolu Ajansı. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
^ Taylor, Stephen (1935), Who's who in Central and East-Europe, Central European Times Publishing Company, p. 351

Bibliography

Östen, Wahlbeck (2007), "Work in the kebab economy - A study of the ethnic economy of Turkish immigrants in Finland", Ethnicities, 7 (4): 543–563, doi:10.1177/1468796807084016, S2CID 143540781
Östen, Wahlbeck (2008), "Entrepreneurship as Social Status: Turkish Immigrants' Experiences of Self-Employment in Finland" (PDF), Migration Letters, 5 (1): 53–62, doi:10.33182/ml.v5i1.58, archived from the original on September 5, 2008{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
Phinney, Jean S.; Berry, John W.; Sam, David L.; Vedder, Paul (2006), "Understanding Immigrant Youth: Conclusions and Implications", in Berry, John W. (ed.), Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation Across National Contexts, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-8058-5156-4.