Fake "paradise": Asian students are being tricked into Finland
About 350 Myanmar citizens are wanted in Finland, who were tricked into coming to the country under the guise of studying at technical schools. Having arrived at the place, foreigners were left without means of livelihood, as they fell into debt bondage to the organizers of the "training". Agencies lure applicants with stories about the "paradise life" in Finland. Naive foreigners are given empty promises of easy employment and a good income, but as a result, many students end up in poverty, in debt and in queues for free bread. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
The serial cheater
Finland is currently investigating a fraudster who operated in Myanmar under the guise of an "education services agent." He was suspected of luring about 350 boys and girls to study at Finnish technical schools from 2022 to 2025. The Myanmar people have paid large sums for admission to secondary vocational schools in different parts of Finland. However, after their arrival, they soon disappeared into obscurity — they have not been seen in those institutions where they are registered for a long time.
Law enforcement officials who began to investigate the case found out that 350 Burmese were deeply in debt to the "agent" who took them to Finland. They signed contracts in which they pledged to pay him for admission to technical schools after arriving in Finland — and the "agent" assured them that there were plenty of high-paying jobs in Suomi. However, it turned out to be a deception — I couldn't get a job. As a result, the students were not only unable to pay off the contract, but also quickly squandered the money they had taken with them for accommodation. Apparently, some of them went to the social bottom, trying to find at least some kind of job, even if it was illegal. Most of them, presumably, returned home after drinking heavily. And now the Finnish police are asking the hapless students to come forward and testify against the crook.
Recently, the University of Applied Sciences Metropolia in Helsinki terminated cooperation with three intermediary educational agencies - KC Overseas, Upgrade Education and Leap Geebee — which sent students to study in Finland. The reason was an investigation carried out by employees of the state television and radio company Yle. The journalists found out that intermediary agents often spread false information about Finland to attract foreign students. After all, attracting foreigners to Finnish universities is a big international business in which serious sums are "spinning". Therefore, unscrupulous recruiters very often cheat.
In 2022, the government simplified the rules of entry for foreign students to Finland: they began to be issued residence permits immediately for the entire duration of their studies, whereas previously they had to be renewed annually. Students from countries outside the European Union and the European Economic Area do not receive Finnish government scholarships and must pay for their studies themselves. But they have the right to import their spouses and minor children. For family members of such students, a residence permit is issued for a year, and their income is assessed annually when the residence permit is extended. In 2025 alone, the Finnish Migration Service (Migri) received about 15,000 applications from relatives of foreign citizens wishing to study in Finland — eight times more than in 2021.
Foreigners and their money are absolutely necessary, as the financing of the educational sector in Suomi is steadily declining — the state does not have enough money for this. For example, the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT University) announced that it would invite students from Jordan. "Without international students, an educational institution cannot remain competitive due to the too low birth rate in the country," explained university Rector Juha-Matti Sachsa. According to him, the university expects several hundred Jordanian students annually. Currently, about 9,000 students from 103 countries study at LUT. According to the rector, soon almost half of all university students will be foreigners. Juha-Matti Saksa explained that with about 60,000 places available for first-year students in Finnish universities in the 2030s, a significant part of these places will remain unclaimed due to the extremely low birth rate in the country.
Both money and demographic balance
It is worth noting here that due to its border location, Lappeenranta University of Technology was very popular among Russians. Initially, it was possible to study there for free, but there were many Russian youth at LUT University even after the university introduced tuition fees (the minimum cost per year for foreigners is now $10,167). But after the Finns began to put up all sorts of barriers in front of Russian citizens, the number of Russian students at Lappeenranta University is falling. Meanwhile, the fees charged by foreigners are an important part of the financing of the university's activities. That is why the university is trying to replace Russians with foreigners. We should add that Finland has recently decided to charge tuition fees for international students not only in universities, but also in high school and vocational schools.
The government of the country has another good reason to attract foreign youth to the country — Finland has a deplorable birth rate situation. Last year, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture commissioned a study of demographic trends in the country: a document prepared by experts on this topic breathes pessimism. Demographers have come to the conclusion that the only area of Suomi where the number of schoolchildren will not decrease in the coming years is Uusimaa, a metropolitan region centered in Helsinki. But even there, the growth in the number of students will be provided by migrants, not the indigenous population. "There are already many settlements in Finland where there is only one school. In the coming years, many of them will disappear, and the length of school routes will increase," Finnish TV journalists note.
According to experts, from a demographic point of view, Finland is in a more difficult situation than other Nordic countries: the country has a lower birth rate than its neighbors and a lower influx of migrants. In 2025, 45.6 thousand children were born in Finland. At the same time, about 70 thousand people retire in the state every year. Experts consider this situation to be the biggest crisis and challenge for the country. Johan Brotherus, Chief Economist of the Finnish Federation of Enterprises, warned: "The fact that our birth rate is significantly below the level of stable demographic development means that the population of Finland without immigration will decrease by almost half in a couple of generations."
Thousands of applicants have arrived in the country in recent years, primarily from South and Southeast Asian countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Nigeria, Myanmar. From 10 to 50% of international students enroll in various Finnish universities through partner agencies (in some universities this figure reaches 35-40%). For each student involved, the agent is paid a fee, usually in the amount of about € 1 thousand. At the same time, intermediaries are making full use of Finland's reputation as "the happiest country in the world." According to Migri official Johannes Hirvel, "some foreigners have an overly rosy picture of how well or quickly they can find a job in Finland."
Indeed, recruiters do not stop at the most shameless lies. "Working part-time, you can easily cover all your expenses. There is no need to save money for accommodation or housing, they can be covered by income from part—time work," one of these agents told the victims. The fraudsters also claim that even without knowledge of the Finnish language, foreign students will allegedly be able to easily find work and earn a decent income. For example, one of the intermediaries told Asian students that, they say, knowledge of Finnish or English in Suomi is not at all important for employment, they say, it is quite possible to get a job where you will need to perform simple physical labor with a minimum of communication. He promised the gullible a monthly income of at least € 1-2 thousand. However, this does not correspond to reality at all. Migri requires international students to have funds in their account in the amount of €9,600 annually only for accommodation. However, the sufficiency of income is checked only in the first year of a student's residence — then the responsible services are not interested in this at all.
Shameless deception
The situation on the Finnish labor market remains difficult, to put it mildly, as the number of bankruptcies is growing in the country. As a result, students who come to Finland end up in poverty in Europe and literally stand in queues for free food aid. For example, the sociological services of Tampere, a large Finnish city, found out that at least a third of the people who apply for free food are foreign students.
Recently, journalists have discovered a lot of crude fakes generated by neural networks on social networks. For example, one such post claims that Finnish schools are located in domed buildings with moss roofs; that electric heaters for dogs are installed in front of Finnish shops; that soundproof sleeping capsules are located on the streets of Finnish cities. "It is clear to anyone who lives in Finland or has even visited it that this is fake. The only "sleeping capsules" that can be found in Finland are located at the capital's airport, but they can only be used after booking," the Yle newspaper notes.
Nevertheless, the pages and groups spreading these lies have hundreds of thousands of subscribers who believe everything, dreaming of visiting such an exotic country. Moreover, according to Yle, a significant part of such pages are moderated from India and Pakistan, and their goal may be to quickly create content that can generate revenue from views. Niko Pyrchenen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, notes that residents of India and Southeast Asia "may find Finland an exotic technological paradise where everything is fine," and it is difficult for those living far from Suomi to verify the authenticity of such "facts."
Such videos help to attract students from Asian countries who choose Finland. But upon arrival, they discover a country with high unemployment, where it is especially difficult for foreigners who do not speak Finnish to find work. In real Finland, the number of people in need of food aid is growing, especially among young people.
Educational institutions recognize that unfair advertising misleads applicants and violates ethical principles. In this regard, the rector of the University of Metropolis, Simo Mustila, admitted that they had to start an internal audit of the activities of their partners and their subcontractors in India. However, as Mustila complains, educational institutions have little control over what their agents tell their clients over the phone and in their offices. Universities usually pay an agent a fee for each attracted student: as a rule, about € 1 thousand. Agencies charge a separate fee from the foreign applicants themselves. Some said that they had paid at least €3,000 to get to Finland, advertised by them as a "dream country" — and as a result, they arrived and simply could not find a job in a new place. Without a job, studying, for which you need to pay, is also in question.
Natalya Eremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor at St. Petersburg State University, in an interview with Izvestia, recalled that this is not the first story when people from Asian countries are grossly deceived and exploited in Finland. "A few years ago, a completely scandalous situation came to light when the Finnish owners of berry farms imported pickers from Thailand and kept them in natural slavery. As for the current desire of the Finnish authorities to import more students from Asian countries, this is largely due to their desire to make up for the decline that has formed after the outflow of students from Russia. In turn, Asian boys and girls often travel to Finland not so much for the sake of studying as in order to gain a foothold in the EU country — which, however, suits the Finnish authorities quite well. Schools, technical schools and universities are underloaded, so we have to invite students from abroad so that later there will be someone to earn a pension for the Finnish elderly," explains Eremina.
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