Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Finnish Citizens Abroad
Abstract With 1.6 million Finnish-origin individuals abroad, the focus in Finland has traditionally been on Finnish cultural associations and educational programmes over any other type of engagement with this population. This chapter provides an overview of Finland’s diaspora policies, with a focus on social protection. It shows that Finland does not have a specific global policy of supporting Finns abroad, but rather a regional approach with Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). Similarly, this chapter shows that Finland has a somewhat decentralized approach to diaspora engagement by which its strong network of non-profit organizations abroad perform a role traditionally given to public authorities in the area of social protection and consultation. The diaspora policy of the Finnish Government could be characterised as reactionary, since Finnish missions increasingly help Finnish tourists abroad. A strong Nordic cooperation in the field of social protection has widened after huge immigration of Finnish people to Sweden, and bilateral social agreements have been established with countries where Finns have immigrated historically like the United States and Australia.