This study examines the Finnish refugee reception program in which the state makes a contract with a municipality that provides welfare services to the refugees. The study concludes that the Finnish refugee reception policy has a bias towards small and rural municipalities.

Refugees and asylum seekers have became a key political issue in European Union. The state policies on immigration vary from one EU country to another, but the focus of them is the same: to limit the entry of un-wanted immigrants, namely third country nationals coming from the developing countries. However, obligated by the international legislation on refugee protection and human rights, the EU member states have not been able to close their borders from refugees and asylum seekers, and governments in most European countries have designed special reception programs for refugees and asylum seekers. Although refugees with traumatic experiences require special help, the motivation for refugee reception programs is often other than the needs of refugees, as this study of the Finnish refugee reception program will show.

Statistical analysis

Helsinki University, Faculty of Social Sciences/Department of Social Policy

Hanna Ahlgren-Leinvuo:
Kuntapaikasta pääkaupunkiseudulle : Pakolaiset Suomen kunnissa alkusijoituksen jälkeen (Lisensiaatintyö). 2005.
Refugees in Finnish municipalities: from dispersal to the Helsinki Metropolitan Region. 2005.

This study examines the Finnish refugee reception program in which the state makes a contract with a municipality that provides welfare services to the refugees. The contract defines the liabilities between the state and the municipalities: municipalities are responsible for providing refugees welfare services and the state is responsible for compensating municipalities with the costs for producing these services. The state subsidises the municipality for three years. This study will show that refugees leave the first municipalities before the state subsidy expires and move to a municipality that, however, is not entitled to the state compensation.

This result raises several important questions. Has the dispersal of refugees all over the country been a reasonable policy from the point of view of the state, municipalities and refugees? Has the policy achieved its goal in settling the refugees permanently in municipalities with employment opportunities? Have the consequences of this policy been taken into account when the policy was formulated?

By analysing the development of the refugee policy in Finland and other European countries, and examining the Finnish contract-based system of refugee reception and in taking into account the legacy of the Finnish regional policy, this study concludes that the Finnish refugee reception policy has a bias towards small and rural municipalities.

City of Vantaa
Finland
http://www.vantaa.fi
Hanna Ahlgren-Leinvuo (Researcher), tel. + 358 9 839 22 129

02/02/2005

Hanna Ahlgren-Leinvuo

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Asylum seekers, Refugees