President Tarja Halonen:
Expatriates Are Important Ambassadors for Finland

Finnish President Tarja Halonen considers it natural that more and more contemporary Finns spend part of their lives abroad. On a visit to Florida, she said she sees those living overseas as important ambassadors for Finland, conveying information about the country and its personality through their day-to-day contacts
However she considers ‘social shopping’ – that is, choosing where to live based on public benefits – to be a possible problem. Meanwhile she says that Finland must be able to ensure that no-one is forced to leave their homeland because of unemployment or a similar compelling reason.

Expatriatism is hardly new to Halonen. She says she has gained personal experience by keeping in touch with her sister who moved to Australia when she got married about 20 years ago.
“My sister happened to fall in love with an Australian union leader at an international conference in Helsinki. That led to marriage, almost 20 years in Sydney so far and two children, who learn more Finnish every year,” says Halonen.
She says she has also found out about the status of Finns in Australia through the work that her sister does with the local Finnish Lutheran parish, and realized that not every emigrant who leaves Finland has a success story to tell.
Visiting the Finnish-Americans’ FinnFest event in February, the president made a somewhat surprising prediction: that the popularity of expatriate Finnish events will grow.
“Nowadays people more and more often spend part of their lives living outside their country where they were born. Considering this I would almost predict that there will be a renaissance of sorts for various kinds of expatriate Finnish events.”
The president said she considers such festivities to be a natural way of passing on traditions and customs from one generation to the next. Traditions, meanwhile, can bring different kinds of people together.
“When Finns get together, that is a testimony to the strength of their cultural heritage,” she says.

Positive Feedback
from Expats

President Halonen considers expatriates to be at least as important as ambassadors for Finland as the country’s official diplomats. Through their behavior and actions, they let others know about Finland’s customs, national identity and culture.
“The way Finnishness is viewed abroad is of course shaped by Finland’s official representations,” she says, “but at least as importantly, by everyday contacts – the way a Finn behaves as a neighbor, work colleague or spouse.
Halonen has special praise for those who are married to Finns. After all, they see the Finnish character even on those days when it is not necessarily at its best. “If they then become friends of Finland, then of course that is of course a tremendously good thing,” she adds.
During her presidential term, Halonen has visited many places that are home to expatriate Finns. She says the feedback she has received from them has been completely positive.
“In particular, the image that I have received from officials abroad is that Finns are good, hard-working employees. I think these positive aspects come up quite often.”
She says that negative matters – such as the generalizations that Finns fear about their compatriots’ generous alcohol consumption – have not come up in discussions.
Halonen suggests that Finns may have a more negative view of themselves than others do, since they are quite strict about their behavior.

Dual Citizenship
Opens Opportunities

The president considers it important to strengthen ties between Finland and its expatriates. She sees the situation improving now since the new citizenship law was passed last year, making dual nationality possible.
She believes that the dual citizenship allowed by the law is important to expatriate Finns, and that its importance should not be measured solely in the number of citizenship notifications submitted so far.
“Dual nationality is a good thing,” says Halonen. “The knowledge that if need be they can attain Finnish citizenship is reassuring to those who have left Finland. It’s an option that may not be realized, but it lets them know that everyone is welcome back.”
Halonen says she would be particularly pleased if young expatriates were to ‘discover’ Finland as a place to study and work. Because of their dual citizenship, the children of emigrants have better opportunities to start from the same starting block than others. She points out that Finnish citizenship is also the key to all of the European Union member states, soon to be 25 in all.
“For many Finns whose children are now young adults, dual citizenship will hopefully provide an opportunity to return to Finland or to consider the European Union in broader terms. After all, Finnish citizenship includes the right to study at universities in Finland and throughout the EU.”
And education is not all that the president offers young people returning to Finland. “Perhaps some of them will fall in love and find a partner in Finland,” suggests Halonen in a romantic turn of phrase.

‘Social Shopping’
Spurs Debate

President Halonen’s statement about so-called ‘social shopping’ has aroused discussion, and even annoyed some Finns living overseas. Although she thinks that the comments were brought out in a more pointed way than she expected, she considers the debate over the issue to be a good thing.
“Even though it aroused discussion, it was the right kind of discussion about what ‘Team Finlandia’ is and what companies and private individuals should do to make sure that we have a sufficient base, specifically an economic base, that we can build on.”
‘Social shoppers’ is a term applied to people who are prepared to take advantage of Finland’s welfare benefits but not to pay for them. An extreme example would be someone who obtains an education in Finland, moves to take on a high-paying job in a country with low taxes, moves back to allow his or her children to get an education, moves abroad again until retirement, when he or she comes back to enjoy nearly free health care and other benefits.
Finnish companies moving overseas in the hope of similar cost savings fall into the same category.
“I think a reasonable amount of ‘social shopping’ for each person is completely OK. People should be able to consider for themselves what is best for their life situation at any given time. Both private people and corporations should be able to make their own decisions on how best to survive.”
However, Halonen thinks that society should take into account the possibility of ‘social shopping’ as it creates a welfare system. In Finland this has been taken into account such that certain benefits are only available to those who live, work and pay taxes in the country.
“A model where one just gets benefits but is not prepared to pay for them is not sustainable for a small country with five million inhabitants,” she asserts.

Weighing the Reasons
for Moving Abroad

“Society should be concerned about why people decide – or are forced to decide – to move overseas,” continues Halonen. “Some degree of migration is always healthy; it’s a sign of a free, open society.”
She reiterates that Finland should consider why someone has had to move abroad. As she sees it, seeking new experiences is an ever more common and natural reason, but there should not be reasons that force someone to move away.
“We should think about whether someone has to move because there is no work in Finland or that there is some other factor in Finland that compels someone to emigrate. If so, the state of Finland must be able to respond to that.”
Halonen adds that, as president, she must support the welfare of the Finns and consider how the nation can maintain educational opportunities, health care, employment and other benefits. This is crucial to her.
“In the same way as a company tries to make profits and improve its chances to get by, it is the responsibility of the government, the parliament and the president to build a workable framework for the activities of companies and private individuals,” says Halonen. “As president, I need be concerned about how this country called Finland will manage as a country.”
To sum up, President Halonen says: “a corporation can move overseas and a private individual can move overseas, but Finland cannot move anywhere, and we have to make sure of that.”

Text and photos by Mikko Rahikka