Govt adopts Policy Programme for expat Finns

The government adopted the Policy Programme for Expatriate Finns 2017–2021 to looks after the interests of about 1.6 million expatriate Finns living abroad, said an official press release.

The government adopted its first Policy Programme for expatriate Finns in 2006.

The Policy Programme for this time includes 17 policies and a number of measures for promoting the expatriates.

The programme targets are linked to elections, passports and identity cards and other citizenship issues, the operations of Finnish and European schools abroad, basic education of children, social security, and healthcare services.

The Policy Programme for Expatriate Finns was prepared in cooperation between the Finland Society, the Finnish Expatriate Parliament and several ministries and authorities. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible of the coordination of the programme.

In the programme, expatriate Finns are defined as Finnish citizens or people of Finnish origin who live permanently outside Finland.

The largest communities of Finnish expatriates are in Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Estonia.

Some 242,000 Finnish citizens eligible to vote in Finland’s national elections lived abroad in April 2015.