The report of Secretariat of the Finnish Expatriate Parliament’s operation during the years 2002 - 05

In October 2005 430 Expatriate Finnish communities in 34 countries had ratified the Expatriate Parliament’s rules. The Expatriate Parliamentary Speaker’s main objectives for the years 2002 – 05 were as listed below:

1)Informing about the new Nationality Act
2)Taxation of employment pensions paid to receivers abroad
3)Improving the conditions for expatriates wishing to vote
4)The Finnish expatriate political agenda
5)Forms of support for families with multicultural background
6)Support for expatriate Finnish youth’s student exchange programs and employment
7)Ensuring the continuity of Russian and Estonian projects to support Ingrian Finns

During the same period from 2002 to 2005 also the following subjects were on the agenda: securing the short and long wave radio broad casts (8), the status of Suomi Schools (9), co-operation with the Foreign Service (10), starting a exercise program in Suomi Homes abroad (11), increasing the efficiency of the Finnish Expatriate Parliament’s informing (12).

1. The new Nationality Act and distributing information on it

During the preparation of the Nationality Act the Finnish Expatriate Parliament was heard on a number of occasions. The new Nationality Act on multiple citizenship took effect on the 1st of June 2003. FEP worked closely together with the Directorate of Immigration in matters regarding the effect of the law and information distribution. During the period 1 June 2003 – 26 July 2005, 5 648 citizenship declarations were made. The cost of citizenship declaration fees has given cause to a lot of criticism. To begin with the cost of the fee was 300 euros, and 100 euros for under aged children. The cost of the fee was reduced on the 1 January 2004, for ex. War children the fee is now 100 euros and for 65 year olds and over it is 250 euros. The 1 January 2005 the cost of the declaration fees were reduced further so that it is now 240 euros.

2. Taxation of pensions paid overseas

The taxation at source on pensions paid to people living overseas is about to change. The government’s bill on taxation at source is presented to the parliament before the end of May 2005. The intention is to let the new legislation take act on 1st of January 2006. In the proposal the 35 % tax at source is replaced with a new system, so that those pensions paid overseas would be taxed progressively, which is a new taxation system equivalent to the one applied to people living in Finland. State progressive income tax is determined according to the state income tax scale. In addition the taxpayer will be granted personal and family reductions equivalent to the reductions applied to any person living in Finland. The Expatriate Parliament has suggested that the pensioners living overseas would be entitled to chose between two models: the progressive taxation and the 35 % taxation with reductions. This model would be equivalent to the one applied to persons living in a EU/EEA country with a total or almost total income from Finland.

3. Improving the voting opportunities of Finnish expatriates

In the spring of 2004, the Ministry of Justice set up the Democracy 2007 Committee to review, among other things, alternative voting methods. The committee proposes, that the Ministry of Justice consider resolving, how the voting opportunities of expatriate Finns could be improved in the future, either within the scope of current legislation or in some other way, for example by following Sweden’s example of distance voting. According to a comparative study, many EU member states permit vote by post (The Europeans Throughout the World ETTW: Democratic Rights of European Expatriates, 2004).

4. The Finnish Expatriate Policy Program

The Ministry of Labour and the Finland Society updated the Finnish Expatriate Policy Program from 2000 in early March 2004. The Presidium met with the Minister of Labour, Tarja Filatov, in the autumn meeting of 2004. The Minister promised to present the Program to the cabinet, after verifying that the Program can be realized within the current budgetary constraints. The Presidium emphasized the symbolic value of the Program to Finnish expatriates: many a well tested practice is reinforced in the Program.

5. The forms of support for multi-cultural families

The forms of support for multi-cultural families and recent migrants were discussed at the “Multi-cultured Marriages as Bridges Between Cultures” expert seminar held on the 15th of August 2005, in Helsinki. The event was organized by the Institute of Migration, the FEP and the people of the International Cultural Centre, Caisa, specialized in the field. A more extensive public seminar for Finnish expatriates was held on the same subject in conjunction with the fourth plenary session of the FEP on the 20th of May 2005. The Institute of Migration and the people of the FEP specialized in the field were in charge of organizing the seminar.
A meeting on questions concerning multi-cultural families was held in the Finland Society on the 6th of October 2004. A representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health was also present at the meeting. It was established in the meeting that, apart from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, too, could offer their expertise for a guidebook concerning international marriages and issues of international family law in general. Nevertheless, the aforementioned Ministries do not have the resources to take the lead in the project.

6. Student exchange and jobs of Finnish expatriate youth

The presidium visited the Centre for International Mobility, CIMO, in conjunction with the autumn meeting of 2003. CIMO presented its services for the Finnish expatriate youth. Degree programs in foreign languages in the Finnish Universities, in particular, offer a fine opportunity for the Finnish expatriate youth to pursue studies in Finland. Students of foreign universities, polytechnics and other vocational establishments, as well as those who have recently graduated from one, can apply for traineeships in the international traineeship programs. Many of these programs are based on bilateral agreements between organizations in various countries.
There is an on-line service, Discover Finland, for those, who are interested in educational or traineeship opportunities in Finland. The CIMO has published handbooks for international use: for example, the handbook “Study in Finland” introduces the foreign language degree programs of Finnish universities. The CIMO is responsible for Finland’s share of the PLOTEUS portal, which was inaugurated in 2003 and contains information on educational opportunities in Europe.
The educational, youth and cultural programmes of the EU offer opportunities, for example, for cooperation between educational establishments, for basic and further training of teaching staff, as well as for creating networks between different EU and EEC member states. There are programs for different levels of education, thus they are not only for the universities.
A new column for the youth relating issues concerning education and employment has been established on the homepages of the Finland Society. The Finland Society renewed the e-mailing list for the Finnish expatriate youth so that there is a discussion forum only for the youth on the homepages. An event for the youth was organized in conjunction with the fourth plenary session of the FEP, in which information on studying opportunities in Finnish universities, and on traineeship opportunities and youth exchange in Finland was made available.

7. Ensuring the continuity of projects supporting Ingrian Finns in Russia and Estonia

A support project for Ingrian Finns was realized in 1999-2002 with the help of the 1.56 million euros granted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from their funds for neighbouring areas. The project was based on a decision in principle of the government, which initiated a program aimed at improving the living conditions and preserving the culture of Ingrian Finns. The main goal of the project was to improve the employment, strengthen the cultural identity and improve the living conditions of the Ingrian Finns in their habitat in Ingria, Carelia and Estonia. The Ministry of Labour, with several other ministries participating in it, coordinated the project. The organizations of the Ingrian Finns themselves were responsible for the administration. The project included, for example, organizing vocational training and training in Finnish, starting an employment service for Ingrian Finns only in St. Petersburg, and supporting the starting of small businesses, for example in tourism and handicraft. An evaluation report of the support project for Ingrian Finns was completed in November 2003. On the whole, the support project was estimated to have been beneficial to the Ingrian Finns. The project demonstrated that NGOs could act as equal partners with the authorities.

8. Broadcasts to Finnish expatriates

The future of the traditional short and medium-wave broadcasts of YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, were widely debated on the pages of Finnish newspapers in the summer and autumn of 2004. The Finland Society and the Finnish Expatriate Parliament appealed to the administrative council of YLE to continue broadcasts to Finnish expatriates sent an appeal to the editors-in-chief of Finnish newspapers and signed letters to the editor. In addition, some members of the Parliament were contacted directly. Written inquiries have been made in the Parliament on securing the short and medium wave broadcasts of Radio Finland, and speeches defending the foreign broadcasts were heard, for example, when the Parliament was discussing the annual report of the administrative council of YLE for 2003.
The Finland Society published its own Finnish expatriate media guide “Mikä viestin maailmalla?” (“Which Media Abroad?”) in the autumn of 2004. The guide presents comparative information on Finnish electronic media abroad.
The presidium of the FEP met at several occasions with the leadership of the YLE in 2002-2005. In the end of 2004, the Finland Society and the FEP organized a petition campaign on behalf of the short and medium wave broadcast. Some 15 000 Finnish expatriates took part in the campaign. The petition was presented to the chairman of YLE’s administrative council, Mika Lintilä, at the Parliament on February 8, 2005. The decision to merge Radio Finland into an operation called Collage Channels of Radio was made in September 2005. Another part of it is the Radio Peili of YLE.

9. The status of Suomi schools

The National Board of Education has yearly proposed to the Ministry of Education that the budget should be increased to cover the growing costs of Suomi schools. The annual increase is 16.000 to 22.000 euros from 2001 on. The Ministry of Education has been able to grant the additional sum by decreasing the funding of other projects. The Ministry of Education and the National Board of Education have proposed an increase to the base allocation. In addition to the annual Suomi schoolteacher training days, the National Board of Education has allocated funds to the Helsinki University Centre for Continuing Education in Vantaa, which has organized training for those teachers in the Suomi schools, who lack qualifications.
The Ministry of Education appointed an officer in 2004 to map the capacities and development needs of the Suomi schools. The officer is to:

*present a description of the current state and the history of the Finnish/Swedish clubs
*evaluate the adequacy of financing by state with respect to the extent of their functions and to examine the possibilities of external financing
*determine the amount of students with Finnish as their mother tongue and the amount of students with Finnish as their second language, and to describe the various resource needs of these groups
*determine the visibility of the Finnish/Swedish clubs in Finland and their accessibility abroad, as well as related information activities
*determine the questions related to the further training of teachers
*map the availability of teaching materials and the costs of teaching materials at the clubs
*determine the quality of IT equipment at the clubs
*map the questions relating to the facilities of the clubs
*map other activities of the clubs in addition to the actual language teaching
*also map the other non-statutory teaching systems for Finnish expatriate children, such as basic home school for Finnish expatriate children and various summer courses, as well as their utilisation from the point of view of the clubs
*on their basis, draft proposals on the development of activities

The work is to be competed by the end of 2005. Also members of the Parliament and the Finnish ambassador to Greece, Ole Norrback, have appealed in writing to the decision makers on behalf of increasing the funding to Suomi schools.

10. Cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

The presidium of the FEP meets with representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at regular intervals. There have been discussions with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on; for example, the communication of the Nationality Act and postal votes organized abroad, as well as communicating electoral information.

11. Traineeship program for Suomi homes

A social and health care sector traineeship program aimed at the homes for elderly expatriate Finns (Suomi homes) and coordinated by the Centre for International Mobility, CIMO, was launched in the spring of 2004. The Suomi homes offered 28 traineeships for 2005 and there are 33 traineeships available during 2006. The traineeships take place in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the U.S. and Russia. New sites are being mapped continuously. In the first phase, the trainees are students of Polytechnic schools, as the Unit of Polytechnics of the Ministry of Education finances the program. The aim is to extend the exchange program to the students in upper secondary education, too.

12. Improving information sharing

The communities of expatriate Finns have hoped that the authorities increase information sharing. Their wishes have been met by sending various bulletins in conjunction with mail. The following institutions presented themselves and distributed information in conjunction with the fourth plenary session of the Finnish Expatriate Parliament at the Finlandia Hall: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Directorate of Immigration, Population Register Centre, Finnish Centre for Pensions, Centre for International Mobility CIMO, and Department of National Service of the Defence Staff.

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