Who is migrating into Finland today? How is migration discussed in Finland? How is Finland promoting integration? What roles do Finns living abroad play in Finnish society? This panel will introduce the main migration trends, discussions, and research in Finland today. It will review the different types of migrations into Finland, emigration from Finland, and mobilities within Finland. The panel will reflect on how migration is discussed in Finnish policy-making, media, and the public and, using the example of the city of Turku, take a closer look at migration, settlement, and integration in practice. Finally, the panel will turn to the main trends in Finnish migration research, offering examples from the work of the Migration Institute of Finland.

Dr. Saara Pellander, Director of the Migration Institute, works on questions related to borders, migration, and families, particularly Finnish family reunification policies and their implementation.
Jarkko Virtanen, M.Soc.Sc., City of Turku Director of Corporate Governance and Deputy Mayor of the city of Turku, is responsible, alongside and in support of the Mayor, for the strategic guidance of the city and represents the city at domestic and foreign interest group events and negotiations.

Dr. Samira Saramo, Senior Research Fellow of the Migration Institute of Finland, focuses on migration, ethnicity, place-making, and everyday life in both historical and current contexts. Her work centers on histories of Finnish migrants in Canada and the United States, as well as in Soviet Karelia.

Katri Kanervo, M.A., Information Specialist at the Migration Institute of Finland, oversees Information services and tasks related to the publication of events and publications. In the library she works with collection management, acquisition, cataloguing, customer service, and inter-library loans. This includes classification and storage of electronic data and traditional written information material and the Institute’s website.