Migrant kinship networks – Legal and policy frameworks in shaping family life and belonging in a host country

What is the role of legal and policy frameworks in shaping family life, including family reunification policies, residence status, and access to social services? These structures can both enable and constrain the possibilities for maintaining family unity and fostering a sense of belonging.

We welcome submissions on topics such as migrant family relations, quantitative migration studies, transnational families, and family reunification policies.

The Population projections for migration scenarios, human capital development, and sustainable integration (MigScene) consortium explores how human capital, and productivity may evolve in Finland under various educational, migration, and integration scenarios. MigScene is funded by the Strategic Research Council (STN), established within the Research Council of Finland. MigScene is part of the Skills, Labour Supply and Migration in Future Finland (SKILLS) program.

Language of the session: English

This research focuses on African immigrants in Finland, comparing their economic integration outcomes and using administrative register data to track these outcomes over time. The study seeks to address an existing gap in immigrant welfare research in Finland by analyzing, longitudinally, the labour market outcomes of African immigrants in comparison to other major immigrant groups in Finland. The study will address this gap by asking: How do African immigrants differ in their economic integration trajectories (earnings and months employed) compared with other immigrant groups? This research uses the segmented labour market theory to aid its empirical analysis of the research problem. The segmented labor market theory posits that Western economies are bifurcated into a well-paying primary sector and a low-paying secondary sector; it provides the theoretical foundation for analyzing whether African and non-Western immigrants, who are often pushed into the secondary sector, have the same earnings and employment growth trajectories as other immigrant groups in Finland.

The study will use data from Finnish administrative registers to identify people born in Africa who are aged 18-64 and legally reside in Finland. For comparison, the study will also include six other immigrant groups with the same baseline characteristics. This study will use curvilinear growth curve models as part of its analytical strategy. Growth curve models estimate trajectories of earnings and employment over time since arrival in Finland from 2000 to 2023.

This research hypothesizes that African immigrants and those from non-European and non-Western countries will have slower earnings and employment growth trajectories than Western and European immigrants, with the former’s labour outcomes failing to converge with the latter. Preliminary results show that immigrants from Africa and the Middle East have lower earnings and employment growth over time than other groups in Finland.

The most important economic asset of a population is its human capital: the skills, educational level, and wellbeing of residents. Educational expansion and international immigration can increase human capital and mitigate the negative consequences of population ageing. Attracting skilled migrants is key for increasing productivity, while integration in a way that promotes social cohesion also involves new demands to the educational system, social services, and society at large. This challenge is shared by all high-income countries but is especially astute in Finland, with its stalling productivity and educational levels, ultra-low fertility, a modest recent history of immigration, and stark concentration of immigrants to the capital region.

MigScene answers to these challenges and opportunities by exploring how human capital and productivity may evolve in Finland under various educational, migration, and integration scenarios. We present a set of multidimensional population projections up to the year 2070, study integration processes, employ methodological innovations, and enhance capacity to use projection tools. Specifically, we address the following questions: What are the likely future scenarios of human capital development in Finland, given different types of migration and educational policies, and how do they compare to other high-income countries? How do different scenarios affect labour force productivity, public expenditure, and the Finnish pension system? How can Finland compete internationally and successfully integrate skilled immigrants and their descendants in different regions? How can services and education ensure all children and youth enter adulthood with optimal capabilities?

In this presentation, we introduce the MigScene consortium which brings together expertise in data science, economics, and the social sciences. MigScene uses international microsimulation tools, register data, and advanced statistical methods. MigScene will create scenarios and policy recommendations for immigration policies, and for immigrants’ skill development and sustainable integration.

Ageing population and declining fertility rates have increased the importance of immigration for sustaining Europe’s labour force, tax base, and welfare systems. At the same time, political pressures to restrict immigration and limit integration measures have intensified across many European countries. While a substantial body of research has examined the relationship between integration policies and immigrant integration outcomes, existing studies have tended to focus primarily on economic and labour market indicators, providing a relatively narrow understanding of integration.

This study adopts Ager and Strang’s framework of integration and examines the extent to which national integration policies are associated with differences between immigrants and natives across selected core domains of integration. Particular attention is given to the framework’s “soft” dimensions, namely social connections, including family and friendship ties, and facilitating factors such as language use, safety, and stability. By focusing on these domains, the study seeks to capture aspects that are more closely related to the sense of belonging and social inclusion.

The study’s main contribution is to shift the focus from immigrants alone to immigrant-native disparities. Thus, it investigates whether more inclusive policy framework can narrow the gap between immigrants and natives across key integration domains. Where data permit, distinctions will be made
between migrants with EU and non-EU citizenship to assess whether policy effects vary across
migrant groups.

The analysis combines individual-level data from the European Social Survey with country-level
indicators from the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) and other contextual sources. Multilevel
regression models will be used to examine variation across country contexts. Based on previous research, the relationship between integration policies and integration outcomes is not expected to be linear. Nevertheless, the study hypothesises that more inclusive integration policies are associated with smaller immigrant-native disparities across the selected integration domains, particularly among non-EU migrants.

Core-kinless older adults, i.e., those lacking a partner and children, represent a potentially vulnerable group. However, the whole population-level research devoted to this group remains scarce. This study estimates the prevalence, sociodemographic characteristics, and geographic distribution of core-kinless adults in Finland, with attention to variation across ethnolinguistic groups of Finnish, Swedish, and other language speakers (often immigrants). We used register data covering the entire population aged 65 and over in 2024 (N = 1,328,732) and descriptive analyses. Core-kinlessness was defined as the absence of both a registered co-residing partner and any living children registered in Finland. In total, 11.6% of older adults in Finland were core-kinless. Prevalence was 11.3% among Finnish-speaking, 10.3% among Swedish-speaking, and 30.5% among other language-speaking individuals. Migration background in general, being male among Finnish-speaking as well as being female, being
older and having lower education among other language-speaking individuals are the characteristics of this group. The positive associations between municipal core-kinlessness and i) demographic dependency ratio, ii) the mortality rate among older adults and iii) the rate of home care clients confirm that municipalities where these older adults are concentrated also face greater demographic and service pressures. This study provides the first register
based national estimates of core-kinlessness in Finland, demonstrating that survey data
underestimate this group. The findings o er evidence for targeted care planning at the
individual and municipality levels.

As demographic decline accelerates across industrial economies, state guestworker rotation schemes present a critical paradox between institutional demand for foreign labor and structural refusal of long-term belonging. This paper investigates how host-state visa design shapes migrant trust, institutional friction, and social integration trajectories. Focusing on South Korea’s Employment Permit System, the study analyzes how temporal rotation caps generate systemic integration waste by forcing foreign worker departure at peak productivity.

Drawing on a 5-year longitudinal qualitative study conducted from 2021 to 2026, the research evaluates how guestworkers navigate institutional trust across South Korea’s immigration framework. Through comparative qualitative analysis, the paper contrasts the legal security of state-sanctioned marital integration under the F-6 visa against industrial guestworker family units under the E-9 visa, who face mandatory departure regardless of economic adaptation or language capability. The study further examines the point-based E-7-4 skilled worker transition, demonstrating how stringent bureaucratic requirements foster institutional mistrust and precarious temporality among migrant workers.

Addressing the ETMU 2026 conference theme of trust in mobile futures, the findings demonstrate that mandatory rotation caps act as an institutional barrier under compressed modernity. By treating foreign labor as temporary capacity while withholding long-term civic recognition, state visa policy destabilizes migrant trust in institutional fairness. The paper conceptualizes how guestworkers construct informal solidarity networks to cope with state-enforced mobility constraints, offering policy recommendations to realign guestworker retention with institutional trust, human dignity, and sustainable social belonging in mobile futures.

Keywords
institutional trust, Employment Permit System, guestworker rotation, integration waste, mobile futures

This paper examines the role of family life and belonging in decisions concerning the transfer of prisoners in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Drawing on legislation and court decisions, it analyses the extent to which family ties, social integration, and attachment to the sentencing state influence decisions to transfer foreign prisoners to another country. Interestingly, while the EU Framework Decision on the transfer of prisoners provides that family reasons need to be considered when making transfer decisions, the Nordic agreement on the transfer of prisoners makes no mention to family life.

The study considers both the legal frameworks governing prisoner transfers and their interpretation in practice. Most of the cases examined concern transfers within the European Union, where legal and administrative procedures are generally more straightforward. Particular attention is paid to how courts assess family relationships, reintegration prospects, and connections to the sentencing state and the prisoner’s country of nationality.

The analysis shows that, although family life and attachment are formally taken into account, courts rarely find that a prisoner is more closely connected to the sentencing state than to their country of citizenship, and prisoners are generally presumed to have stronger social and familial ties to their state of nationality. As a result, transfer decisions are only exceptionally overturned.

The paper also demonstrates that courts frequently assume that employment and reintegration prospects are better in the prisoner’s country of nationality. It argues that nationality remains the primary indicator of belonging in transfer decisions, whereas family life and social integration have a more limited influence in practice. Consequently, courts tend to favour transfer if the person has in any case a deportation order and an entry ban to the sentencing state. The paper provides new knowledge on the significance of family ties and belonging concerning the transfer of prisoners.

Family is the most important social institution, and kin members are key providers of all kinds of support. Immigrants often lack the everyday support of kin in the host country, as they typically immigrate either alone or with only their immediate family. In addition to the crucial importance of family and kin for individual well-being, family connections may also facilitate integration. By supporting family connections, immigrants’ ties to and sense of belonging in the host country may be strengthened. The extent and composition of kinship networks of immigrants residing in Finland are not known. In this study, we describe the kin networks of first-generation immigrants using Finnish full-population register data. We aim to describe, as accurately as possible, the kin networks of immigrants in Finland across time (e.g., 2000, 2010, 2020, 2024), stratified by ego’s age groups (e.g., 5, 15, 35, 65, 85), country of birth, and region within Finland. One known limitation of the register data is that we cannot identify siblings or other horizontal kin if they do not share an older generation (e.g., a mother or father) that is observed in the data. Consequently, kinship networks of immigrants constructed using register data will inevitably remain incomplete. This limitation needs to be taken into account when interpreting the results.

Finland’s evolving migration policy increasingly links the prospects of remaining within the country to employment, income, and the ability to fulfill administrative obligations. The minimum income requirement for a residence permit for employed individuals was heightened in 2025. Furthermore, reforms concerning family reunification introduced additional criteria related to income, age, and, for certain beneficiaries of international protection, durations of prior residence (Finnish Immigration Service 2024; Finnish Government 2025). These modifications have specific implications for migrants whose access to residence is already influenced by insecure and low-wage employment. Research conducted in Finland indicates how temporary legal status can steer migrants towards precarious employment in the service sector and necessitate significant daily effort to sustain what Maury describes as a legally recognizable status (Maury 2020, 2024). Studies of migrant platform workers similarly illustrate how the temporal demands of gig work intersect with border regime requirements, thereby closely linking livelihood, mobility, and legal security (Maury, Hakala, and Näre 2024).

This paper investigates how migrants and their families manage the intersection of precarious employment and increasingly conditional legal residence, and how these pressures are distributed within households. Drawing upon social reproduction scholarship, which positions paid work, caregiving, household maintenance, and the reproduction of labor within the same network of social relations (Ferguson and McNally 2015; Bhattacharya 2017), the study regards the family as a central site where the repercussions of migration and labor-market governance are absorbed and negotiated. This perspective builds on recent research on administrative bordering in Finland, showing that maintaining legal residence requires ongoing investments of time, attention, income, and care (Maury 2024).

Empirically, the study utilizes narrative interviews with migrants employed in precarious sectors, including food delivery, cleaning, care, and service work, supplemented where feasible by interviews with family members. It investigates how employment insecurity, residence requirements, and family reunification conditions influence decisions related to working hours, childcare, household income, housing, mobility, and long-term planning. Particular emphasis is placed on the gendered organization of these responses: identifying who increases paid work, who provides unpaid care, whose employment is prioritized, and how households distribute the risks associated with maintaining adequate income and secure residence.

The paper argues that the growing conditionality of migration governance produces precarity within family life as well as within employment. Legal and economic insecurity are managed through forms of social reproductive labor that are unevenly distributed within households and often remain analytically invisible when migration is examined primarily through the individual worker. By bringing employment, legal status, care, and household strategies into the same analytical frame, the paper contributes to scholarship on migrant labor and bordering in Finland while developing a more explicitly gendered account of how families sustain everyday life and the possibility of a future in the country.

Keywords:  migration governance; social reproduction; precarious labor; gender; migrant families; administrative bordering; legal precarity; Finland.