Media visit
05/06/2024
On the 5th of June Tampere University held a media visit with journalists from across the world to hear some of our childhood, youth and family researchers talk about their current research in Finland. Afterwards three expatriates who live in Tampere with their families were given the opportunity to talk about their personal experiences of moving to and living in Finland.
We had a media visit at Tampere university as a part of a collaboration between Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the city of Tampere and PERLA. The event had participants from around the world coming together to discuss different aspects of childcare and health in Finland. There were three presentations which focused on different aspects of the topic.
Mia Tammelin introduced the Finnish society and its’ development to a welfare state. Her presentation touched on division of household work, equality in the labour markets and some current developments.
Marjaana Jones explained about the current state of maternity care in Finland. She outlined the free maternity care that people in Finland are entitled to and how pregnant people can access these services.
Arttu Mykkänen presented early childhood education in Finland explaining what kinds of services and early childhood education Finnish children receive.
After the presentations the journalists were able to chat with the presenters and ask questions on the topic. This led to a lot of discussion between the media representatives and the researchers.
Next, we heard from three expats: Kelly Keodara, José Raúl Berlanga Zárate and Natalia Gromova. They shared their experiences on moving to Finland to work and to study as parents. We even had the pleasure of having Natalia Gromova’s child who was able to share their experiences of being a child in Finland’s education system.
Despite having different nationalities, different educational backgrounds and different fields all the expats had experienced many of the same challenges while living in Finland. They talked about some of the difficulties in adjusting to living in a new country and changing jobs and careers. They also had similar positive experiences as for all of them raising a child in Finland came with some fantastic benefits. They spoke of how childhood is seen differently in Finland compared to where they previously lived and how grateful they are that their children are able to experience more freedom while living in Finland.