Authors
Emma Rimpiläinen1; 1 IRES, Uppsala University, Sweden Discussion
Based on qualitative materials collected while advising people seeking temporary protection in Helsinki from April to September 2022, this paper examines how people fleeing the Russian invasion in Ukraine navigate the refugee reception and welfare provision systems in Finland. The paper contrasts the materials collected in Finland with the findings of fieldwork among displaced people from Donbas in Ukraine and Russia in 2018-19. Highlighting the expectations, strategies, and disappointments of seekers of temporary protection from Ukraine in Finland brings into focus not only the shortcomings of the Finnish refugee reception system, but also some of the structures and logics of Ukrainian society. For example, mistrust in authorities, typical in Ukraine, manifested in an aversion to seek information on the official websites of Finnish institutions and in a preference to trust personal networks, social media groups, or volunteer organisations that had delivered effective results in the past. Further, some newcomers from Ukraine appeared to use a strategy akin to “beating out” resources (vybit), for example by writing collective complaints or turning to several organisations in search of a desired result, for example access to free apartments. The paper discusses the successes or failures of such strategies and what they reveal about the implementation of temporary protection in Finland as well as the logics of social welfare provision in Ukraine. 
