Home and family in alternative care – how Finnish legislation creates opportunities for belonging

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alternative care can be offered through foster family care, residential care or adoption. The need to belong is equal for all groups of children, but the opportunities for creating a sense of belonging for them are different. An analysis of the laws and government propositions steering alternative care in Finland was conducted. The analysis was inspired by Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and performed across cases of the different types of care. The discourse on belonging was operationalised mainly through the concepts of home and family. These concepts were analysed in relation to the spatial, relational and temporal dimensions of belonging. In the laws and legal documents steering alternative care in Finland, adoption is about legal relations, while foster family and residential care concern the environment for upbringing. The opportunities for creating a sense of belonging are very different in the three forms of care. In residential care, legislation in relation to the home and family mainly considers the past; in foster family care, it considers the past and the present; and in adoption, it considers the future. In addition to legislation failing to consider temporal aspects, it also does not recognise the complexity of family life.