Intra-minority welfare in the post-war period: new expertise on private and public solutions to Finland-Swedish population and welfare problems

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article introduces the concept of intra-minority welfare and investigates the formation of intra-minority welfare in the post-war period by focusing on the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, the Finland-Swedes. The post-war era saw a rapid decline in both the percentage of Swedish speakers in Finland and their political influence. To tackle these issues, new organizations were formed to boost the birth rate and secure the welfare of the Finland-Swedish minority. With the expansion of the welfare state, a new generation of Finland-Swedish experts within the fields of social work and demographics also played a prominent role in the intra-minority debate on how public welfare could cater to different segments of the minority. In the article the authors focus on the work conducted in connection to the organizations Svenska Befolkningsförbundet i Finland (The Swedish Population Federation in Finland) and Kårkulla vårdanstalt för sinnesslöa (Kårkulla Care Institution for the Mentally Deficient). By analysing material produced by or about the organizations and experts who worked within them from the 1940s to 1960, they demonstrate how ideas and practices around intra-minority welfare, in particular the demographic future of the Finland-Swedes and care for vulnerable members of the minority, were conceptualized and framed in the post-war period.