Forced migration and mortality in the very long term: Did perestroika affect death rates also in Finland?

Abstract

arge-scale population displacements often occur in relation to wars. This has been the case also for Finland. According to the Paris peace treaty after World War II, the country had to relinquish approximately 10% of its territory to the Soviet Union (see Figure 1). The population that was evacuated from this area during the period 1940-1945 could therefore not return home after the war and was relocated elsewhere in Finland. The internally displaced persons, who primarily were farmers, amounted to over 420,000 persons, or about 12% of the country's total population. The settlement of these Karelians was a large economic burden for the entire postwar agrarian Finland, in addition to the substantial amount of war reparations the country had to pay to the Soviet Union. All families had the right to receive a new homestead, and were allocated new land in proportion to their former property (Pihkala 1952;Virtanen 2006). As they prepared themselves for permanent existence in new surroundings and were expected to engage in all facets of economic, social, and political life (Ahonen 2005), they seem to have adapted well in postwar Finnish society. In this article, we approach the issue of their integration by focusing on mortality.Data from Finland provide an unusual opportunity to use high-quality and reliable information to study the interrelation between forced migration and mortality in the very long term. Available information, based on longitudinal population registers linked to mortality records, makes it possible to estimate death rates for people according to their region of birth for the entire period 1971-2004. Because the electronic population register goes back only to 1970, mortality during the fi rst two to three decades after evacuation lies beyond our scope.Conventional theory on migrants' adaptation to stress suggests that moving, and particularly being forced to move, imposes stress on the individual because it disturbs the equilibrium between the migrant and the environment (Ben-Sira 1997). This compels the migrant to readjust, which may negatively affect health and raise subsequent mortality.

The Impact of Forced Migration on Mortality

“…Our results differ from an earlier study suggesting that all-cause and IHD mortality among Finnish displaced and non-displaced populations was similar except for the years 1989-1992 12 . An important limitation of this earlier study is that the conclusions hinge on a single statistically significant estimate and multiple testing issues are not discussed.…”

“…Previous results on health are mixed. One study reports a 20% higher mortality risk for displaced men during years 1989-1992 in comparison to non-displaced men, but no differences for other time periods or for women 12 . Another study compares displaced and non-displaced populations living close to the post-war Finnish-Soviet Union border and reports a lower myocardial infarction incidence among the displaced population in 1972 13 .…”

Forced migration in childhood and subsequent fertility: The Karelian displaced population in Finland

“…Previous research has documented modest differences between the forced migrants and nonmigrants in Finland with respect to a range of observable characteristics, including education, employment, sector of work, homeownership, and marital status, regardless of whether observed only a few years after the evacuation or several decades later (Saarela & Finnäs, ; Sarvimäki et al, ). However, many displaced persons moved within Finland after they had been relocated.…”

Long-term Mortality of War Cohorts: The Case of Finland

“…People who were forced to migrate from the areas that were ceded to the Soviet Union experienced an increased death risk of approximately 20% more than 40 years after their evacuation (Saarela and Finnäs 2009c). That was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union.…”