The Inequality Dialogue on Poverty-Related Barriers to Social and Democratic Participation, organised as part of the Beyond Barriers to Participation project, was held on 10 December 2025 together with EAPN-Finland.
The dialogue brought together two groups from the network: representatives of organisations such as Save the Children, Vailla vakinaista asuntoa, and Kirkkopalvelut, alongside people with lived experience of poverty.
The article discusses two themes that emerged in the discussion: structural and individual barriers.
Positive practices of inclusion
Participants’ experiences of inclusion and participation were mainly linked to work, civil society and hobbies. Participants working in social sector organisations highlighted that work is the most important guarantor of inclusion. They considered themselves fortunate to have been employed before the current government’s cuts to organisations and to feel part of meaningful work communities.
Another factor promoting inclusion that was highlighted in the discussions was related to various community spaces and other free meeting places. Vantaa emerged as a municipality with so-called low-threshold resident spaces for organizing public events. Meeting places for people with limited means should be close to home, as travel is expensive, even by public transport. Vantaa’s resident spaces also have local workers who help residents in various problem situations, such as problems related to digital services. In addition to one’s own participation, it was considered important to offer experiences of participation and inclusion to others.
Having a place where people can come together is important for participation. An inviting atmosphere that excludes no one is equally essential. The lack of public spaces becomes even more pronounced as Finland shifts all services to digital platforms.
Poverty and child inclusion
In Finland, the previous government approved a goal to reduce child poverty by 33,000 children by 2030. However, the development has been the opposite: the number of poor children has increased by 31,000 to over 150,000. With approximately 40,000 children born in Finland each year, this means poverty affects almost an entire annual cohort of children. The younger the child, the deeper and more lasting the impact of poverty on the rest of their lives.
Friends and peer groups are particularly important for children and young people. Therefore, hobbies and going to and with friends are important tools for building a sense of identity and belonging. Free hobbies and public transport are particularly important for children and young people.
Summer holidays are often a problematic time for poor families with children. Subsidised holidays offered to families with children based on social need have often provided relief, but the government has reduced this support and plans to phase it out entirely.
Since we gathered for dialogue before Christmas, we also discussed the importance of gifts and food, both strongly associated with Christmas. Celebrating Christmas costs money, and without it comes a painful feeling of exclusion. We got a perfect example of this when not everyone could fit in and the food ran out in the middle of the party organized by Veikko Hurst at the Messukeskus on Christmas Eve. There were more people in poverty than anticipated. This is a concrete illustration of rising poverty and the exclusion it generates!
In the dialogue, we also discussed that the level of social security is being changed so that immigrants and/or asylum seekers are paid less support than native Finns. Similar models in Denmark have led to high dropout rates among children from immigrant families. This, in turn, leads to severe marginalisation, a vicious cycle of exclusion for individuals, and, at worst, the growth of drug and criminal gangs. From a societal perspective, such developments lead to increased insecurity and violence.
Decision-makers to confront the poor
Dialogue participants agreed that decision-makers should spend time among citizens living in poverty to witness the consequences of cuts firsthand. Poverty is daily, pervasive, and debilitating – it is difficult to summarize in a few words and cannot be solved with straightforward measures. Nor is poverty merely the sum of individuals and their life choices; it is a complex web of structural problems that must be examined from multiple perspectives. Without multiple perspectives and a structural examination, the understanding of the causes of poverty, and potential solutions, remains superficial and incomplete.