Constructing the imaginary of ‘international talent’ in Finnish migration policy 2006–2024

The global competition for talent has become paramount in migration policies across the world, with expansive expectations on its economic outcomes. International talents are simultaneously expected to respond to demographic crises, create innovation, and accelerate economic growth. By studying Finnish migration policy documents, I argue that constantly evolving imaginaries of talent construct and sustain hierarchical migration regimes. Leaning on Cultural Political Economy and migration studies, I illustrate how the adoption of talent in policy discourse has contributed to the neoliberalization of hierarchical migration regimes, forming a complex rationale of selectivity, combining elements of personal merit and group-based targeting. Widely shared imaginaries, in other words visions of the future, view migrants as essentially bearers of human capital, which are conditioned to changing political ideals. Thus, I have divided the guiding imaginaries into three phases. First, the introduction of migration as a solution for managing societal changes, second, internationalization and growth, and thirdly, growth and control. This leads to an imaginary of talent that combines elements of abstract geographical and social attributes, of self-sustenance, and a constant requirement of earning one's place in the host society.