View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Immigrant Associations in the Metropolitan Area of Finland Forms of Mobilisation, Participation and Representation Sanna Saksela-Bergholm DOCTORAL DISSERTATION To be presented for public examination by permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, in the Lecture Hall 13 (Fabiansgatan 33) on 11 November 2009 at 12.00. SSKH Skrifter SwediSH ScHool of Social Science, UniverSity of HelSinKi nr 27 1 2 Immigrant Associations in the Metropolitan Area of Finland forms of Mobilisation, Participation and representation Sanna Saksela-Bergholm Helsinki 2009 3 Publisher Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki PB 16 FIN-00014 University of Helsinki Telephone: +358 9 1911 Telefax: +358 9 191 28430 Layout Heikki Jantunen (Yliopistopaino) Cover Photographers (clockwise from top left corner): Suomen Somaliliitto ry (Said Aden), Hakunilan Kansainvälinen yhdistys ry (Housam Hamadon), Inkerikeskus ry. ISBN 978-952-10-5203-3 (print) ISBN 978-952-10-5204-0 (PDF) ISSN 1235-0966 Helsinki 2009 University Press 4 Contents Acknowledgements 9 PART I 1Introduction 11 1.1. The Aim of the Study 11 1.2 The Theories, Research Setting and Data 13 1.3 An Overview 18 2ImmigrantAssociationsasActorsinSocietalMobilisation 19 2.1 The Acculturation Process 20 2.2 Migration to Finland Between 1990 and 2005 25 2.3 Immigrant Associations as a Research Object 29 2.4 Establishment of Immigrant Associations in Europe 35 2.5 Civil Society and the Sphere of Interaction 39 2.6 Grassroots Actors 45 2.7 Institutional Actors 49 2.8 Interaction Level 53 PART II 3AnOutlineofTheoreticalApproaches 61 3.1 The Influence of Organisational Theories 62 3.2 The Influence of Previous Theories 66 3.3 The Main Theories of the Study: Ethnic Resource Mobilisation and Institutional Channelling 82 3.4 Summary 88 4Methods,DataandAnalysis 91 4.1 Entering the Research Field 92 4.2 Presentation of the Research Setting 94 4.3 Becoming Familiar with the Data 107 5 4.4 Analysis of the Data 111 4.5 Summary 118 PART III 5TheOrganisationalSceneryoftheImmigrantAssociations 121 5.1 Establishment of Immigrant Associations in Finland 122 5.2 Goals and Activity Forms of the Associations the Helsinki Metropolitan Area 136 5.3 Summary 147 6FromMobilisationtoCollectiveAction 151 6.1 Mono-ethnic Associations 152 6.2 Multi-ethnic Associations 173 6.3 Immigrant Women’s Associations 182 6.4 Reflections on the Outcome of Mobilising Resources and Collective Actions 207 6.5 Summary 214 7RepresentativeOpportunitiesandParticipationofImmigrant Associations 217 7.1 Relations Between Immigrant Associations and Finnish Voluntary Associations 218 7.2 Cooperation Forms Between Immigrant Associations and Institutional Actors 221 7.3 Interpretations of Grassroots and Institutional Actors 235 7.4 The National Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations – ETNO 248 7.5 Inclusive Modes of Cooperation: Illusion or Reality? 255 7.6 Summary and discussion 264 8Conclusion 269 8.1 Empirical Outcomes 272 8.2 Theoretical Outcomes 279 8.3 Reflections 284 8.4 Summary 285 6 References 287 InternetSources 307 LegalSourcesandDirectives 309 Documents 309 Appendixes 312 Sammanfattning 326 Tiivistelmä 329 SSKHSkrifter 333 7 8 Acknowledgements I could not have written this book without the inspiring interviews with members from immigrant associations and civil servants. In particular, I’m most grateful for the immigrant women who shared their thoughts with me. I hope that this book supports their thoughts and advances their associational life. A special thank goes to my supervisor – and previous director of Ceren, Tom Sandlund. Thank you for your supervision along this long journey from a PhD student to a Doctor in Social Sciences. Without your unfailing support I would not have reached the end! I would like to thank Anssi Peräkylä for supervising me: Thank you for systematic reading my text and for your valuable comments, in particular for the methodological part. I am also grateful for my pre-examiner and opponent, Göran Ahrne and for my other pre-examiner, Miika Pyykkönen for their constructive criticism and comments to the final manuscript. University of Helsinki and Swedish School of Social Science with its research centre Ceren – Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism have provided me a valuable research community. Acknowledgment is also due to Doctoral school of ‘Ethnic Relations and Multicultural Diversity’ at the University of Helsinki (2004 – 2006) and to the ‘Power in Finland’ research project (2007 – 2010) financed by the Academy of Finland. I had the opportunity to finalise my thesis in the academy research project ‘Challenging power: Equality, Diversity and the Integration of Ethnic and National Minorities in Finland’ led by Peter Kraus. I would also like to thank Niko Pyrhönen, Matti Similä and Reetta Toivanen for their stimulating comments. I am also indebted to Camilla Nordberg, for her encouraging and sharp thoughts! In 2003 I received a Marie-Curie fellowship in the European Doctoral Programme on Identity, Territory and Conflicts, to the University of Liégè. The time at CEDEM provided me with fruitful discussions and comments on integration led by Marco Martiniello. I would like to give special thanks to 9 Hassan Bousetta who gave me important insights to the organisational life of immigrants in Belgium and beyond. I am most grateful for Ms. Tuula Joronen from the City of Helsinki Urban Facts. Thank you Tuula for supporting me with the data collection and article writing of the cooperation forms between immigrant associations and local authorities! I would like to also thank Pasi Saukkonen from CUPORE – Foundation, for Cultural Policy Research Group for his valuable comments and suggestions. Thanks are also due to friends and (previous) colleagues at Ceren / FISS, for their stimulating discussions and social support: Anna Storgårds, Annika Forsander, Camilla Haavisto, Catharina Lojander-Visapää, Charles Husband, Karina Horsti, Katri Vallaste, Maria Kreander, Marjukka Weide, Mathias Björklund, Mats Nylund, Niklas Wilhelmsson, Perttu Salmeenhaara, Peter Holley, Ullamaija Kivikuru, and Sirpa Wrede. Special thanks for their friendship go to Karin Creutz, Mika Helander, Rolle Alho and Silvain Sagne. I am also most grateful for Michael McIntosch who provided linguistic help. Thank you Mike! This thesis would not have been completed without your great support! I take full responsibility for possible linguistic faults, which I might have made since then. Thanks are also for Heidi Aaltonen and Minna Lehtola for their administrative support and for Christian Gebala for his It-support. I would also like to thank Mats Engblom for his editorial suggestions. The research has been funded by the Academy of Finland, the doctoral school of Ethnic Relations and Multicultural Diversity’ by Ministry of Education and by research grants from the City of Helsinki, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse and Svenska Kulturfonden. I would also like to thank all my friends for reminding me of the life outside academic circles. Finally, I am most grateful for my parents, Eero and Piila, my husband Tor and his son Sebastian for their constant faith on my efforts to accomplish this thesis. Thanks also to our new family member who reminded me in my belly of the real migration process of human beings! Kyrkslätt, 4th October 2009 Sanna Saksela-Bergholm 10 PART I 1 Introduction Finnish authorities and researchers have started to pay attention to forms of participation’ among immigrants due to Finland’s recent status as an immigration country. In Finland as well as in most other European countries, immigrants have mainly settled in the capital area or in other large cities1. Their incorporation into municipalities is challenging civil servants to find new forms of inclusive mechanisms where both the immigrants’ interests and the existing and changing socio-political conditions of municipalities must be taken into account. Previous studies have shown that immigrant associations have been an important tool for several immigrant groups to get their interest and claims heard in the receiving society. Immigrant associations can act as bridge-builders for the inclusion of immigrants by participating in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice for their group. In addition, associations can mobilise their ethnic group members to participate in collective activities which can improve their conditions in the receiving society and help the immigrants to strengthen their ethnic identity. 1.1. The Aim of the Study The objective of this study is twofold. Firstly, the aim is to clarify what kind of role immigrant associations play in the societal integration2 of immigrants 1 for a profound insight of immigrant groups settlement into european cities and of their participation in their receiving state see Penninx et al (2004), and in particular the comparative study done by Michel alexander (2004:57-84). 2 integration refers in this study to a two-way process between immigrant associations and civil 11 into Finnish society. The focus is on the ability of immigrant associations to mobilise its ethnic group members to participate in the socio-economic, cultural and political domains of Finnish society and in certain cases even beyond it. Attention will be given to activities which take place particularly at local, national and transnational