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Integrating Into the Faroese Society

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Integrating Into the Faroese Society Integrating into the Faroese society A study of the cultural challenges for foreigners and how these challenges can be prevented Kirstin Joensen Master’s Thesis│MA in International Business Communication Academic Supervisor │ James Menzies Characters: 154007 (68 pages) 2015/08/12 Copenhagen Business School 2015 Resumé Denne afhandling undersøger de kulturelle udfordringer hos udlændinge, når de prøver at integrere i det færøske samfund, og hvordan disse kulturelle udfordringer kan forhindres. 14 udlændinge, der bor på Færøerne, er blevet interviewet for at finde frem til de kulturelle udfordringer, og hvordan de kan forhindres. Det teoretiske grundlag for denne afhandling fokuserer på kultur, kulturelle forskelle og interkulturel kommunikation. I afhandlingen er der fundet fem kulturelle udfordringer. Den første er udfordringen i at immigrere til Færøerne, som inkluderer, at den formelle immigrations proces tager for lang tid til at blive godtaget, og at det er svært at få svar på spørgsmål vedr. immigrationspapirer. Den næste er udfordringen i at tilpasse sig en ny kultur, som består af udfordringer vedr. det at opleve kulturelle forskelle og kultur chok. Den tredje er udfordringen af sproget som en barriere, og den fjerde er udfordringen i at finde et arbejde. Den femte og sidste er udfordringen i at socialisere med færinger. De tre sidste udgør en Catch 22 (en ond cirkel), som gør det svært at integrere i det færøske samfund, da det er svært at finde et arbejde og socialisere med færinger, hvis man ikke kan det færøske sprog. Desuden er der svært at lære det færøske sprog, hvis man ikke har et arbejde eller socialiserer med færinger. Afhandlingen indikerer, at disse kulturelle udfordringer kan forhindres, hvis både det færøske samfund og udlændinge, der bor på Færøerne gør en indsats. Dette betyder, at det færøske samfund bliver nødt til at komme med en integrationsplan, der optimerer hjælpemidler og ressourcer tilgængelige for udlændinge, som f.eks. flere timer til at lære det færøske sprog. Desuden skal udlændinge forberede sig inden de immigrerer til Færøerne ved at læse om den færøske kultur samt være opsat på at gøre sit til at integrere i det færøske samfund ved at lære det færøske sprog og socialisere med færinger. Alt i alt, giver denne afhandling svar på hvilke kulturelle udfordringer udlændinge har, når de immigrerer til Færøerne. Desuden gives der forslag til, hvordan disse kulturelle udfordringer kan forhindres. Content Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................. 3 1.1 Research aim and research statement ................................................................................... 3 1.2 Scope and chapter overview .................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Reflections on methodology and theory ...................................... 5 2.1 The qualitative research method ........................................................................................... 5 2.2 What is ethnography? ............................................................................................................ 6 2.2.1 The ethnographic interview............................................................................................. 6 2.2.2 The research design ......................................................................................................... 8 2.3 The interviewees .................................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Theory ................................................................................................................................... 13 2.4.1 What is culture? ............................................................................................................. 13 2.4.2 Cultural Differences ....................................................................................................... 13 2.4.3 Intercultural communication ......................................................................................... 17 2.5 Validity .................................................................................................................................. 18 Chapter 3: Analysis ...................................................................................... 19 3.1 Facts about the Faroe Islands ............................................................................................... 19 3.2 The Faroese culture .............................................................................................................. 20 3.2.1 The Faroese cultural history and the culture today ...................................................... 20 3.2.2 The Faroese people ....................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Immigrating to the Faroe Islands .......................................................................................... 23 3.3.1 The Alien Act .................................................................................................................. 23 3.3.2 Family reunification ....................................................................................................... 24 3.4 Immigration in the Faroe Islands today ................................................................................ 25 3.5 Integration in the Faroe Islands ............................................................................................ 26 3.6 Findings on the challenges when integrating into the Faroese Society ............................... 28 3.6.1 Becoming Faroese ......................................................................................................... 28 3.7 The cultural challenges when integrating into the Faroese Society ..................................... 31 1 3.7.1 The challenge of immigrating to the Faroe Islands ....................................................... 32 3.7.2 The challenge of adjusting to a new culture ................................................................. 36 3.7.3 The challenge of the Catch 22 ....................................................................................... 37 3.7.4 The challenge of language as a barrier .......................................................................... 39 3.7.5 The challenge of finding a job ........................................................................................ 44 3.7.6 The challenge of socializing with Faroese people ......................................................... 47 3.8 How can these cultural challenges be prevented? ............................................................... 50 3.8.1 The cultural challenges .................................................................................................. 50 3.8.2 What the interviewees propose .................................................................................... 51 3.8.3 What the foreigners can do to prevent the cultural challenges ................................... 54 Chapter 4: Discussion .................................................................................. 58 4.1 The importance of letting the foreigners speak ................................................................... 58 4.2 Discussion interesting aspects in the findings ...................................................................... 59 4.2.1 National cultural identity vs. individual cultural identity .............................................. 60 4.2.2 Hofstede’s dimensions – a failure of analysis? .............................................................. 62 4.3 Discussion on how to prevent the cultural challenges ......................................................... 63 4.4 How this study contributes to further research ................................................................... 66 Chapter 5: Conclusion ................................................................................. 68 References .................................................................................................. 72 Appendices.................................................................................................. 75 2 Chapter 1: Introduction Integration of foreigners is a subject that is slowly emerging in the Faroe Islands. The reason for this is that more and more immigrants reside in the Faroes (Figure 1) and the need for exposing the subject on integration is seen as an important issue in the Faroese society. In 2011 the Faroese Ministry of the Interior presented a report, which contained examples on how and why integration plans should be put in force for the foreigners residing in the Faroe Islands (Innlendismálaráðið, 2011). However, this project was not granted the necessary funds, and the integration plans were therefore set aside. This results in the fact that the Faroese society still awaits an integration plan to be implemented, which also means that foreigners in the Faroe Islands are still waiting for further help in order to integrate into the Faroese society. As of now foreigners are granted a 20 hours language course to learn the Faroese language (Útlendingastovan, 2015). However, as this study will present, that alone is not enough for the foreigners to be integrated into the Faroese society. But what do the foreigners need to integrate into the Faroese society? What are the challenges that they have to meet? 1.1 Research aim and research statement This study investigates
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