Browsing by Author "Lindholm, Anne"

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are very common phenomena in the global world of today. People move into other countries and integrate in other cultures more than ever before. This Master's Thesis is a qualitative study on how multilingual people describe their linguistic and cultural identity and how it is to be a minority within the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge and understanding on people who represent a linguistic minority in the Swedish-speaking linguistic minority in Finland and how they describe their linguistic and cultural identity. The scientific approach of the study is phenomenological, which means that the study aims to describe the phenomenon of multilingualism, multiculturalism and integration based on informants' subjective experiences. Nine people were interviewed for this study, and the collected data were analysed using content analysis. All nine informants were living in the capital area of Finland when the interviews were done, but are born in another country. The results of this study demonstrate the significance of language and culture for a person's identity. The linguistic and cultural identities form during the entire course of life and can be seen as a lifelong process.