Browsing by Subject "Migrants"

Somalis are one of the largest migrant groups in Finland, with the highest rates of discrimination and racial harassment. Previous research has demonstrated that Somalis with Finnish citizenship do not self-identity as Finns, perceiving the legal citizenship and ethno-national identification as distinct spheres. This study aims to fill the gap on studies of identity and belonging by demonstrating how negotiations of identity can be acts of citizenship. Through centering the overlooked, gendered and racialized lived experience of Somali women, the research investigates how Somali mothers in Eastern Helsinki construct their and their children’s national and ethnic identities. The data analyzed is based on four focus group interviews and one individual interview of migrant Somali mothers. This study builds on feminist literature that has politicized the everyday mothering and caregiving of racialized and migrant women. Using the theoretical framework of Umut Erel (2016), I investigate three moments of citizenship: (1) knowledge production about the self and the world, (2) mother’s enacting citizenship in relation to their children, (3) becoming rights claiming subjects. My findings demonstrate that migrant, Somali mothers construct positive self-identities for themselves and their children as Somali-Muslims which is made possible by motherwork that resists negative racist and sexist depictions of racialized people. Contrary to previous research in Finland, I find that Somali mothers are central to constructing hybrid Somali-Finnish identities for the next generation, particularly in challenging ethno-nationalist and racialized criteria of belonging. Finally, exploring the complex relationship between home, belonging and rights demonstrates that despite feeling like they do not belong into the symbolic nation, mothers reproduce a home in Finland for their families and also work to transform themselves and their children into rights claiming subjects by making visible (racial) injustices and asserting their right to equality.