Browsing by master's degree program "Kulttuurienvälisen vuorovaikutuksen maisteriohjelma"

Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan reaktioita Akavan puheenjohtajan Sture Fjäderin kommenttiin maahanmuuttajien palkasta Twitterissä vuonna 2018 vastadiskurssin ja hegemonisen kamppailun näkökulmasta. Tarkastelen, mitä hegemonioita ja antagonistisia kilpakumppaneita keskustelussa syntyy. Tutkielmassani käytän pääteoriana Ernesto Laclaun ja Chantal Mouffen teoriaa hegemonisten vastadiskurssien luomisesta. Lisäksi käytän Stuart Hallin länsimaisen hegemonian kritiikkiä maahanmuuttajien rooliin ja asemaan liittyvässä kappaleessa. Pyrin analysoimaan merkitysten rakentumista kielellisesti. Aineisto koostuu 225 twiitistä, jotka kommentoivat tai ottavat kantaa Akavan puheenjohtaja Sture Fjäderin lausumaan matalammasta palkasta kouluttamattomille maahanmuuttajille. Aihe valikoitui aiheeksi, sillä siihen sekä siitä käytävään keskusteluun tuntui kulminoituvan monta yhteiskunnassa vaikuttavaa ja vaikuttanutta ilmiötä, kuten globalisaation ja pakolaisuuden tuoma maahanmuutto sekä neoliberalismin tuoma markkina- ja tehokkuusvetoisuus ja toisaalta sen vastavoimat. Lisäksi taustalla vaikuttavat myös Suomen kontekstille ainutkertaiset historialliset tapahtumat ja konteksti sekä ammattiyhdistyliikkeen valtasuhteet työmarkkinoilla. Molemmat käsittelykappaleet keskittyvät tarkastelemaan keskustelussa ilmeneviä vastakkainasetteluja, jotka ovat osittain limittäisiä ja päällekkäisiä. Ensimmäisessä käsittelykappaleessa keskityn erityisesti siihen, millaisia eri merkityksiä maahanmuuttajat saavat ja miten keskustelun eri osapuolet kuvaavat kohderyhmää sekä heidän oletettua rooliaan suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa ja suomalaisilla työmarkkinoilla. Toisessa käsittelykappaleessa tuon esiin keskustelun taustalla piileviä ristiriitaulottuvuuksia, jotka näkemykseni mukaan osaltaan vaikuttavat Fjäderiin kohdistettuun kritiikkiin. Vastadiskurssista löytyvät Laclaun ja Mouffen teorian mukaisesti epäsymmetrinen vallanjako sekä sen nimittäminen sorroksi, yhteisesti jaettuun arvoon, tasa-arvoon, vetoaminen sekä ratkaisun ehdottaminen. Keskustelusta löytyy perinteisiä niin luokkaan, ammattiin ja koulutukseen kuin puoluepolitiikkaankin viittaavia vasemmisto-oikeisto ristiriitaulottuvuuksia, mikä saattaa osaltaan heijastella reaktioita tuolloin vallassa olleeseen oikeistohallitukseen sekä maailmanlaajuiseen neoliberalistiseen ajatteluun.

Internationalisation and international mobility have particularly during the past decades become staple topics of discussion in professional and educational contexts as well as in popular discourse. This ideological shift has also brought along a popular narrative of international mobility and non-local identities being majorly beneficial assets that encourage and enable new skills and outlooks on life, both personal and professional. While recent studies have started to show evidence on the impact and relation of international mobility and non-local identity development, the actual process and experience-level of this identity building is still relatively less studied. This study aims to fill this gap in research by giving a glimpse into the current thoughts and ideas of young adults regarding international mobility and their identity. By looking into the thoughts and experiences of those internationally-minded and mobile, we can get valuable insight into the potential future trends of internationality more broadly. Using an umbrella-term of non-locality to examine the full array of internationally aligned social identity terms, this study asked 50 students with previous mobility experiences and identification with a sense of internationality and non-local identity, how they personally experience the relationship between mobility and non-local identity building and maintaining. The data was gathered using a qualitative open answer survey, with questions and their analysis following principles of phenomenological analysis. Alongside phenomenology as a broader philosophy of science, Social Identity Theory and Self-categorisation Theory were used as theoretical frameworks to understanding social identity formation. Phenomenological analysis done on the data identified the core form of ‘being’, Dasein, in the relationship between international mobility and non-local identity development of young adults as the freedom of social non-belonging and the freedom to choose one’s social belonging. The four entities of meaning situated around Dasein were the experience of physical and social rootless, the feeling of uniqueness and unrelatability of one’s identity experience and mobility experiences related to it, mobility as an inherent personal need and an expected want, and the experience of change and growth acquired through identity development and in relation to one’s mobility experiences. Results showed a strong connection between mobility experiences and non-local identity building, but also strong variations in the way mobility was approached and made a reality depending on personal circumstances and potential social, economic, or other limitations. Factors such as how personally motivated and interested participants were in internationality more broadly, the timing when one had their first mobility experiences, how many and how long mobility experiences one had and what kind of contact to locally experiences multiculturality and internationality one had before and after becoming internationally mobile, all played into how stable and strong an identity participants portrayed. While this study opens up an understudied part on internationality, future studies on internationalisation and non-local identity formation, particularly in relation to mobility, could benefit from a study of an even broader sample, in order to ascertain how universally applicable these findings are. Furthermore, the relationship of non-local identity and privilege, particularly socio-economical, should be looked into more thoroughly in order to understand how accessible identity categories like non-local identity truly are.

Encouraging work-based immigration as well as international talent attraction and retention are high on the agenda of many national governments. This master’s thesis analyses the intersection of nation branding and international talent mobility by exploring the ways in which the nation brand is directed towards talent attraction and the vision drivers and themes that are communicated in nation branding documents and on international talent attraction websites of Finland and the Netherlands. In addition to reviewing relevant literature on nation branding, international talent attraction and retention, this thesis provides the case study contexts of Finland and the Netherlands by describing the local policies and the administrative processes regarding work and residence permits. Contextualizing the study is important to understand the local premise and the reality behind the communication. The empirical research material of this thesis consists of Finnish and Dutch nation branding documents and international talent attraction platforms, publicly available online. The material is interpreted utilizing qualitative, theory-driven thematic analysis. The thesis’ empirical analysis is based on Silvanto and Ryan’s (2014) strategic framework for relocation branding and international talent attraction, and the 936 identified empirical data extracts are coded according to their five vision drivers, the preliminary themes for the analysis. The research findings indicate that issues relating to innovation, career opportunities and quality of life in host nations are emphasized in nation branding and international talent attraction communication, while immigration policies receive substantially more limited attention. As a conclusion, Silvanto and Ryan’s (2014) framework is modified to better reflect the contents of the communication. In the light of this thesis’ Finnish and Dutch research material, the following modified and renamed vision drivers seem to be relevant for building an attractive relocation brand: Innovation, competitiveness and career opportunities; Cultural diversity and inclusiveness; Clear immigration policies, services and incentives; Concentration of talent, co-operation, (ethnic) and expatriate networks; and Quality of life and lifestyle.

The objective of the study was to shed light on the Chinese soft power in France, and, in particular, on such a political tool as panda diplomacy. In the following thesis I am answering the research questions of the role the soft power is playing in the Chinese foreign policy aimed at France, what is its image in the news outlets and among readers of those articles, and how and when panda diplomacy is carried out. As the following thesis deals with the role of Chinese soft power in France, the information about the emergence and meaning of the term “soft power” is provided to the reader for a better understanding of the content. Moreover, the theoretical background of the concept of panda diplomacy itself, the development of the concept of “soft power” in China, the France-China Relationship, and the position of Chinese soft power in the world are presented in the paper. For the research, the articles and readers’ comments retrieved from 3 different politically orientated news outlets (Le Monde, France 24, and Le Figaro) were used. A total of 15 newspaper articles and 286 readers’ comments were analyzed. This Master thesis presents the research findings primarily based on the content analysis of reader comments and newspaper articles. The first finding is that soft power and panda diplomacy, as a tool, plays an important role to signify the positive China-France relationship and economic achievements between the two countries. Secondly, panda diplomacy has a controversial image in the French news outlets. Some news outlets are positively evaluating the practice, while others doubt it. The readers are mostly putting in negative comments accusing authorities of the unnecessary expenses of money for pandas. Lastly, Panda diplomacy is carried out to celebrate the economic achievements of its partner country. In France, according to the articles, the rental contracts of pandas were signed following the successful deals and supported by the government, Zoo facilities, foundations, and sponsors.

This thesis investigates the affective economies present in Danish-Greenlandic encounters when the Danish-Greenlandic relationship is discussed, in order to understand how certain feelings are constitutive of Danish colonial aphasia. Moreover, inspired by Indigenous research ethics and methodologies, the author employs a reflexive research approach to scrutinize her positionality and to start a discussion about epistemic injustice within Danish academia. In the study, colonial aphasia is theorized as an occlusion of knowledge and a conceptual dissociation with coloniality, which results in the inability of previous colonial powers to link present postcolonial issues with colonialism. The sources consist of namely a recorded conversation as well as autoethnography produced throughout the thesis process. By employing analytic autoethnography, the study shows how feelings of protectiveness, entitlement, shame and guilt are circulated by the author, a Dane, vis-à-vis Greenlandic people when discussing the Danish-Greenlandic relationship. The study concludes that feelings of protectiveness, entitlement and shame are present as coloniality, but that the Dane perceives coloniality as existing through the struggles of the Other, or as structural, but not as present within us as individuals. Consequently, these feelings are constitutive of colonial aphasia. Finally, the study suggests that the absence of researcher reflexivity in Danish research focusing on Danish-Greenlandic contexts is ultimately sustaining epistemic injustice. Concludingly, the study argues that employing reflexivity and introspection to investigate the particular is not only apt in understanding Danish colonial aphasia, but also in scrutinizing our own colonial complicity as Danish students and researchers investigating Greenlandic or Danish-Greenlandic contexts.

The past decades witness a dramatic increase in Chinese student migrants, particularly women. This study focuses on Chinese female student migrants in Japan who are from intermediate and lower middle class urban families and examines how they renegotiate and challenge the gendered expectations of their family and society and achieve mobility through educational migration. On one hand, because of the one-child policy and reform and opening up, sons and daughters have relatively equal access to educational resources. They are encouraged to be self-reliant, cosmopolitan, and independent individuals. On the other hand, they still face a normatively gendered life circle, such as marriage. Three lenses are used to understand the life experience: positionality, transnationalism, and mobility. Education is the key to migration and mobility. The mobility in their transnational journey is gendered, both in terms of its causes and consequences. This study tells a story of “finding a way out”. From the geographical aspect, it is a way out of their hometown, and from a gendered viewpoint, it is a way out of the gendered maze of modernity and tradition which breaks the gender norms and creates their own lives. However, migration does not solve the gender problem, and the maze of modernity and tradition transcends national borders. As a woman, a new employee, and a foreigner, they face a new set of challenge abroad. Even though there is no answer to liberation, they depict their lives with autonomies and agencies.

This thesis investigates the transnational identities among current-day expatriate Finns around the world. It asks, what is the nature of transnational identity among these individuals who have emigrated from Finland? What is the level of their connectedness to their own Finnishness, on one hand, and to supranational identities such as Europeanness and internationality, on the other? The motivation to investigate the topic rises from the notion that the issues related to Finnish people in various expatriate communities, as well as their potential return migration, appears to have growing interest in Finland. The aim is also to contribute to the existing research literature by adding more contemporary theoretical approaches of migration studies to the investigations of expatriate Finns. The data (n=3195) was collected through a survey carried out in research project titled "The Changing Nature of Being an Expatriate Finn: Survey on Emigration and Expatriate Finns" (The Migration Institute of Finland, 2020-2021). Cluster analysis as an example of the so-called person-centered analyses was chosen as a method. The benefits of cluster analysis go hand in hand with the awareness that the focus group, expatriate Finns, is not a homogenous group but that the motivations of these people to move abroad as well as their lifestyles and circumstances vary greatly. Cluster analyses revealed three clearly different groups of people with respect to their Finnishness, Europeanness and internationality. In the first cluster, the three different identity markers were not seen as exclusionary, and a strong attachment to both the country of origin and the host country was not viewed to be incompatible. These individuals possessed the freedom to maintain and reject different sides of their identities depending on the context. The perspective of privilege was also considered, as their mobility was possible due to their relatively high quality of life and the social and human capital obtained over the years. Individuals in the second cluster gave high regard to Finnish identity which had often activated outside of Finland. Negative feelings, such as home sickness and disappointment in the life abroad, were also reported. These individuals also defined Finnishness in rather stereotypical ways and reduced the concept to a few well-known traits. This way, it was easy for them to emphasize their own belongingness to this homogenous category of Finns. Lastly, the individuals in the third cluster rejected the affiliation to the national identity of Finnishness altogether, their perceptions about Finland and other Finns varying from casual indifference to an apparent hostility. Instead, Europeanness and internationality were embraced as identities more inclusive and less particular.

This Master’s thesis is a pilot study that seeks to make a novel contribution to the existing academic literature on how whiteness operates in Denmark. This study is guided by two research questions: How do white Danish university students narrate growing up white in Denmark, and what meanings do they attach to being racially aware, and to being white? Through semi structured interviews with 5 white Danes age 23 to 28, this study reveals how the internalized whiteness and racial exceptionalism of these five white Danes is rooted in their socialisation and how it manifests itself in their lives, both personally, academically and politically. A thematic analysis of the data is carried out in order to uncover underlying meanings of how the interview participants narrate their whiteness. As in Denmark (and globally), whiteness marks itself as being the unmarked norm, the analysis will be theoretically underpinned by the critical whiteness approach. Five themes are identified, and the interview data is used to critically reflect on and explore the aspects and dynamics of Danish society that, both implicitly and explicitly, contributes to whiteness remaining normative and unmarked at the same time. This study ends by concluding that in order to truly uncover the nuances of how whiteness manifests itself in Danish society, more research is needed. It also concludes that the participants narrate their whiteness as something deeply rooted and ingrained in the socialisation they have gone through and the national narratives that Denmark brands itself on, such as the idea of (racial) exceptionalism, hygge and colonial innocence.

In the past two decades, Finland has gone through significant demographic changes. As more migrants from the Global South arrive in Europe, comparing their stories and analyzing how migration has impacted their lives is critical. Specifically, the particularities beneath migrant communities are necessary to grasp the diversity of minority groups arriving North. This thesis investigates the migration stories of queer migrants living in Finland. From an insider's perspective, this research analyses how Latin American gay migrants position themselves within migration narratives. Six participants who identified as gay men living in the metropolitan area of Helsinki were interviewed to reveal their perspectives on race, migration, and sexuality through an intersectional lens. Using holistic-content narrative analysis and position analysis, the participants' stories were examined to depict the specific nuances of the migration experiences of sexual and gender minorities. The study showed that gay Latino migrants strategically located and dislocate from positions according to the context narrated in their stories. Participants preferred to accentuate their queerness and hide their Latin American identity in different social circumstances. Particularly in Finland, gay positioning was narrated as more positive than the Latin American position. Accordingly, this research depicts how queer migrants from Hispano-America living in Finland accept and reject distinct social positions and reimagine their identity after arriving in Finland through narrative inquiry.

This master’s thesis examines the themes of integration and social support and their interconnectedness, through the experiences of young adults with refugee or asylum seeker background. This thesis was driven by a desire to discover what makes integration processes successful and what are the first-hand experiences of these processes. The thesis was driven by research questions asking whether social support equaled to a more successful integration, what kind of values were given to support practices and whether interviewees perceived support being available to them. The data for this study was produced through five personal interviews with young adults aged between 19-28 who have all migrated to Finland in the years 2015-2016. The data produced by these interviews is not meant to be used as a generalization of a larger group, rather to depict the personal experiences of those interviewed. The data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Through the means of thematic content analysis four themes and one sub-theme was recognized: Support – in all its forms – is valued, (sub-theme) Safe integration experience vanished in adulthood, In between feelings of Finnishness and residence permit, Feelings of the other and finally, Freedom of belief as a new constant. The findings of this study indicate that no causal connection can be drawn between social support and successful integration, integration processes just like the people going through these experiences are unique and every process and the needs for support looks different. However, all those who had access to social support during their integration felt to have benefitted from it and put great deal of weight and gratitude towards received support.