Tiina Sotkasiira

Battling for citizenship

Abstract The article addresses the disjunction between the theory and practice of citizenship through a case study concerning the settlement of Somali refugees in Lieksa, a small town in eastern Finland. We use the concept ‘acts of citizenship’ to highlight how the Somalis in Lieksa have worked toward inclusion in the Finnish society. We also highlight how contested the citizenship position of even members of the Finnish society who, by law, are citizens and/ or legal residents can be. The attempts to undo Somalis’ acts of citizenship are presented as a continuum on which racist violence represents the most aggravated, and rare forms of resistance by locals, while more subtle forms of everyday racism, such as disparaging looks and Internet slander, represent the more common acts performed to prevent Somalis from constituting themselves and acting as citizens.

Invading Formal Education by Non-Formal Anti-Racist Campaigning

Over the years, the authors of this chapter have aimed to awaken different educational institutions to acknowledge and tackle racism. We have carried out anti-racist interventions into different educational and care contexts as part of our formal work as university teachers, as well as civic action in relation to a local Joensuu-based campaign, Meille saa tulla. In this chapter, we analyse our experiences of anti-racist interventions within fields of formal education, namely those of kindergartens and elementary schools. We also make an excursion to higher education by bringing out in the open some notes from our work as university teachers. By relying on critical autoethnography, we identify conflicts that occur when openly ideological anti-racist education is conducted within seemingly apolitical institutions of formal education.

Negotiating Identity in Scandinavia: Women, Migration, and the Diaspora

The book under review, edited by Haci Akman, Associate Professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, examines the identities, political participation, and integration of women (including refugee...

Inhabiting Borders, Routes Home: Youth, Gender, Asylum

Concern with identity and belonging is a central facet of much research on ethnicity and migration as well as on youth. In recent years we also have seen an increasing number of academic volumes highlighting the intersectionality of social locations and the multiplicity of young people’s identities including age, immigration status, gender and ethnicity. Ala Sirriyeh’s new book Inhabiting Borders, Routes Home: Youth, Gender, Asylum is a welcome addition to this expanding genre. By examining young refugee women’s understandings and experiences of “home”, in 21st-century Britain, her work makes a timely contribution to our knowledge in the field of border studies.