Human Migration in the Arctic: The Past, Present, and Future 9789811365614, 981136561X

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii
Introduction (Satu Uusiautti, Nafisa Yeasmin)....Pages 1-9
Front Matter ....Pages 11-11
Historical Perspectives of the Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic (Stefan Kirchner)....Pages 13-30
Nomadic Narratives of Sámi People’s Migration in Historic and Modern Times (Pigga Keskitalo)....Pages 31-65
Immigrant Women and Their Social Adaptation in the Arctic (Nafisa Yeasmin, Timo Koivurova)....Pages 67-89
Front Matter ....Pages 91-91
Newcomers to Ancestral Lands: Immigrant Pathways in Anchorage, Alaska (Mara Kimmel, Chad R. Farrell, Megan Ackerman)....Pages 93-116
A ‘Micro-Macro’ Factor Analysis of the Determinants of Economic Integration of Immigrants: A Theoretical Approach (Nafisa Yeasmin, Timo Koivurova)....Pages 117-142
How to Enhance Immigrant Students’ Participation in Arctic Schools? (Satu Taskinen, Satu Uusiautti, Kaarina Määttä)....Pages 143-169
Front Matter ....Pages 171-171
The Determinants of Economic Integration of Immigrants in the Nordic Countries (Hanna Kelm, Anke Lasek, Jan Brzozowski)....Pages 173-212
Arctic Education in the Future (Kaarina Määttä, Satu Uusiautti)....Pages 213-238
Human Strength-Spotting at School as the Future Foundation of “Us” in the Arctic (Eliisa Leskisenoja, Satu Uusiautti)....Pages 239-261

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MIGRATION, DIASPORAS AND CITIZENSHIP

Human Migration in the Arctic The Past, Present, and Future Edited by Satu Uusiautti · Nafisa Yeasmin

Human Migration in the Arctic

Satu Uusiautti · Nafisa Yeasmin Editors

Human Migration in the Arctic The Past, Present, and Future

Editors Satu Uusiautti Department of Education University of Lapland Rovaniemi, Finland

Nafisa Yeasmin Arctic Centre University of Lapland Rovaniemi, Finland

ISBN 978-981-13-6560-7 ISBN 978-981-13-6561-4  (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931742 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover image: shoults/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Contents

1 Introduction 1 Satu Uusiautti and Nafisa Yeasmin Part I  Historical Approaches to (Im)Migration in the Arctic 2

Historical Perspectives of the Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic 13 Stefan Kirchner

3

Nomadic Narratives of Sámi People’s Migration in Historic and Modern Times 31 Pigga Keskitalo

4

Immigrant Women and Their Social Adaptation in the Arctic 67 Nafisa Yeasmin and Timo Koivurova

v

vi     Contents

Part II  Present Dialogue and Discourses 5

Newcomers to Ancestral Lands: Immigrant Pathways in Anchorage, Alaska 93 Mara Kimmel, Chad R. Farrell and Megan Ackerman

6

A ‘Micro-Macro’ Factor Analysis of the Determinants of Economic Integration of Immigrants: A Theoretical Approach 117 Nafisa Yeasmin and Timo Koivurova

7

How to Enhance Immigrant Students’ Participation in Arctic Schools? 143 Satu Taskinen, Satu Uusiautti and Kaarina Määttä

Part III  Viewpoints to the Future 8

The Determinants of Economic Integration of Immigrants in the Nordic Countries 173 Hanna Kelm, Anke Lasek and Jan Brzozowski

9

Arctic Education in the Future 213 Kaarina Määttä and Satu Uusiautti

10 Human Strength-Spotting at School as the Future Foundation of “Us” in the Arctic 239 Eliisa Leskisenoja and Satu Uusiautti

Notes on Contributors

Megan Ackerman is an undergraduate student at the University of Alaska Anchorage. While her degree focuses on mathematics, she is passionate about domestic and international migration and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in demography to further pursue her interests. Jan Brzozowski, Ph.D.  is the professor of economics at Department of European Studies, Cracow University of Economics, Poland. His research interests include economics of international migration, i.e. immigrant entrepreneurship, return migration, socio-economic integration. Chad R. Farrell, Ph.D.  is a professor of sociology at the University of Alaska Anchorage. His research focuses on urban inequality, diversity and social demography. Hanna Kelm, Ph.D. is an adjunct professor at the Department of Public Management and Social Sciences at the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland. Her research interests focus on the social policy towards families but also on the other economic aspects of the functioning of the European welfare states. vii

viii     Notes on Contributors

Pigga Keskitalo, Ph.D.  is the associate professor of Sámi teacher education at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Kautokeino Norway. She is Title of Docent at University of Helsinki. She is a network researcher at Migration Institute, Turku, Finland. Her research interests include Sámi and Indigenous education, Indigenous research methods, equity, integration and school research in various forms. Mara Kimmel, Ph.D., J.D. (Juris Doctorate)  is the deputy director of Strategy, Research and Scholarship at the Anchorage Museum. Her research focuses on the North, human rights, law, migration, justice and resilience. Stefan Kirchner, Ph.D. is associate professor of Arctic Law at the University of Lapland, Finland. His research interests include human rights, the law of the sea, international trade law, environmental law, law and technology and international disaster risk reduction law. Timo Koivurova, Ph.D.  is the director and research professor of the Arctic Centre of University of Lapland, Finland. He has specialized in various aspects of law applicable in the Arctic. He has been involved as an expert in several international processes globally and in the Arctic region. Anke Lasek Master of Arts (Humanities) and Master of Arts in Taxation is a 2nd year Ph.D. student at the University of Economics Krakow/Poland, focusing on global migration issues from an economic point of view. Eliisa Leskisenoja, Ph.D.  is a teacher at the Teacher Training School of the University of Lapland, Finland. Her main research interests include positive psychology in different educational contexts, from early childhood education to the upper secondary level. Kaarina Määttä, Ph.D. is the professor of educational psychology and a vice-rector of the University of Lapland, Finland. Her research interests include teacher training, love and social relationships, Sámi research, and university pedagogy and the pedagogy of supervision.

Notes on Contributors     ix

Satu Taskinen, Ph.D.  is Finnish and literature and Finnish as a second language and literature teacher in Rovaniemi, Finland. Her research interest is to enhance participation in immigrant students. Her other interests include developing immigrant students teaching and Finnish as a second language and literature teaching in Lapland. Satu Uusiautti, Ph.D.  is the professor of education, especially educational psychology at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her research interests include positive psychology and development, flourishing and the phenomenon of success in various contexts, and education and positive educational psychology in the Arctic. Nafisa Yeasmin, Ph.D. is the researcher on International Relations, University of Lapland, Finland. Her main research interest focuses on immigration to the North and socio-economic adaptation of immigrants in the North. She is leading the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Migration.

Peer Reviewers Dr. Robert Fitzsimmons, University Lecturer, University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Waliul Hasanat, Professor, Dean, Khulna University, Bangladesh Dr. Sanna Hyvärinen, Post doc researcher, Teacher/Lecturer, City of Rovaniemi and University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Timo Koivurova, Research professor, Director, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Agnieszka Postuła, University of Warsaw, Poland Dr. Ilkka Ratinen, Associate Professor, University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Mari Salmela, Network Contact Point, ELO Association, Finland Dr. Marek Szarucki, Professor, Cracow University of Economics, Poland Dr. Satu Uusiautti, Professor, University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Nafisa Yeasmin, Researcher, University of Lapland, Finland Dr. Tanja Äärelä, University Lecturer of University of Lapland and Adjunct Professor of University of Eastern Finland, Finland

List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Dialectical relationships between women (ME) and SES (Source Own elaboration based on Bronfenbrenner’s SES) Fig. 4.2 Phases of data analysis Fig. 4.3 Socio-ecological approaches of immigrant women (ME) (Source Own elaboration based on Bronfonbrenner’s SES) Fig. 5.1 Immigrant population in Anchorage, 1970–2016 (Source US Census Bureau) Fig. 5.2 Geographic origins of immigrant population in Anchorage, 1970 and 2016 (Source US Census Bureau) Fig. 5.3 Residential segregation of immigrant and US-born White populations in Anchorage and comparable metropolitan counties, 2016 Fig. 6.1 Macro and micro factors that narrates hypothesis (Source Ritzer’s integrative social analysis model) Fig. 8.1 Immigration flows from EU and non-EU countries (2016) (Source Eurostat [migr_imm3ctb], accessed 25 August 2018) Fig. 8.2 Immigration flows to Finland 1945–2014 (Source Statistics Finland, http://www.stat.fi, accessed 25 August 2018) Fig. 8.3 Immigration flows to Finland 1990–2016 (Source Statistics Finland, http://www.stat.fi, accessed 25 August 2018)

71 73 74 96 98 102 121 177 178 178 xi

xii     List of Figures

Fig. 8.4 Immigration flows to Iceland 1961–2017 (Source Statistics Iceland, https://www.statice.is, accessed 25 August 2018) Fig. 8.5 Immigration flows to Norway 1990–2016 (Source Nordic Statistics, http://www.nordicstatistics.org, accessed 25 August 2018) Fig. 8.6 Immigration flows to Sweden 1990–2016 (Source Nordic Statistics, http://www.nordicstatistics.org, accessed 25 August 2018) Fig. 9.1 The elements of Arctic pedagogy (Määttä & Uusiautti, 2015, p. 31) Fig. 9.2 Arctic information as the foundation of Arctic pedagogy, Arctic future skills being the goal (Määttä & Uusiautti, 2015, p. 32)

180 183 185 224 225

List of Tables

Table 4.1

Resilience capacity of immigrant women by engaging with, enhancing and enabling opportunities Table 8.1 Immigration flows to Finland by nationality (2016) Table 8.2 Immigration to Iceland by country of origin (2017) Table 8.3 Immigrants by reason for immigration (Norway) Table 8.4 Immigration to Norway by country of origin (2016) Table 8.5 Immigration to Sweden by country of origin (2016) Table 8.6 Descriptive statistics Table 8.7 Basic models Table 8.8 The role of countries of residence Table 8.9 Achieved income equation (estimated with ordered logit separately for each country) Table 8.10 The role of the length of residence in host country (foreign-born individuals only)

83 179 181 182 184 185 199 202 204 205 206

xiii

1 Introduction Satu Uusiautti and Nafisa Yeasmin

The Purpose of This Book The Arctic refers to the polar region at the northernmost part of the Earth, north of the Arctic Circle, that contains the Arctic Ocean and several countries that are partly located there: the USA (Alaska), Finland, Denmark (Greenland), Iceland, Canada, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. Harsh conditions prevail in the Arctic, with varying snow and ice cover. Winters are long and dark, with the polar night, and summers are short and bright, with the midnight sun. The area is extraordinary both culturally and in terms of climate and fauna. The Arctic is a mixture of indigenous peoples, each country’s mainstream populations and immigrants (McGhee, 2005). S. Uusiautti (*)  Department of Education, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland e-mail: [email protected] N. Yeasmin  Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin (eds.), Human Migration in the Arctic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4_1

1

2     S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin

The geographical position of the Arctic signifies its characteristics, topographies, and material nature. Immigration to the area renders it a more sustainable society (Yeasmin, 2018), which obviously represents a power of Arctic geography. That geographic power and the Arctic resources can easily shape the social life of its inhabitants, especially immigrants (Yeasmin, 2018). The integration of minorities into the Arctic demands primarily a national identity and a sense of belonging, which can ease their overall integration (Yeasmin, 2018). Sense of belonging refers to a psychological demand for equality in order to establish a territorial presence. Territorial presence matters greatly for immigrants, who are noncitizens of a host country (Song, 2016). The Arctic as a geographically isolated area does not have a clear view of effective ways to integrate immigrants into the region (Yeasmin, 2018), although the initiation of the integration process is considered in the context of a larger territory (e.g., larger cities in the Arctic; Heikkilä & Järvinen, 2003). Northern countries have been receiving larger numbers of immigrants since the mid-1980s. This is an extraordinary situation, especially during the past years, with hundreds of thousands of people migrating and seeking asylum all over Europe. As many of these were determined to settle in Northern Europe, the Arctic region had to face new, additional challenges of migration. Migration in the Arctic is an interesting but less studied phenomenon at the moment, one that influences various societal levels, such as education. However, the region also has to deal with negative migration: Native peoples, especially the young, tend to move south to seek employment and better services. Due to this out-migration, the population of Arctic municipalities has simultaneously decreased and become older. The purpose of this book is to address many of the critical dynamics of immigration and emerging challenges that now confront the region. We hope that the various viewpoints offered by international experts in the field will broaden our knowledge about Arctic human migration and its impact on global changes. Immigration also has a considerable impact on the settlements and population in the Arctic.

1 Introduction     3

Paradoxically, global migration governance can offer new forces and tools to support territorial integration to some extent. It has the potential to empower new regional actors and adopt new governance strategies in the Arctic to support integration process so that Arctic will achieve net positive benefits from immigration by developing human capital. Special attention has been given to comprehensive governance strategies for accelerating the economic integration of immigrants since good governance reinforces economic integration that underpins the relative resilience of the emerging economy in the global north. (Yeasmin, 2018).

Cultural differences, integration of foreign citizens within local communities, and labor markets are some of the issues that demand cooperation in order to contribute to innovative solutions. In this book, we investigate the premises of how to integrate not only adult immigrants but also school-aged children. It is exceptionally important to recognize and address issues caused by Arctic migration and its multidimensional aspects. An improved understanding of this phenomenon supports not only Arctic governance but also all global governances in identifying their problems and strengthens the national ability to implement solutions aimed at effective and sustainable integration and territorial development by increasing the viability of the immigrant community in the host region. Subjective well-being and a viable economic condition are the essential basics for an active lifestyle. Territorial supports may greatly encourage or discourage the subjective well-being and physical participation of immigrants during socioeconomic adaptation (Yeasmin, 2018). Factors related to territorial plantings vary considerably depending on the authoritative decision of regional and national governments, their policies, and institutional norms (Yeasmin, 2018). Constructing an equitable and sustainable ecosystem for a heterogeneous group of people includes restructuring rules and values depending on the situation, which demands a positive environment that could provide an unbounded source of resources for fulfilling needs, encouraging immigrants’ self-efficacy, and supporting integration (Yeasmin, 2018).

4     S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin

The purpose of this book is to compile expert opinions and research that discuss the many facets of human migration, particularly how to address challenges with increasing immigration and negative migration; the kinds of cultural, economic, and educational issues that should be recognized and solved; the strengths of the Arctic region and how to adhere to these; how to educate immigrant people about life and culture in the Arctic and yet also enhance appreciation of cultural diversity in the Arctic; and how to develop the Arctic so that it remains a vivid and attractive place to live. This book introduces educational solutions that provide a foundation.

Introduction to the Contents of This Book Historical Approaches to (Im)Migration in the Arctic This chapter will focus on the consequences of human migration in the Arctic through two interesting viewpoints. First, Professor Stefan Kirchner discusses historical perspectives of environmental and human security in the Arctic. In his article, he explains how the harsh northernmost parts of Scandinavia and Russia are becoming increasingly attractive to migrants and visitors alike. He raises the question of human security and obligation to protect migrants by analyzing historical developments and contemporary human rights law. The Arctic area is also home to indigenous peoples (e.g., Thornton & Todd, 2001), such as the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada, Alaska Natives in the USA, or Sámi in Scandinavia and Russia. Migration has a specific meaning for these groups. Associate Professor Pigga Keskitalo describes the migration of Sámi people in the past and today. Both the traditional Sámi residential area and the Sámi’s migration from it are influenced by migration into this area. Keskitalo contributes to the international interest in describing nomadic views of migration and how indigenous peoples’ migration in the modern age appears from the personal perspective.

1 Introduction     5

The chapter ends with Dr. Nafisa Yeasmin and Professor Timo Koivurova’s article on the crucial topic of socioeconomic adaptation of immigrant women. Arctic immigrants typically face continuous challenges in balancing their lives in a new environment. However, immigrant women and children are particularly at risk of marginalization. This article focuses on a minority among minorities; women’s challenges are as diverse as their backgrounds. The article expertly blends the human ecology of immigrant women with the socioecological trend of the Arctic and illustrates the barriers that hinder the social integration of immigrant women in Arctic Finnish Lapland, a highly peripheral region. Yeasmin and Koivurova’s approach focuses more explicitly on the societal impact and offers precautions that can be linked with the sustainable socioecological development of the region. This systematic approach of human ecology and social–ecological resilience in the context of integration of immigrant women is highly significant to the Arctic perspectives.

Present Dialogue and Discourses The third chapter discusses phases of migrant and immigrant integration in different countries. The effective integration and resilience capacity of both immigrants and the mainstream population are highlighted in this chapter. Contemporary dialogue and discourses about social-economic integration and the human rights of immigrants are discussed together with practical viewpoints on immigrants’ educational attainment and social participation. The chapter begins with Dr. Mara Kimmel and colleagues’ analysis of changing foreign-born populations in the Anchorage region of Alaska (in the USA). The article provides an encouraging viewpoint on how to perceive immigrant inclusion as an opportunity. The authors make the research-based suggestion that immigrant inclusion would benefit the city’s economic and environmental resilience. They introduce a welcoming program designed to help inclusion of immigrants: They remind us that inclusion is an essential ingredient of overall community well-being and resilience.

6     S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin

Dr. Nafisa Yeasmin and Professor Timo Koivurova continue with the topic of economic integration of immigrants in the Arctic. Employability is perceived as being formed by real and ascribed barriers associated with the status of immigrants, many of whom are unemployed or underemployed, living in a geographically isolated area. Economic integration is an extended field of research that can be influenced by many different factors, such as socioeconomic adaptations and economic assimilation. However, this article focuses on a sociological paradigm for shaping problems that has an impact on the economic integration of underemployed immigrants. The article highlights present discourses on regional and local public issues (i.e., the policies and procedures that hinder economic integration). This assessment proffers an integrative labor market paradigm for understanding the existing and theoretical factors of the objective and subjective issues that cause limitations in the labor market and can enable “micro-macro” interactions and incentivize approaches that can strengthen the labor market topographies in Lapland. The last article, by Dr. Satu Taskinen et al., reports on research conducted with immigrant students in a northern Finnish school. As in the first two articles in this chapter, this also takes the viewpoint of participation and opportunities to become an active member of the community. The study points out how important it is to focus on enhancing integration as early as possible. Through a research design based on Lave and Wenger’s theory on communities of practice, this chapter also provides practical viewpoints on how participation and integration take place at school through language learning and active interaction with local students.

Viewpoints on the Future The fourth and final chapter introduces perspectives on the future of Arctic areas, including how to tackle today’s issues and identify potential solutions. Building on the previous chapters, this one includes perspectives on economic integration, refugee issues, educational viewpoints, and all-encompassing features of future determinants of successful living in the Arctic.

1 Introduction     7

The first article, by Dr. Hanna Kelm et al., continues by b­ roadening the viewpoint to generational differences in the economic integration of immigrants. The analysis covers four Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). Interesting differences were found between countries and generations, which are crucial when planning support mechanisms for integration. The authors also call for a critical analysis on how immigration is presented in the media and how immigrants’ integration takes place in reality. In the second article, professors Kaarina Määttä and Satu Uusiautti introduce ideas for Arctic education in the future. The Arctic region faces economic, climate, and (im)migration-related changes that call for new perspectives and bold visions on how education should be redefined. This article addresses the special features of teaching and learning in future Arctic contexts. The authors introduce a model of Arctic pedagogy to be applied in northern education, outlined as a five-level action and teaching tool. The cornerstones of Arctic pedagogy are communalism; adapting, understanding, and analyzing Arctic information in the learning processes; student-centered caring teacherhood; and wideranging networking to support learning. The goals of Arctic future skills are discussed in light of the heterogeneous populations of the Arctic both today and in times to come. Children are the future. With this in mind, the last article in Chapter 4 offers a positive psychological perspective on how to encourage the flourishing of children and youth who migrate to and live in the Arctic. Dr. Eliisa Leskisenoja and Professor Satu Uusiautti ask how to reinforce the belief of these young people in their chances of finding well-being in future Arctic communities. The analysis relies on positive psychological action research at an Arctic school. The research showed how multidimensional the effects of strength-based teaching can be: It seemed to benefit not only the students but the class as a community, the parents, and the teacher. The optimistic conclusion does not exclude any group of people but serves to highlight how, for the people living in the Arctic, well-being skills that are acquired through positive psychological knowledge of one’s strengths, including hope and optimism, are crucial, without forgetting the good for the community—the positive psychology of us.

8     S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin

Conclusion Our book presents a multidisciplinary compilation on how migration in the Arctic can be seen, studied, and analyzed. The opportunities for integration and social participation can be provided on the m ­ acro-level, but as we approach the experiences at the micro-level (everyday ­contexts), we discover how important personal tolerance, respect, adaptation, and adjustment are. We also wanted to highlight that the majority of children’s and youth’s daily experiences take place at school, an institution that society has developed to prepare them for adulthood (Larson, 2000). Research has showed that school has the opportunity to enhance positive socialization and adjustment if we know what to pay attention to (e.g., Taskinen, 2017). Critical reflection on education and societal factors are needed (see Fitzsimmons, Suoranta, & Uusiautti, 2019; Yeasmin & Uusiautti, 2018) as well as open-minded and optimistic views of the future. This book incorporates the challenges of all groups of immigrants, such as men, women, and children, related to effective regional integration. It also provides definitions and concepts of human migration in a clear and accessible way throughout. The debate on human migration is not a new phenomenon, but it still generates new phenomena, multiple discourses, and philosophical assumptions. Past discourses always support the resource of innovation for present and future competition, which can provide the knowledge to forestall future societal problems. This book is also the evidence of a cohesive tie between the past, present, and future discourses of human migration in the peripheral Arctic. It provides new knowledge and aspects in fathoming multifaceted processes that are relevant to the socioeconomic integration and social security of ethnic minorities. This book signifies that immigration has a positive impact on the northern economy, society, and culture. Nonetheless, before utilizing immigrants’ skills and knowledge, regions need to focus on human strength, such as socioeconomic, cultural, and political security and well-being. This human strength can be applied to determining the psychological, biological, and social strengths and challenges of immigrants during the transition period of integration into a new geographical area (Yeasmin, 2018).

1 Introduction     9

The book utilizes lines of thinking from the context of social resilience, which is essential to assess and redesign the resilience of the social wellness environment, determinants, and management methods that are subsequently favorable in the research of immigration.

References Fitzsimmons, R., Suoranta, J., & Uusiautti, S. (2019, in press). Mind-blowing and desirable but challenging—Student perceptions of critical pedagogical teaching in university. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 8(2), 91–103. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2019.3025. Heikkilä, E., & Järvinen, T. (2003). Migration and employment of immigrants in the finnish local labour markets. Yearbook of Population in Finland, 39, 103–118. The Population Research Institute. Larson, R. W. (2000). Toward a psychology of positive youth development. American Psychologist, 55(1), 170–183. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.170. McGhee, R. (2005). The last imaginary place: A human history of the Arctic world. Oxford: Oxford University Press (ePrint). Song, S. (2016). Significance of territorial presence and the rights of immigrants. In S. Fine & L. Ypi (Eds.), Migration in political theory: Ethics of movement and membership (pp. 225–248). London: Oxford University Press. Taskinen, S. (2017). “Ne voi opita toisilta” – kasvatustieteellinen design-tutkimus maahanmuuttajaoppilaiden osallisuutta edistävistä luokkakäytänteistä [“They can learn from the others”—An educational design research on classroom practices enhancing participation in immigrant students]. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press. Thornton, M., & Todd, R. (2001). Aboriginal people and other Canadians: Shaping new relationships. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Yeasmin, N. (2018). The governance of immigration manifests itself in those who are being governed: Economic integration of immigrants in Arctic perspectives. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press. Yeasmin, N., & Uusiautti, S. (2018). Finland and Singapore, two different top countries of PISA and the challenge of providing equal opportunities to immigrant students. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 16(1), 207–237.

Part I Historical Approaches to (Im)Migration in the Arctic

2 Historical Perspectives of the Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic Stefan Kirchner

Introduction Immigration, in particular from poorer to richer countries, is a hallmark of globalization (Wendt, 2007). The same can be said of movement across borders in general and the effects of mobility on the nature, health and wealth (Bederman, 2008) are a concern for international law. From the perspective of national law, security has long been a major concern of authorities in the context of people crossing borders and already more than a decade ago, Karen Reid held that “Immigration, and the arrival of people seeking asylum, if once tolerated or encouraged by Western European States for economic reasons or by virtue of political and philosophical conviction, are now subject to increasing restrictions” (Reid, 2007, p. 399). Today, this is the case even more. This chapter will focus on the response to risks, rather than on specific risks to human safety and security, such a climate change, the potential for political tensions between S. Kirchner (*)  University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin (eds.), Human Migration in the Arctic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4_2

13

14     S. Kirchner

Arctic states or general safety risks common to cold regions of the planet, although some specific dangers, especially in the field of maritime safety, will be used to illustrate the discourse presented here. It is the aim of the chapter to provide the reader with an overview over safety issues which are particularly relevant to migrants, visitors and newcomers to the Arctic, for example, in the context of maritime transport and tourism. In the Continental European Arctic, i.e., the northernmost parts of Norway, Finland and Sweden as well as the north-western part of the Russian Federation, though, borders are an artificial construct which do not reflect the way of life of the original inhabitants of the region (cf., Lehtola, 2010). The Arctic is not global commons but it is a relatively open space, which is characterized by cooperation in a harsh environment, which is currently undergoing a multitude of fundamental changes, ranging from climate change (cf., Pollack, 2010; Wadhams, 2017) to the increasing role of tourism in the region. Many of the changes bring new people to the Arctic. This also includes migrants from outside the region who are looking for economic opportunities in the relatively wealthy urban regions of the area but also refugees and asylum-seekers who are looking for safety from war and protection from persecution. The arrival of migrants in a region, which does not have the same experience with migration as other European states, such as the UK, France or Germany, provides challenges. This includes challenges when it comes to ensuring the safety and security of newcomers, not only on a personal level but in particular in the context of environmental safety. The term “security” is used here with a wide meaning, covering, like the Norwegian term “sikkerhet ” (cf., Albrechtsen, 2003, p. 1) or the Swedish term “säkerhet ” also aspects which in other context would be considered a matter of “safety.” When appropriate, for example, in the context of maritime transport, the well-established term “maritime safety” will be used in the manner usually applied in other discussions of the same topic. The cooperation of Arctic states across significant political divides has long been a hallmark of Arctic governance. Many of the issues which have been dealt with for example by the Arctic Council are concerned with matters of the environment and human safety. The Arctic Council is not concerned with security-related matters (Byers, 2014). This is highlighted by the international treaties on search and rescue

2  Historical Perspectives of the Environmental …     15

operations, responses to oil spills and scientific cooperation, which have been created under the auspices of the Arctic Council. When it comes to migration, though, the nation-states of the European Arctic assert their sovereignty, albeit within limits as Norway, Sweden and Finland are part of the Schengen area (cf., Schengen Acquis, 2000). It is the purpose of this chapter to illustrate different aspects of human and environmental security and safety in the context of the movement of people in the Continental European Arctic. Particular attention will be given to historical developments as well as to questions of different forms of regulation, human rights and international law. The focus of this chapter will be on the movements of non-indigenous actors in and newcomers to the Arctic. The indigenous peoples of the Continental European Arctic, in particular the Sámi people, who can trace their history in the region back to the early Stone Age, i.e., around 9200–8000 BC, traditionally had (semi-)nomadic lifestyles (Kent, 2014), with a focus on livelihoods like reindeer herding and fishing. While many Sámi today earn a living in sectors of the economy, which are perceived as more “modern” (a view which overlooks that traditional livelihoods also continue to evolve), reindeer herding remains relevant as a source of income (Heikkilä, 2006; Kent, 2014). Despite the openness of the borders between Norway, Finland and Sweden, there is no longer cross-border migratory reindeer herding as reindeer herding is regulated on the national level (Kirchner, 2017a), although the Sámi homeland, Sápmi, is perceived as a whole. Indigenous movements across state borders but within Sápmi therefore cannot be compared with movements of newcomers, in particular migrants. The focus of this chapter is on the latter aspect.

Borders in the Continental European Arctic—And the People Who Cross Them One of the most famous border crossers in the history of Northern Europe certainly was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who would later become better known as Lenin, who travelled from Zurich to St. Petersburg by train in April 1917. In doing so he crossed the border between Sweden and Russia from Haparanda in Sweden to Tornio in Finland, which was

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still part of the Russian Empire at that time (Merridale, 2017). Today, many local residents and visitors cross the border between Sweden and Finland there as a matter of course. Indeed, the two neighboring towns share a lot of resources and are perceived as a single agglomeration, making it easy to forget that when one drives or walks from Haparanda to Tornio, one crosses from one country into another—and into a country with a different official language (while Swedish is the official language of Sweden, meänkieli (“our language”), which closely resembles and is mutually intelligible with Finnish, used to be widely spoken on the Swedish side of the border; to this day, meänkieli is recognized as a minority language in Sweden and, for example, the Finnish-Swedish Border River Commission publishes some of its materials also in meänkieli while the different languages spoken by the indigenous Sámi people enjoy legally protected status in Norway, Finland and Sweden), currency and time zone no less. A century ago, the customs building in Haparanda already had become too small to handle the flow of goods into Russia and often destined for locations far beyond the borders of the largest nation on Earth (Merridale, 2017). The borders between Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark had been practically open for travel, residence and work for the citizens of these countries (which were joined by Iceland a dozen years later) since 1954, thereby setting a standard for free movement of their citizens. It was only during the 2015 refugee crisis that identities of travelers between some Nordic countries were checked at all. Since 2001, the Schengen Acquis guarantees open borders between Finland, Norway and Sweden, while crossing the border between the Schengen states and Russia requires a visa in either direction. The sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union due to the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2014 also mean that trade with Russia has become significantly more difficult, which has had notable impacts on the regional economies, in particular in Finland, which shares a long border with the Russian Federation. Compared to other parts of the world, Europe has been a trailblazer when it comes to cross-border regional cooperation (Rehbein & Schwengel, 2008) but in Europe, the Nordic countries were far ahead the rest of the continent when it comes to opening borders.

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A Human Right to Safety Finland’s neutral stance toward the Soviet Union in the wake of Finland’s independence in 1917, the 1939–1940 Winter War and the 1941–1944 Continuation War, which ended with significant territorial losses for Finland, in particular the Petsamo area at the Arctic Ocean, parts of Salla and, crucially from the perspective of national identity, large parts of Karelia, allowed for trade between Finland and the USSR—but to this day, the border between Finland and Russia is not only marked clearly but actually the kind of hard border which is alien to the rest of the European High North. While the borders between Finland, Norway and Sweden are closed for migratory reindeer herding (cf., Kirchner, 2017a; Lantto, 2010), they are open for migrants. The open borders within the Schengen area became relevant also during the 2015 refugee crisis. Refugees essentially followed two migration routes into the Continental European Arctic: from the south, i.e., through Germany and Denmark to Sweden and in some cases through Sweden via Haparanda/Tornio to Finland, or from the east, through Russia to either Finland or Norway. The latter route proved particularly dangerous: Because it is not permitted to cross the border from Russia into Norway by foot and drivers who give migrants lacking proper visa a ride risk prosecution, refugees (many of whom were inadequately equipped for the cold climate in the first place) had to resort to crossing the border with bicycles, even though many of them were not accustomed to using bicycles, let alone bicycles in questionable technical conditions (a large number of bicycles were abandoned on the Norwegian side of the border and usually confiscated by Norwegian authorities as they were not deemed safe enough to be used anymore) on snow and ice (Higgins, 2015). The closing of borders in Europe, even though the needs of refugees were clearly visible (although not all migrants are refugees), highlights that morality does not necessarily translate into political/legal action (cf., Sellheim, 2016, p. 43: “public morality may as such exist, but it may not be applied in practice”). Freedom of movement within a state in which one is legally (cf. in detail Leach, 2005, p. 372) is protected by

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Article 2 of Protocol No. 4 (ECHR-P4) to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but there are obligations on the part of states to provide security regardless of residence status. This is particularly important in light of the risks to health and life encountered by migrants in the Arctic environment and climate. An in-depth analysis of different international human rights treaties, including the 1951 Refugee Convention, would exceed the scope of this chapter. In the following, the focus will be on the ECHR because this particular international treaty has been ratified by all states in the European Arctic. The right to liberty and security of the person under Article 5 ECHR is commonly seen as referring to the protection against and the conditions of detention rather than to personal security. This follows from the context (cf., Rainey, Wicks, & Ovey, 2014, p. 70 et seq.) of Article 5 ECHR: the entire norm, with the exception of the words “and security” (Article 5 para. 1 sentence 1 ECHR), is concerned with matters of detention. The right to security is to be understood in this context and covers cases of “disappearances” (Harris, O’Boyle, Bates, & Buckley, 2014, p. 300), rather than a right to personal protection. From the case law of the European Court of Human Rights as well as the available academic literature, it can be concluded that for all practical purposes, the words “and security” in Article 5 ECHR do not have a normative content on their own (Grabenwarter, 2008, p. 161, cf. also ibid., fn. 11) from which a separate individual human right could be drawn. In other words, “the expression ‘liberty and security of person’ must be read as a single right and, consequently, ‘security’ should be understood in the context of ‘liberty’. In particular, the notion ‘security’ cannot be interpreted so as to impose on obligation on the States to protect a person’s security not does it establish an individual right to security of person” (Grabenwater, 2014, p. 64). This does not mean, however, that there would not be an obligation on the state to provide protection. A duty to protect follows from the right to life (Zwaak, 2006): Article 2 ECHR can provide the legal basis for a duty on the part of the state to protect the persons against dangers to their lives (Meyer-Ladewig & Huber, 2017).

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This duty can be triggered by the threat of criminal actions, such as xenophobic violence, but also by environmental hazards (MeyerLadewig & Huber, 2017). This view has been confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in the landmark case of Kolyadenko and others v. Russia and Brincat and others v. Malta. States have an obligation to do everything, including taking legislative or executive measures which are necessary to protect human lives (Meyer-Ladewig & Huber, 2017). This includes an obligation to provide information if necessary (Meyer-Ladewig & Huber, 2017), for example, information about potential dangers. While normally the communication between authorities and individuals happens in the official language or languages of the state in question, the right to use one’s own language becomes particularly important in settings in which the individual is in a particular position of vulnerability vis-à-vis the state, for example, in criminal or asylum proceedings. Situations of particular environmental danger, as they are not uncommon in the Arctic, can require states to make particular efforts when it comes to communicating with migrants or other foreigners. Especially in case of the presence of persons who do not understand and/or read the official local language, the notion that the protection of human rights has to be effective, an idea which permeates the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, requires states to take the human person and his or her needs into account. It follows from Article 1 ECHR that the duty incumbent on states which have ratified the ECHR can be an active one and that it is an obligation which applies irrespective of the legal status of the person concerned. Accordingly, the states of the European Arctic are under an obligation to take the measures necessary to protect migrants. Accordingly, policy decisions, including the creation of norms, which are meant to actually benefit people are to take into account the social and environmental reality of the people in question, rather than theoretical assumptions about the people in question (cf., Hilton, 2016). While policy decisions have to take into account data, the focus has to be on human needs (Hilton, 2016). A case in point are decisions about the provision of police or emergency services in rural areas.

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Visitors and Their Safety: Cruise Vessel Operations in the Arctic While the text so far has concentrated on movement on land, in particular by migrants, this overview would be incomplete without a look at a form of transport which is becoming increasingly important in a changing Arctic. The ice cover of the Arctic Ocean is decreasing rapidly and an ice-free Arctic Ocean, at least in the summer months, is not a question of “if ” but of “when.” In the context of the Arctic Ocean, the term ice-free is usually understood to refer to an ice-covered surface area of less than 1 million square kilometers, as opposed to a long-time average of 3.6 million square kilometers of ice cover in the Arctic Ocean (dpa, 2018). This opening of the Arctic Ocean leads to an increase in shipping operations, not only for the transport of different forms of cargo (because of the financial savings, which can be realized by using Arctic routes as opposed to, e.g., the route between Asia and Europe through the Suez Canal) but also for tourism purposes. Cruise shipping is booming globally as well as in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. A reduction in sea ice coverage, however, does not mean that ship operations in the Arctic reach a level of safety comparable to those in other seas. The Arctic Ocean is not a global commons but is covered by existing norms of the international law of the sea, which allows for the protection of the rights and interests of coastal communities (Kirchner, 2017b). It is therefore necessary to be aware of the specific challenges faced not only by coastal states in the Arctic but also by the different coastal communities in the region, in order to be able to engage in a meaningful discussion about the future regulation of vessel operations in the Arctic Ocean, in particular in areas beyond national jurisdiction and in geographical areas which are becoming available for shipping for the first time in human history. While, for example, coastal states in the Mediterranean Sea area face challenges due to migration in often unseaworthy boats (cf., Kirchner, Geler-Noch, & Frese, 2015), the Continental European Arctic is facing specific problems which relate to the rights of individuals and communities. Among the key issues faced

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by Arctic nations (in particular coastal nations) is the dramatic decrease of Arctic ice since about the 1980s (complete rather than only locally gained data on sea ice coverage in the Arctic is only available since the use of satellites for monitoring, i.e., since about the late 1970s; see e.g., Lei et al., 2015) and, as a direct consequence, the increasing availability of the Arctic Ocean for shipping (Aksenov et al., 2017). From a legal perspective, this combination of factors provides challenges which the Arctic coastal states cannot overcome on their own. In this context, the human dimension of the regulation of shipping is becoming relevant. It therefore appears appropriate to have a closer look at the question how the protection of individuals and communities and the regulation of shipping through international law interact. The regulation of international shipping has long been perceived as a rather dry and technical affair. Law-making in this particular field has often focused on enhancing safety after incidents which led to the loss of human life. Like legislative work elsewhere, the creation of new rules of international law pertaining to international navigation (for the purposes of this text, the focus will be on the transport of persons by ship, not on the use of ships of other purposes, e.g., fishing, research, military uses or research extraction) by ships has been reactive in nature. The creation of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in the wake of the Titanic disaster (cf., Louis-Jacques, 2012) remains a classical example. Other examples, which have come to the attention of a wider audience, include the introduction of double hull oil tankers (e.g., domestic US law introduced the double hull requirement in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, as a consequence of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (cf., NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, 2014) or safety improvements concerning ferry doors (International Maritime Organization, 1997). Even measures which aim at solving problems which will become more relevant in the future, such as the creation of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), are based on an actual need (in the case of the Polar Code, the already existing cruise tourism in the Antarctic Ocean as well as cruise and cargo vessel operations in the Arctic Ocean).

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While international treaties form an overwhelmingly important part of today’s international law, they are not the only source of law (see Article 38 (1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice). Customary international law continues to play an important role (cf., Dugard, 2001) in the international law of the sea (Dixon, 2007), even though many rules in this field have been codified in recent decades. The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, which in part is based on earlier treaties and which was negotiated from 1973 until 1982, in part reflects rules which were already customary international law at the time when the Law of the Sea Convention was created (Hakapää, 1990). Customary law rules which had corresponding norms in the convention still apply to states which have not (yet) ratified the 1982 Convention. Among these customary law, norms are what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) referred to as “considerations of humanity” (International Court of Justice, Corfu Channel Case, 1949, p. 22) in the Corfu Channel case. Decided in 1949, the Corfu Channel case came at an important point in the development of international law, i.e., around the advent of human rights in international law. Only a few months earlier, the General Assembly of the United Nations had adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the ECHR, was still being drafted when the ICJ presented its ruling. Nevertheless was the ICJ able to confidently state that international law already at the time in question (because of the concept of intertemporal international law, international law in principle has to be applied in the decision of a case as it stood at the time in question, even if the case would have to be decided differently, were the same set of circumstances to occur today), i.e., at the time of the events in 1946 which gave rise to the case, because already at that time there had been a number of international treaties which established rights and duties between states but which also provided benefits to individuals. Already before the emergence of international human rights law as a subset of international legal norms (let alone as the quasi-constitutional part of international law as which it is often treated today), individuals were protected by international law. International human rights law

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gives individuals standing in international fora in cases directed against states and has contributed to level the playing field somewhat, if only in legal terms but most certainly not regarding the inherent power imbalance between the individual and the state. The proliferation of international human rights treaties did not mean the end of such protections of individuals through international law outside human rights law. Such norms still exist and like in the old days, the state has to take up a citizen’s claim in order for it to be brought to the international stage. The aforementioned international treaties can be seen in this light. The implementation of the Athens Convention by the EU establishes directly applicable rules which benefit passengers. But even outside the special situation of the European Union, the focus on individuals in international law outside human rights law is remarkable. Traditionally, it is said that “[i]nternational human rights law regulates the way states treat individuals under their control” (Goldsmith & Posner, 2007, p. 107). This view is still valid of the concept of treatment is understood widely so as to include also the regulation of the behavior of non-state actors with regard to individuals. It is not enough for the state to refrain from harming you or me, it also has a duty to prevent me from harming you or vice versa (e.g., by outlawing murder or assault) (see Smith, 2014) or to prevent other forms of harm (e.g., by operating hospitals or emergency or police services also in thinly populated areas such as the Continental European Arctic). Unlike dedicated international human rights treaties, the rights protected in these documents are not necessarily subjective rights which can be claimed in specific fora, like the European Court of Human Rights, but, like Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which was central to a number of cases at the ICJ, such as Avena and LaGrand, they nevertheless create objective obligations for states. These obligations do not necessarily correspond to rights of individuals (Hobe and Kimminich, 2004) as the legal relationship is between states (cf., Brownlie, 1998; on the continued relevance of states in international law, see Cassese, 2001; Stein & von Buttlar, 2009) but individuals are beneficiaries of these obligations of states.

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To a large degree, the law of the sea, despite all developments in recent years, even despite the role of the United Nations (UN) (Vizthum, 2006) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in creating new obligations when it comes to ship operations (see Boyle & Chinkin, 2007), remains classical international law. As such, the law of the sea has continued to contain “considerations of humanity” (International Court of Justice, 1949, p. 22). For the future, the law of the sea has the potential to further contribute to the protection of rights and interests of individuals. Far from being only technical in nature, today’s law of the sea is a tool for the holistic regulation of maritime issues. This includes the human components of the different uses of the seas, especially by shipping.

Outlook The Arctic is no longer as isolated as it used to be (although the idea of isolation is part of the appeal the Arctic holds for visitors, a notion which is illustrated in the bestselling work by Horatio Clare, which opens with the lines “Like a small luminous yeti in search of food I tramp towards the centre of Oulu. Snow floods out of the darkness, shoaling around the lights, settling deep on the town. Nothing else moves. […] The ice is close by. You can smell it, a hard purity in the cold. The north seems a vast, imagined surround, pine-dark, duned with snow and specked with Arctic towns as deserted as Oulu, their garrisons all stood down” (Clare, 2017, p. 1). Today, it attracts people from around the world—some for the holiday of a lifetime, some for a lifetime far from a home from which they were forced to flee. Even though the European Arctic, with the exception of Russia, has long enjoyed open borders, the increase in refugee numbers during the refugee crisis in the last years also has had effects of people who are coming to the Arctic as well as on people who are guarding borders which have long become only symbolic in the minds of many who live in the Arctic. At the same time, does the Arctic continue to provide serious challenges

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to the security not only of the people who live there but also to that of newcomers, including migrants and tourists? International law, including international human rights law, provides multiple frameworks of obligations which contribute to ensuring diverse types of security. In a fragmenting international legal system (Fischer-Lescano & Teuber, 2006; cf., Koivurova, 2014), human rights law not only provides states with guidance but also gives individuals a place in the international legal system (Kirchner, 2004). The protection of human rights is part of the legal culture of the Nordic countries (see e.g., for Finland Koivu, 2015) and can be traced back for centuries throughout European legal history (Janis, Kay, & Bradley, 2008), although, in historical terms, international human rights law is a relatively recent legal development (Letsas, 2009), inspired by the horrors of the Shoa and World War II (Guerra Martins, 2013), including the plight of refugees. It is the task of international law to solve practical problems (Koskenniemi, 2007). Today, international law is no longer concerned only with states (Habermas, 2008; Hanschmann, 2006). Instead, international human rights law provides a framework of rights and obligations which can contribute to the safety of migrants. This requires states not only to refrain from actions which violate human rights but also to take adequate positive action in order to protect human lives against the environmental dangers present in the areas under their jurisdiction. As more people enter the Arctic, states will also have to take into account the safety needs of newcomers, be they visitors or migrants, which can lead to an increased need to provide multi-lingual information about natural and human-made hazards. Many safety risks in the Arctic are no longer a consequence of the Arctic nature or climate but are human-made, be it through climate change, environmental pollution or other activities. In order to remain an effective tool for the protection of human safety, international law will have to evolve. This in turn requires an increasing Arctic awareness among international lawyers.

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Rainey, B., Wicks, E., & Ovey, C. (2014). Jacobs, White & Ovey: The European Convention on Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Refugee Convention. (1951). Convention and protocol relating to the status of refugees. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10. Rehbein, B., & Schwengel, H. (2008). Theorien der Globalisierung. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Reid, K. (2007). A practitioner’s guide to the European Convention on Human Rights. London: Sweet & Maxwell. Schengen Acquis. (2000). The Schengen acquis as referred to in Article 1(2) of Council Decision 1999/435/EC of 20 May 1999, Agreement between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders, 2000 O.J. (L 239) 1, 13–18 (Agreement between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders of September 22, 2000). Sellheim, N. (2016). Legislating the blind spot—The EU seal regime and the Newfoundland seal hunt. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press. Smith, R. K. M. (2014). Textbook on international human rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Statute of the International Court of Justice. Retrieved from http://legal. un.org/avl/pdf/ha/sicj/icj_statute_e.pdf. Stein, T., & von Buttlar, C. (2009). Völkerrecht. Cologne: Carl Heymanns Verlag. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1948, December 10). UN General Assembly Resolution 217 A. Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf. Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. (1963). Retrieved from http:// legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_2_1963.pdf. Vitzthum, W. G. (2006). Begriff, Geschichte und Rechtsquellen des Seerechts. In W. G. Vitzthum (Ed.), Handbuch des Seerechts (pp. 1–61). Munich: C. H. Beck. Wadhams, P. (2017). A farewell to ice—A report from the Arctic. London: Penguin Books. Wendt, R. (2007). Vom Kolonialismus zur Globalisierung – Europa und die Welt seit 1500. Paderborn: Schöningh. Zwaak, L. (2006). Chapter 6 Right to Life (Article 2). In P. van Dijk, F. van Hoof, A. van Rijn, & L. Zwaak (Eds.), Theory and practice of the European Convention on Human Rights (pp. 351–403). Antwerp: Intersentia.

3 Nomadic Narratives of Sámi People’s Migration in Historic and Modern Times Pigga Keskitalo

Introduction This chapter deals with the Sámi people of Finland and their migration in the Arctic region. The Sámi people are indigenous people of the European Union (Lehtola, 2005). According to Sanders (1999), indigenous people, known also as first people, aboriginal people, or native people, are ethnic groups who originally inhabited a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied, or colonized the area more recently. According to United Nations Urban Indigenous People and Migration statement, in 2008 above half the world’s people were living in urban areas, for the first time in history. Urbanization is a keenly experienced phenomenon among indigenous people and has serious implications for their culture, heritage, and connection

P. Keskitalo (*)  Sámi Teacher Education and Indigneous Journalism, Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Kautokeino, Norway University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland © The Author(s) 2019 S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin (eds.), Human Migration in the Arctic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4_3

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to their traditional lands as well as their socioeconomic opportunities (United Nations, 2008). In this chapter, I am interested in human migration, where the movement of people takes them from one place to another with the intention of settling, permanently or temporarily, in a new location. I am particularly interested in the challenges faced by Sámis and their expectations regarding migration. In the Sámi context, this process results from urbanization, modernization, globalization, neoliberalism, and the politics of the modern state. Increasing numbers of indigenous people, including the Sámi people, have migrated from their traditional homelands to the larger cities. For the Sámi people, it has meant migration especially to southern Finland (e.g., Lindgren, 2000). Historically, Sámi people lived all over Finland, including the southern areas (see Aikio, 2012). Current Sámi areas are the northernmost municipalities in Finland. Presently, there is evidence that population change is recurring, with the capitals of Finland, Sweden, and Norway tending to be the places with the largest Sámi populations. Former studies about Sámi migration have been carried out by Lindgren (2000). She highlights that the migration from Sámi core areas to urban areas has meant for many Sámi in terms of change of lifestyle, change of livelihood, and change of language. This chapter endeavors to discover what the Sámi have to say about their migration. Furthermore, by the use of narrative interviews, the study aims to answer the research questions: (1) What are the reasons for migrating or not migrating? (2) How do migrants perceive their lives after relocation, with particular regard to their culture and language? (3) What future prospects do the Sámi envisage? As an educated indigenous woman I, Ville Ásllat Piggá, have personally faced moving from one place to another many times. Sámi names refer to parents and grandparents. Literally, my Sámi name is Piggá. My father’s name is Ásllat (Aslak), and his father is named Ville (Wilhelm). My late grandmother Ovllá Per Biret (born 1922), in her childhood, experienced the historic, traditional nomadic way of life focused on reindeer herding, with seasonal migration between the summer and winter pastures in Utsjoki, between the river and mountain areas of Gáldooaivi. She talked about the traditional way of life and about summers in the Rievssatjávri (Ptarmigan Lake in English) area many times before she

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passed away few years ago. Born in 1972, I had an opportunity to be part of her life during my early childhood, living next to her home in Nuorgam, Utsjoki commune, northern Finland, where she had moved from Utsjoki, Giđešjohka. Later, in 1978, my parents decided to build a house in Utsjoki, the main village of the commune, 40 kilometers from Nuorgam. Later, my grandmother moved to Utsjoki after her husband, my grandfather, died, thus returning to the place she was originally from. As a wife, she lived in Nuorgam in the 1970s—a time when people were increasingly starting to move away from the Sámi-majority Utsjoki commune. I was able to live near to my maternal cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relatives, initially in Nuorgam and, later, close to both my parents’ relatives in Utsjoki. I attended a primary school where I was taught primarily in the Sámi language, a lower secondary school with some tuition in Sámi, and a junior high school in Utsjoki where only Sámi language instruction was delivered in Sámi. Moving to Utsjoki at the end of the 1970s was exciting, and I wondered how I would manage without my childhood friends and relatives who stayed in Nuorgam village. Soon after starting school, I made friends with my new classmates in Utsjoki. The next radical relocation I experienced occurred when I began my university studies in Rovaniemi, at the University of Lapland. My first days in town were unpleasantly lonely, but the situation improved after I met my university student friends. After achieving a master’s degree, I returned to work as a primary school teacher in Nuorgam. Later, I lived for a year in Tampere, south Finland, before moving to work in Norway at the Sámi University of Applied Sciences. Currently, I live in Enontekiö and commute to Norway to work in Sámi teacher education. My family continues to work with reindeer herding and I have four Sámi-speaking children. My father (born in 1939) attended high school in Rovaniemi in the 1950s, 500 kilometers from his home. Later he studied in Jyväskylä Teacher Training School, 1000 kilometers from his home. I imagine it must have been extremely difficult to leave home at such a young age and go so far south in the 1950s and 1960s. After graduating, he slowly settled into Utsjoki commune, working as a teacher. My mother studied in Pieksämäki in the 1960s to be a homemaker, 1000 kilometers from her home. My father’s family had been evacuated to Alavieska, Ostrobothnia in 1944, where his mother died of consumption.

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For many weeks after her death, my father and his brothers were calling for their mother, wondering why she did not come home (Aikio, 2000). After being evacuated and returning home again, many of the children were given to other people to be fed because of the poverty and hunger in the region. Reconstruction and regeneration were desperately needed. Sámi people’s views on migration also intertwine with my own story. I was reminded of our family’s stories and my own story when I heard the accounts of the Sámi people who were interviewed about migration. These narratives were overwhelming: open to extensive interpretation, by turns inconsequential and deeply meaningful (Squire, Andrews, & Tamboukou, 2013). Migration can be studied as both a cultural and geographic relocation. Hence, mobility and borders are mutually constitutive but appear uneven, complex, and precarious in the twenty-first century. It is important to question how mobility and stability, borders, and bordercrossings as multi-level practices are shaped and reshaped by various structures and drivers in addition to the global flows of people. In addition, discussion of the experiences of mobility/stability and borders/ areas and bordering/cultural bordering that are enlivened and revived in memory results in accounts of empowerment or various forms of inequality. People who migrate, often with family members, hope to reach individual or collective goals and aspirations, or to achieve a dignified self-realization and/or a preferred way of life (Chaichian, 2014; Wahlbeck, 2016). There are still large gaps in understanding of Arctic demography, for example, variations in in- and out-migration, male and female aging, designs of settlement (urban vs. rural), and nomadic patterns (indigenous vs. non-indigenous) in the cross-territorial framework. Moreover, lack of vital statistical data at the regional and municipal levels similarly remains inadequate (Rautio, Poppel, & Young, 2014). There are no official statistics on Sámi migration, but data should be gathered from Sámi language speakers and those who live in or migrate from the Sámi home areas in Finland. The Sámi home areas consist of the municipalities of Utsjoki, Inari, Enontekiö, and the northern area of Sodankylä.

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Sámi Migration Migration is a global phenomenon, which concerns indigenous p ­ eople, including the Sámi people. Worldwide, indigenous neighborhoods form and provide a means for migrants to live an indigenous lifestyle in towns, away from traditional remote areas. Processes of modernization and urbanization also concern indigenous people and they powerfully affect indigenous people who are normally connected to nature, their local societies, and their particular cultures. According to Morgan (2006), indigenous urban migration is seen as synonymous with assimilation. Assimilation was criticized for fusing cultural identities, denying cultural differences, and confirming inconsistencies (Rantonen & Savolainen, 2010). Furthermore, indigenous urban migration can disorganize tribal structures and produce new pan-indigenous forms of solidarity. Additionally, migration can be used by the state to homogenize indigenous people (Morgan, 2006). Migration can be understood as multifaceted occurrence within the Sámi context. There can be seen traditional migration, nomadism that occurred for thousands of years when Sámi culture and languages were created (Aikio, 2012). Traditionally, in Sámi culture, migration has always been closely connected with the traditional seasonal movement within a specific pastoral area or the longer journeys between summer and winter pastures (Heikkinen, 2003; International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, 2018; Kortesalmi, 2008). State borders and a special organization of reindeer herding created a new order in Finland in the 1800s and 1900s (Kortesalmi, 2008; also Anttonen, 1999; Hirvonen, 2010). Furthermore, wars and changes to national borders caused migration (Lähteenmäki, 2014) and the pressures of modern life, for example moving away because of the areas taken to hydropower (Linkola, 1967), have been remarkable life changes for the Sámi people since the 1950s (Brattrein & Niemi, 1994; Seurujärvi-Kari, 2011). Changes came to the Sámi lands after World War II, when reconstruction started. Some of the Sámis had already moved to southern Finland to work and study (Ahokas, 2013; Lindgren, 2000), despite the official Sámi area being constructed as northern Finland.

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Greater movement to the south took place gradually in the 1950s and culminated in the 1960s since it was clear that not everyone could cope with a traditional lifestyle. Migration to towns in the southern region of Finland continued from the 1970s to the 1990s and 2000 so that, nowadays, over 75% of Sámi children live outside the Sámi core areas. The same kind of movement happened in Norway and Sweden (Blindh, 1979; Eidheim, 1997; Hovland, 1996). The forms of migration within the Sámi people are both diverse and individual. Lindgren (2000) highlights that even in a suburban context, pluralism can arise and language revitalization can occur. At a very early stage, the Sámi people were subject to “civilization” processes and migration. For example, the first Sámi writer, Pedar Jalvi, moved to southern Finland to study in Jyväskylä Teachers’ College, from which he graduated in 1915 (e.g., Aikio, 1966). Some of these first students stayed permanently in southern Finland, resulting in third-generation Sámi residence in that region. In the twentieth century, the church proceeded to recruit young Sámi as teachers to teach Sámi children. Jouni Guttorm worked in Kylmäkoski because he was not able to find a job in the Sámi areas. This Guttorm family changed their surname to Keva so that the children would not be teased on account of their Sámi family name (Ahokas, 2013). In her article Flying Beyond: Diverse Sáminesses and Be(com)ing Sámi, Guttorm, as second-­generation Sámi in south Finland, describes the consequences the move of her father to the south caused for her and for the family. She writes about her memories of living in the south, not learning Sámi from his father, and about the connection to Sámi culture (Guttorm, 2018). The idea of her article is to construct the age of pan-assimilation, which has caused different kinds of Sáminess. In general, she experiences Sámi diversity, which, on the one hand, is caused by migration and assimilation and, on the other, by cultural differences. The program of sustainable development of the Sámi parliament in Finland notes with concern that the deterioration of the living conditions and livelihoods in the Sámi home areas have caused widespread migration and the sale of traditional lands. Furthermore, the Sámi parliament states that Sámi people’s movement away from the traditional Sámi home areas threatens to fragment and ultimately break the Sámi

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community’s foundation, accelerating the assimilation into the mainstream population, and weakening the development of Sámi cultural autonomy. The Sámi demographic also poses challenges. In 2003, there were less than 8000 Sámi, of whom 54% lived outside the Sámi home areas. In 1992, the proportion was 38%; in 1995, 41%; and in 1999, 45%. At the same time, 90% of Sámi people over the age of 75 lived in the Sámi home areas, but more than 70% under 10 years of age lived outside this core area. According to the Sámi parliament, the condition of traditional livelihoods causes migration or exclusion if there are no decent lifestyles available for those who wish to work within traditional neighborhoods or work in northern areas. When increasing numbers of people live outside the traditional way of life, without using the terminology, which belongs to culture, the future of the Sámi language is endangered (Sámi Parliament, 2006). Olsén, Heinämäki, and Harkoma (2017) assert that moving away from traditional areas is part of a process of representing a minority within a minority. According to their research, for example, it seems to be easier for those with minority sexual orientation to live as a member of the wider society than as part of a small community. Globalization and migration have changed in recent decades, strongly constituting European cities as global, multicultural places (Hakkarainen, 2010; Rantonen & Savolainen, 2010). Migrants, refugees, and minorities cross the borders of states and art. The exchange of ethnic and national influences produces the blending of cultural mixes and combinations (Rantonen & Savolainen, 2010). According to Latomaa (2010), how migrants can retain their languages depends on a country’s minority and language policy and what kind of mainstream attitudes there are toward their languages. She points out that if policy is strongly assimilative and mainstream attitudes likewise, minority or migrant languages can be seen as worthless and dispensible. When social policy is culturally pluralist and linguistic pluralism is allowed, minority representatives or migrants can more freely choose what language practices they use in their homes. Latomaa further highlights that those who live in new places need to consider their past and future prospects: What connections they maintain with their home areas; what they need in order to be able to succeed in new

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environment; whether they continue to speak their own language or speak the mainstream language at home (Latomaa, 2010). Latomaa (2010) points out that similar changes concern not only migrants but also the older Finnish minorities. The number of Sámi language speakers decreased throughout the 1900s. Language modification was caused by changes in the education system. The former school rotation organization was changed, and the visits of teachers to the villages were abolished. People born in the 1940s and 1950s were forced to move to other, larger villages to attend Finnish language elementary schools, where they lived in dormitories. Conditions were such that the Finnish language became the main language for many of the children and many families changed their language of communication at home from Sámi to Finnish. The language situation improved in the 1970s when Sámi language instruction began after a long period of nationalism (Keskitalo, Lehtola, & Paksuniemi, 2014; Latomaa, 2010). The language revival resulted from its development in schools, with schools providing Sámi language classes and the Sámi language also being a subject of study (Aikio-Puoskari, 2007; Rahko-Ravantti, 2016). Furthermore, Sámi early childhood education was conducted in Sámi and language revitalization was also fostered by language nests (Äärelä, 2016). The Sámi language has also increasingly been used in the media, associations, and cultural life, and Sámi literature has been published more extensively than it was before the 1980s (Hirvonen, 2010; Lehtola, 2005). School law in Finland has not followed the migration from Sámi core areas to bigger settlements outside the Sámi administrative areas of Finland. The right to attend Sámi-speaking classes only exists in the Sámi core areas. Outside these, the right to attend Sámi language club activities is two hours per week according to a separate regulation of the Board of Education in Finland (Rahko-Ravantti, 2016). This causes hierarchies despite the pluralist reality. The minority and migrant languages in Finland have only been used outside the formal curriculum since 2004 beyond the Sámi core areas (Latomaa, 2010). According to Hirvonen (2010), societal changes have affected Sámi societies. Many Sámi people have been absent from their traditional core areas for decades because of study, work, or other personal reasons. Living in a new area may be challenging because new areas often do not

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provide good opportunities to study, use, or maintain the Sámi language and culture. Living outside the Sámi core areas can be referred to as a diaspora when a person in new area experiences strong dependency on home area. After relocation, the connection to Sámi lands and to Sámi people might change, and the identity of those who moved might be questioned. This can cause a measure of negotiation about Sámi identity and re-definition of that identity within the Sámi community. The Sámi connection to the mainstream involves feelings of both power and subordination, affecting how individuals feel themselves to be similar or “other” and how they cope in the new environment (Hirvonen, 2010). According to Gröndahl (2010), the Sámi migrants’ situation is intersectional, which simultaneously consists aspects of connection and distinguishment to their background and representation. Intersectionality attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society. Various forms of social stratification do not exist separately from each other but are interwoven together, like class, race, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, disability, and gender. The theory began as an exploration of the oppression of women of color within society. Today, the analysis is potentially applied to all social categories, including social identities usually seen as dominant when considered independently (Cooper, 2016). Poelzer and Wilson (2014, p. 144) in the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Arctic Human Development Report summarize the situation of the Sámi nowadays in the Arctic area: On the one hand, there is a trend toward the revitalization of indigenous languages and cultures and the strengthening of northern identities. On the other hand, there is a growing threat to circumpolar cultures and identities through modernization, globalization and (urban) migration.

Method This research is concerned with Sámi people’s experiences of their migrations and uses qualitative, narrative interviews to collect people’s ideas and thoughts about migration. A narrative is a story and this study

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examines what kind of stories people tell about their migration and how the phenomenon is constructed as a story (Hyvärinen, 2006). The qualitative research framework is supported by the fact that the information it elicits cannot be accessed through statistics but is a large and meaningful phenomenon for minorities and societies under scrutiny. This chapter also has a pedagogical research purpose because it concerns the experiences and challenges that groups of indigenous people face as a result of migration. The study also uses Sámi research (Seurujärvi-Kari, 2014) as a means to open up, engage with, and resolve the legacy of assimilation and, in particular, language shift. Sámi education that is based on a mediating role plays a vital part in struggles to revive indigenous languages and cultures (Keskitalo & Sarivaara, 2016). The participants in this research were interviewees (N = 10) interviewed with a narrative method. Interviewees represented adults of all ages: young people in their twenties, students and young people, middle-aged people of working age, and retired people, chosen as a representative sample of the Sámi people of Finland. Number of interviews is ten chosen with snowball method, which means that this research does not reach generalizability but rather brings forth cases that represent expressed narratives. More research is needed to be able to reach multiple phenomenon. Narrative interviews consisted of questions about people’s lives and their opinions and perspectives of migration. The researcher talked to people representing different types of migration (new migration to towns and migration because of the effects of modern life in Lapland), discussing the effects on various generations of migration due to World War II, how people try to cope with migration and Sámihood, and their connection to the Arctic region and environment. The aim of this study is to discover the consequences of Arctic migration for Sámi people in historic and modern times. Despite the fact that the Sámi people have experienced different kinds of migration, this chapter concentrates on modern world migration and its consequences. References to historic times are included as exceptions. The study considers both the positive and negative effects of migration on people, and the diverse challenges they have faced. Many issues were covered during the interviews, including some that were not directly related to migration.

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Sámi migrants can be analyzed through the concept of intersectionality, which expresses categories’ collective and distinctive features and tasks (Gröndahl, 2010; also Hancock, 2016). The approach of intersectional analysis considers how categories of cultural, societal, and discursive lack of power limit each other, how they construct and maintain each other, and what kind of dynamics are evident (de los Reyes, Molina, & Mulinari, 2005). The goal is not to examine how categories cause accumulating interaction but rather to examine their mutual dynamics. From this point of view, often used in minority and women’s studies, the term of double or triple marginalization is not a very meaningful explanation (Gröndahl, 2010). According to Gröndahl (2010), identity-building and collective and individual images seem to be categories that are shaped by social identity politics. Although identity is a social construction, changing and contextual, its effect is “real” and “concrete” to individuals and communities. That is why Gröndahl (2010) highlights that identity is shaped by active acts and practices that are linked to individual or collective stories of “self ” (see Giddens, 1997; also Dankertsen, 2006). When talking about migration, the concept of trans-nationalism is also appropriate because it involves the ways in which different practices go beyond and question ethnic, national, and cultural boundaries (Rantonen, 2010). The data were examined by identifying meaningful criteria and relevant stories that arose from the interviews: the reasons for moving, how life is perceived in the post-migration circumstances, what role Sámihood has in the new area, and what kind of ideas migrant people have about their futures. Data have been given no numbers or dates in order to avoid combining elements and identifying interviewees. Because there are few, in small circles the need for anonymity is high (see Nystad, 2003). The reliability of the study depends on the fact that the researcher is a Sámi and has a unique insight into the meaning of Sámi people’s experience of migration. Furthermore, the research was conducted according to ethical principles of research, including its concepts, approaches, methods, and conclusions. Sámi and indigenous research aims to privilege the personal experiences of the researcher and interviewees, and the quality of research is established through this kind of interaction.

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The stories are important in eliciting and highlighting the ideas, struggles, and life histories of vulnerable groups of people (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008; Paksuniemi & Keskitalo, 2018). Narratives and memories as such do not tell straightly about the events, but they tell what kind of meaning they built about time (Miettunen, 2010).

Findings In this research, the aim is to discover what the Sámi have to say about their migration. Findings deal with three main aspects of migration: reasons for relocation, life after relocation, and migrants’ connection to Sámi culture and community. These issues anchor the stories that people told and show how the stories are connected to each other. Every story has its happy and sad elements. The collective picture for all participants is the feeling of being Sámi and the individuals’ special connection to nature and the Sámi areas. The stories deal with the feeling of what is to be a Sámi and an indigenous person in a suburban area. Every story reveals strong connections with, and hopes for returning to, Sámi core areas. The study presents migrants’ reasons for moving, what issues worry them, whether they plan to return to Sámi land, and whether they are moving or not. The results bring forth timely explanations about migration as the number of people moving to suburban areas has grown (see Lindgren, 2000; Nordic Council of Ministers, 2014). What this means to indigenous people who have always been tightly connected to their land is a crucial question. Question of indigenous people in suburban area is a key question when thinking about the future of Sámi people and Sámi languages in Finland.

Reasons for Relocating The Sámi interviewees mentioned many reasons for moving to a new area, with reasons often relating to their age. Factors included work, studies, love, wanting to experience adventure and new challenges,

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career choices, changes in families, and the fact that circumstances in the Sámi home area caused people to move away. A number of participants needed to move away because living conditions were not good in their home area. Also, time was a factor in people moving. In the 1950s, living conditions became austere and people sought work opportunities elsewhere (Lindgren, 2000). People wanted to escape either from unemployment or general poor earning levels (Korkiasaari & Tarkiainen, 2000), affecting migration in Arctic areas. There were many kinds of relocations according to interviewees: within villages, between villages, moving short distances, moving to bigger settlements, and moving further south, but also between Nordic countries or even abroad. Some of the interviewees mentioned migration in Sámi areas in those days when state borders were settled in the 1900s, and during World War II, that have affected several generations and their memories and stories. The 1900s migration and forced migration during World War II caused later generations to wonder about their origins, which, according to some interviewees, were perceived negatively. Some of them mentioned that World War II experiences still affect their families, so that some things are not spoken of and others are often spoken of, for example, if the home was left for another country because of new state borders. Forced migration was also experienced, and stories and memories about this still affect people today. Even if people decided to move, their family sometimes called the migrant home to Sámi area. Families worked hard and it was not easy to let the young people move away because families needed the labor of all their members. One interviewee said: My grandfather wrote to his son: ‘Please, you need to stop your education and come back from school. There are so many wolves in the reindeer herd’. (Student)

Now, due to mechanization, there is probably less need for workers. Traditional means of earning a living did not provide a livelihood for everybody anymore. One elderly person tells that, when he moved away, he was in his twenties, and Sámi society had begun to transform. Finnish identity

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and the Finnish language started to predominate. Those who were ­educated or working in Sámi core areas, or had traditional livelihoods, or spoke Sámi and preferred to live in that area, stayed. The modernization process and consequent changes in society caused people to move (Lindgren, 2000). Assimilation, language change, and changes in society affected feelings of belonging to Sámi society. The rise of Sámi political action was mentioned. These first stories concern those earlier times in the 1950s and 1960s: I felt that I did not belong to that (Sámi) society and those groups, as I could not speak Sámi. There was also a lot of confrontation, which was concealed. Political action started to arise. Differences between groups started to arise. Those who were academically educated started to be in the lead. I think the change of society and its decomposition was affecting those days a lot, in hidden form. Hidden inner conflicts, disputes, and competition were the reasons I left, among others. As I was young, the world was calling me. (Employee)

Many of the interviewees reported that social clashes affected their decision to move in addition that young person wanted to see the world. They felt that there was a great deal of confrontation in Sámi areas, and they felt the atmosphere was negative. These types of experiences were reported by some of the older and younger generation migrants and from earlier days until the present. There is research about when the traditions of the Sami culture is confronted with modern-day society (Granqvist, 2006) and explanations can be found from power relations that affect to minorities and indigenous people (see Balto & Østmo, 2012). Today, as in earlier times and like others who had relocated previously, most of the students who relocated felt that they had to move because there were not enough opportunities in the north. Many migrants needed to move because there is only limited vocational education in the north of Finland. Regardless of the time, youth seem to want to see the world, earn money, and find suitable opportunities for their lives. Traveling between home and the study location has made interviewees realize that maybe northern areas need to develop their study options so that people do not need to travel extensively to study.

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Furthermore, changes in families made people to move. Many of the interviewees mention that after divorce, part of the family or even all the members decided to move away and start living separately in bigger cities. If, after divorce, the rest of the family decides to move, it sometimes makes it necessary for everyone to move. “I wanted to live near to the kids ” (Employee). Changes in Sámi clans, that there are not many relatives living always around families with small children, make people to move if there are happening changes in families. Stories told remain about the dissolution of Sámi society. Mixed-marriages divorce means maybe that maybe other spouse wants to move close to his/her family. Families need the support of extended family and this need may be a reason to move.

The Types of People Who Relocate When talking about those who are moving and those who are staying in the Sámi areas, many interviewees mentioned that what kind of expectations families have, what kind of individuals they are and what kind of situation there is, and what kind of livelihood the families pursue, all have something to do with migration. Certainly, what the society offers, what families expect, and what the school study advisor says have a great effect, according to interviewees’ accounts. Childhood home education has an impact now, when people have more opportunity to choose and the economy is better compared to the 1950s: Those who choose to work in their communities and care about Sámihood and the Sámi language, those stay, so that I can understand it, but it is not that black and white. (Employee)

Since the great migration, especially in the 2000s, the need for education development and Sámi language services outside the Sámi core areas has been a great subject of debate. The situation had deteriorated, but many new developments have occurred. Helsinki has started Sámi classes; Kittilä, Helsinki, Sodankylä, Rovaniemi, and Oulu have started

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Sámi kindergartens; and Rovaniemi started Sámi language education after a long break. Sámi language distance education has great potential. People try to connect with those who have moved away, and they worry about their Sáminess and Sámi language ability. I often worry and wonder. Those who move, do they care enough, do they come home regularly, do they keep their connections? I assume that usually those who stay have a strong Sámi identity, but sometimes also those who move or live outside the Sámi core areas have a strong identity. It depends on the family background and person. (Student)

Another interviewee said: “Those who are leading traditional ways of life don’t move away ” (Student). Many motivations for relocation are explained by better opportunities and wider experiences in the new location. Those will leave who would like to study. There are very few opportunities in the north. If you want to experience new things, you might want to leave. If you stay, you choose something that you can study in the north, and then you get a job. Those who do not need an adventurous lifestyle stay. (Employee)

Some mentioned also that parity grew after relocation to the south: When I left, a lot of those who drank too much were living in the north. Those who were concentrating on career development were living in the south. At the same time, I can say that I am putting things too simply, but this is one thing I realized. (Employee)

The interviewees are clear about the motivation to stay or leave. Those who stay are more interested in things that the home area provides and those who leave tend to seek something else. The division between traditional and suburban seems to go when people think about their conditions. There is a line between those who leave and those who stay, but people can always become a leaver or returner and often vary between those roles many times.

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Issues That Worried Interviewees Interviewees mentioned many negative consequences of relocation. Settling in towns and suburban areas seemed to be achieved sometimes problematically and sometimes without problems. The case is not still black and white. In discussing the worries they have about migration, moving, changing, and coping with new situations etc., interviewees mentioned concerns about culture and language and the long distance from home. Assimilation and the pressure of Finnish language and culture worry many people who have migrated, and many of them describe worries about assimilation be a major issue. One stated: I really am worried about migration’s effects on Sámihood. I am afraid of assimilation. (Student)

This is not an unfounded fear or unnecessary threat because only 1900 people have claimed Sámi as their mother tongue, out of roughly 10,000 Sámi people living in Finland. It means that approximately 20% of Sámi people speak Sámi as their first language. Of course, we do not assume that everybody has announced Sámi as mother tongue because of how the concept of mother tongue is understood. In addition, long distances cause complications according to interviewees. Traveling is expensive, difficult, and time-consuming, and travelers need to plan ahead. Traveling between the study location and home in north causes a sense of anxiety. Adaptation to new demands, constant longing, and concerns about Sámi culture made people feel stressed. Thus, perceptions of the lifestyle appear not to be clear-cut: some situations are stressful, but others help people to cope after they have found ways to function effectively in the new environment. On the other hand, the new environment brought a lot of pleasure in new opportunities, like knowing nice people, getting possibility to build career, interesting hobbies, and be part of the globalized world. Despite the many good effects, existing challenges bring conflicting feelings to people and causes a great deal of stress and feelings of “otherness.”

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In a way, I feel that I do not belong anymore to the society I left, and that I am not part of the society I came to. I feel like an outcast, and disturbed. I miss the north and travel there often, and it helps, but I cannot return. (Employee)

People feel also that they are alone in south, that no one cares, and that they do not get any help if it is needed: I feel like in the north, everybody is so helpful. Here they do not stop if you ask for help. (Student)

Many of the stories mention the diasporic connection to the Sámi areas. Migrants miss the Sámi area, home, nature, and people but, conversely, they are still happy to live outside the Sámi areas. Despite some disturbing feelings, people still choose to stay away from home and tolerate the loneliness, the expense, and the longing for the natural environment. Some of the interviewees said that it is not possible to return. Still, many of those who were living in the south felt that their move was not permanent. Many dreamed about moving to the north, but had no such opportunity; many had built their lives in the south, so it was not possible to move.

Plans to Return When talking about their dreams of returning home, many interviewees felt positive about this, but “later,” “when the kids are bigger,” “when retiring,” “not yet.” Even if the north is perceived positively, things in the south were felt to be more important, like career, home, people, climate, and way of life. As one interviewee stated: “My family (husband and kids) will not return. I will return, I will return alone – but later ” (Employee). It is understandable that life in the south makes demands on people. They have bought houses and built their lives in the south and maybe their spouses are also from southern Finland. There is no easy way to go back to the north. Ties to their current lives are so tight that people

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even wonder what they would do if they could choose again. Migrants also started to rethink their career choices after their graduation and tell that studying and career are reasons to stay south. Interviewees explained, of their experiences in the north and south, that their home is in both places and they wander between them. Many of the interviewees recounted that there had been many moves between north and south. If they were living in the south, they might suddenly decide to move to the north, for example, to enjoy the nature or to work with Sámi cultural issues. The impulse to move was so strong that many of the relocations occurred suddenly, as in the two following quotations. Sentences show that relocations were not always permanent, but rather temporary: Once I decided to move suddenly from south to north, to my childhood home, as I missed the snowmobile riding. (Student) Once I got so homesick that I ordered a truck on the same day, packed all the belongings from my apartment and moved home, up north. (Employee)

Many of the students plan to move back home after graduation: It is very certain that I will not stay at my study location but I will return to my home area. I want to go back to my people. I cannot imagine that I’ll stay. Study time itself is nice, and the distance to home is something that I can manage. (Student)

We do not have any statistics about students who actually return north after graduating. South study places are one way that students eventually stay in their study towns.

Life After Relocation In the next section, the study highlights what kind of consequences and expectations Sámi people perceive that migration has brought them. Life after relocation is perceived differently by different people, depending on the reasons why people relocated and their life situations.

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The consequences of relocation.  Those who settled away from the Sámi home areas built their homes in the south and relocated their families there. Nomadic moves between south and north became common among those people and their families. Connections and regular visits were part of their lives. My income improved, I got a good job, I could do every kind of hobby, I could socialize with different kinds of people and not need to socialize with those I did not feel like (socializing with) etc. On the other hand, those hobbies I did in the north, I cannot do here. That’s bad. (Employee)

Like the interviewee above, other interviewees mentioned many good aspects of living in big cities: So many chances to study and work in different kinds of workplaces. In the north you need to get along with everybody. Here I can choose who I socialize with. It’s easy to travel, and I can get to know things I did not know before. (Student)

Many interviewees also mentioned that they had made many good friends and contacts: My friendship network has widened, and I made new work contacts. I get really good jobs without any special schooling. Employers appreciate those who came to the south from the north of Finland. (Employee)

After relocation, many said that their world view had been widened and that: When I coped in the south and settled here all on my own, the feeling of coping was very strong. I can cope wherever I decide to. (Employee)

Many of the things that people report are positive. They feel that relocation, after all, is quite harmless and that, after a while, it brought positive benefits to their lives. But still they missed “home.” Despite the problems experienced by earlier migrants in settling, they still felt that

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relocation brought positive benefits to their lives, including stability and a feeling of progress. Problems to settle down.  It is not easy to settle down in the study location: If there are people who you knew beforehand, it helps you to adapt to the community. I could ask for help and there were many people from my home area. I got to know them very well at my place of study, even though I was not even talking to them before getting to know them well at the place of study. Having the same origin and village brought us closer. (Student)

Different experiences came from towns that students relocated to without knowing anyone: “The first days were tough. It was dark and it was raining. I felt so lonely and I was crying when walking in the empty town” (Student). One student suggested a solution for Sámi students coming to towns. She suggested some kind of godfather/godmother system so that there are people to take care of Sámi youth coming to the towns.

Connection to Sámi Culture and Sámi Community The next section deals with the connection to Sámi culture and community. These issues concern “Saminess,” connections to the Sámi home areas, connections to family and relatives, and children’s bond with the Sámi and Arctic areas. Connection to Sáminess.  Interviewees represented two kinds of people: those who can speak Sámi actively and those who cannot. One interviewee mentioned: “Anyway, Sámihood is not the same here as in the north. It is imagined, constructed, and pretentious” (Employee). Other interviewees felt differently about Sámihood:

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My Sámihood is because of my strong background. I talk to my relatives and kids daily in Sámi. Some of my friends also speak Sámi, but not many. (Employee)

Many mentioned that they want to do more cultural things but they cannot: It is very unpleasant that I cannot go fishing or berry picking, or be part of the reindeer herding. I do not have time to travel and stay up north. But things that I do nowadays and that is why I do not need to go back. My workplace is wonderful and I love the things I can do here in the south nowadays. I can still use Sámi language here, as there are so many Sámis living here. (Employee)

Connection to relatives, and Sámi language and Sámi-speaking society, are important. Little things can bring joy to the life of a student who is living in the city: “I love talking to my dog in Sámi. When relatives send me reindeer meat, I feel very supported and loved” (Student). Interviewees feel that they can be connected to Sáminess and retain their culture and language despite the distance: Despite the fact that I have lived far away, and I have not had so many Sámi things in my life recently, I do not think I will lose anything. I know who I am and my background stays with me. Distance does not damage my connection to my background. I am not worried at all. Sáminess stays with me wherever I go. (Employee)

Sámi home areas and nature.  When discussing Sámi home areas and nature, the interviewees’ moods lightened. Many said they are worried about their relatives’ income and the opportunity to carry out reindeer herding: “I feel sorry for my relatives as the pressure on traditional way of life is tough” (Employee). They talk about the pressure on Sámi areas. Increased tourism and other kinds of pressure are affecting the north, and there are more plans

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to establish mines or wind farms. Also, reindeer herders suffer from the increase in people, cabins, deforestation, and hunters with dogs coming to their pastures: “There are towns enough. I hope nature stays untouched up north ” (Student). Interviewees see a direct connection between Sámi culture’s traditional way of life and the continuity of traditional knowledge: “Many people are going to lose their traditional livelihoods if nature is misused ” (Employee). People mentioned also that migration has resulted in the right to fish and the right to wander not being permitted in the sense that the heritage of those who have moved away defines them. The people felt that this was negative and inequitable. They felt that they were not part of their heritage any longer in that large as they wanted to be. When they visited their homelands, they felt that they were only visitors—not part of the indigenous society and its membership. Carlos Trujano (2008) points out that the absence of ancestral lands may limit indigenous people’s ability to survive and to preserve, develop, and transmit the indigenous cultures and languages to future generations. Still, despite all the negative impacts and pressure, some of the interviewees are positive: “I think that Sáminess and language can survive – they always have ” (Student). Many of the interviewees were actively working to keep Sámi culture alive and visible: “I love my home area up north. I want to develop that ” (Employee). Connection to family and relatives.  Many of the interviewees come from backgrounds where their families are tied to the traditional way of life in the north, and they are part of that life every time they go back home: My soul sings when I go home. Still, I have not been there for two years. (Employee)

Interviewees report strong feelings and connections in relation to their home areas in the north. They feel that it is their real home:

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I feel like this study town is my home, but my village home up north is my home, a real true home. (Student)

Children’s bond to Sámihood.  It seems that many of the interviewees are concerned about their children and their children’s language capability: If we do not go regularly, I feel that, because they were not born in the north, they get only a minimal amount of Sámihood, and that makes me sad. We can travel only for one week per year to the north. I cannot move because it’s complicated. (Employee)

Others choose to move to north when they have children: “I feel like Sámi language and culture are the most important things” (Student). They see the children to be the future of the Sámi: With my future kids I’d rather live in the Sámi lands. I’ve seen when working with kids in Sámi areas and in towns that those kids living in Sámi areas, their eyes are shining. (Student)

Sámihood and Sámi culture and connection to language is seen as a connection to the overall well-being of people. I can see the results if you need to hide your background; that it will not help your wellbeing. I want that my kids to enjoy Sáminess and feel how good it is to be Sámi: that you do not need to put those feelings away and hide your background or feelings or connection. (Employee)

Interviewees mentioned also that it is not easy dealing with children and the Sámi language in suburban areas: I am the only person who is speaking to my kids in Sámi. They surely lose out because they cannot attend Sámi language kindergarten. I want to make sure that they will later get Sámi language distance teaching. But I try to travel with them regularly to Sápmi. (Employee)

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Better choices nowadays make it maybe easier to preserve the Sámi ­language and Sámi culture. In many places, Sámi kindergartens and Sámi language teaching is conducted. As one interviewee stated: “For us as a family, it was absolutely expected that the kid would learn Sámi. It generated a better quality of life, when we could continue with Sámi language education after we moved” (Employee). Existence of Sámi language kindergarten made decision about moving very easy for interviewee. Arctic area and Sámi people.  Nature is meaningful for the interviewees. Many of them describe their connection to land and earth cosmologically, but individualism may clash with Sámi culture as follows: I feel really chilled out in nature. I can find the same kind of places here in the south. The coastal area sometimes reminds me of Sámi lands. I seek places where I can feel like I do in Sápmi. I want to see a long way just like in the mountains in Sápmi, I want to see beautiful rocks and dry land. Then I can feel peace and feel like I am connected to the earth. (Employee)

It is not easy, however, to find those types of places: “No matter how hard I try, I cannot find such beautiful places here as in the Sámi areas ” (Student). Many interviewees realize that they are part of the problem of climate change. Traveling to the north is expensive naturewise: I feel very bad if I need to travel by plane. I feel like I am part of making nature feel bad. (Employee)

The Arctic might bring new opportunities to one interviewee: “I think there are many possibilities in company fields and those opportunities are not all apparent yet ” (Employee). One interviewee says that it is strange how, even though there are new opportunities, they still feel that those opportunities are reserved for local people, but that others can benefit and decide about things: “That’s wrong” (Employee). Another states:

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There is a feeling that the cultural transfer will be cut off via migration, with people no longer involved with their land and their people. When you live in the north, connected to the nature, there is a need to develop many skills and multitask: I feel like I am in the wrong place if I cannot do my seasonal work, berry picking or collecting plants. (Employee)

Future Prospects The next section discusses what kinds of future prospects the interviewees envisage. Many ideas were forthcoming when interviewees talked about the future. Some mentioned that they do not want to move, that maybe they dream about moving but it is not possible, or they dream about their summer cottage. Still, the call of the nomadic life is strong: My car is always ready. It’s big so that I can travel instantly and so that there is place for camping stuff. When I travel, I do not make any detailed plans. I travel there when winter comes. When possible, I travel up north, to Norway, to the mountains, to meet my relatives, to be in the woods. But I hate mosquitos. That’s why I moved away from Sámiland! I want to better my income so that I can buy my own house or summer cottage. Still I feel restless; that I want to live a nomadic life with my car. I love feeling that I can move next year to another place. We have already moved, we were a year there, and this year is in another place. (Employee)

Another interviewee explains that she does not have any detailed plans, but dreams about moving up north: I feel like my life is incomplete. Even though I have lived for a long time in a town, I cannot say that I am from the town. Rather, I say that I am from the north, from that special village in the Sámi area. (Employee)

Matters concerning migration seem to be endless, unsolved issues: My dream is that my connection to Sámihood, and Sámiland, will remain intact in the future. I do not know what happens next. If my parents get old and they cannot cope: What shall I do then? I have thought about these issues. (Employee)

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Reflections on relocation. Almost all of the interviewees were happy about their decisions to relocate: I am quite happy. I have nothing to say about those issues. Things went as they went: Áššit manne nugo manne. (Employee)

Interviewees have a philosophical attitude toward their migration: They are happy, they will cope, and they are realistic about things. No one complains about anything: My choices have not been always been successful, but I do not feel sorry. All of experiences are important and they make me who I am. (Student)

Another mentioned: Some things just happened. I moved by accident. I got a study place. I got a work place. And then I just moved without much wondering. (Employee)

One interviewee says that he regrets that he did not prepare himself better for relocation. He did not find out things beforehand and did not save money: “But after all - everything went just fine. I feel like I am in the right place ” (Student). Some of them also made fatalistic comments about their relationship to the Sámi language. They feel that the earlier events were inevitable and nothing can now be done about issues such as losing the language: I regret that I did not learn more Sámi and that I did not have a Sámi culture-related education up north. But now it’s too late. (Employee)

Many of the interviewees mentioned that there should be supporting processes so that Sámi society plans more effectively for the kind of careers Sámis could have. Sámi career planning is lacking, say many of the interviewees.

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Further measures.  Many of the interviewees brought forth issues that might have been better planned. This has something to do also with the fact that migration has not previously been needed on the wide scale that is now occurring. They raise concerns that the local Sámi education system needs to be developed and supported in order to prevent migration. Still, there is little action with regard to this. They even say that self-determination is not being realized, so they cannot effectively decide about education possibilities. It’s hard to become educated. Education institutions do not take enough account of the wishes of those who live in remote areas. It’s very complicated to move to towns or to travel to other study locations. I’d rather study as much as possible via distance learning. I need to study further in order to get a permanent job. (Employee)

They have also felt that distance learning is not accepted: I would like to live in the north, but my education institution refuses to send lecturers to the north. They urge me to stay in town and study. That’s bad. I would love to live in the north and undertake internet-based study. (Student)

When students are educated away from their home, there is repeatedly a lack of link between the school and the home and between the school and the culture of the home community. Hence, the loss of culture and indigenous language seems to continue in Arctic areas (Hirshberg & Petrov, 2014).

Conclusion In this chapter, the study has dealt with Arctic migration and the Sámi people. The study involved narrative interviews, with interviewees describing multifaceted issues and raising many concerns that are important to them, along with proposals about issues to be addressed. Arctic migration is problematic to Sámi people because it results in

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culture transmission problems and clashes of community. We need to be aware of the Sámi language situation and that it needs a quick response in order to be saved. Cultural bearers and knowledge holders are living in Sámi core areas, and children are outside those traditional areas. If society does not wake up, the danger of losing unique Sámihood is certain. 90% of elders are living in Sámi core areas, and 75% of children live outside these areas without any Sámi education. Perhaps, it is too late and the measures that have been implemented are too few? There is an urgent need to talk more about these issues. The title of this chapter, “Nomadic narratives of Sámi People’s Migration in Historic and Modern Times,” refers to the connection of the indigenous nomadic Sámi people to migration. Every story narrated provided evidence of the Sámi people’s nomadic connection. They are constantly, regularly, moving between north and south, visiting Sápmi, their home, and driving back to southern areas to study and work. Their feelings about being indigenous Sámi people in a suburban area are quite positive for Sámis, but they feel themselves to be “other,” not only in the south but also in the north: They do not feel fully settled anywhere. These narratives relate to former studies and international concern about indigenous people’s in suburban areas. The urban areas are home to large groups of indigenous people (United Nations, 2008). Worldwide, the problem is that, because urban indigenous people are generally geographically dispersed, they can be ignored as a distinctive community (United Nations, 2008). In Finland, many hundreds of Sámis are living in Helsinki, Oulu, and Rovaniemi. They have kindergartens and organized primary school teaching, and it is possible to study the Sámi language and culture-related courses at universities. Statistics show that Sámis are living throughout Finland but, because they are a minority, they remain relatively invisible. There are 1992 Sámi-speaking individuals in 2018 (Statistics Finland, 2018) and 10,000 Sámis. Detailed statistical knowledge is missing, and this type of research should be developed further. Education seems to be meaningful category explaining Sámi people’s migration. Education is an essential part of fate control. Resilient fate control may reinforce communities, at least for a while, permitting

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them to resist the pressure from outside. It may, however, be less reactive to the marked differences in both gender and generational foci in relation to the development process. Indeed, that may result in unexpected and unwanted out-migration patterns and thus the loss of the new human capital gained, for example, through the expansion of educational prospects. Additional probable significance of formal education is the loss of cultural identity and loss of contact with nature (Battiste, 2000; Hirshberg & Petrov, 2014). Hirshberg and Petrov further state that, with an enlarged level of education, the capacity and wish of local residents to find employment or new educational chances in another place grows as well. A growing number of people, specifically women, move away from the Arctic to obtain their education or to work elsewhere. Simultaneously, many Arctic regions are engaging human capital from the south as professionals take benefit of high salaries in certain Arctic sectors (mining, oil, etc.). Regrettably, most of them stay in the Arctic simply for a limited time and continue detached from each other (Hirshberg & Petrov, 2014; also Voswinkel, 2012). According to Petrov and Vlasova (2010), departing educated native northerners and a lack of returning migrants create a problem of “brain drain” from the Arctic.

References Äärelä, R. (2016). Dat ii leat dušše dat giella [Se ei ole vain se kieli]. Tapaustutkimus saamenkielisestä kielipesästä saamelaisessa varhaiskasvatuksessa [It’s not just a language. Case study of Sámi language nest in Sámi early childhood education]. Acta Universitatis Lapponiensis 335. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press. Ahokas, L. (2013, April 6). Nilla Keva oli paljon muutakin kuin opettaja [Nilla Keva was much more than a teacher]. Akaan Seutu. Retrieved from:  https://akaanseutu.fi/2013/04/06/nilla-keva-oli-paljon-muutakinkuin-opettaja/. Aikio, A. (2012). An essay on Saami ethnolinguistic prehistory. In R. Grünthal & P. Kallio (Eds.), A linguistic map of prehistoric Northern Europe (pp.

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63–117). Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia - Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. Aikio, N. (2000). Liekkejä pakoon – saamelaiset evakossa 1944–1945 [Escaping flames—Sámi in evacuation 1944–45]. Helsinki: SKS. Aikio, S. (1966, November 29). Piirteitä Pedar Jalvin kirjallisesta tuotannosta [Features of Pedar Jalvi’s written production]. Lapin Kansa. Aikio-Puoskari, U. (2007). Saamelaisopetus osana suomalaista peruskoulua – kielenvaihdon vai revitalisaation edistäjä? [Sámi education as a part of Finnish basic education—Promoter of language change or revitalization?] In Sámit, sánit, sátnehámit. Riepmočála Pekka Sammallahtii miessemánu 21. Beaivve 2007 (pp. 73–84). Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia - Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne. Anttonen, M. (1999). Etnopolitiikkaa Ruijassa. Suomalaislähtöisen väestön identiteettien politisoituminen 1990-luvulla [Ethnic policy in Finnmark: The politicization of the identity of a Finnish-based population in the 1990s]. Helsinki: SKS. Balto, A., & Østmo, L. (2012). Multicultural studies from a Sámi perspective: Bridging traditions and challenges in an indigenous setting. Issues in Educational Research, 22(1), 1–17. Battiste, M. (2000). Maintaining aboriginal identity, language, and culture in modern society. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Reclaiming indigenous voice and vision (pp. 192–208). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Blindh, I. B. (1979). Samer i Stockholm: En undersökning om utflyttade samers kulturella behov [The Sámi in Stockholm: Research about migrated Sámi people’s cultural needs]. Dieđut nr. 1. Guovdageaidnu: Sámi Instituhtta. Brattrein, H. D., & Niemi, E. (1994). Inn i riket [In a country]. In E. A. Drivenes, M. A. Hauan, & H. A. Wold (Eds.), Politisk og økonomisk integrasjoen gjennom tusen år. Nord-Norsk kulturhistorie 1 (pp. 146–209). Oslo: Gyldendal norsk forlag. Chaichian, M. (2014). Empires and walls: Globalisation, migration, and colonial control. Leiden: Brill. Cooper, B. (2016). Intersectionality. In L. Disch & M. Hawkesworth (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of feminist theory (pp. 1–25). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfor dhb/9780199328581.013.20. Dankertsen, A. (2006). “Men du kan jo snakke frognerSámisk! ” Tradisjon og kulturell innovasjon blant samer i Oslo [“But you can talk frognerSámi!”

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(pp. 349–399). Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved from: http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:788965/FULLTEXT03.pdf. Hirvonen, V. (2010). Saamelainen kirjallisuus ja pohjoinen ulottuvuus [Sámi literature and the northern dimension]. In E. Rantonen (Ed.), Vähemmistöt ja monikulttuurisuus kirjallisuudessa [Minorities and multiculturalism in literature] (pp. 71–105). Tampere: Tampere University Press. Hovland, A. (1996). Moderne urfolk. Samisk ungdom i bevelse [Modern indigenous people. Sami youth in conception]. Oslo: Cappelen akademisk forlag. Hyvärinen, M. (2006). Kertomuksen tutkimus [Researching narratives]. Tampere: University of Tampere. Retrieved from: http://www.uta.fi/yky/yhteystiedot/ henkilokunta/mattikhyvarinen/index/Kerronnallinen%20tutkimus.pdf. International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry. (2018). Sámi & Finns. Retrieved from: http://reindeerherding.org/herders/sami-finns-finland/. Keskitalo, P., & Sarivaara, E. (2016). The definition and task of mediating Sámi research. In S. Uusiautti & K. Määttä (Eds.), The basics of caring research (pp. 119–133). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Keskitalo, P., Lehtola, V.-P., & Paksuniemi, M. (Eds.). (2014). Saamelaisten kansanopetuksen ja koulunkäynnin historia Suomessa [The Sámi education history in Finland]. Turku: Migration Institute. Korkiasaari, J., & Tarkiainen, K. (2000). Suomalaiset Ruotsissa [Finns in Sweden]. Turku: Migration Institute. Kortesalmi, J. (2008). Poronhoidon synty ja kehitys Suomessa [Reindeer herding and its development in Finland]. Helsinki: SKS. Lähteenmäki, M. (2014). Northern border regions on focus. Nordia Geographical Publications, 43(1), 1–6. Latomaa, S. (2010). “Hänellä ei ole kieltä missä hän voisi elää” − kirjallisuus kielipolitiikan ilmentäjänä [“He has no language where he could live”—Literature as an expression of language policy]. In E. Rantonen (Ed.), Vähemmistöt ja monikulttuurisuus kirjallisuudessa [Minorities and multiculturalism in literature] (pp. 40−68). Tampere: Tampere University Press. Lehtola, V.-P. (2005). The Sámi people: Traditions in transition. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. Lindgren, A.-R. (2000). Helsingin saamelaiset ja oma kieli [The Sámi in Helsinki and their own language]. Helsinki: SKS. Linkola, M. (Ed.). (1967). Entinen Kemijoki [Former Kemi River]. Helsinki: Weilin+Göös.

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Miettunen, K.-M. (2010). Muistelu historiakuvien rakentajana [Memories constructing pictures from history]. Tieteessä tapahtuu, 2, 12–15. Morgan, G. (2006). Unsettled places: Aboriginal people and urbanisation in New South Wales. Adelaide: Wakefield Press. Nordic Council of Ministers. (2014). Arctic human development report. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. Retrieved from: http://norden. diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:788965/FULLTEXT03.pdf. Nystad, I. M. K. (2003). Mannen mellom myte og modernitet [Man between myth and modernity]. Nesbru: Vett & Viten. Olsén, L., Heinämäki, L., & Harkoma, A. (2017). Vähemmistöjen sisäisten vähemmistöjen ihmisoikeudet ja moniperustainen syrjintä: saamelaiset vammaiset henkilöt ja seksuaali- ja sukupuolivähemmistöt [Human rights and multiple discrimination against minority minorities: Sámi disabled people and sexual and gender minorities]. Rovaniemi: University of Lapland. Paksuniemi, M., & Keskitalo, P. (2018, in press). Hidden stories about caring power towards children at Riutula Children’s Home. Nordic Journal of Education History. Petrov, A., & Vlasova, T. (2010). Migration and socio-economic well-being in the Russian North: Interrelations, regional differentiation, recent trends and emerging issues In L. Huskey & C. Southcott (Eds.), Migration in the circumpolar north: New concepts and patterns (pp. 163–192). Edmonton: CCI Press. Poelzer, G., & Wilson, G. N. (2014). Governance in the arctic: Political systems and geopolitics. In Arctic human development report: Regional processes and global linkages (pp. 185–222). http://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/ diva2:788965/fulltext03.pdf. Rahko-Ravantti, R. (2016). Saamelaisopetus Suomessa: tutkimus saamelaisopettajien opetustyöstä suomalaiskouluissa [Sámi teaching in Finland: Research about Sámi teachers’ work at Finnish schools]. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press. Rantonen, E. (2010). Maahanmuuttajat ja kirjallisuus Suomessa ja Ruotsissa [Immigrants and literature in Finland and Sweden]. In E. Rantonen (Ed.), Vähemmistöt ja monikulttuurisuus kirjallisuudessa [Minorities and multiculturalism in literature] (pp. 163–191). Tampere: Tampere University Press. Rantonen, E., & Savolainen, M. (2010). Vähemmistöt ja monikulttuurisuus – kulttuurit ja kirjallisuudet rinnakkain, vastakkain ja vuorovaikutuksessa [Minorities and multiculturalism—Cultures and literatures side by side, confronted and in interaction]. In E. Rantonen (Ed.), Vähemmistöt ja

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4 Immigrant Women and Their Social Adaptation in the Arctic Nafisa Yeasmin and Timo Koivurova

Introduction Immigrant women and their social adaptation in the north are in a need of academic discussion. Immigrant women face continuous challenges in balancing their life in a new environment. The challenges are diverse as their background. As human ecology emphasises, the relationship between immigrant women and socio-ecological resilience in the host culture. Understanding the host-ecological model is a successful factor that can facilitate integration. The human ecology of immigrant women addresses their personal behaviour in host-ecological contexts. Although immigrant women come from diverse backgrounds, they face remarkably similar obstacles to integration.

N. Yeasmin (*) · T. Koivurova  Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland e-mail: [email protected] T. Koivurova e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin (eds.), Human Migration in the Arctic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4_4

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The challenges of immigration take place at a grassroots level. Finland has a relatively short history of receiving immigrants, and the challenges regarding the social adaptation of immigrant women differ from city to city. Immigrant women face more challenges in some smaller cities in the north than other bigger cities in the south. These socio-cultural, economic and environmental challenges hinder their integration process in the north. Immigrant women are mostly invisible in regional development policy and application. Poor inte­ gration is the reason for their poor social inclusion in the Finnish society (Forsander, 2008). Immigrants are not usually involved in the political arena and decision-making processes that are important in promoting fair representation in the policy-making phases (Kraus & Kivisto, 2015). Immigrant women have less access to and are underrepresented in the labour market (Chang & Holm, 2017), do not often hold management positions, earn less than their male counterparts (Sarvimäki, 2011), and the overall employment opportunities for immigrant women in particular in the labour market are even worse (Sarvimäki & Hämäläinen, 2010). Additionally, women’s socio-cultural adaptation is slower than immigrant men’s due to both acculturative stress and individual stressors. Immigrant women are minorities among a minority, and the integration of minorities in such a sparsely populated territory demands national identity and a sense of belonging in a territory. The human ecology of immigrants requires a psychological demand for equality to establish territorial presence. As non-citizens of a host country, territorial presence matters a lot among immigrants (Song, 2016). The human ecology of immigrant women has been applied here to determine the natural/ biological resilience capacity, social strengths and challenges of immigrants during their period of integration into a new geographic area. The objective is to find the components of human ecology of immigrant women that are indispensably related to their integration into a new social-ecological system (SES). The integration process of immigrant women requires not only subjective participation but also embedded multifaceted environments across the entire lifecycle. Integration into a new territory is an agglomeration of interactions, from micro-level to macro-level aspects (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979, 1989).

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The objective of this research is to find a dialectical relationship between the human ecology of immigrant women and the socioecological trend of the Arctic in order to understand the interrelationships among these immigrant women and their surroundings (Katz & Kahn, 1966; Maruyama, 1963; Stokols, Perez Lejano, & Hipp, 2013). This study brings together a gender analysis with human ecology and a social-ecological resilience analysis in the context of the integration of immigrant women in a small Arctic territory. This study broadens our knowledge on how human actions influence and are influenced by the SES. SES understanding can support resilient thinking and the transformability of the social system for the well-being of the society (Walker, Holling, Carpenter, & Kinzig, 2004).

Theoretical Framework Human ecology is about the relationships between humans and their surrounding environment, where environment is perceived as an ecosystem and the concept of ecosystem could be all which is built by humans in a specific area (see, e.g., Marten, 2001). Humans create an interrelationship between themselves and the specific area by fulfilling their responsibilities in this specific ecosystem (ibid.). It is a selforganising adaptive system of humans (ibid.). Human ecology emphasises the dynamic interaction between human groups or societies and their environments (see, e.g., Butzer, 1982). So all humans have a social responsibility regarding both the social and ecological dynamics, since interaction between humans and the societal ecosystem can create vigorous feedback circles in which humans both influence and are persuaded by the ecosystem process (see, e.g., Levin, 1999). When the societal role is influenced by a particular individual organism, societal hierarchy responds and acts only for the development of the ecosystem. It then creates a significant mismatch for other individual organisms who are outsiders or from another social ecosystem or maintains different values (see, e.g., Whitmore, Turner II, Johnson, Kates, & Gottschang, 1990). Social adaptation is strongly linked to the people and natural environment (see, e.g., Levin et al., 2013) surrounding the individual.

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Thus, the interrelation of human beings with local ecosystems depends on the context of the problem, which could be determined by either environmental or socio-cultural factors (see, e.g., Instroza & Christine, 2014). Socio-ecological dynamic activities upkeep the resilience capability for successfully integrate in a new socio-ecological system (Walker et al., 2004). So, every agent (human being) needs an adaptive network model of the SES (Wiedermann, Donges, Heitzig, Lucht, & Kurths, 2015). The Bronfenbrenner theory is an attempt to define human development within a certain context of the system of relationships that produces structures, wherein individual immigrant women are acted upon not only by their environment but also by other strategic plans of various organisations and groups of individuals or agents at different levels (Giddens, 1984; Stokols et al., 2013). Adaptability in a new SES has been defined as “the capability of actors in a system to influence resilience” (Folke, Chapin III, & Olsson, 2009; Folke et al., 2010; Walker et al., 2004, p. 5). Adaptability requires effort and a long learning path of new ways of living, and consolidating one’s habitual ways of being and identity, which can be a stressful process. Integration stress is an inner stress of an individual to some extent, and it can be expressed in the form of anxiety or other forms of mental and physical symptoms of maladaptation (Rudmin, 2003). The study argued that the human ecology of immigrant women within their new SES is a process and mutual adaptation between them and the changing properties of the immediate settings. This process of adaptation can be affected by the interrelations between the settings and indeed by the larger contexts. Bronfenbrenner embedded four layers of system: (1) micro, (2) meso, (3) exo, and (4) macro (see Fig. 4.1), which comprise a linkage between the human and social contexts. Social contexts can affect the adaptation of immigrant women; conversely, the social context could be affected by the immigrant women’s own adaptation system. Resilience in a new environment is an obvious interaction of process, persons and contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). This process-person and context model of the social-­ecological model could necessitate societal development or transformation to

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Fig. 4.1  Dialectical relationships between women (ME) and SES (Source Own elaboration based on Bronfenbrenner’s SES)

some extent. These theoretical concepts could support our study to bridge the gap between the human ecology of immigrant women and the social reality in the Arctic society. This framework helps to anticipate the relationship between human and community psychology, which requires a range of various system-level actions and interactions, ranging from micro-relations to macro-system analysis (see, e.g., Downes, 2014). On the one hand, this adaptation process of immigrant women requires an adaptive capacity for individual development in the new environment; on the other hand, it can also require a transformational need and adaptive capacity among locals, social actors and social organisations (Nelson et al., 2007) in order to ease the integration of a new social group of people. Minorities need widespread recognition from the majority in the contexts of specific network structures. The social structure of a particular society concerns attitudes, values, norms, interests, beliefs and perceptions of certain customs. Therefore, widespread recognition of minorities is not a “fast-moving” process, but it has the power to constrain or enhance the potential for integration management (Bodin, Crona, & Ernstson, 2006).

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Methodology Our argumentation relating to the integration of immigrant women depends on some factors of the social-ecological paradigm of Bronfenbrenner, namely (1) how immigrant women interact with persons, groups and other macro-level aspects to survive in the host region and (2) what is their relationship with this new social-ecological paradigm of the host country. The mutual relationship of ME with the social-ecological paradigm has a positive profound interest to influence on determining stability in the territorial domain. Immigrant women struggle to integrate in Finland (OECD, 2018). The situation is especially dire in Northern Finland, as the immigrant women are detached from the host SES and don’t show any emotional involvement or interest in integrating themselves into the host society, which in turn also slows the integration of their children into the host country. There is an urgent need to research the factors that lock them into inactivity. This research focuses on the factors that create barriers to their emotional involvement and integration into Finland. The factors that enable and support the integration of immigrant women also need to be uncovered. The data and empirical materials from ethnographic observation (EO) are explored based on the concepts of human ecology and social responsibility. Subsequently, the data from EO are justified by the concepts of the ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Ethnographic research eases to identify and analyse the aspects that hinder the integration of immigrant women and increase the risk of discrimination and self-isolation. Indeed, one of the authors of the study is a part of the target group and has been involved with an immigrant-led association for the purposes of uncovering and analysing the related mindsets and emotions of the target group. This study is part of an EO in which the author has collected unstructured data through direct engagement with various immigrant women, for example, by informal conversations, attending community meetings, asking about individual family histories, family visits and being involved with their daily activities to some extent. The author collected field notes on immigrant women’s daily life activities (e.g. cultural, social, economic)

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and events in which the author also took part. This article is the result of the EO that began in 2016 and continued until May 2018. The women (N = 12) who were under observation are from Turkey, Pakistan, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Myanmar, Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestine. They are between the ages of 20–50. Their backgrounds are varied, as are their cultural identities and religion. However, their goal was shared: to find employment in Lapland and to integrate themselves into the north. They are all registered jobseekers at the employment office in Lapland. The authors also conducted a literature review to explore the contemporary aspects of the issue. In the analysis section, the study emphasises and categorises the themes and key issues. The main themes are discussed in accordance with some theoretical explanations based on empirical insights. In data triangulation, we focused strongly on the integration process and social opportunity findings of our observation subjects. Our subjects live in Rovaniemi and Kemi and have been living in Lapland for 2–10 years. Most of them have degrees from their country of origin, some of them have their first or second degrees from Finnish vocational institutes, and some are highly educated and hold a MA degree or equivalent from their country of origin. We commonly reach participants through Arctic Immigrant Associations and through the project FOLO, co-funded by the European Social Fund and the University of Lapland. The conversations and community meetings are mostly in Finnish but also partly in English (Fig. 4.2). In the data analysis phase, we first determined our objectives based on our research questions. We assigned codes by paying attention to the most significant and relevant data that can illustrate our argument. We also located data for analysis that made it easier to influence our research objectives. To avoid potential bias, we removed all unethical

Fig. 4.2  Phases of data analysis

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and irrelevant themes in the evaluation phase. We chose only simple and standard data that have been commonly checked by comparing the consequences of at least two subjective cases. To ensure ethical treatment of our informants, we had to avoid subjectivity and positionality among the authors.

Findings The study collects experiences of immigrant women from different ecological levels (see Fig. 4.3): (1) Interpersonal, family and peers (micro-level); (2) Social institutes e.g. in the educational sector, health organisations, in the workplace or the labour market (exo-level); (3) Relationships between neighbourhoods, community and the geographic or environmental characteristics of territory, (meso-level); and (4) Attitudes and ideology of the culture, norms, laws and policies (macro-level). Immigrant women

Fig. 4.3  Socio-ecological approaches of immigrant women (ME) (Source Own elaboration based on Bronfonbrenner’s SES)

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experience various individual and group challenges in each of these ecosystems that either support or hinder their social integration in Lapland and that, in turn, enhance our understanding of the various systematic factors of human ecology and SES influences, which are directly or indirectly related to their human development and influence empowerment in the new societal structure of the host country.

Me and Micro-Level Factors Self-identity can affect integrating immigrant women (Lerner et al., 2007). Immigrants try to reconstruct their identities based on the paradigm of interpreting factors and templates, and a multifaceted interaction process supports them to negotiate their identity (Lerner et al., 2007; Swann Jr. & Bosson, 2008; Ting-Toomey, 2005). Such a sudden change of life situation, values, roles, status, mental and cultural adjustments (Stephen, Fraser, & Marcia, 1992) can collectively lead to questions of self-identity. Critical thinking about one’s own self-identity can discourage integration into new SES. The self-identity of immigrant women sometimes depends on their cultural, national and ethnic identity as well (EO, 2015–2018). Cultural and religious identity embraces awareness and knowledge of on their own ethnic group (Ibrahim, Ohnishi, & Sandhu, 1997). It is not always easy to ignore one’s own cultural identity. Cultural and religion sentiments sometimes hinder the motivation to be integrated into the host society (EO, 2017). Specifically, immigrant women who are from a Muslim background face difficulties in confronting the need to find a new identity (EO, 2018). Generally, Muslim immigrant women fail to articulate their self-image in the host society. Many immigrant women who have different-coloured skin and race face obstacles in establishing their own place in a new community (EO, conversation in a meeting, 2018). Many women also see their age as a barrier in finding their identity and in cultivating a belief in the propagation of a group formation (Weber, 1978) in a new society (EO, discussion in 2018). A sense of self and individual characteristics concentrates on the nature of gender and manifest in the context of interaction (Hegde, 1998).

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Personal empowerment very much depends on developing a healthy identity, which includes the development of women’s consciousness and positive identity action (Hipolito-Delgado & Lee, 2007). A higher familiarity with oneself and the importance between individual biological traditions create a higher level of positive interaction (Vogel et al., 2017). This biological tradition of human interactions with family and peers is basically linked to a more positive valence. The interrelationships with non-family members or social peers are linked to higher arousal (Vogel et al., 2017). It is a result of the introduction of the human ecological theory into resilience studies, which focuses on the biological interaction trends between individual immigrant women and their micro-level environments, i.e. the nature of self, livelihood, personality, situation (Kolar, 2011) and their own position in the family. Good and healthy relationships with family and peers have a positive influence on adaptation. In many immigrant families, the concept of the nuclear family includes those members of the family who actively influence family decision and dynamics (EO, 2015; Smith, 2007). In many cases, immigrant women have to depend on family decisions (EO, 2015) for social participation or the practising of certain religiocultural codes of behaviour (Ross-Sheriff, Tirmazi, & Walsh, 2007), for socialising with others, e.g. peers also need negotiation between the demands of their family culture with other norms (EO, 2018). In this context, the micro-level relationships include interaction between immigrants and their immediate families and peers from the same country of origin who have migrated either before or after them, and such relationships are an example of bidirectional contacts and balance across the multiple roles and activities of immigrant women and their immediate networks, in which there are lower levels of depression and higher levels of self-esteem contingencies (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001) and well-being (Marks & MacDiarmid, 1996). According to some immigrant women, it is not always possible to have good relationships with peers from the same country of origin (EO, family visit, 2017) since habits, nature, ways of thinking and reacting do not always match with others in interpersonal relationships (Markman & Genter, 1990). It could be a problem for dominant society members as well, but they can choose their peers based on their

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mutual understanding from their strong and larger network. However, immigrant women have only a limited and weak network for identifying their own peers, and if they are not able to create trust between themselves and their peers then sometimes they must survive without any peers from a similar cultural background. The immigrant community is very small in Lapland, and Muslim women try to build interpersonal relationships with Muslim peers from the same country as a first priority, but if no Muslim peers from the same country are available, then women try to find other Muslim women from other countries as a second priority. Similarly, as a first priority, Asian women try to interact with other Asians, and likewise Russian women find it easier to interact with Russian women (Yeasmin, 2018). Interaction between different groups of immigrants remains small and superficial, which also can hinder their integration process in local SES (Saukkonen, 2013a, b).

Me and Exo-Level Factors Immigrant women encounter more difficulties on this level. To some extent, their interactions in multiple settings such as social organisations, the educational sector and the labour market demonstrate an intercultural gap between immigrant women and other social actors. Sometimes, positive discussion and open communication channels between actors and immigrant women lack a mutual understanding between both cultures. The relationships on this level depend on communication skills (e.g. language skills), the need to understand Finnish bureaucratic procedures, and the motivation to seek information. An unfamiliarity with societal institutes and their services could be one reason for social isolation (EO, 2018). Many social services and the functioning of service systems are unfamiliar to and shocking for female refugees in particular— services such as the local banking system and health care (Donnelly et al., 2011) by male physicians (Kalra, Christodoulou, & Jenkins, 2012), etc. Immigrant women are fully or partially dependent on family members to navigate some bureaucratic hurdles such as completing application forms in the Finnish language, reaching various social agencies and

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asking about support from agencies, etc. (EO, informal conversation, 2016–2017; Guruge & Humphreys, 2009). Culture has a powerful impact that influences some groups of immigrant women who have limited contacts outside their own communities (EO, 2018). In a plural society, every cultural group and their members follow any one of the four acculturation processes: (1) assimilation; (2) segregation/separation; (3) marginalisation; and (4) integration (Berry, 1997). Some immigrant women from particular groups interact with both their own culture and seek daily interaction with other cultures, which is an assimilation strategy, yet conversely some women who place a high value only on maintaining their own culture and avoiding interactions with others are subsequently separated/ segregated from mainstream societal contacts. Some women who are forced to follow acculturation strategies are marginalised, and the successful group that maintains both their own heritage and the receiving culture are interested in being integrated into the host society. But this mutual accommodation requires acceptance of both from the immigrant and dominant groups. It is indeed a reflecting reaction of the host society of how welcoming they are towards immigrant women. This exo-level ecosystem does not require new functional principles, but in this stage both parties need settings of interaction and action and more knowledge of each other’s cultural settings. In our study, immigrant women experience multiple sources of social oppression such as discrimination based on social class in employment services (EO conversation, 2018). In many cases, ethnicity, race and religion create prejudice among Finnish employers (EO, conversation, 2017–2018). Some stereotyping trends towards immigrant women such as their being uneducated, unskilled, desperate and poorly experienced hinder their employment opportunities in Lapland (EO, conversation, 2017–2018). Immigrant women have limited access to job information compared to immigrant men, since immigrant women are involved in the household duties that cause additional obstacles in joining or forming a network for accessing more information (EO, conversation, 2018). Married immigrant women face problems in raising children in a new SES. Child care, sustaining family traditions and balancing

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family dynamics limit their knowledge of Exo-SES by shrinking their learning opportunities.

Me and Meso-Level Factor Interaction with neighbourhoods or larger communities, influences over territorial characteristics, and a sense of community are all meso-level interactions. At this stage, some previous research tends to study the experiences of groups and the interactions between groups. The groups are oftentimes immigrants and locals but they could indeed be immigrants and immigrants (Huisman, Hough, Langellier, & Toner, 2011). However, we find that a sense of community (Chavis & Pretty, 1999; McMillan & Chavis, 1986) can have both a positive and a negative impact on the adaptation process of immigrants. The ability and willingness of the groups (both individuals and neighbourhoods) to assimilate or not with each other depend on the local social systems or group values that are unsubstantiated. A sense of community encompasses a sense of belongingness as a member of a larger community. Trust and faith relationships between dominant members and minority members control the interactions at this community interaction level. A sense of community entails three dimensions: (1) a feeling of being welcomed in a neighbourhood; (2) a feeling of influence; and (3) a feeling of belonging in the community. These three psychological dimensions include feelings of happiness, worry and coping in the new neighbourhood (Qiaobing & Chow, 2013). These dimensions can negatively connect with daily hassles and are positively correlated with social support and quality of life (ibid.). Immigrant women are less likely to develop a fast adaptation strategy when compared to immigrant men, which might prevent immigrant women from interacting with local neighbours and civic life (Chenoweth, 2006). Immigrant women who don’t have any work experience, little or no education or are dependent on their larger family in their country of origin face a lack of motivation to gain knowledge about their community and other characteristics of the host territory (EO, 2016–2017). Nevertheless, immigrant women who

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have work experience in their country of origin and are educated still encounter many challenges in adapting quickly because of their obligations to family and their role in integrating their children into the new society (Norman, 2015), own integration stressors e.g. cultural shock among others (EO, 2017). Sometimes immigrant women are depressed depending on whether or not their family is functioning well in the new ecological context (EO, family visit, 2017) and gives priority to their family over the larger community. In addition to those barriers, hyper-feminine (Banet-Weiser, 1999; Moors, 2000; Wilson, 1985) characteristics could also be barriers to interacting successfully in the larger community. Generally, forms of dress are empowering for some immigrant women in their country of origin, which is a daily practice of immigrant women that may come under special scrutiny form within the host community (ibid.). Not only dress but also the perception of physical beauty differs among minority women. Many women suffer from an inferiority complex since their perception of physical beauty might differ from that of mainstream Western culture (Chan, 2007), which can create a feeling of being foreign to the neighbourhood and thereby hinder acculturation (see, e.g., Lee, 2009). Some women are proactive in renegotiating their approaches of behaviour in their new context and some are not, thus the rate of adaptation also varies from woman to woman in the new SES. Married women are slower (Clementine, Msengi, Arthur-Okor, & Schoer, 2015) in neighbourhood integration than unmarried women. Socioeconomic status and discrimination from the mainstream society, psychological well-being in the new environment, inferiority complex, etc. affect their adjustment and mental health in neighbourhood integration (EO, 2017–2018). Prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination can often make an immigrant unwilling or even opposed to interacting positively with the community, which can cause a breakdown of the SES. Additionally, many opportunities for potential interaction occur in everyday contexts between groups in which individuals have a different choice as to: (1) whether or not to interact (2) with whom they wish to interact and (3) how they might wish to do so. On the other hand, the extreme Arctic weather also impacts the psychological well-being of immigrant women. Limited information (e.g.

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information about nutrition, regular exercise, managing stress, etc.) about how to survive in this extreme weather hinders their adaptation. The cold winter and long periods of darkness cause them to feel reluctant to interact socially. It also encompasses the feeling of powerlessness and a change in lifestyle in new SES in Lapland. Winter also isolates immigrant women from larger community engagement. Many women in the study can manage a balanced life in winter, but many cannot, which might create self-centredness and force them to remain within traditional boundaries (EO, family visit & family stories). An individual or a group of individuals, immigrant or Finnish, can create new opportunities for promoting greater positive interactions between both immigrants and receiving communities with those who are not fearful of being judged and are ready to build positive relationships (Orton, 2014) in the larger community context.

Me and Macro-Level Factors Public policies, norms, societal customs, public opinion, legal issues as well as the larger societal structure of the host country are considered an outermost part of the integration of immigrant women where the effects are larger at the macro-systemic level. Macro-level interactions rely on the public sector’s awareness of the discrimination and prejudice that many immigrant women experience in the host society. Immigrant women need special integration support to broaden their knowledge of the integration patterns of labour market incorporation, the rights of women in the host countries, gender identity as well as a general understanding of the SES process in the host country. Immigrant women have very limited power to influence governmental policies and little access to legal representation because of their societal status as an immigrant. Understanding these macro-systemic societal issues of the host country allows immigrant women to understand the differences in such outcomes as provisions that demand interpretation of the specific motivations of the local or state government. Regarding multiple territorial identities (Marks, 1999) such as state and sub-state identity, attachment is required for territoriality (Hooghe

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& Marks, 2004). In a broader sense, it is hard for even all immigrants to understand this complex issue of territorial identity. Even simply learning about the internal norms and values of the host country takes time. Government policies are examined to see how governments can be persuaded to take initiatives to develop integration services. Sometimes some global influences and politics, social media discourses change to match public opinion, and materialised policies define the need to make society resilient to such threats. Sometimes social structure demands changes and the maintenance of certain SES processes in order to successfully integrate the new system into it. Societal attitudes depend on politicised immigration issues that can, in turn, affect public policies. Anti-immigration attitudes vary depending on religious contexts. Strongly conservative people in the host country are less likely to oppose immigration than non-religious people (Bohman & Hjerm, 2014). The mediating effect of anti-immigrant rhetoric affects integration policies. Society also needs to ensure a significant and representative presence of immigrant women in the integration process. Policy development processes are indeed based on an integrally neo-liberalist ideology of governance (Joseph, 2013a, b; Schmidt, 2013; Whitham, 2013).

Discussion and Conclusion The effect of acculturations of immigrant women extends across all ecological levels. There is complexity around each system, which can lead to inconsistent outcomes regarding the adaptation of immigrant women in the Arctic. Micro-systemic to macro-systemic factors emphasise the nature of the barriers on the resilience of immigrant women in a new SES, which also requires a particular transformation of SES. Both the adaptation of immigrant women and the required transformation of SES are linked to the adaptive capacity of a society towards absorbing a new phenomenon into the SES. Here in this research paper, ME is a character who is basically dependent on someone or something for support and favours in order to adapt in a new ecological and social environment. They are self-excluded and sometimes discriminated against from the performances of specific roles (e.g. labour market) (OECD,

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2018) in the larger society. Acculturative stress and loss of self-esteem make them unable to function completely in a new SES. Immigrant women in particular struggle to integrate, as they are somehow locked around their own family and are inactive in societal activities in Finland (OECD, 2018). Immigrant women need a resilience capacity along with social supports in order to be accepted by the new SES. They need power and empowerment knowledge (see Table 4.1) so that they can engage, enhance and enable their opportunities to interact within a new SES. Increasing their resilience capacity by empowering, supportive relationships can buffer against factors that affect their acculturative stress and adaptation at every ecological level. They need to possess some individual values for “bouncing forward” integration problems and self-esteem, and they can also empower themselves by creating a positive self-image within their close network. Cultural values from their country of origin, to some extent, affect their decision to integrate, and other household characteristics such as education, income, children’s education and self-esteem. can be other factors that hinder their integration within a new SES (Scoppa & Stranges, 2014). They can possess and enhance their positive thinking about their new SES, and they can also access information and options to increase their knowledge of group values. In this stage of empowerment, they can improve their selfdebilitating behaviour in order to respect themselves and engage with others. They need to explore different explanations that would be the key determinant for valuing their positive thinking (ibid.). Finally, they can engage in positive activities that can support their integration into a new Table 4.1  Resilience ­capacity of immigrant women by engaging with, enhancing and enabling opportunities

Me+ Individual values Me++ Group values Me+++ Community values

Moral Self esteem Self-image Positive thinking Finding options Access Learning Influence power

+ engages; ++  engages and enhances; +++ engages, enhances and enables

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SES, enhance approaches of doing, being and belonging in their new community context, and enable their motivation to be integrated into the new society. Aspects of human ecology can maintain focus on the integration needs of immigrant women in order to enhance the structure of opportunity in a new SES. Their aspirations over their life in a new SES are interconnected with some structural factors and the interactions between ME and the surroundings. In particular, the ability of individual orientation and subjective perceptions on group and community values can ease integration. A systematic relational setting at every ecological level requires an adaptive capacity that can inspire the aspirations of immigrant women and increase “contingencies” (Spenner & Featherman, 1978) in their new life course. Reconstructing aspirations by increasing interrelationships among ME and their surroundings can result in successful integration.

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Part II Present Dialogue and Discourses

5 Newcomers to Ancestral Lands: Immigrant Pathways in Anchorage, Alaska Mara Kimmel, Chad R. Farrell and Megan Ackerman

Introduction On a recent rainy afternoon in Anchorage, “Latinos en Alaska” hosted the annual Fiesta Under the Midnight Sun. A Latino leader opened the festivities by acknowledging that the celebration was taking place on Dena’ina lands and that his people had been warmly welcomed by the state’s first peoples. Speaking first in Spanish, then in English, he shared the lessons he learned from his Dena’ina friends, that if we take care of the land, the land will take care of us.

M. Kimmel  Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK, USA C. R. Farrell (*) · M. Ackerman  University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA e-mail: [email protected] M. Ackerman e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2019 S. Uusiautti and N. Yeasmin (eds.), Human Migration in the Arctic, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6561-4_5

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When the Dena’ina Tribal Chief took the stage to give the blessing, he acknowledged his friend’s words, and admired the ease with which he had spoken in his own language. He told the kids in the crowd to always remember that their ties to their culture were the most important wealth they could hope for, and to hold on to those ties.

As a case study on human migration in the far north, Anchorage, Alaska embodies the demographic dynamism that is transforming the circumpolar region. Founded by a Danish immigrant on Dena’ina Athabascan ancestral lands over a century ago, the largest city in the American Arctic has long been a destination for newcomers. Anchorage’s immigrant population has grown and diversified in recent decades, a reflection of broader national trends. In the USA, as recently as 1970 nearly one in four (23%) immigrants lived in just three large cities: New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. By 2016, however, only 12% of the immigrant population resided in these three established immigrant gateways. As the foreign-born population has become redistributed across a greater variety of US communities, there has been increasing interest in how they fare in “new destinations” distant from traditional points of entry (Hall, 2013; Lee, Iceland, & Farrell, 2014; Singer, 2005). As one of the 100 largest cities in the USA, Anchorage occupies the northernmost foothold among these new urban destinations. Urbanization is a global phenomenon, and the circumpolar north is no exception (Heleniak, 2014). In-migration to northern cities creates new pressures as a once dichotomous northern identity—indigenous or non-indigenous—becomes a multi-dimensional mosaic of global cultures and languages. For example, as the world experiences unprecedented refugee flows stemming from violent conflicts, many have found their way to the Arctic (Horsti, 2017; Peters, 2016; Wikstrom, 2016). It is not just political unrest or economic opportunities that drive people north. In 2014, the New York Times published an article on climate change noting that “Anchorage [Alaska] may be the place to be.” The article described the impacts of climate change on communities around the world and advised Alaskans to “sit tight … if you don’t

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like it hot and do not want to be hit by a hurricane, the options of where to go are very limited” (Kingson, 2014). The diversity of newcomers to the region speaks to the idea that word is getting out—the Arctic is the place to be. This chapter focuses on changing foreign-born populations in Anchorage and on the city’s response. Immigrant and refugee communities in the city are growing, and the origins of these new Americans have likewise changed. A century ago the typical US immigrant hailed from somewhere in Europe. Today, she is far more likely to trace origins to Latin America, Asia, Africa, or the Caribbean. Anchorage is a microcosm of this shift, with an immigrant population comprised of a mosaic of national origin groups. Like other cities across the north, and throughout the USA, Anchorage serves as the local arena in which these groups seek to find their place in the social fabric of their new home. It is actively formulating policies, approaches, and programs that promote integration and inclusion and break down barriers for foreign-born Alaskans. Likewise, these inclusion approaches and programs are essential ingredients to Municipal policies to build resilience to climate and economic change. The first section of this chapter examines changes in demographics in Anchorage as an indicator of how the north is transforming. We examine the size, composition, and the residential distribution of the foreign-born population in Anchorage over the past decades. We then examine economic characteristics and contributions of immigrants, followed by an analysis of their residential patterns at the neighborhood level. The subsequent section broadens the focus to describe how the Municipality’s local government is striving to integrate newcomers into the civic and economic life Anchorage to build community well-being and resilience. The Rockefeller Foundation (n.d.) defines urban resilience as “the capacity of … communities to survive, adapt and grow … no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.” There is evidence that immigrant inclusion benefits the economic and environmental resilience of northern communities and this is a critical consideration when creating integration policies at local levels (New American Economy [NAE], 2016, 2017).

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Transformation in the Urban North Growth and Diversity Data presented in this section come from the US Census Bureau decennial enumeration and, more recently (post-2010), the American Community Survey (ACS). We use pooled ACS 5-year estimates (2012–2016) in order to increase sample size and reduce sampling error. US Census estimates indicate that the foreign-born population in Anchorage increased nearly tenfold during the past half-century (see Fig. 5.1). In 1970, 3390 Anchorage residents were identified as foreign-born; by 2016, that figure was estimated to be 30,806. Absolute gains were accompanied by relative increases as well, as the immigrant population increased from just a fraction (2.7%) of Anchorage’s population to eventually account for one of every ten (10.3%) residents in the community. This localized immigrant share still lags behind the

Fig. 5.1  Immigrant population in Anchorage, 1970–2016 (Source US Census Bureau)

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national figure—currently around 14% foreign-born—but the rapid rate of growth over the past few decades means that Anchorage is moving toward convergence with national trends. Anchorage experienced a profound change in the composition of its immigrant population during this period as well. Figure 5.2 documents the countries and regions of origin for immigrants in Anchorage in 1970 and 2016. In the interests of space, Fig. 5.2 reports only the 20 largest origin groups. All other groups are aggregated into “other” categories by region. We also report the estimated population sizes for the five largest groups in each year. In 1970, Anchorage’s modest immigrant population was predominantly European and Canadian in origin, with a significant Asian presence as well. By 2016, immigrants of Asian origin accounted for over half (57%) of Anchorage’s foreign-born population. Filipinos are the largest foreign-born Asian origin group, followed by those born in Korea and Thailand. Though Anchorage does not rank high among US cities in terms of the overall size of its immigrant population, it still ranks 10th among US cities for its Thailand-born population and 21st and 27th respectively for the size of its Korean and Filipino immigrant populations. There has also been noteworthy growth among those with Latin American and Caribbean origins; Mexico and the Dominican Republic are two of the five largest origin groups featured at the bottom of Fig. 5.2. By 2016, Latin Americans and Caribbeans accounted for 21% of all Anchorage immigrants, compared to just 9% in 1970. While Africa occupies a small section of Fig. 5.2, African immigrants have a far more visible presence in the city than they did in 1970, when there were only 22 Africa-born residents in Anchorage as counted by the Census Bureau. In a related trend, refugees of African origin make up over half (57%) of the 1067 refugees that have been resettled in Anchorage since 2002. A review of data from the US State Department indicates that three of the top five refugee origin groups come from Africa: Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the other two countries of origin being Bhutan and Burma.

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Fig. 5.2  Geographic origins of immigrant population in Anchorage, 1970 and 2016 (Source US Census Bureau)

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Economics and Education Alaska’s immigrants provide substantial contributions to the economy, often in ways disproportionate to their numbers. In 2014, for example, foreign-born residents constituted 7.6% of the state population while at the same time immigrant-led households earned 8.2% of all income earned by Alaskans for the year (NAE, 2016). Foreign-born residents contributed $1.9 billion to Anchorage GDP in 2014, and $573 million in spending power in the community, accounting for 7.3% of the city’s overall spending power (NAE, 2017). Likewise, in that same year, foreign-born residents contributed $136 million in federal tax dollars and $27 million in state and local taxes (NAE, 2017). Foreign-born residents made up 14.2% of the city’s self-employed population in 2014, outpacing the share of immigrants as a percentage of the city’s total population (NAE, 2017). In terms of education, immigrants in Anchorage were just as likely to hold a bachelor’s or advanced degree as US-born residents (NAE, 2017). However, educational levels for refugees in Anchorage were lower, on average, than levels for other immigrants (Mitchell, 2016). Mitchell (2016) attributes that to the fact that the primary refugee populations in the state are from countries that have been experiencing conflict for generations. Despite their considerable contributions to the local economy, immigrant workers still trail their US-born counterparts in earnings and income. ACS 5-year estimates from 2016 indicate that the typical male foreign-born worker earns just 68 cents on the dollar compared to comparable (full-time, year-round) US-born workers. For female immigrant workers, that figure is only slightly better at 69 cents to the dollar. Median earnings for full-time, year-round workers are $60,340 and $50,146 for US-born males and females, respectively. The corresponding median earnings for immigrant workers are $40,811 and $34,620. At the household level, the income gap narrows to 77 cents, in part because immigrant households tend to have more workers per household. Despite the benefits of policies that integrate newcomers by removing barriers to entry into a community’s civic and economic life, skills that newcomers bring are often underutilized, inhibiting the potential of

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newcomers to contribute to growth and economic diversification. This contributes to “brain waste” among skilled foreign-born Americans who are unemployed or underemployed (Batalova, Fix, & Bachmeier, 2016). These skills and knowledge, if more fully integrated into a city’s development strategy, can help northern cities foster globally competitive new economies. For example, a recent study by Batalova and Fix (2018) found that nationwide, brain waste costs the nation more than $39 billion in wages and $10 billion in lost tax revenues annually (see also Ruble, 2005). Research in Anchorage reveals that almost two-thirds of foreign-born residents are not employed in a job that utilizes their skills or education (Mitchell, 2016). Of 148 immigrant residents surveyed in a 2016 research project, 12.8% reported problems getting education credentials recognized, and another 11.6% had problems getting work or job training recognized. Research conducted by the State of Alaska’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development (2016) found that language issues and the inability to recognize foreign educational credentials are “significant barriers to success for this population” (p. 23). Mitchell found that the primary barrier to employment for foreign-born Anchorage residents was related to the opportunity to study and learn English. In this vein, research conducted by the Municipality of Anchorage revealed that certain barriers exist that inhibit the capacity of foreign-born residents to fully engage in the city’s workforce, including limited English proficiency, lack of transportation, and lack of childcare (Mitchell, 2016). Likewise, the inability of the state to recognize foreign education degrees and occupational credentials is another significant barrier (Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, 2016).

Residential Patterns The residential distribution of immigrant populations can provide indications as to their integration into the broader community. Residential segregation—the spatial separation of groups—is an important measure of inequality because, simply put, place matters. Many community resources are place-based or spatially allocated (e.g., jobs, schools, affordable housing, and social networks), resulting in an unequal

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geography of opportunity that is “etched in space” (Sampson, 2012). Additionally, many urban problems are also distributed disparately across neighborhoods (e.g., crime, poverty, disorder, environmental hazards). Establishing the degree of residential segregation between groups— in this case between the foreign-born and US-born population— can provide insights into the degree that certain groups have unequal access to the resources and different levels of exposure to the hazards of city life. Given the current composition of Anchorage’s immigrant population, the question arises as to what degree immigrant residential patterns fall along existing color lines. Anchorage is an important case in that it has a long history of racial exclusion yet is currently home to some of the most diverse neighborhoods in the USA (Farrell, 2018; Hartman, 2018). We measure segregation using the index of dissimilarity (symbolized by D), which reflects the degree to which two groups are unequally distributed across neighborhoods. The dissimilarity index is formally defined as:  |xi /X - yi /Y| D = 1/2 where X and Y are the total populations of groups X and Y in some larger geographic unit (e.g., a city) and xi and yi are the total populations of groups X and Y in some smaller geographic unit (e.g., a neighborhood). D-scores range from zero to 100 with higher scores denoting a higher degree of segregation between two groups. For example, when calculating the index for the foreign-born and the US-born population, a D-value of 58 for a city would indicate that 58% of immigrant residents—or conversely, 58% of US-born residents—would have to move to different neighborhoods in order to achieve equal distributions across all neighborhoods. In general, D-scores of under 30 are interpreted as low segregation, scores from 30 to 60 are moderate levels of segregation, and scores above 60 indicate high levels of segregation between two groups. Census tracts are used here as proxies for neighborhoods. Tracts are census-based administrative units that generally have a population size between 1200 and 8000 people (optimum size = 4000). In cities like Anchorage, these population sizes encompass

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areas that resemble neighborhood scale (Boundary maps for Anchorage census tracts can be found at: http://live.laborstats.alaska.gov/cen/ maps/tracts/current/020.pdf ). Figure 5.3 provides dissimilarity scores for Anchorage and other central metropolitan counties of similar size across the USA (121 central metropolitan counties ranging in size from 250,000 to 500,000). These dissimilarity indices depict segregation levels between the foreign-born and US-born white population. The US-born white population is used as the reference group for three reasons. First, US-born whites comprise the largest ethno-racial group in Anchorage. Second, white residents are the group most likely to express discomfort with racial residential integration (Charles, 2003). Third, large and/or growing localized immigrant populations can spur or inhibit white mobility depending

Fig. 5.3  Residential segregation of immigrant and US-born White populations in Anchorage and comparable metropolitan counties, 2016

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on their residential proximity (Crowder, Hall, & Tolnay, 2011). For these reasons, segregation levels are expected to be highest among ­foreign-born and US-born white residents. Below, dissimilarity scores are reported for the total foreign-born population as well as the three largest country-of-origin groups in Anchorage: Filipinos, Koreans, and Mexicans. Overall, the immigrant population of Anchorage does not appear to be highly segregated from the local white population (see Fig. 5.3). A dissimilarity score of 31 falls in the lower end of the “moderate” range and is slightly lower than the average for metropolitan counties of similar size. The dissimilarity score for immigrants compared to the total US-born population (not shown) is 24.2, which is 7 points lower than the immigrant/white score. This diminished D-score indicates that Anchorage immigrants are less segregated from US-born minority residents than they are from white residents. That is not to say immigrants are equally dispersed across the residential landscape, however. Tract-bytract comparisons indicate that there are tiny immigrant populations (