Well-being of Immigrant Families with Russian Background in South-eastern Finland

1. Well-being of ImmigrantFamilies with Russian Backgroundin South-eastern Finland Pol.lic. Minna veistilä University of helsinki/repro-project 16.11.2012 ROUND TABLE

2. The Projects in a Process • Empathos (ESR, 2003-2007, Palmenia) • Empowerment of Families with Children (ENPI, 2011-2014, Palmenia) • Reciprocal Relationships and the Construction of Well-being during Critical Periods of Everyday Life (Finnish Academy, 2012-2016, University of Helsinki)

3. Data • thematicinterviews of 25 families: 31,5 h, 289 pgs • questionnaire: 242 answers, 93 questionsconcerningfamily life in Finland, partlycomparable with Suomalaisten hyvinvointi 2010 and Maamu • fairytales (8) and life stories (5) of children and youngpeople • in addition: structuredinterviews of 25 familyworkers in Finland and 81 (focusgroups) in Russia

4. Theoretical Background 1: Main Concepts

5. Theoretical Background 2: Acculturation • A community- and individual level as well as (especially) family level process, which takes place when different cultural groups come to contact each other and this contact changes the original cultural model of the groups. • A power of change that influences the inner interaction models of the family, parenthood and the upbringing of children, well-being of all family members and the development of children and youth. • Different and changing process • Affected by several factors: in case of immigration especially • the political decisions and attitudes of the host society, • the immigrants´ own human, economic and social capital and cultural distance • family structure, the roles of different family members and family dynamics • the ideals and values of child development and upbringing children. (Alitolppa-Niitamo 2010, 45-61)

6. Theoretical Background 3: Well-being • AnttiKaristo’s research group has carried out in Päijät-Häme, in the years 2002, 2005 and 2008 a well-being barometer, in which the concept of well-being has been carefully formulated to meet the criticism towards previous research on well-being and the new emphases of theoretical discussion concerning everyday life. • The central issue in this barometer has been that residents of a municipality have been asked • how these preceding elements of well-being are realized in their current life and • how do they expect them to be realized in the future, and • what kind of meaning they give to each element of well-being. • This barometer has been thought to make it possible to find, for example, such elements of well-being that at the moment realize poorly, but that are considered to be highly meaningful. This way, services could be allocated exactly for these elements. (Karisto et al 2003, Haapola et al 2009.)

7. Well-being (2)

8. Theoretical Background 4: Ecocultural context • Weisner (2002, 277) emphasizes, in his ecocultural theory, the value of a cultural context for the growth and development of a child. • The living areas of a family and a community, health and demographic issues, safety threats, nature of employees, (age and gender), children´s tasks and jobs (domestic work, child care and school work), roles of fathers and older siblings, plays and playing groups of the children, the roles of women and girls in the community and the support they get, cultural influences and information available as well as the diversity of the community in care and the hobbies of children are especially important subjects of experiment. • Ecocultural theory is based on the theory of locally rational action. Local situation is understood as everyday routines and activities. Actors use complex, shared information in order to survive in the local daily routines. Children learn these ways of cultural surviving to be able to live in the community.

9. Theoretical Background 5: Reciprocity • Psychological sciences have found the experience of reciprocitymost important to the development of self as well as to the satisfaction of the need to live a relevant and meaningful life. • Reciprocity has been examined as a symptom for example through symmetry or asymmetry or the relationship to self. (Keysar et al 2008, La Caze 2008) • The principal of giving and taking and the culture of exchanging gifts have been considered to be the most important sociological functions, the premise of the mechanism of social relations. (Malinowski 1950, Simmel 1950, Gouldner 1960) • The thought of giving creating more giving leads to continuous exchange and durable co-operation. • Reciprocity can be very asymmetrical, so that only the other part is giving and the other taking, all the way to the altruistic "pure gift". • Reciprocity can also vary in time, for example be delayed. • All human relations can, however, be thought to be based on different types of reciprocity. (Komter & Schans 2008, 294) 

10. Reciprocity (2) and family life • Reciprocity has been examined as a factor that influences family life but it has also been examined as a result of it. • The concept has been used in the field of family studies in order to define both the relationship between parents and children and the relationship between the elderly and the society. • Sahlins (1972) was the first one to classify family reciprocity into generalized, balanced and negative types: giving to the close and beloved ones without the expectations of receiving, pure exchange and the attempt to get something without giving anything in return. • The quality and amount of reciprocity inside a family is influenced by • time and phase of life, • gender, • ethnic differences, • religion, • geographic distances, • health, • marrietal status of the parents, • family structure, • socio-economic status and • cultural factors. (Komter & Schans 2008, 279-294)

11. Theoretical Background 6: Trust • Trust and reciprocity are connected through the concepts of knowledge and predictability. • In the modern society a person has to have more and more relationships with people and institutions that are totally strange to him/her. In these situations interaction is risky - and trust covers that risk, including at the same time an element of instability because of the lack of information. • The abstract systems of the modern society need three kinds of trust in order to be able to function: person-to-person trust, professional trust between institutional relationships and trust in the functionality of abstract systems. (Seligman 2000, 49-50; Jalava 2001, 112)

12. Qbjective and Problem • The objective of this research study is creating a wide and versatile picture of the well-being of Russian immigrant families with children in Finland. • This research study seeks for an answer to the research problem: What does the everyday well-being of Russian immigrant families in Finland look like? • The problem is qualitative and attached to the research fields of well-being, immigration and families. The problem is defined, concerning its versatile character and the researcher´s background, mostly from a social sciences point of view, however not forgetting the different possibilities that for example the developmental psychology and cultural anthropology points of view can offer.

13. Questions Following questions are asked in order to find a solution to the problem: • How do immigrant children and their families construct the well-being of the children? • How do families with Russian background in Finland see their everyday well-being during their acculturation processes? • How are reciprocity and trust situated in the acculturation processes constructing the well-being of immigrant families?

14. Timetable • Phase 1: 1.10.2011–31.12.2011 Specifying the research plan, applying for research permissions. • Phase 2: 1.1.–31.12.2012 Collecting data, analyzing the child perspective, paper 1: The Power of a Child. The Construction of Well-being of Immigrant Children with Russian Background in South-Eastern Finland. In Törrönen, M., Borodkina, O., Samoylova, V. & Heino, E. 2013. Empowering Social Work, Research and Practise. • Phase 3: 1.1.–31.12.2013 Analyzing questionnaire data, paper 2: Reciprocal Relationships and the Well-being of Immigrant Families with Russian Background in the Finnish-Russian Border Area. With Törrönen and Vauhkonen. • Phase 4: 1.1.–31.12.2014 Analyzing interview data, paper 3: The Power of Families. The Construction of Well-being of Immigrant Families with Russian Background in South-Eastern Finland, and Conclusion

15. Open questions • Analysing the data: • Questionnaire: Well-being profiles? • Interviews: Families as communities? Social capital? • How to analyze the stories? • Should I ask: how do reciprocal relationships construct well-being? Is this too simple? • Well-being is a complexed concept – should I e.g. try to use Sen even though his thinking is hard to operationalize?

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