Abstract
This chapter is a contribution to the discussion about theoretical approaches, practices, and methods of comparative immigration research, and bring the presented comparative setting between the United States and Finland with a special attention to the status and opportunities of Somalis in these two very different societal contexts to a more general level in a theoretical and methodological sense. The endeavour in here is to chart premises for cross-national comparisons in immigration research by reviewing recent literature concerning conceptual and methodological possibilities and limitations of employing national models of integration in comparative research on the incorporation of immigrants. The objective is hence to outline some theoretical and methodological perspectives for an examination in what extent national models can provide an explanation of reality of different political-juridical surroundings in Finland and the Unites States. The presented viewpoints emphasize the need to move beyond a conceptualization that is restricted solely to national level politics and its institutional arrangements as it could be conceptually and factually specious or incorrect to refer to a single, national, model responsible for the formulation of immigration and integration policies and legislation in a given country.
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Notes
- 1.
Even though their survival times are usually short.
- 2.
According to the Multiculturalism Policy Index (see Kymlicka 2012), which is a research project that monitors the evolution of multiculturalism policies in 21 Western democracies at three points in time (1980, 2000, and 2010), Finland received in 2010 a total of six points out of a possible eight and hence ranked as having adopted the fourth broadest multicultural policies after Canada, Australia, and Sweden. It is noteworthy to remark that at the same time Finland’s proportion of foreign born population was significantly lower than in the other three countries. In turn, the United States received only a total of three points, which is also a bottom limit for adoption of modest multicultural policies. The Multiculturalism Policy Index results suggest that whereas Finnish approach to multiculturalism has expanded substantially during the last few decades, there has not occurred as much development in the United States, as its multicultural policy score has remained unaltered year after year.
- 3.
These main principles have been divided (Huddleston et al. 2015; see Joppke and Seidle 2012, 7) into three following categories: First, immigrant rights include equal treatment and non-discrimination, as well as the right to practise diverse cultures and religions. Another principle is that efforts in education are critical to preparing immigrants, and particularly their descendants, to be more successful and more active participants in society. Second, immigrant obligations include acquiring a basic knowledge of the host society’s language, history and institutions and not engaging in cultural or religious practices that conflict with other inviolable European rights or national law. Third, a host society obligation involves enabling immigrants to acquire basic knowledge about the receiving society.
- 4.
The neologism was invented already in 1996 and used in other official contexts before the Act of the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum Seekers (493/1999). The term can be seen as referring to the word kotiutua which can be translated as ‘start to feel at home’ or ‘put down roots’ (Länsimäki 1999; Lepola 2000, 175).
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Haverinen, VS. (2019). Of Premises for Cross-National Comparisons. In: Armila, P., Kananen, M., Kontkanen, Y. (eds) The Contexts of Diaspora Citizenship. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94490-6_11
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