Challenging power: Equality, Diversity and the
Integration of Ethnic and National Minorities in Finland

The Finnish welfare state is known for its commitment to participatory
parity not only between men and women, but also between the majority
population and cultural minorities. Nevertheless, equal participation does
not take place in all spheres of exercise of power. There is a need to
clarify what power sharing means in the Finnish context. In order to
understand the exercise of political power, it is central to clarify the
multifarious ways of how marginalisation occurs by disseminating how the
power structures of a hegemonic state are a hidden agency of the
empowerment projects and their consequences.

This research project seeks new ways to understand power around ethnic
relations and to reflect on how the commitment to equality could be
realised in the Finnish context. This issue will be explored on three
interdependent levels: The first level consists of an empirical assessment
of ethnic and national minorities' possibilities to exercise power within
both formal and informal institutions. The second level focuses on
perspectives inside marginalised groups using more ethno-methodological
approaches. At this level the symbolic and cultural forms of power exercise
by immigrant and minority groups are analysed in order to grasp the
contexts in which minority members become activated to participate. The
third level involves a comparative approach with the goal of generating
knowledge on why certain groups or parts of certain groups remain outside
of the reach of societal empowerment or
do not seek to participate. In general terms, the research project will
take a critical look at concepts that are commonly used today such as
power, empowerment, integration and participation.

The study will simultaneously focus on so called historical, national and
language minorities (Swedish speaking Finns, Roma, Sámi) and new ethnic
minorities (immigrants from former USSR and refugees from Iraq and
Somalia). Multiple diversity factors, such as class, gender and age will be
explored within each group.

The research will be conducted by a research director together with the
director of Ceren, two senior researchers, and two PhD students. As the
group of researchers involved in this project is interdisciplinary,
different methods will be used, including fieldwork, interviews, debate
analysis, examining administrative practices, survey material and
statistical analysis. A combination of anthropological, sociological and
political science theories and methods will allow for new and necessary insights.

In substudies to be conducted the following topics will be examined:
the "external" or "imported" identity strategies of empowerment of
marginalised groups; the institutional versus symbolic forms of power used
among policy makers and among members of non-national ethnic communities;
the significance of citizenship for naturalised persons and foreigners; the
political participation of immigrants focusing on the formal channels of
participation, such as elections.

This research project seeks new ways to understand power around ethnic
relations and to reflect on how the commitment to equality could be
realised in the Finnish context. The issue will be explored on three
interdependent levels:

The first level consists of an empirical assessment of the possibilities of
ethnic and national minorities to exercise power within both formal and
informal institutions.

The second level focuses on perspectives inside marginalised groups using
more ethno-methodological approaches. At this level the symbolic and
cultural forms of power exercised by immigrant and minority groups are
analysed in order to grasp the contexts in which minority members become
activated to participate.

The third level involves a comparative approach with the goal of generating
knowledge on why certain groups or parts of certain groups remain outside
of the reach of societal empowerment or why they do not seek to
participate.

In general terms, the research project will take a critical look at
concepts that are commonly used today such as power, empowerment,
integration and participation.

RESEARCHERS

Prof. Peter A. Kraus, CEREN, Swedish School of Social Science,
University of Helsinki
Matti Similä, director of CEREN
Dr Reetta Toivanen, University of Helsinki
Sanna Saksela, Ph.D. student
Niklas Wilhelmsson,  Ph.D. student