Somali Associations' Trajectories in Italy and Finland: Leaders Building Trust and Finding Legitimisation

Abstract

Previous research on migrant associations has explained their formation and maintenance by highlighting migrant groups' cultural characteristics or the political opportunity structures (POS) available in the countries of settlement. Past research has also focused on associations in relation to migrants' political participation in the countries of settlement, applying the notion of social capital. The aim of this article is to enrich the debate on migrant associations by analysing their trajectories. This analysis will also make use of the concepts of POS and social capital. The article analyses Somali associations' developmental trajectories over time in two different settlement-country contexts—Italy and Finland. The argument put forward is that, while political opportunity structures do matter, they are not sufficient to explain Somali associations' trajectories. Findings show that similar characteristics and networking processes of associations have been observed in both locations. The long-term functionality of associations is often in the hands of the associations' leaders, who exhibit similar uses of social capital. Leaders are the ‘professionals of mobilisation’, which also has consequences for the professionalisation of their associations.

Keywords:

• Migrant Associations
• Association Leadership
• Social Capital
• Political Opportunity Structure
• Italy
• Finland

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the useful and critical comments provided by Professor Liisa Laakso, Dr Pekka Virtanen, Dr Marja Tiilikainen and Professor Martti Siisiäinen. We are also grateful for comments provided by Dr Nauja Kleist and Dr Miikka Pyykkönen regarding an earlier version of the article. The research on which the article is based was carried out as part of the European Commission's 7^th Framework Programme-funded project entitled ‘Diasporas for Peace: Patterns, Trends and Potential of Long-Distance Diaspora Involvement in Conflict Settings’, coordinated by the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). We are indebted to all the members of the DIASPEACE team with whom we have been working and exchanging ideas during the project. In particular, we want to thank Valeria Saggiomo for her contributions to the research carried out in Italy. We also want to thank all the Somali interviewees and key informants who have shared their thoughts and information with us. Lastly we want to thank the three anonymous JEMS referees for their detailed and critical comments.