Social esteem in the narratives of refugees living in Finland

Abstract

In this article, it is asked how social esteem or lack of it is told in refugees’ narratives. The data consists of interviews with 13 quota refugees living in Finland. Those persons – who are resettled in Finland by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – are called quota refugees. The data was collected using a method of episodic interviews, a format containing elements of both focused and narrative interviewing. This study shows that the concept of social esteem is relevant to the refugee receiving work because the resettlement affects refugees’ lives so that they have to reshape their already existed relations and get esteem in the new official and unofficial settings. Social esteem means that one can contribute to the common good in the community and society. A refugee’s own background and possibility to have a new start is a driving force; first, for willingness to contribute to the new society and to build contributing relations to its agents. It is essential that the nature of these relationships is reciprocal. Second, they would like to contribute to the society of origin and participate in the peace building and reconciliation process of that society. Third, the integrated refugees would like to help newcomers from their own ethnic and cultural background. Many refugees lose their skills as head of the family or in managing everyday life and at the same time they lose social and self-esteem. Besides the importance of getting esteem as a parent, family, life is an important arena to get esteem because of its reproductive task.

Keywords:

• social esteem
• refugee
• resettlement
• social work
• recognition

Notes

1. The concept of refugee is useful first and foremost for administrative purposes, but it includes very different people coming from diverse socio-economic positions, life histories as well as different political situations and cultures (Malkki 1995, 496). Finland follows the concept of a refugee as it is defined in the Article 1 A (2) of the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The main criterion of receiving refugee status from the UNHCR is defined as someone who has left his or her country or is unable or unwilling to return to it ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (UNHCR 1951). All quota refugees were recognized by the UNHCR before getting resettled in Finland. Finland resettles refugees who are, for example, survivors of torture and violence, women at risk or who has medical needs.

2. The theory of recognition is largely discussed by Honneth, Taylor and Fraser. Fraser and Honneth (2003) debate one another in their joint book. Fraser puts the greater priority to redistribution than recognition. Honneth is primarily interested in conditions for the good life, while Fraser mainly focuses on social justice.

3. Honneth’s (1995, 92–131) approach is based on the notion that the possibility of identity formation depends on the development of self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem.

4. Potter (1996, 142–3) uses the term ‘footing’ when a speaker is presenting some factual account as one’s own or distancing one from it.

5. In recent decades there has been a rapid increase of interest in narrative in various branches of the human sciences. The term narrative or story can be used to mean different things in different contexts (Hänninen 2004, 69–70). According to Hänninen (2004, 72–5), a narrative can be understood as inner, lived and told narratives. The inner narrative is an individual’s interpretation of his/her life. It is partly made external by told narratives, and validated in that process. Lived narrative refers to real life, which is shaped in the interplay between situational constraints and the inner narrative that guides one’s actions in changing life situations. Therefore, ‘an episode of lived narrative cannot be understood on the basis of knowledge of the objective facts alone; knowledge of the actor’s motives and emotions is a necessary part of the interpretation’ (Hänninen 2004, 72).

6. Refugee resettlement is one of the durable solutions used by UNHCR whereas the others are repatriation or integration in the second country where people escaped from the country of origin. Currently approximately 1% of the refugees under the UNHCR are to get resettled, which is 124000 people out of 10.4 million. In 2009, there were 19 countries selecting refugees directly from the second countries. The total number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons is 26.2 million (excluding natural disaster – related displacement). (UNHCR 2010)

7. Tajfel and Turner (1986, also Brown 2000) wrote about the distinction between social and personal identity, which they argued underpinned the difference between interpersonal situations and group situations. Social identity theories are concerned about the latter and start from the assumption that social identity is derived from group memberships. It also proposes that people strive to achieve positive social identity, which derives from comparisons that can be made between the in-group and relevant out-groups.

8. Disrespect means here being routinely maligned or disparaged in stereotypical pubic cultural representations and/or in everyday life interactions (Fraser 1997, 14).