Integrating Governmentality: Administrative Expectations for Immigrant Associations in Finland

Abstract

From the first half of the 1990s, and especially after the accession to European Union in 1995, immigrant authorities and administration have emphasized the significance of immigrant associations in integration of immigrants in Finland. The purpose of the associations from the administrative perspective is to socialize and activate immigrant communities and individuals according to basic political rationalities, such as security of the society, happiness of the population and individuals, and cultural pluralism. On the one hand immigrant associations are technology through which integrative government of individuals and communities is implemented. On the other hand, associations themselves are governed through multiple techniques, mainly funding and registration. The author approaches this associational government of integration of immigrants with the "toolkit" applied from Foucauldian governmentality studies.

When Policy Meets Practice: A Study of Ethnic Community-Based Organizations for Children and Youth

“…Nordic research shows an increasing connection between the state's support of civil society institutions and greater involvement of civil society organizations to promote integration of ethnic minority groups into majority society (Pyykkonen 2007;Bengtsson 2010;Kugelberg 2011;Agergaard and Michelsen la Cour 2012). In Norway, two national institutions register voluntary organizations for youth.…”

“…Studies from the Nordic countries show that central elements of the Nordic tradition of organizing the voluntary sector are applied to ethnic community-based organizations (Borevi 2004;Pyykkonen 2007;Predelli 2008;Hagelund and Loga 2009;Bay et al 2010;Ødegård 2010;Kugelberg 2011;Myrberg and Rogstad 2011;Takle 2014). When we place the ethnic community-based organizations for children and youth in our study in the wider context of the Nordic tradition of civil society, we recognize these central characteristics.…”

Civil Society in Making: <i>Challenges of the Somali Diaspora Organizations</i>

“…From a Foucauldian perspective, migrant associations and their regulation may even be seen as a way for a nation state to govern, control, 'normalize' and even securitize migrants (e.g. Pyykkönen 2007). Through the example of the Somali diaspora associations, however, the question of civil society widens across national borders and habitual civic actors.…”

Contesting Family in Finnish and Canadian Immigration and Refugee Policy

“…Although several scholars have examined immigration and refugee policy and practices using a governmentality conceptual 'tool-kit' (e.g., Lippert 2006;Pratt 2005;Pyykkönen 2007;Walters 2002), there has been only limited attention paid to integration in place of what might be termed 'border practices'. We believe both are important and indeed may be more interrelated and overlapping than previous work has implied.…”