More than employment: Belonging and boundary construction among immigrants in rural Finland

Abstract

Rural communities frame immigrants’ belonging experiences in various ways. In this article, I examine: 1) how do immigrants produce belonging in their speech through symbolic boundaries in rural areas, and 2) what kinds of belonging do those boundary constructions create? This study contributes to the discussion about belonging in rural areas by highlighting immigrants’ own voices in the process. The empirical data is based on twenty-three semi-structured interviews of immigrants living in rural areas in Finland. As a conclusion, the interviewees created belonging in relation to the safety and stagnancy of rural places, the experience of being (not) understood, and within religion and value systems. Within these three frames, the interviewees highlighted the meaning of employment, language, and social relations with Finnish people as aspects that promoted their sense of belonging. However, rural areas’ structural order offers different opportunities for these three elements of belonging to materialise.