The Strength of Native Ties: Social Networks of Finnish Immigrants in Estonia

Abstract

Abstract. This article, which is based on 24 in-depth interviews conducted in 2005 with Finnish immigrant women in Estonia, analyzes immigrant acculturation in relation to cross-border contacts. I compared weak and strong social ties of two groups: respondents who were living in a Finnish 'enclave' separated from Estonian society, and respondents who were socially and institutionally integrated into Estonian society. Surprisingly, there was no notable difference in the type and frequency of inter-personal contacts maintained with Finland between the two groups; most interviewees sustained intense inter-personal contacts with family and friends by phone, the Internet and through reciprocal visits. Socalled weak ties that bind together rarely interacting people played a major role in the respondent's integration into the host society. Those women who had no social contacts within Estonian society preferred to use health-care and social welfare services in Finland, whereas the integrated women had established multiple institutional ties to Estonian society.

Estonia-Southern Finland Cross-Border Region:what Kind of Cross-Border Integration Is Taking Place? An Analysis From Experts in Cross-Border Cooperation

“…Their cross-border lives appeared to be less tied to Estonia, since they had married Finnish rather than Estonian partners, implying that they were less permanently settled in Estonia. This pattern reproduces that of Finnish labour migration in general (Hyvönen 2008). Only one of the Finnish experts (F20) had greater personal attachment, being the offspring of a mixed Finnish-Estonian couple.…”

“…Other studies attempt to offer a coherent theoretical and empirical approach to understanding the complexity of cross-border relationships and cooperation (Grix 2001, Grix and Houžvička 2002, Grix and Knowles 2002. These studies trace the influence of different factors on people's boundary behaviour and the patterns of frontier-crossing among residents of different border cities and regions (Lundén 2004, Alapuru and Lonkila 2004, Hyvönen 2008, Mirwaldt 2012, Gualda, Fragoso, and Lucio 2013. The main conclusions of these studies stress the notable endogamy of relationships in cross-border regions, where the proximity within national territories determines the general patterns of interpersonal relationships.…”

Insights into New Media Use by International Students: Implications for Cross-Cultural Adaptation Theory

“…Granovetter [40] [41] explored the concept of weak ties to explain how individuals make social advancements by attaining new information and getting recruited into new groups. Weak ties with host nationals give international students the opportunity to learn the communication patterns of the host culture [1], help individuals integrate into new cultural environments [42], and having a varied bandwidth of host national friendship is linked to increased feelings of social connectedness [7]. In should be noted that when Granovetter presented the strength of weak ties theory, online social networks were nonexistent.…”

Years of Refugee Life in Serbia – Challenges for a New Beginning:stay or Return Home?

“…This choice was influenced by years spent in refuge, where after the initial period of adaptation, mistrust and social tensions between refugees and domicile population, ties with local community were built. Refugees in a new environment as well as other immigrants spend their first year adapting and rebuilding social and family networks, which was shown in other studies (Fawcett 1989, Gurak and Caces 1992, Küün 2008, Portes 1995, Godin 2008, Hyvönen 2008. As Godin (2008) says in his work, most found their first job during this time which does not correspond with their premigration socio-occupational ambitions, thus shortening the period of the first job and increasing the risk of transition to another job.…”