“You Should Have Told Me That Earlier”

Abstract

In this article, we take a discursive psychological approach to study how ethnic return migrants discuss and account for episodes of discrimination, with a special focus on discursive strategies employed to deal with discrimination. The data come from nine focus group discussions held with ethnic Finnish migrants who have moved to Finland in adulthood from Russia, Canada, or the United States. Results of the analysis show two distinct ways of dealing with discrimination: problematising discrimination and downplaying discrimination. Problematising was accomplished by showing the critical difference between being categorised as Finnish or non-Finnish and challenging the criteria of Finnishness. Strategies of downplaying included normalising discrimination and emphasising positive experiences. The findings are discussed in relation to ethnic return migrants' identity work and belonging to broader society.The vast majority of discursive psychological research on prejudice and racism has focused on how unequal relations and treatment of minority groups are maintained and legitimised by majority members through specific discursive strategies (see, e.g.,