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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Between fragmentation and collective identity: Somali associations in Europe - the case of Finland
| Panel |
42. Transnational spaces/cosmopolitan times: African associations in Europe
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| Paper ID | 366 |
| Author(s) |
Schuetze, Jaana Maria
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Somalis represent the major African group in Finland. Decisive reasons for that are: the extensive welfare system, the fall of the Iron Curtain and above all the Finnish asylum legislation that ensure the right of permanent residence particularly to Somali refugees.
Somali immigrants in Finland have acceptable prerequisites in two respects. First, they gain entry into generous social welfare benefits; second, they are provided the basis for societal inclusion (esp. through labour market). However, connections to their home country are still very eminent. Somalis living in Finland are often organised in various associations and social networks, also to exert on influence over developmental processes in Somalia. Depending on socioeconomic resources they contribute to economic reconstruction and societal development of Somalia.
Current reports on Somalia suggest that the situation is more than worrying. After the Islamist (Council of Islamic Courts) were ousted from Mogadishu former warlords are likely to come into power over the capital again.
Over years of permanent conflicts and civil war on the one hand and warring rival groups and rather powerless interim government on the other hand, Somalia is exposed to severe repression and is increasingly disintegrated and fragmented. A specific phenomenon frequently mentioned in the context of disintegration processes in Somalia refers to segmentary societies and the absence of national cohesion (s. Abdi Ismail Samatar, Ibn Khaldun). In the contrary to that, greater involvement and shared interests of Somalis in host countries like Finland for development purposes in their home country could be considered as evidence for collective body, if not as an expression for national identity.
Out of these delineated features many questions concerning the ostensive discrepancy between social life and collective engagement of Somali people arise. In this paper I want to focus on the following issues: how does the specific political and social context in Finland influence the structure of Somali associations? What role does particular associational life in Somalia play in producing Somali associations in Finland? And out from a relational perspective it is most interesting, how the connections themselves are constituted and through what medium they are perpetuated.
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