Establishment,goalsandorganisation
A multi-ethnic association was established in 1998 in Vantaa. It is called The
Hakunila International Organization (Hakunilan kansainvälinen yhdistys
in Finnish). This association emphasises on its homepage their aim ‘to promote the awareness and knowledge of the different cultures and advance multicultural activities in the Finland’ and as their ‘aim for overall tolerance in Finland by applying preventive and antiracist policies’ (www.hakunila. org). The association is known for its broad range of multicultural activities consisting of cultural events organised by different ethnic groups. Since the founding of the association, Somalis, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Arabians and Kurds have all organised their cultural activities in its premises. The members of the Hakunila International Organization pointed out that the association has also an important societal function as a provider of regular counselling hours for immigrant living in Hakunila, Länsimäki and other areas of Vantaa.
The association consists of a Chairman and a board. In the annual general assembly members of the associations nominate eight to ten board members and as many substitutes. The members come from several different ethnic groups. The activity coordinator mentioned that the members from different associations are also responsible for the management of the activities of their own ethnic group. The idea is that each cultural group is in charge of their own activities, but they can occasionally collaborate with other groups.
Finland’s Slot Machine Association is the main provider of subsidies for The Hakunila International Organization. This has made it possible for the association to maintain their association and premises, which are rented from the municipality of Vantaa. Several of the services and projects have been financed by the municipality of Vantaa and by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see also www.hakunila.org).
Activityforms
According to the activity coordinator one of the core objectives of The Hakunila International Organization is to provide a sphere for immigrants were they
can become familiar with Finnish culture as well as with the several foreign cultures represented by different immigrant groups and their associations. Another core objective of the association is to provide counselling hours twice a week in seven languages: Finnish, English, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian and Somali. It is an open information centre for all kinds of issues that immigrants are interested in. According to the activity coordinator this idea came from Arabic immigrants who worked hard to get the idea of an information point realised. Today, the cultural association of Arabs is among the main partners of the multi-ethnic cultural association.
The members pointed out that the goal with several of their activity forms is to improve the integration of youth and the well-being of the elderly. These issues are discussed in the form of seminars and panel discussions amongst others. Cultural activity forms consist of different cultural evenings organised by different ethnic groups, such as the Burmese, Chinese, Spanish, German, Mexican and Russian. Often there is also an exhibition by an immigrant artist in the premises of the association. Other kinds of cultural events consist of international cooking courses, literature meetings and music from orchestras.
This multi-ethnic association has taken part in two larger cultural projects and in one campaign against drugs. One issue that is of great interest to the association is the improvement of multicultural relations and the fight against racism and discrimination. The association organises annually a peace forum for the relationship between Arabs and Jews. They invite scholars to discuss the relationship and well known artists to perform at the event. Some of the events are very popular and cannot be organised in the premises if the association. Therefore, some activities and events are organised in Caisa or in the cultural theatre Savoy in Helsinki. Another cultural project of the association was the Golden Ring project. Its aim was to improve a cultural exchange between artist from Russia and Finland. The multi-ethnic association has also taken part in an anti-drug campaign. During the campaign several multicultural and international events were organised (interviewee 26a).
The Hakunila International Organization does not have own newsletter, but informs about its activities on its homepage and during the events and
courses. In comparison to other immigrant associations this one has fairly firm contacts with the local authorities of Vantaa city and has members who can speak Finnish fluently. This makes the communication and application of resources much easier. The contact network also includes a wide range of contacts with other immigrant associations. Therefore, this multi-ethnic association plays both a supportive and meditative role between other immigrant groups, their associations and the local authorities. International contacts consist amongst several international networks and organisations, such as: ERAD – The European Refugee Advocacy Organisation which is supported by ECRE61, anti-racism networks such as UNITED and RASMUS (a national network) amongst others.
Presentingandre-presentingofculture
The above described immigrant association is a multi-ethnic association both in its structure (consisting of members from different ethnic groups) and by its activity forms (offers opportunities for immigrant groups to represent their culture). Still, it would be wrong to classify it as a “cultural association”, because it also has strong societal interests, such as helping immigrants in their daily life by providing counselling and by organising societal seminars and panel discussions, such as social services provided by Vantaa municipality and a seminar on security in the local area of the immigrants. This association has become a visible and central place for several immigrants living in the area due to its efficient and diverse cultural programmes. It mobilises immigrants from different ethnic groups, but mainly in an indirect form, such as joint organisation of cultural activities together with representatives of other immigrant associations and members from different ethnic groups. The goal of The Hakunila International Organization is to create awareness amongst the majority population of the cultures of ethnic minority groups and immigrants and to increase tolerance. These projects and campaigns can be perceived as a kind of collective action for the achievement of the goals of associations.
61 ecre is the abbreviation for european council on refugee and exiles, United stands for european network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees. raSMUS is a national network that consists of actors who oppose racism and xenophobia and promote multiculturality and human rights.
6.2.3 Summary and discussion
The representation of culture can take different shapes, such as in the form of dual representation of “two cultures” or as a meeting place for “cultural mixture”. The latter is probably a more familiar definition of a multi-ethnic association than the former. Still, the Arabic-Finnish association shows how a dialogue between two different cultures can create a sphere of multicultural dialogue. The members attempt to create and strengthen the interaction between families of two cultures. This association focuses mainly on cultural activities representing both Arabic and Finnish cultures. In other words, this association is an integrative association, although it does not follow the general integrative pattern. It does organise some educational courses for children, but these focus on the Arabic culture and Islam. The societal activities such as counselling or other societal services are not emphasised. Instead, the sharing of information and discussion of cultural differences takes place in a fairly informal way, such as during get-together events and during celebration of holidays.
During the last few years the number of member families has increased without any bigger recruitment efforts by the association. This can partly be explained by the good social contacts of its members. There appears to be a good micro-level organisation without any bigger interest in formal contacts. This can also be seen in the lack of formal contacts with civil servants. As a weakness of the organisational process of this association, it can be said that it remains remote and somewhat unknown for the majority population. On the other hand, this can also be its strength; the members can create trust and friendship contacts with the children by focusing on social contacts between the families. This can strengthen the creation of a dual ethnic identity for the children. In other words, the Arabic-Finnish association is based on the social capital of its members and emphasises the importance of a dual identity. The fact that the association organises more Arabic orientated activities than Finnish ones, has to do with the members’ daily contact with Finnish society.
What about members with an Arabic background who do not take part in the labour market (or education)? Is it possible that this kind of association
can work more as a marginalising association than integrative? Marriage to a Finn does not automatically provide a key into Finnish society and culture. Individual motivation to learn Finnish and an interest to participate in civil society and the labour market is partly up to the person her/himself. The answer could be found from the Arabic-Finnish families, which are most likely quite diverse. At least this association does provide interaction for people living in similar life situations. The Arabic cultural activities provide a venue for some members for the traditions and memories from the homeland, while for the children, associational participation can work as a bridge to their parents’ home-country. The celebration of Finnish holidays is an important strengthening tool in the cultural dialogue. Despite the association not having networks with other immigrant associations or local authorities it has managed to activate several other Arabic-Finns in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The importance of strong or weak contacts has much to do with associational goals. In this case strong contacts work as an efficient tool for creating interaction between the families. Sometimes strong contacts can work as a more efficient tool than “weak contacts”.
The organisational process of the Hakunila International Organization is more or less the opposite of the Arabic-Finnish association. It consists of representatives for immigrant associations and of members from different immigrant groups living in Vantaa. The strength of this association is that it provides both cultural/social activities and societal services. It has created an extensive network of contacts both at local and national level. This association has a fairly even division of informal and formal contacts, due to its broad range of activities. Networking is definitely one of this associations “tool of management” for its activities and organisational structure. The member associations also have a representative on their board, which has an important role as decision maker in the associations’ activities. Each ethno-specific association or group of immigrants is in charge of the coordination and carrying out of their events. Sometimes it’s entirely organised by the members of the association and other times by its members associations.
This association does not call itself a coalition association because it also has several immigrant members who do not represent any particular association or group. Instead, what is a common feature for its members is that a majority
of them come from the same area, which represents one of the most densely foreign populated areas of Vantaa. The association has also taken this into consideration in their organisation of seminars and activities. For example, they have activities which focus on elderly people who can easily access the association. Another group are children. Several of the activities focus on all, both old and young.
The activity coordinator pointed out that their aim is to improve multicultural relations. This association also works as a meeting place for immigrants from different cultures and they can learn about each others cultures by participating in the cultural events. The strength of this association is that it works as a platform for multicultural dialogue, but as its weakness is the lack of cooperation with majority population. This is a common problem, not only in immigrant associational life; Finns who participate in multicultural activities do this because it is related to their work or they have close family or friendships with immigrants. Spontaneous interaction between foreigners and Finns remains weak.