Pojat! Somalipoikien kiistanalainen nuoruus Suomessa

Abstract

Kirja perustuu etnografiseen tutkimukseen, jossa on useiden vuosien ajan seurattu somalipoikien arkea ystävyyttä, perhe- ja viranomaissuhteita sekä liikettä kaupungin julkisissa tiloissa. Teos käsittelee myös suomalaisia hyvinvointivaltion toimijoita, jotka perustelevat toimintaansa lapsen edun näkökulmasta usein irrallaan poikien omien turva- ja perheverkostojen näkemyksistä. Kirjassa aukeaa monisyinen jännite poikien omien kokemusten ja hyvinvointivaltiollisten sekä mediasta aukeavien tulkintojen välille. Kirja arvioi sitä, mitä monikulttuurisuus suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa merkitsee, tai miten sitä poliittisesti käsitellään.

Lads! The Contested Childhood of Somali Youngsters in Finland

This study deals with young Somali men growing up in Helsinki in the aftermath of a tragic civil war in Somalia in the early 1990s. My specific aim in this research has been to produce an ethnographic monograph on what it means to come of age in a dispersed environment and within a transnational family network. I conducted my fieldwork in Helsinki from 1996 to 2001.

Although my focus in the project is primarily on the life histories and experiences of approximately 20 young men between the ages of 16-20, I have also directed my attention to the governmental actors such as educational authorities and immigration experts in Finland.

My analysis juxtaposes the contradictory ways in which the various actors speak of these boys. The ways in which the Finnish authorities attempt to stress the best interests of children in general do not necessarily coincide with the ways in which the boys and their transnationally dispersed families see their situation. The study indicates how the notions of childhood, the processes of growing up, national welfare projects, construction of new gender discourses, shifting notions of violence and related subjectivities have become contested areas.

These ongoing struggles are manifested not only in public, but also in the private sphere of bodily experiences. The lives of the lads from their birth in Somalia up to their landing in Helsinki has, for many of them, involved an accumulation of experiences of symbolic and physical violence. Thus, my empirical analysis highlights the processes involved in competitive notions of embodiment, finding one s place in an integrated world and the re-interpretations of nation-states. The notions of border and boundary crossing that refer to cultural, social and physical mobility and transactions are focal points as the zones where different views are negotiated.

This research is a contribution to anthropology of transnationalism, and indicates how from this perspective the processes of maturing, people s ability to define their personhood and sense of belonging can be understood as negotiations or clashes between the local and the transnational. It brings out the cultural and transnational dimensions of welfare politics. Thus, this study connects the processes of border crossing to the biopolitics of maturing, its encompassing character and related acts of resistance.