TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES ACROSS POLAND AND FINLAND
MATYSKA, ANNA (2009)
MATYSKA, ANNA
2009
Sosiaaliantropologia/ISSS - Social Anthropology/ISSS
Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2009-06-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20094
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20094
Tiivistelmä
This thesis explores the transnational family life of Polish migrants in Finland in the context of the changing political regime of the Polish nation?state after World War II. It looks at the fundamental practices through which kinfolks have strived to stay together despite separation, family connections and ruptures emerging across borders. The analysis is carried out with regard to three historical periods: the era of communist regime in Poland, the post-1989 transformation and the period after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. The research results are based on an ethnographic study I conducted in 2006-2007 across Southern Finland among the Polish migrants who have in various family configurations moved to Finland since the 1960s. The ethnography encompassed interviews and participant observation. The rituals of communication and visits were among the most important means of staying in contact. Their regular enactment ensured a sense of stability and security of family ties, but the development of new ICT technologies also facilitated their role as a means of control and surveillance. Being separated by national borders did not mean a stop to practical, emotional and material family support and care. They were (re)negotiated and adjusted to the transnational context, changing political circumstances and family dynamics. Both emotional labour and the provisioning of economic support were pursued by family members "here" and "there" with an awareness of the specificity of the transnational separation, and especially the time after 1989 necessitated a subtle navigation between a need for individualism and family collectivity. One of the crucial family relationships across the borders which the migrants in this research had was with their parents. The intergenerational transnational support was particularly salient at two stages of family life: the upbringing of the migrants? dependent children and the end of the elderly parents' life. How the final moments of the parents' life would unfold, and whether the migrants would be able to ensure the parents' "good death" was of great significance for the cumulative evaluation of their filial/parental relationship. The study showed that a transnational family is a dynamic and changeable formation, and that neither family duties nor family borders are clearly given and fixed. A family in a transnational space is rather a product of everyday and mundane efforts and of careful balancing of emotional and economic power.
Keywords (optional):: transnationalism, family, Polish migration, Finland
Keywords (optional):: transnationalism, family, Polish migration, Finland