Paper short abstract:

By analysing interview material, I aim to show different strategies that members of transnational families use in order to reposition themselves in relation to different places. I will also pay attention to generational and gender differences in stories of place-related experiences.

Paper long abstract:

Identity, belonging, places and family stories are the keywords in my research on transnational families. Societal changes and crossing different borders often further increase the need to negotiate family and identity matters. People are not only shaped by places in their life, but they also employ different strategies to make a place feel like "home". The relations to different places can be (re)created, for example, by using personal experience stories as well as narratives of the family. I am especially interested in the emotional and social side of peoples' place-related experiences.

The main research material I am working on consists of interviews I made with former Soviet Union immigrants living in Finland and their family members living in the country of origin (Russian Karelia and Estonia). Reasons for moving have often been social or economical, but also emotional connection to a new place of residence has to be established. This repositioning is a constant process, affected also by the surrounding societal and cultural context. The choices to stay or to move have to be justified not only to oneself, but also to others (relatives and wider society).

There are different possibilities to feel at home, also in many places simultaneously. Transnational way of life does not mean rootlessness, although themes of homelessness and feelings of estrangement are also present in my material. There are generational and gender differences on how people experience places. Stories told by those family members who have stayed and those who have moved differ also significantly.