Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the Finnish volunteers' reflections on Finnish Society. While they support the asylum seekers' "belonging" and integration, many of them depict experiences of "non-belonging", disappointment and estrangement with the Finnish society.

Paper long abstract:

In 2015, 32 000 people sought asylum in Finland. According to Finnish Red Cross, 5000 volunteers were involved in the reception and integration of asylum seekers in 2015-2016. Majority of these were new volunteers. The experiences of Finnish volunteers were the topic of the pilot study which I conducted with Dr Sofia Laine and the students of Folklore Studies at University of Helsinki during the spring term 2017. 15 interviews with volunteers were made, and we have published one joined article based on these materials (Laine & Salmi-Niklander in Flykt. Gränsløs No8/2017, http://journals.lub.lu.se/index.php/grl/article/view/16996).

I will focus on the volunteers' reflections on the Finnish Society. While they support the asylum seekers' "belonging" and integration, many of them are going through experiences of "non-belonging", disappointment and estrangement with the Finnish society. These experiences are based on their frustration and anger to the asylum seeking process, the forced deportations and the attitudes towards asylum seekers. Many volunteers have faced hate speech and even threat of violence. A memory collection campaign "Encounters", targeted to volunteers involved with asylum seekers will be opened in collaboration with our research group and Finnish Literature Society from 15 October 2018 until 15 March 2019. I will reflect the preliminary results of this campaign and make some comparisons between the volunteers' interviews and the written reminiscences.