“And Then All of the Sudden, You're Still Here with Bad Finnish”: American Women's Narratives of Cultural Adjustment in Finland

Abstract

Abstract The enormous growth in the number of international female migrants reflects a tectonic shift in women's diverse positions in family structures and as wage earners. This qualitative study examines how sixteen American women narrate their cultural adjustment to Finnish society as longterm residents. It focuses on how individual women have dealt with the complexity of gendered and privileged migrant identities in an increasingly globalized Finland. Though arriving as citizens with higher-education degrees, most of the married women were not employed and did not feel that they had a place in Finnish society except via their husbands. Single women had short-term contracts and few plans to stay in Finland. The study suggests that married female immigrants from the United States tend to be gendered in Finland, despite an official policy of gender equality, because they have few prospects to step outside of the role of wife through employment or participation in the community.