Abstract
Besides defining the juridical relationship between individuals and a state, citizenship holds informal importance of belonging and empowerment in social environment. Perceptions of a “good citizen” reflect normative social and political construction of a society, which is often simultaneously influenced by human rights, migration, security, geopolitics, and nation-building. Initiatives to renegotiate the previously liberal Finnish citizenship became topical in the country’s public discussions after changes in European security discourse in 2014. In early 2017 Finnish national broadcast agency, Yle, reported that Finnish-Russian dual citizens were covertly excluded from holding strategic military positions. Through the analysis of media presentations of these news and spontaneous discussions stimulated by them in an online forum of Finland’s Russian speakers, this article examines citizenship as a discursive membership in Finnishness and Russianness. Ways of claiming, identifying, validating, and challenging “proper” citizenship have differed clearly in the discourses presented in Finnish national media and in online Russian-language discussions. Journalists and the defense minister, who was a key figure in the media discussions, presented citizenship as a flexible instrument of international security politics. The online discussions spawned debates about the possibilities of inclusion through integrating into and acclimating to Finnish social environment. The most alienating discourse in the online discussions entailed a belief that documented family history is essential for inclusion to citizenship-membership. Article in English
Highlights
In early 2017 Finnish national broadcast agency Yle reported on discrimination against Finnish-Russian dual citizens in the defense forces
Inspired by Georgiou (2013:96) and Heino (2018:75), I have examined contextually novel, information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled representations of citizenship from the perspective of established and visible public authorities and the people who are subjectified by this knowledge production
Examining presentations of citizenship as a discursive citizenship-membership provides a critical perspective on how social construction of affiliated belonging is problematized under certain conditions
Summary
I analyze how discourses of citizenship-membership constructed problematization of affiliated belonging in an online discussion forum of Finland’s Russian speakers following the presentation of dual citizenship as a security issue in the Finnish national news media in early 2017. In the spring of 2019 the Finnish parliament amended the qualification requirements for the National Defense University, the border guard, and defense forces, disqualifying applicants with another citizenship or other affiliations with a foreign state that may pose a security threat (Eduskunta.fi 2019) These developments followed a long discussion about the terms and meanings of Finnish citizenship-membership and their compatibility with Russianness. These rare media representations tend to reproduce Russians’ otherness, an overall negative view of Russia as a country, and the memory of Russia as Finland’s enemy during World War II (e.g., Pietiläinen 2016; Oivo 2017)
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