Interethnic Affiliations and Everyday Demarcations of Youth in Finland

Abstract

In this article, affiliations between ethnic majority and minority youth in leisure surroundings around Finland are scrutinised. It is asked how these affiliations are formulated: To what extent they are based on individual choices and factors such as ethnicity, class and locality? The twofold data of the study consists of (1) interviews of ethnic minority youth (n = 38) and (2) observations and interviews of ethnic majority and minority youth (n = 13) conducted in the fields of youth work. The results of the study indicate that peer affiliations among ethnic minority youth are determined through complex positionalities. Even though in the interview data most youth present themselves as individuals not constrained by structural factors, in the observation data affiliations are generally formulated through processes in which ethnicity, class and locality are intertwined. In contrast to ‘common knowledge’, deprived urban localities and rural areas offer fruitful spaces for interethnic affiliations.