Social esteem in the narratives of refugees living in Finland

Abstract

In this article, it is asked how social esteem or lack of it is told in refugees’ narratives. The data consists of interviews with 13 quota refugees living in Finland. Those persons – who are resettled in Finland by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – are called quota refugees. The data was collected using a method of episodic interviews, a format containing elements of both focused and narrative interviewing. This study shows that the concept of social esteem is relevant to the refugee receiving work because the resettlement affects refugees’ lives so that they have to reshape their already existed relations and get esteem in the new official and unofficial settings. Social esteem means that one can contribute to the common good in the community and society. A refugee’s own background and possibility to have a new start is a driving force; first, for willingness to contribute to the new society and to build contributing relations to its agents. It is essential that the nature of these relationships is reciprocal. Second, they would like to contribute to the society of origin and participate in the peace building and reconciliation process of that society. Third, the integrated refugees would like to help newcomers from their own ethnic and cultural background. Many refugees lose their skills as head of the family or in managing everyday life and at the same time they lose social and self-esteem. Besides the importance of getting esteem as a parent, family, life is an important arena to get esteem because of its reproductive task.