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The Finnish and Swedish MigrationDynamics and Transnational SocialSpacesÖsten Wahlbecka

a SSKH, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FinlandPublished online: 29 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Östen Wahlbeck (2015) The Finnish and Swedish Migration Dynamics andTransnational Social Spaces, Mobilities, 10:1, 100-118, DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2013.849488

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The Finnish and Swedish MigrationDynamics and Transnational Social Spaces

ÖSTEN WAHLBECK

SSKH, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

ABSTRACT This article contributes to debates about the long-term development of migrationdynamics. The argument is based on a study of the transnational dynamics of the migrationflows between Finland and Sweden. The two countries provide a good case for studying thelong-term development of migration patterns, since there has been a full freedom ofmovement and the migration patterns are well documented. The article argues that thepostwar labor migration from Finland to Sweden created a transnational social space thatstill today facilitates migration between the two countries. Although Finnish citizens dominatethe migration flows in both directions, the number of Swedish migrants has steadilyincreased. This new pattern can be explained by the development of the transnational socialspace involving an increasing number of mixed families.

KEY WORDS: Finland, Sweden, Migration patterns, Transnationalism, Return migra-tion, Mixed families, Family migration

Introduction

The role of transnationalism in migration dynamics has been the focus of variousacademic discussions in migration research. However, there is still not much knowl-edge about the development of transnationalism and migration over time. The focusof studies of transnationalism has been on the first generation and, as pointed out byKing and Christou (2011), there has been a lack of attention to return movementsand later generations. This article analyzes the migration between Finland andSweden from the post-war period up until today. The article argues that the academicdebate about transnational social spaces (Faist 2000) has much to offer for anunderstanding of the migration dynamics between Finland and Sweden. Furthermore,the migration dynamics conveyed by this particular case can provide significantinformation about the general long-term developments of migration patterns andtransnational social spaces. The objective of this article is to show how the laterstages of these developments involve an increasing number of people of nonmigrantbackground. The article outlines how this development is connected to the

Correspondence Address: Östen Wahlbeck, SSKH, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 16(Snellmansgatan 12), Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland. Email: osten.wahlbeck@helsinki.fi

© 2013 Taylor & Francis

Mobilities, 2015Vol. 10, No. 1, 100–118, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2013.849488

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emergence of mixed families and partnerships that become involved in a ‘mixedreturn migration’ sustained by a transnational social space.The complete freedom of movement that has existed among the Nordic countries

since 1954 makes it possible to study migration dynamics without a strong interfer-ence of migration control or other exogenous political factors. The labor migrationfrom Finland to Sweden was largely economically motivated during the post-warperiod until the 1970s. After this period, the strong economic incentive for migrationceased to exist and return migration as well as other forms of migration replaced thetraditional labor migration. An analysis of later developments after the peak of thelabor migration in the 1970s can therefore provide a good example of the long-termdynamics of migration and transnational social spaces. The migration between thetwo countries is exceptionally well documented, which makes an analysis possible.In this article, official statistics and previous research are drawn upon to outline themigration dynamics between Finland and Sweden. In addition, interviews amongSwedish citizens in Finland are used to explain the most recent migration patternsthat involve spouses and family members coming from a non-migrant background.The article describes how a Swedish and Finnish transnational social space hasdeveloped over time and explains how these developments have produced newmigration patterns. Thus, it is argued that the most recent migration patternsinvolving Swedish citizens is not a brand new migration pattern, but largely can beunderstood as a long-term consequence of the development of the transnationalsocial space. Thus, this study sharpens our understanding of the general long termdevelopment of migration dynamics.

Transnational Social Spaces in Migration Research

In migration research, the concept of transnationalism has been introduced in orderto take into account the processes by which migrants sustain social relations that linktogether their societies of origin and settlement. The analysis of transnational phe-nomena among migrants has its early origin in American anthropological debatesand it was introduced in migration research in the early 1990s (e.g. Glick Schiller,Basch, and Blanc-Szanton 1992; Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc 1994). Inthis debate there was a comprehension that migration and its social consequencesdid not follow the same patterns as before, and there was a need to find a newconceptual framework to describe the border-crossing social fields of contemporarymigrants. The transnational social field ‘is composed of a growing number ofpersons who live dual lives: speaking two languages, having homes in two countries,and making a living through continuous regular contact across national borders’(Portes, Guarnizo, and Landolt 1999, 217). The transnational border-crossing activi-ties of migrants include economic, political and socio-cultural aspects. All theseaspects contribute to the emergence of transnational social fields and these fieldsenhance a further mobility of people, goods, money, symbols and ideas acrossborders. Thus, a transnational perspective simultaneously relates both to countries oforigin and settlement and emphasizes the interconnectedness of diverse locations asa consequence of border-crossing social fields (Guarnizo and Smith 1998; Levitt andGlick Schiller 2004; Vertovec 2009). Yet, transnational social fields can developsimultaneously as various processes of immigrant integration and assimilation(Kivisto 2001; Joppke and Morawska 2003; Waldinger 2011).

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Transnational activities undoubtedly exist among the first generation ofmigrants, but it is more unclear to what extent, in what capacity and under whatcircumstances transnationalism exists among later generations. Clearly, there ismuch variation and the transnational social field always changes its characterover time. These changes are always intrinsically connected to changes in migra-tion patterns within the social field. An important contribution to the theories ofthe development of transnational social fields and migration dynamics has beenmade by Faist (2000) in the book The Volume and Dynamics of InternationalMigration and Transnational Social Spaces. He outlines an elaborate theory oftransnational social spaces, rather than ‘social fields’. This conceptual shiftexplicitly links the theory of transnationalism to discussions about social space,and the concept of ‘transnational social space’ has had many proponents(e.g. Pries 1999, 2001, 2008). According to Faist (2000, 11–13), transnationalsocial spaces involve two or more nation states and include the circulation ofgoods, ideas, information, symbols and people (i.e. migrants). As such, the the-ory of transnational social spaces can be seen as a supplement to theories ofimmigrant assimilation and multiculturalism. In this respect, the emphasis madeby Faist (2000) is different from much of the early anthropological literature,where transnationalism often was regarded as a replacement of earlier theoreticalperspectives on immigration.Faist outlines how transnational social spaces can develop from individual

social ties into more durable transnational communities. Faist (2000, 258–261,311–312) distinguishes three forms of social spaces, which correspond to threestages of international migration and transnationalization. The first form of socialspace consists of reciprocity and solidarity within transnational kinship groups,where migrants can sustain social ties in small groups. One example of activitiesin this form of social spaces is remittances sent to family members, a commonfeature of the first generation of migrants. The second form of social spaceoccurs when social ties develop into larger transnational circuits. The migrantgroup is characterized by a more generalized reciprocity and diffuse solidarityextended beyond kinship groups (Faist 2000, 144). This enables the emergenceof migrant networks that go beyond pioneer migration, for example, large-scalechain- and circular migration. If the social spaces grow to include a whole com-munity, and transnational relations are upheld over time, it is possible to talkabout transnational communities, which constitutes the third form of socialspace. These communities are connected over time and across space by denseand strong social and symbolic ties. A consequence of large-scale and sustainedmigration can be that the initial small- scale transnational kinship groups developinto transnational circuits, and subsequently – over time and during appropriatecircumstances – into transnational communities (Faist 2000, 311–312). Thus, thetransnational social spaces also might get permanence beyond the first generationof migrants.The theoretical concern of Faist (1997, 2000) is focused on explaining migration

dynamics. His aim is not only to explain why people migrate, but also to address‘the question why so few people migrate from so few communities and why somany return’ (Faist 1997, 187). The answer Faist (1997, 2000) provides involveslinking the macro-and micro-level explanations, in a theoretical meso-level analysisincluding the role played by social ties and social capital in transnational socialspaces. According to Faist (2000, 143–194), increased migration is beneficial for the

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development of transnational social spaces; at the same time transnational socialspaces facilitate migration between the involved specific localities. This explainswhy migration patterns often develop cumulatively: ‘If migration networks are avail-able, migration tends to become self-perpetuating because each act of migrationstrengthens the necessary ties and creates additional resources that promote andsustain more migration in processes of cumulative mobility’ (Faist 2000, 144). How-ever, at some stage, this migration dynamics will reach a turning point. For example,political decisions on migration control, the population structure in the involvedlocalities or wage equalization between the involved countries might influence themigration dynamics. Faist (2000) explicitly wants to explain South to Northmigration, and he primarily uses examples from the Turkish–German migrationpatterns, but his analysis can also be applied on other cases of labor migration.In later generations, transnational kinship groups, circuits, and communities can

continue to exist, although we should not forget the possible importance of othersocial processes like assimilation and multiculturalism. Accordingly, Faist (2000)also emphasizes the possible ‘adaptive’ functions of transnational social spaces.Transnational reciprocity in kinship groups is a common feature of the firstgeneration of most migrants, but the later developments of the community mightfollow different paths and the outcome is not always transnationalization. Faist(2000, 258–261) outlines three different outcomes: migrants might melt into the coreof society (assimilation), the outcome might be ethnic pluralism, or the outcomemight be the development of transnational circuits. It is only in the last alternativethat the final outcome might be the development of well-established transnationalcommunities, as outlined in Figure 1. The outcomes depends on both theopportunities available in the immigration country and the resources of theimmigrant community.The focus of Faist’s (2000) theoretical discussion is on the developments that

explain the emergence and growth of migration dynamics. However, the stages afterthe turning point of the migration pattern get very little attention. What are the laterdevelopments of the transnational social space and what migration patterns character-ize the last stages, or the end, of the migration dynamics? These questions have notbeen discussed in detail by Faist or by those who utilize his theoretical framework.In this article, I argue that one crucial issue in later developments of the transnationalsocial space seems to be the existence of intermarriages and family ties outside ofthe group. Obviously, through new family constellations the immigrant communitymight over time largely become intertwined with new social spaces and

Figure 1. Stylized stages of melting into the core, pluralization and three forms oftransnational social spaces.

Note: The dotted arrows indicate that the transition is a very difficult and somewhat unlikelyprocess. Figure and description from Faist (2000, 259).

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communities. This development might involve an integration or assimilation of theimmigrant group into the society of settlement, that is a melting into the core of soci-ety. However, this development also means that new people, who originally were notpart of the transnational social spaces, might become part of the mobility and cross-border activities of the immigrant group in question. A key example of this phenom-enon is when spouses without a migrant background become part of the existingmigration patterns, and thereby part of the return migration to the countries of origin.This phenomenon has not been much studied and is not clearly conceptualized inprevious research. In the absence of established concepts, the diverse migration pat-tern that involves both mixed families and return migration will here be called‘mixed return migration’.Most of Faist’s (2000) evidence is taken from the case of the migration of Turks to

Germany, but he does not study the involvement of German spouses in theTurkish–German migration patterns. However, there are other more recent studies thatdescribe this particular phenomenon. Kaiser (2003, 2004) has studied the case of Ger-man spouses of Turkish immigrants, predominantly female Germans, who movetogether with their spouses to Turkey. She mentions the debate about transnationalsocial spaces and argues that the German spouses living in Turkey can be describedas ‘the other side of the Turkish–German transnational space’ (Kaiser 2004). A similarapproach is taken by Sert and Içduygu (2010); they have interviewed Germans inTurkey and described them as an integral part of the ‘Turkey–Germany transnationalspace’. It is common for these Germans to be married to Turks, to move to Turkeybecause of different coincidences rather than a conscious plan, to have property own-ership in Turkey and to be engaged in circular migration between Germany and Tur-key, thus making them an integral part of a transnational space (Sert and Içduygu2010). However, these Germans have not always been part of this space. They havebecome involved in an already existing transnational social space, since they havebecome part of social relations with Turks.In general, the migration literature provides relatively scarce information of how

transnational social spaces evolve over time and more research is needed to outlinethe general patterns. Actually, most research on transnationalism has focused on rela-tively recent migrant groups and until recently mostly on the first generation ofmigrants. Likewise, the studies that explicitly relate to Faist’s theoretical frameworkare predominantly about the initial phases of the migration dynamics (e.g. Olofssonand Malmberg 2010). However, there is a growing field of research on transnational-ism in the second-generation and there seems to be large variations in and betweengroups (Levitt and Waters 2002; Wessendorf 2007; Conway and Potter 2009; Kingand Christou 2011). Clearly, a study of later phases and later generations shouldprovide more information about the long-term development of transnational socialspaces. For example, as King and Christou (2010, 182) explicitly point out,second-generation return migration is a reflection of the strength of transnationalsocial spaces. Thus, a study of long-term migration patterns between specificlocations provides information of the general long-term development of transnationalsocial spaces.

Methods and Materials

The aim of this article is to use the Swedish and Finnish case to provide newinformation about the long-term dynamics of international migration and

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transnational social spaces. The argument is based on an analysis of previousresearch, official statistics from the population registers in both countries as well asinterviews with 25 Swedish citizens living in the Helsinki region of Finland in2011–2012.The official population registers has for a long time provided exact data about

migration in both Finland and Sweden. These registers can therefore provide a goodpicture of long-term migration dynamics. Both countries are highly developedwelfare states, and – for the purposes of welfare benefits, services, voting andtaxation – the authorities need to have reliable and consistent information about theplace of residence of all people living in the countries. Thus, all permanent residentsin respective country have one, and only one, official place of residence registered inthe population register, regardless of the fact that there is a complete freedom ofmovement between the countries and migration as such is not regulated by theinvolved states. A sign of the reliability is that the statistical data concerning immi-gration and emigration is gathered independently by Statistics Sweden and StatisticsFinland, respectively, but still the deviation in the figures they provide is low. Themain difference in the data is the way people with dual Swedish and Finnish citizen-ship are counted, for statistical purposes, these are counted as Swedish citizens inSwedish statistics and as Finnish citizens in Finnish statistics (Statistics Finland2010; Statistics Sweden 2011).In addition, 25 interviews with Swedish citizens living in Helsinki, the capital of

Finland, are used to provide a picture of the more recent migration dynamics of thetransnational social space. The aim of the interviews was to study the presumed newpattern of migration involving Swedes moving to Finland. Therefore, the interviewsample does not represent the whole population of Swedish citizens in Finland,instead the interviewees were explicitly chosen to represent the new migrationpattern and to omit any return migrants. The sample included only adult Swedishcitizens, in the age range between 20 and 55, who have lived permanently at least ayear in Finland, but who do not hold Finnish citizenship, are not born in Finland, donot have Finnish parents and do not identify themselves as Finns. The sampleincluded people who had lived in Finland up to 25 years, but the average was9 years. However, because of the transnational nature of the migration patterns itwas often difficult to calculate the exact length of stay in Finland. Many intervieweeshad moved multiple times back and forth between the two countries and usually themove to Finland is a gradual process.The interviews were carried out in Helsinki, since it has been the major destination

for Swedish citizens (and immigrants in general) in recent years. Thus, Helsinki isthe only Finnish municipality with a sizeable population of Swedish citizens (1278people in 2010, excluding people with dual Finnish citizenship (Statistics Finland2011b)). Furthermore, Helsinki is suitable for a study of migration decisions, since itis geographically situated relatively far from Sweden (i.e. frequent commuting toSweden, which can be found in some parts of Finland, is here out of the question).Interviewees that would fit the sample criteria were found through various informalchannels combined with snowball sampling techniques. The informal channelsincluded three associations for Swedish citizens in Finland (a local and a nationalcultural association and a network for professional women) as well as contacts foundthrough Swedish-language social networks in Helsinki. Swedish citizens tend to beemployed in the limited number of work places where a good knowledge of theFinnish language is not required. These specific work places include Swedish day

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care for children, schools, homes for elderly people, cultural institutions, universitydepartments, and some Swedish-owned companies, especially in the financial sector.In these work places, we also find Swedish-speaking Finns.1 The researcher and theresearch assistants utilized their embeddedness in the social networks of the minoritycommunity of Swedish-speaking Finns to get information about Swedish citizens inthese work places. These various methods to find interviewees might have created abias towards high-skilled, employed and socially active Swedish citizens. Swedishcitizens that are not part of the labor force (unemployed, retired, parental leave orsick leave) were difficult to find, but official figures show that the rate of unemploy-ment among Swedish citizens in Finland is not significantly higher than among thepopulation as a whole.The interviews include an equal number of men and women (13 men and 12

women). The aim was also to find a comparable number of interviewees both frommixed families with Finnish citizens and from families with fellow Swedish citizens,respectively. However, for demographic reasons that are presented and discussed inthis article, it was very difficult to find suitable interviewees that would fit the lattercategory of families. Thus, only three interviewees live in ‘Swedish-only families’.The interviews were semi-structured and focused on migration and integrationexperiences. This included a focus on the reasons and motivations for migrationdecisions, as well as detailed questions about the social ties that facilitated migration.The language of the interviews was Swedish and their length was between 1 and 2h. All interviews have been fully transcribed in order to facilitate the analysis.2 Theinterview quotations in this article have been translated from Swedish to English bythe author.

The Migration between Finland and Sweden

There are obvious transnational features of the migration patterns and social relationsbetween the neighboring countries of Finland and Sweden. The area of Finland wasa part of Sweden for about 600 years until 1809, when the eastern part was secededto Russia and developed into present-day Finland, which gained independence in1917. Social contacts have also been enhanced by the fact that there has always beena Swedish-speaking population in Finland and a Finnish-speaking population inSweden, although the two languages are fundamentally different. Thus, migration,transnational social spaces and border-crossing activities have always existed in thisregion. Still, these did get a new significance and intensity during the mass labormigration from Finland to Sweden in the second half of the twentieth century.The labor migration from Finland to Sweden constitutes one of the large labor

migration flows in post-war Europe. The migration was facilitated by the Nordicagreement in 1954 about the freedom of movement and a common labor market, aswell as subsequent agreements that provide all Nordic citizens with the same socialrights as citizens in the country of settlement. These Nordic agreements are in aninternational comparison extensive and apply to all citizens of the Nordic countries(i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), but the freedom of movementwas initially mostly utilized by Finnish citizens. Swedish population statistics record530.000 official migrants from Finland to Sweden in the period 1945–1999, most ofthem during the 1960s and 1970s.3 The migration was followed by a return migra-tion of more than half of the Finnish migrants, 300.000 people officially moved inthe other direction during the same period of time (Korkiasaari and Tarkiainen 2000,

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156). The economic situation and employment opportunities in each respectivecountry clearly influences the annual Finnish migration flows (Korkiasaari 1985).The most numerous population movements occurred in the years 1969 and 1970,respectively; both of these years display an annual migration of about 40.000 Finnishcitizens from Finland to Sweden. The total annual migration between the countries isdescribed in Figure 2. The official sources clearly indicate that, until recently, it ispredominantly Finnish citizens that move in both directions.The initial Finnish post-war migration to Sweden constitutes a typical labor migra-

tion that shows many similarities with other labor migration flows in Western Europeof the same period. Swedish companies actively recruited Finnish workers, and theabundant job opportunities in Swedish factories attracted mostly young andlow-skilled workers from Finland, often coming from a rural background. However,this typical pattern of labor migration reached its turning point in the early 1970s. Inlater periods, the social characteristics of the Finnish migrants became increasinglydiverse and the migration patterns became more complex and diversified (Reinans1996). The wage gap between the two countries diminished and the economic incen-tive for migration became less pronounced in the 1970s and the 1980s (Korkiasaari1985). Return migration and repeated migration between the countries becameincreasingly common. Already in the 1980s, the officials figures showed that 40% ofthe Finnish citizens who moved to Sweden had previously lived permanently in thecountry during an earlier period of time (Reinans 1996).It can be argued that the dominant migration pattern in the 1970s already had devel-

oped beyond a simple migration and return migration cycle and displays obvioustransnational characteristics (although the existing literature seldom has explicitlyreferred to the debate about transnationalism). Even by the 1960s, extensive chainmigration had connected particular local destinations in Sweden with particular placesof departure in Finland. These local chain migration patterns, involving migration,return migration and repeated migration are described in many case studies (e.g. Pohj-ola 1991; Nyman-Kurkiala 1999; Snellman 2003; Lukkarinen Kvist 2006). Themobility patterns became characteristic of the second stage of international migration,

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Figure 2. The total annual migration between Finland and Sweden, 1945–2010.Source: Statistics Finland 2011a.

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as described by Faist (2000, 144), since they constituted transnational circuits involv-ing large-scale chain-migration and migrant networks extending beyond kinshipgroups. The circular migration involving Finnish migrants moving back and forthbetween localities sustained transnational social spaces over time. Furthermore, theFinnish labor migrants were active in various transnational activities: they establishedhome town associations (e.g. Lukkarinen Kvist 2006), they were active in home coun-try politics (e.g. Korkiasaari and Tarkiainen 2000), and they often used their incometo buy assets in the home country (Korkiasaari 1985). All these are features that aredescribed as examples of transnationalism in classical studies in the field (e.g. GlickSchiller et al. 1992; Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc 1994).As Faist (2000, 144) points out, wage equalization between countries of

emigration and immigration contribute to a turning point in the labor migrationpatterns. The numbers of Finnish migrants rapidly decreased after the peak in theyear 1970, and migration has since the 1980s mainly constituted of return or circularmigration, a few professional migrants as well as family related migration. Numeri-cally, there has been a balance in the migration between the two countries since the1980s, since almost the same numbers of people move in each direction. As Faistpoints out: ‘As the migration process is proceeding, it becomes increasingly difficultto classify countries as either senders or receivers. At a late stage, most are bothbecause of generally high rates of return migration and, sometimes, transmigrantswho travel back and forth’ (Faist 2000, 13).4

In the period of 1991–2010, the official migration between the countries hascomprised of a steady annual migration of about 3500 people from Sweden toFinland (see Figure 2), and about 3200 people from Finland to Sweden. Most of themigrants are Finnish citizens, although there is a tendency that the proportion ofFinnish citizens is slowly but steadily decreasing. In the beginning of the period,there were annually about 3000 Finnish citizens moving in each direction, whichslowly but steadily has decreased to just about 2000 Finnish citizens in eachdirection in the year 2010. Yet, the total number of migrants is remarkably constant,since the decreasing number of Finnish citizens has been replaced by mainlySwedish citizens. In recent years, there is also a small but growing number of peoplewith dual citizenship (Statistics Sweden 2011; Statistics Finland 2011b). In terms ofnet migration, the Swedish citizens show a small but clear surplus in the migrationfrom Sweden to Finland, that is the number of Swedish citizens living in Finland isgrowing because of immigration. The number of Swedish citizens moving to Finlandmight be regarded as a relatively small number, but this development constitutes asignificant break with previous migration patterns. The uniqueness of this newmigration pattern is emphasized by the fact that citizens from other countries thanSweden and Finland very rarely officially move between the two countries, and infact show a tendency to mainly move in the other direction, that is from Finland toSweden (annually about 100 migrants, while even fewer move from Sweden toFinland). Thus, there are slow, but steady changes clearly discernible in themigration patterns since the early 1990s.To understand the dynamics of migration and transnationalism, there is reason to

look more in detail at the return migration. The migration from Sweden to Finlandwas for a long time dominated by the return migration of Finnish citizens (seeFigure 3). The return usually happened after a few years in Sweden, thus the largestnumbers of return migrants are found in the 1970s and the 1980s (Korkiasaari 1985;Reinans 1996). There is also a gender difference since men show both shorter

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periods of stay in Sweden and a higher return rate than women (Reinans 1996, 83–85). The return to Finland was connected to that the migrants, who often were veryyoung when they first left for Sweden, became older and established their ownfamilies. The migrants felt a need to settle down, buy a house and get their childreninto a Finnish school. Concerns about the future of the children were often men-tioned as the most important reason for a return to Finland (Korkiasaari 1985). Thereturn migration of Finnish citizens has diminished since the 1980s, undoubtedlysince the main generation of the Finnish migrants has become relatively old. In2009, the Swedish population register showed that the average age of the peopleborn in Finland was above 60 and relatively few were less than 40 years of age(Statistics Sweden 2011).An issue of large consequence for the transnational social space is the fact that a

large proportion of the Finnish immigrants in Sweden established families withSwedish spouses. Swedish family statistics studied by Reinans (1996) indicate that‘mixed families’ rapidly became very common in Sweden. In 1990, among womenborn in Finland, 51.2% lived with a man born in Sweden and 43% lived with a manborn in Finland (5.8% lived with a man born in another country). Among men bornin Finland, the proportion living with a Swedish partner was slightly lower, 37.5%lived with a woman born in Sweden and 59.8% lived with a woman born in Finland(Reinans 1996, 91). This is high proportion of mixed families, even if we take intoaccount that some of the people born in Sweden might have Finnish ancestry. Amore recent study of intermarriages among immigrants in Sweden (Dribe and Lundh2011) supports the finding about the high proportion of mixed couples among immi-grants from Nordic countries. The fact that ‘mixed families’ is the dominant familypattern is also reflected in the second generation. Already in 1993, among allchildren in Sweden who had at least one parent born in Finland, about two-thirdsalso had a parent born in Sweden, while only about one-third had both parents bornin Finland (Reinans 1996, 95). Thus, it is hardly surprising that recent studies havefound that many second-generation Finns might have a rather mixed and hybrid

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Figure 3. The annual ‘return migration’ of Finnish and Swedish citizens from Sweden toFinland 1970–2010.

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Source: Statistics Sweden 2011.

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identity. For example, among the second and third generation born in Sweden, theidentification as a ‘Sweden-Finn’ is not necessarily very strong, and to move toFinland is not in the same way regarded as a ‘return’ as among the first generation(Ågren 2006; Weckström 2008; Björklund 2010). In this respect, there are clearsimilarities with results from other studies of second-generation engagement with thepresumed ‘homeland’ (e.g. King, Christou, and Ahrens 2011).

An Emerging New Migration Pattern

The mass migration of the postwar period has developed into more diverse migrationpatterns, and this development can provide some clues about how transnationalsocial spaces of migrants influence migration dynamics over time. The existence of areturn migration to Finland is hardly surprising; however, the interesting phenome-non is the steadily increasing number of migrating Swedish citizens. The question iswhether a completely new migration pattern has emerged, constituting of Swedeswho move to Finland? A closer study of both Swedish and Finnish data indicatesthat this indeed seems to be the case; most of these Swedish migrants can by nomeans be regarded as Finnish returnees. A clear majority of the Swedish migrants inthe 2000s do not hold dual Finnish citizenship.5 Furthermore, most of the migrantsare relatively young, and thus, they cannot be former Finnish citizens who have losttheir citizenship in Sweden6. This supposedly new migration pattern was the motiva-tion for the interview study among 25 Swedish citizens in Helsinki, carried out in2011–2012. The interviewees were explicitly chosen to represent people who did nothave Finnish ancestry and did not identify themselves as Finns, thus representing thenew emerging migration pattern.The interview study gave interesting and new information about the motivations

to move to Finland. The role of social ties was evident, but more complicated thanexpected. The interviewees did not have close Finnish relatives and only distant con-tacts with Finland in their own family history. Instead, the significant explanation ofthe migration was the fact that the Swedish citizens had moved to Finland togetherwith, or because of, a Finnish spouse. The following quotation is from an interviewwith a man who had lived in Finland for a year and a half, the explanation he givesis representative of many Swedish migrants in Finland:

We spent a lot of time thinking about whether to move to Sweden or to movehere. We came to the conclusion that we will try Finland first, and after thatwe will see, depending on how it feels. It was still easier for me to find a job,than it was for my wife to study in Sweden. So, I guess that was the reasonwhy we chose to settle down here. [Interview no 22]

The quotation above reflects the common pattern that a Swedish man and a Finnishwoman meet each other in Sweden, and later on decide to move to Finland. In fact,in this study, all the interviewees who have, or have had, a Finnish partners orspouses indicated that the main reason for moving to Finland was their Finnishpartner. Furthermore, most of the interviewees have met their partners while theywere both living abroad (i.e. not in Finland). The interview study provides mainlyanecdotal evidence for the importance of this migration pattern. However, it has tobe pointed out that the interviewees in this study were chosen to represent a newmigration pattern. Yet, even among this group of interviewees, the results do not

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support the existence of a brand new migration pattern among Swedish citizens.Instead, their migration pattern seems to be closely connected to, and initiated by,the general return migration patterns of Finnish citizens. For example, a Swedishman who had lived in Helsinki for fifteen years told the following story:

We both studied in [a Swedish town], that is how we met. We lived there forquite a while; I started to work there as well, for 5 to 6 years. Well, I guessthe real reason [for moving] was that my partner started to look for a job andthings like that; she found it to be quite difficult. Although she speaksSwedish very well, she felt that there were demands in her job not to speakwith an accent. […] She was afraid that she would not find a proper job inSweden. At the same time I thought it might be exciting to move to Finland,at least to try it for a while. One thing led to another and in the end wemoved. […] We moved directly to Helsinki. Or actually, my partner movedhere already in 1995, and I moved here in 1996. We have lived here sincethat. [Interview no 11]

Much suggest that the migration pattern involving a Finnish spouse is very commonamong Swedish citizens. However, the migration pattern is difficult to identify assuch in the official statistics. Since co-habitation is very common in both countries,data about official marriages is not of much help and one needs to look at data aboutfamilies. However, even if one would compare individual migration data and familydata in both countries, the interviews that I have made with Swedish citizens indicatethat it is very common that the Finnish partner moves somewhat earlier than theSwedish partner. The Finnish citizen often moves in advance to organize things, andthe Swedish citizen usually follows later on, and often only gradually settles inFinland. Some of the couples have also moved back and forth several times beforethey settle down, which is indicative of the extensive transnational social space thatfacilitates migration. The following quotation is from a man in Helsinki who hadproblems answering when exactly he moved to Finland:

Well, it was about the year 2000, or 2000–2001, for one and a half yearapproximately. After that I moved back to Sweden. After a while my wifejoined me. She lived there for a year, after that she moved back to Finland,and after that we continued this back and forth dance for a great number ofyears. After that she quit her studies, she moved there, to Sweden, we livedthere for a while, and after that she got this [job in Finland] and I moved alongwith her. [Interview no 23]

The official population register in Finland shows that the number of families of‘mixed citizenship’ is very large among the Swedish citizens living in Finland. Sta-tistics Finland (2010) has published exact data about the total number of families,cohabiting couples and marriages involving both Swedish and Finnish citizens inFinland in 2009. The interesting feature is that there are very few families with twoadult Swedish citizens; there are only 349 families that include a Swedish womanand a Swedish man. In contrast, there are 1282 families with a Swedish woman anda Finnish man, and no less than 2260 families with a Finnish woman and a Swedishman (in addition, there are of course also single parents and some same-sex couples).This official data indicate that ‘mixed’ families consisting of Swedish and Finnish

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adult citizens are about ten times more common than ‘completely’ Swedish familieswith two adult Swedish citizens. This large number of mixed families supports theconclusion that most Swedish citizens have arrived in Finland, or stayed in thecountry, because of a Finnish partner or spouse.In December 2010, the number of Swedish citizens living permanently in Finland

was 8510 according to the Finnish population register. This figure does not includeFinnish citizens with dual or multiple citizenship, which were estimated to comprisean additional 5275 Swedish citizens (Statistics Finland 2010). Sweden has intro-duced legislation accepting multiple citizenship in 2001 and Finland in 2003. Inaccordance with this new legislation, children mostly acquire dual citizenship at birthif one of the parents is Swedish and the other is Finnish. Thus, because of the largenumber of mixed families, the number of children with dual Swedish and Finnishcitizenship is rapidly growing in Finland in the 2000s.According to the Finnish population register, there is a clear over-representation of

men among the Swedish citizens, in total 4937 are men and only 3573 are women(Statistics Finland 2011a). This gender bias is even more pronounced in Helsinki,where we find 803 men and 475 women (Statistics Finland 2011b). The imbalance isalso reflected in the family statistics that show that there are more families in Finlandinvolving Finnish women and Swedish men, than vice versa. As already described, asimilar gender imbalance is also found among the families in Sweden involvingFinnish-born people. Thus, it is plausible that the gender imbalance among themixed families in Finland largely has its origin in Sweden and has been transferredto Finland with couples moving from Sweden. In short, Swedish men have moreoften than Swedish women moved to Finland together with, or because of, a Finnishpartner or spouse. This exemplifies how the Finnish and Swedish transnational socialspace has a gender imbalance, which can be equally observed in both countries.It has to be pointed out that the transnational social space is not limited to the first

generation of Finnish migrants and their Swedish partners and spouses. The transna-tional social space also involves later generations of Finnish ancestry, who areinvolved in various border crossing social relations. These relations facilitate a sec-ond-generation (possibly even a third generation) return migration to Finland, whichalso might involve Swedish partners. Thus, the mixed return migration patternsbecome increasingly complex because of the continuous development of the transna-tional social space. The following was described in an interview with a Swedishwoman in her twenties with a second-generation Finnish boyfriend with dualcitizenship. She describes the gradual decision to follow her boyfriend to Finland:

[The move to Finland] was something that required deliberations for a longtime. […] When my boyfriend told me, that he is actually planning to move toFinland, and it is something he had decided a long time ago before we met. Ofcourse, it was a real shock. I thought, good God, Finland! What will he doover there? How will this end and what will happen now? Initially, it did noteven cross my mind that I would follow him, that was an idea that only gradu-ally came to my mind […] I told him that it is obvious that I am not moving toFinland. I have never planned to move there and I do not know anybody inFinland, the only one I would know would be [my boyfriend]. So, it tookabout half a year to accept that he will move in any case […]. After someadditional time I started to think that why not give it a try. […] I visited myboyfriend in Finland three times before the final move […]. Somehow, it

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gradually became easier to consider the alternative to move to Finland. But itwas really a long process. [Interview no 5]

The quotation above exemplifies how unlikely many Swedish citizens find a moveto Finland. Despite the existence of a Finnish partner, the decision to move toFinland is not necessarily an easy one for the Swedish partner, and the move oftenhappens gradually. Despite the geographical proximity, Finland is often perceived asa rather remote – or even an exotic place – for the Swedish partner. A move toFinland seems to require some type of close connection to Finland, either of yourown or through your spouse or partner. Because of a Finnish partner, also peoplewith no migration background whatsoever find themselves to become migrants. TheSwedish woman in her twenties continued her story with the following words:

After I finally made up my mind, it was perhaps even worse to tell my family,that, actually, now I will leave. […] What would my parents say, what wouldmy [family] say? We are like … I am very close to my family, and nobody hasever moved away like this before, we have always had each other relativelyclose by. So, it was really something. [Interview no 5]

The Swedish citizens that today move to Finland often do not have any other relationto the country except a partner or spouse of Finnish ancestry. Without this specificconnection to Finland, they would not have moved to the country. This connection isachieved in the extensive transnational social space that has been created by the pastmigration between the countries. The existence of this transnational social space con-tinues to facilitate the contemporary migration patterns between the two countries. ASwedish man married to a Finn described his experiences arriving in Finland:

It is much easier if you have something, some connection, or somebody thatyou know from before. I think I would not have moved here on my own, I donot think I would have done that, since I do not have any connection to Finland.Or, as I think I already said, I would perhaps rather have tried Norway, where Istill can understand [the language] and make myself understood. So, it makes itmuch easier when you have somebody to lean on. [Interview no 22]

As described in the quotations above, new people who have not been part of theoriginal migration from Finland to Sweden become involved in the return migrationto Finland. With the passing of time, the ‘mixed return migration’ seems to becomean increasingly significant part of the migration dynamics and will undoubtedly alsochange the nature of the transnational social space.

The Development of the Transnational Social Space over Time

Since Sweden and Finland are neighboring countries, it is perhaps not that surprisingto find people involved in extensive transnational relations. However, the massmigration from Finland to Sweden in the postwar period created a transnationalsocial space that goes beyond the normal border crossing activities betweenneighboring countries. This space fulfils the classical definitions of transnationalism.For example, the Finnish migrants and later generations in Sweden display ‘multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement’

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(Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc 1994, 7). Furthermore, they ‘build socialfields that cross geographic, cultural and political borders’ (Basch, Glick Schiller,and Szanton Blanc 1994, 7). In terms of Faist’s (2000) distinction of three differenttypes of transnational social spaces, Finnish migrants have clearly sustained transna-tional kinship groups, as most migrants do. During the migration in the 1960s and1970s, the second form of transnational social space can be identified. Largertransnational circuits evolved, where chain migration, return migration and repeatedmigrations between specific localities in both Finland and Sweden became a feature.It is more doubtful, however, whether the migration has created a coherent transna-tional community that is connected over time and place by dense and strong socialand symbolic ties, which would be characteristic of the third form of transnationalsocial space. In the case of the Finnish labor migrants in Sweden, the outcomelargely seems to be a ‘melting into the core’ (cf. Faist 2000, 259) of Swedish society.The turning point in the migration pattern in the early 1970s made it difficult tosustain transnational circuits among later generations. The Finnish labor migrants inSweden predominantly belong to a specific age cohort. Furthermore, the group hasover time become well integrated in Swedish society. The mixed families are onlyone aspect of this development. Today, Finns are in Swedish public discourse noteven defined as ‘immigrants’ (invandrare), a concept that today is mainly used forimmigrants from outside of the Nordic countries (Myrberg 2010). Later generationsof Finnish ancestry often have a complex and hybrid identity and the knowledge ofthe Finnish language might be limited (cf. Weckström 2008). In short, there has beena process of integration, or even assimilation, taking place in Sweden, and thetransnational social space created by the postwar labor migration seems to slowly‘melt into the core’ of mainstream Swedish society.However, although there are social processes that suggest a melting into the core

as an outcome of the major postwar Finnish migration to Sweden, there are alsomany other contemporary social and economic processes that support a continuousborder-crossing expansion of social spaces. Among the Finnish migrants and theirdescendants in Sweden, we find strong and varying transnational relations betweenSweden and Finland. Migration also continues, although in other forms than previ-ously. We find a small, but significant number of people who live and work in bothcountries. For example, many professional people in economy, science and culturehave professional careers that today span both countries. The mobility between thetwo countries is today considered unproblematic and constitutes a natural part ofmany people’s everyday life, to the extent that the de facto migration of bothSwedish and Finnish citizens might become invisible and largely unnoticed.There are also contemporary economic developments that both support and utilize

the transnational spaces bridging Sweden and Finland. For example, trade betweenthe countries is extensive. In the case of Finland, Sweden was the largest country ofexport and the third largest (closely behind Russia and Germany) in import in 2010.Furthermore, since the 1990s, many large Finnish and Swedish companies havemerged with each other. These large companies both create and utilize transnationalprofessionals. The highly skilled professionals in these companies take part in theconstruction of comprehensive transnational social fields (Helander 2004, 2010).These new transnational relations do in themselves also produce and facilitate newmigration between the countries, although mostly for highly skilled people, and to amuch smaller extent and of a more temporary nature than during the postwar labormigration period. In any case, we can expect the migration between the countries to

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continue in the future, but the migration patterns will become increasingly diverse.Furthermore, as long as the size of wages and cost of living remain relatively even,the total net migration between the countries will remain more or less in balance.Yet, as Faist (2000) points out, the macro-level developments – for exampleeconomic issues – do not in themselves explain who will move and who will stay.The macro-level perspective needs to be combined with an understanding of theimportance of the micro-level social ties of individuals. Thus, the theoreticalframework outlining the importance of involvement in transnational social spacesprovides a key to understand the migration patterns.

Conclusion

The article has outlined the way that the academic debate about ‘transnational socialspaces’ (Faist 2000) offers a theoretical framework for an understanding of the long-term development of the migration dynamics between Finland and Sweden. Themass labor migration from Finland to Sweden came to a turning point in the 1970s.The Finnish labor migration created a transnational social space which evolves overtime, but still today has repercussions for the migration patterns between the coun-tries. In the 2000s, the migration patterns between Finland and Sweden are in manyways far more temporary than before, the social characteristics of the migrants arediverse and the migration flows increasingly include both Finnish and Swedishcitizens, who move back and forth in both directions. As outlined in this article, aFinnish partner or spouse seems to be the key explanation why an increasing numberof Swedish citizens move to Finland and why they remain settled in the countrytoday. Thus, through ‘mixed families’ new people become part of the transnationalsocial space that facilitates migration between the two countries. This contributes tothe emergence of a new migration pattern, which in this article has been labeled‘mixed return migration’. This migration involves members of mixed families thatbecome part of the general return migration patterns stimulated by the existence of atransnational social space. The mixed return migration also seems to be relativelygender specific. Since the rate of intermarriages between immigrants and the hostpopulation often involves a gender bias, a similar bias is reflected in the returnmigration patterns.The case of the Finnish and Swedish transnational social space suggests that a

mixed return migration seems to come into effect when there is both a large degreeof integration of the immigrant community into the destination country and awell-established transnational social space involving both the country of origin anddestination. A large degree of integration is connected to mixed families and varioussocial relations between the immigrant community and the majority population inthe destination country. In addition, a well-established transnational social spacestimulates return and circular migration to the country of origin. This easily createsnew migration patterns, whereby new people get involved in the migration dynamicsbetween the countries in question. These new migration patterns seem to be part ofmigration dynamics for many generations after the original migration, and thereforethey add a new dimension to theories about transnational social spaces and migrationdynamics.

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Notes

1. There is an old Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. In Helsinki, 6% of the population (35.000people) indicate Swedish as their native language (Statistics Finland 2011a). Yet, there is animmediately recognisable difference in the accent between the Swedish spoken in Finland and inSweden. The statistics of mixed families (including Finnish and Swedish citizens) show that therespective numbers of Swedish citizens who have a Finnish-speaking and a Swedish-speakingFinnish partner is about equal (Statistics Finland 2011b). The sample of interviewees in this studyreflects this equal division of family types. The social integration (and non-integration) of theSwedish citizens into the well-established community of Swedish-speaking Finns is the topic ofseparate publications of this research project.

2. The author would like to acknowledge the valuable work made by research assistant SabinaFortelius with the interviews, transcription and coding.

3. Since short-term migrants (people who stay less than a year) are not officially recorded, the actualnumber of Finnish immigrants might be up to 800.000 in the period 1945–1992, as estimated byReinans (1996).

4. It is only among the Swedish-speaking areas in western Finland and on the Åland Islands – wherethere always have been close contacts with Sweden – that small-scale labor migration to Swedencontinues to exist (Hedberg 2004, 2009; Hedberg and Kepsu 2008). In these particular geographi-cal areas there has for many generations existed a ‘culture of migration’ (cf. Faist 2000, 159),which creates a more sustained migration pattern than in other areas of Finland.

5. Dual Finnish and Swedish citizenship is not recorded as such in the population registers in Finlandand Sweden. However, these two registers count people with dual citizenship differently and thedifference between the figures indicate that people with double Finnish and Swedish citizenship(i.e. people who presumably can be regarded as Finnish returnees) constitute 14% of the Swedishcitizens that moved from Sweden to Finland in the period 2001–2010 (Statistics Sweden 2011;Statistics Finland 2011b).

6. A child acquires Finnish citizenship by birth if the mother, or (with some limitations) the father isa Finnish citizen. Citizens who have never lived permanently in Finland might lose theircitizenship when they reach the age of 22. In the case of Finnish citizens who have lived at leastseven years in the Nordic countries before the age of 22, a loss of citizenship can only be grantedby Finnish authorities after the person in question has made a well-motivated application (FinnishNationality Act (359/2003) 34§ and 35§).

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