The impact of immigration on

Finnish parents’ school

choices in Turku

Sirkka Komulainen, PhD

Senior Researcher

Institute of Migration 17.4.2012

Research topic

Finnish families’ school choices in Turku; funded by the Ministry for Education and culture

Is there white flight from multicultural neighbourhoods and schools?

Urban segregation

Educational equality

A qualitative interview study with Finnish families in Turku involving 3 primary schools

Turku population statistics 2011

Turku population by nationality in September 2011: 178448

Finnish: 169095

Other: 9353

Turku population by language in June 2011

Finnish: 154612

Other than Finnish, Swedish, Sami: 14069 (7,9%)

Largest groups: Russian, arabic, kurdish, albanian, estonian, somali, english

0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 6 000 7 000 8 000 9 000 10 000

ruotsi

venäjä

arabia

kurdi

albania

eesti, viro

somali

englanti

Sarja1

Non-Finnish speakers by

neighbourhood in Turku,

September 2010

36,3

28,5

27,0

16,3

16,2

15,2

15,0

11,7

11,5

11,2

11,0

11,0

10,8

9,1

8,3

7,8

7,5

6,1

5,8

5,2

5,1

4,9

4,8

4,0

3,2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Varissuo

Lauste

Halinen

Pansio It.

Pansio Länt.

Vaala

Kohmo

Yliopisto I

Yo-kylä

Asuin-Perno

Härkämäki-Jyrkkälä

Harittu

Asuin-Runosmäki

Asuin-Räntämäki

Paaskunta

Länsi-Maaria-Jäkärlä

Koko kaupunki

Koivula

Länsinummi

Kauppatori VI

Itäranta

Ilpoinen

Pääskyvuori

Kurala

Sirkkala I

Turku schools: the nearest school

is designated to every child SCHOOLS TO CHOOSE FROM:

43 State schools (city council funding)

38 Finnish-language schools

4 Swedish-languge schools

1 English-language school (Turku International School)

Norssi comprehensive school – Teacher training school (University of Turku)

1 Steiner-school

Northern, eastern and southern school districts that are divided into catchment areas. Class sizes are moderated between schools.

Multicultural education in Finland

A school is considered as multicultural when it is culturally diverse, i.e. pupils and teachers have a diverse cultural or ethnic backgrounds

Ministry for Education and Culture: Aims to foster good ethnic relations, equality and integration of immigrants

Educating global awareness and intercultural dialogue objectives also in Turku

Neoliberalism vs Nordic welfare

state? Families have the right to choose schools White flight- white middle class families flee

multiethnic neighbourhoods and schools (Seppänen, 2006)

Education system exacerbates social class divisions (Bourdieu, 1985)

Alternatives to Bourdie-type theories: There are market-oriented, market-sceptic and market-ambivalent position (Bunar, 2009); counterintuitive school choice (James et al, 2010)

Any alternatives to ’white flight’?

Anglo-American ’white flight’ research traditions from the 1920s: how do they apply in today’s Nordic countries?

Neighbourhood effect: social norms and the socioeconomic structure of the population

What about generation and family? Ageing population, life course events, diminishing family sizes, retirement etc. affect neighbourhoods (Rasinkangas, 2006).

Alternative perspectives: Social constructionist theories on housing (Clapham, 2011)

Interviews with parents

Parents were asked about:

Reasons for school choices and satisfaction

What ’multiculturalism’ and ’immigrant’ mean

Housing opportunities and choices

Life course events – recollections

The ’ordinariness’ of the everyday

Methods:

A listening approach

Thematic, discourse and life course data analysis

Combining urban, cultural and educational studies as well as postmodern perspectives in social sciences

Participating schools and families

3 primary schools with a varying numbers of non-Finnish speaking immigrants

28 + 3 interviews, native Finns

4 expert interviews for background information on practical arrangements in schools

All chose the nearest schools

Reasons for school choices: Safe walk to school, friends, no school run,

nearest school was good enough, children still young so no rush to choose, older siblings in the same school

Families did not move houses because of particular schools

Schools’ pull factors, child’s needs and talents The number of immigrants mattered in a couple

of cases Active choice making re e.g. language classes

Persistent beliefs among parents

Terms used: bourgeoisie idyll vs Little Moscow, ’elite schools’ vs schools for the common people

Belief in the so-called ’tipping point’ phenomenon (whites leave as soon as the percentage of immigrants rises above 30% in a neighbourhood)

Belief that immigrant children behave badly in classrooms due to lack of Finnish language

Media accounts affect parental speech and sometimes behaviour (media creates panic scenarios)

Neighbourhoods

In Finland schools are not necessarily deprived even if neighbourhoods are

Rational choice alone does not explain housing decisions

Families’ life and housing histories as well as housing provision mattered

Images and rumours become self-fulfilling prophecies

For many, eastern Turku is characterised by immigration and social deprivation

Persistent worries

SK: Is the Finnish child’s Finnish language and learning adversely affected by the presence of other languages in a multiethnic classroom? No

Do teachers flee schools simply because of immigrants? No

Bourdieu – an old hat?

Although reproductionist theory is a popular and influential one, it is not the only way for looking at the phenomenon

Expert opinion: mother’s educational background does not outright determine the child’s academic success at school

Children today need also social skills, not merely cognitive

Hate speech?

How parents spoke:

I’m not a racist, but…

’White resentment’; bad experiences

Being polite but reserved, having no need or opportunity to meet immigrants, or avoiding immigrants

Hypothetical talk due to little opportunities for intercultural contacts overall

Conclusions

Immigration has little impact on school choices at primary school level – but there are issues beneath the surface

Parallel lives

Simple cause and effect relations do not explain housing behaviour

Appraising families’ decision making in their personal and social context: not only a matter of economics

Things change when children grow

No counterintuitive school choices

Experts: All schools in Turku are good, but immigrant and rental housing provision needs improvement

Messages to decision makers

Parents and the general public need more information on how immigrant education is organised in schools and classes on day-to-day basis

What are the most acute problems in schools? E.g. bullying or deprivation are much wider issues than recent immigration to Finland

Some neighbourhoods in Turku are more deprived than others and need more resources

Labour migration is needed in Finland, but we only ever hear discourses on migrants as ’threats’

Intercultural dialogue does not simply ’happen’ – how could it be helped at a neighbourhood level?

Viittaukset:

Bourdieu, P. (1985) Sosiologian kysymyksiä (käännös J.P. Roos) Tampere: Vastapaino.

Bunar, N. (2009) Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden Journal of Education Policy 25(1): 1-18

Clapham, D. (2011) ‘I wouldn’t start from here’: Some reflections on the analysis of housing markets Housing, Theory and Society 28(3): 288-291.

James, D. et al. (2010) Neoliberal policy and the meaning of counterintuitive middle-class school choices Current Sociology 58:623-641.

Klemelä, K., Tuittu, A., Virta, A. & Rinne, R. (toim.) (2011) Vieraina koulussa? Monikulttuurinen koulu oppilaiden, vanhempien, opettajien ja rehtoreiden kokemana Turun Yliopisto, Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunta, Julkaisusarja A:211: 9-34.

Lemmetyinen, K. (2011) Turun kaupungin väestötilastoja Rasinkangas, J. & Laitinen, M. (toim) Varissuon 30 vuotta – tavoitteista todeksi

Turku: Kirja-Aurora Seppänen, P (2006) Kouluvalintapolitiikka perusopetuksessa – Suomalaiskaupunkien

koulumarkkinat kansainvälisessä valossa Turku: Suomen Kasvatustieteellinen Seura. Turun kaupunki Kasvatus ja monikulttuurisuus URL:

http://www.turku.fi/Public/Default.aspx?nodeid=16902&culture=fi-FI&contentlan=1 luettu 2.11.2011