Social Exclusion Risks and their Accumulation among Russian-Speaking, Ethnically Finnish and Estonian Immigrants to Finland (original) (raw)
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The articles in this Acta Sociologica e-special issue exemplify the variety of issues that are of interest to sociologists of migration and ethnicity. Together they form a continuum that goes from the integration of immigrants to that of their children, then moving to the majority and considering both adults and young adults. The topics of the articles consider social ties, social integration, educational attainment, identity, belonging, citizenship, and attitudes related to immigration and ethnic distance. These topics can also be seen to touch upon many of the different types/phases of assimilation that Milton Gordon (1964: 71) identified, which are (1) cultural or behavioural, (2) structural, meaning entry into the majority's social networks, (3) marital, (4) identificational, (5) attitude receptional, (6) behaviour receptional, and (7) civic. In the same vein as Gordon's framework, the bringing together of research that analyses the majority's attitudes towards immigrants and ethnic minorities and that analysing the ways in which immigrants and their descendants are integrating also highlights the way that these two processes are interrelated. Broadly speaking, all of these articles therefore speak to the theme of inclusion and exclusion and highlight some of the factors behind these closely connected processes.