A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Small agency and precarious residency in Afghan refugee families (2020)
Hiitola, J., Turtiainen, K., & Vuori, J. (2020). Small agency and precarious residency in Afghan refugee families. In J. Hiitola, K. Turtiainen, S. Gruber, & M. Tiilikainen (Eds.), Family Life in Transition : Borders, Transnational Mobility, and Welfare Society in Nordic Countries (pp. 177-187). Routledge. Routledge Studies in Family Sociology. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429024832-16
JYU authors or editors
Publication details
All authors or editors: Hiitola, Johanna; Turtiainen, Kati; Vuori, Jaana
Parent publication: Family Life in Transition : Borders, Transnational Mobility, and Welfare Society in Nordic Countries
Parent publication editors: Hiitola, Johanna; Turtiainen, Kati; Gruber, Sabine; Tiilikainen, Marja
ISBN: 978-0-367-11101-4
eISBN: 978-0-429-02483-2
Journal or series: Routledge Studies in Family Sociology
Publication year: 2020
Pages range: 177-187
Number of pages in the book: 216
Publisher: Routledge
Place of Publication: Abingdon
Publication country: United Kingdom
Publication language: English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429024832-16
Publication open access: Not open
Publication channel open access:
Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/68665
Abstract
This chapter examines agency and ways of enduring suffering in Afghan families in a small Finnish town. Three stories, where the mothers and children have lived in Finland for some years already, but the fathers have arrived during the 2015 large-scale migration, are presented and analysed. Ethnographic methods are used in enquiring how family members endure suffering when they are faced with the threat of deportation of a family member. Our results show that fathers’ precarious residency has an impact on family members’ agency. First, the informants were enduring alone, and thus the social element, being able to share one’s struggles of enduring, was missing. Second, it was not only one type of suffering, but instead many kinds of sufferings, which formed the situations that the families had to endure. Third, the families did cope with their suffering by self-making through ethical agency, which provided them with culturally significant ways of being respectable. This ethical agency was shared in the community and provided some spaces for support, although not in the form of disclosing specific details of suffering.
Keywords: families; immigrants; refugees; family members; residence permits; deportation; human agency; suffering; ethnography
Contributing organizations
Ministry reporting: Yes
Reporting Year: 2020
JUFO rating: 3
Parent publication with JYU authors: