Social Sciences and Economy

This article deals with temporary migrant workers experiences of social security in Finland, and the question how temporality influences the motivations of migrant workers to find out about their rights in the welfare system. What kinds of experiences do temporary migrants have? Have they met specific problems related to tempo-rariness? The article shows how motivations to find out about the welfare system are linked to the length of stay of the migrant, sector of work, gender of the temporary worker, country of origin of the worker. Finally motivations are in a high degree influenced by objective possibilities of accessing the welfare benefits of the country, for instance related to problems in receiving work permits, residence permits, and the national insurance institution (KELA) insurance cards. The article shows how many temporary workers, especially within seasonal agricultural work, are in Finland solely in order to work, and are not directed towards other aspects of life while in Finland. Temporary migrants learn about the Finnish Social Security System through their own experience, which makes their knowledge dependent on initiation processes at work places. In many cases a private insurance is required from the temporary worker in order to get the visa and many immigrants are not motivated to contribute to a system, which they don't benefit of. Migrants incorporate possibilities provided by the social system. They thus adjust their subjective expectations to the objective conditions. Sometimes this adjustment is done in frustration as benefits are out of reach despite having to contribute to the system financially by paying taxes.

Northernmost Europe is characterised by diversity. Relations between indigenous (minority) and immigrant (majority) populations concern territorial claims, resource utilisation and human rights. Indigenous Sámi feel encapsulated in centralised states. Norwegians, Swedes, Finns and Russians, historic immigrants, represent these states. The collapse of the Soviet Union effected cross-border relations. New structures have emerged stressing community viability. Developments have progressed in economic performance, human security, quality of life, education and health focusing of local activities such as reindeer herding. These conditions have an impact on transnational relations and community viability.

Denna artikel utgör en etnicitetsteoretiskt grundad analys av relationen mellan finskhet och svenskhet. Jag behandlar manliga sverigefinska 2 direktörers och andra högutbildade invandrares erfarenheter av att vara "finne" i Sverige. Ämnet analyseras genom en diskussion av den etniska gränsdragningens växelverkan med gruppintressen och genom en diskussion av den individuella samhällspositionens växelverkan med etnicitet. Artikeln diskuterar hur en hög samhällsställningen kan påverka möjligheten att frigöra sig från en ofördelaktig symbolisk status anknuten till etnisk bakgrund.

Social media platforms have become significant media for participating in society. This, and society’s digitalization overall, has resulted in concerns regarding access and inclusion. By combining theories of social media participation and digital inequality, we explore issues regarding the prerequisites of participating through social media platforms, focusing especially on education. Through an analysis of data from a representative survey study in Finland (N = 3724), we illuminate the ambiguity of the perceived obstacles to both digital skills and political participation. We further build on the concept of digital capital to show the significant mediating effect of digital skills on education and participation. By utilizing the ISS (Internet Skills Scale), we break down digital skills into operational, information navigation, social, creative and mobile skills, and show how the operational skills have most significant mediator between education and political participation in soci...

Public participation innovations, such as the mobile participation trial analyzed in this paper, are increasingly adopted in hopes of deepening and broadening participation. The impact of the source of the engagement on the type of participation occurring in these types of arenas remain largely unexplored. To address this question, a typology derived from the literature on public participation is used to explore the engagement in the trial. The results show how explicit opinions, local knowledge, and creative input are expressed in the material depending on whether the discussions are initiated from the top-down or bottom-up.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms could serve as a mediator between the experience of physical punishment in childhood and victimization from peer aggression at school, as has been shown by Söderberg et al. (2016). An aggregated sample consisting of 1,001 Iranian adolescents and 2,205 Finnish adolescents, all 13-15 years of age, participated in the study. Data were analyzed with conditional process modeling (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). The hypothesis was only partially corroborated. Depression served only as a weak mediator, and not at all among Iranian boys. The results are discussed.

The study investigates the mental well-being of 35 women prisoners (mean age = 28.7, SD = 7.6) who all had received the capital punishment, in the Gorgan jail, northeastern Iran. Most of them had received their sentence for killing their husband. A control sample of 35 women of the same age from Gorgan was included. The respondents filled in a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The imprisoned women scored higher than the controls on aggression, anxiety, and hostility; the controls scored higher than the imprisoned women on social support and emotional self-efficacy. The imprisoned women had, to a greater extent than the controls, a family history with addiction problems and suicidality.

Avhandlingen undersoker den mentala halsan hos dels a) ungdomar i Iran, dels b) dodsdomda kvinnliga fangar i Iran. Den mentala halsan bland ungdomarna jamfordes ytterligare med motsvarande data fran ungdomar i samma alder (13-15 ar) i Osterbotten, insamlade i samband .med den s.k. Ungdomsenkaten i Osterbotten. De iranska ungdomarna var till antalet 1001, de finska var 2205. Det visade sig att det forekom stora skillnader betraffande den mentala halsan i de bada landerna, framforallt betraffande konsskillnader. Det ar allmant kant att i vasterlanderna mar tonarsflickor betydligt samre an tonarspojkar. De far signifikant hogre poang pa t.ex. depression och angest; sa ar fallet ocksa Finland och i Osterbotten. I Iran visade det sig att sa inte var fallet. I Iran forekom ingen konsskillnad betraffande poang for depression och angest. Detta visar att den konsskillnad som anses ”normal” i vastvarlden i sjalva verket ar kulturbunden, och inte ett uttryck for en allmanmansklig utveckling. I...