Feeling Finnish and Canadian: Second-generation Finnish immigrant views on ethnic identity and intercultural communication

Abstract

This thesis research contributes to the literature on Finnish Canadians, and in particular the second-generation, which has attracted limited scholarly attention. It examines how these individuals make sense of their Finnish ethnic and Canadian cultural identities, and the intercultural communication issues that emerge out of their sense of belonging to two cultures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 second-generation Finnish immigrants in the Ottawa area following Rubin and Rubin's (2005) responsive interviewing approach. It was found that these individuals identify strongly with being Canadian but largely experience symbolic ethnic identity, acknowledging their ethnicity as important but not living day-to-day within Finnish ethnic culture. While some did not report difficulties as a result of their two cultures, others experienced intercultural communication issues with Canadians and/or Finns. These findings suggest that, in some cases, even symbolic ethnic identity may result in intercultural communication issues with both ethnic and broader cultural group members.