Introduction : Thinking Integration Otherwise

Abstract

How do we celebrate the twentieth birthday of the ETMU, the Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration (Etnisten suhteiden ja kansainvälisen muuttoliikkeen tutkimuksen seura)? When ETMU board members first started thinking about this in 2020, the answer “with a book” was almost immediate. While the idea seemed conventional at times, we agreed that a book was an appropriate format: It was something with the potential to last, something stable and material, something concrete and tangible. Maybe a book would give us pause. Maybe something stable and solid would carve out the time and space to stop, look around, and reorient ourselves and our work in an ever-changing, fastpaced (academic) life. A book about what? An ETMU member survey was designed, brains were stormed, ideas were discussed, and finally, we decided that “integration” was a topic contested and complicated enough for us to get our fingers burned. We heard from the board and ETMU members who had experienced and witnessed the effects of so-called “integration” policies and discourses, either firsthand, in their families’ or friends’ circles, or in their research or other working life, or in all of these. In other words, “integration” practices (including discourses and policies) were hurting many of us. The experiences that came to the fore in conversations were not outliers but rather evidence of systemic injustices. When we delved into the literature on integration, it quickly became clear that scholars had been expressing their sentiments using academic frameworks and language. In this introduction, we discuss the concept of “integration” at a general level and outline the meanings and functions integration discourses have assumed in both Nordic and Finnish contexts.