THE CONCEPT OF “FAMILY” IN SOMALIS’ IMMIGR ATION TO FINLAND Views from Immigration Officials and NGOs

In Addis Ababa one can see dozens of Somali families waiting daily in front of the Embassy of Fin­ land to be interviewed. The interview represents a means of entering Finland, since those waiting presumably have a so-called family re-unifier in Finland, a relative who has of ten already received a residence permit and sometimes even citizenship. This article examines the family reunification process of Somalis who travel from Ethiopia to Finland. Drawing on the experiences related by Finnish immigration officials, it focuses on the fact that they do not share the same definition of “family” as the Somali asylum applicants. Using extensive inter views and observations, this article aims to elucidate the complex cultural understandings involved in the Somalis’ process of immi­ gration to Finland.


Outi Fingerroos, University of Jyväskylä
In Addis Ababa one can see dozens of Somali families waiting daily in front of the Embassy of Fin land to be interviewed.The interview represents a means of entering Finland, since those waiting presumably have a so-called family re-unifier in Finland, a relative who has of ten already received a residence permit and sometimes even citizenship.This article examines the family reunification process of Somalis who travel from Ethiopia to Finland.Drawing on the experiences related by Finnish immigration officials, it focuses on the fact that they do not share the same definition of "family" as the Somali asylum applicants.Using extensive inter views and observations, this article aims to elucidate the complex cultural understandings involved in the Somalis' process of immi gration to Finland.
Keywords : migration, Somalis, Finland, family, family reunification At the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2010, I worked as a visiting professor at Addis Ababa Uni versity in Ethiopia for two months.During my stay, I visited the Embassy of Finland several times and saw dozens of Somali men, women and children in front of the Embassy waiting to be allowed inside for their turn to attend family reunification inter views.During this first visit to Ethiopia, I also interviewed the officials of the Embassy of Finland regarding the immigration of Somalis to Finland.I learned that it is a complicated process, particularly with regard to the reunification of families.In recent years, the Em bassy has processed a considerable number of cases in which Somali citizens sought to reunif y with their families already living in Finland.The Finnish Im migration Ser vice (Migri), for its part, is the agency that decides on matters related to immigration, resi dence, refugee issues and Finnish nationality.Migri, which operates under the Finnish Ministr y of the In terior, also implements Finland's migration policy. 1  After my first stay in Addis, I wrote a short review for the journal Tiedonjyvä published by the Univer sity of Jy väskylä.I briefly described my findings and feelings as follows: For Somalis, departure into the wide world is a leap into the unknown.The fact that Finland is a good, peaceful and safe country is almost the only thing, albeit a cliché, that Somalis know when they try to get into the countr y.Jaana Kaukonen [name changed], the Finnish consul, relates that she wonders whether the people that she inter views are happy in Finland.Few of them have any education, and many are illiterate.None of them knows Finnish.How can they adapt?It must be difficult, especially for older people, who cannot necessarily learn a new language any longer and thus end up on their own in high-rise flats.(Fin gerroos 2010 : 17)

Somali Immigration, Officials and NGOs
The aim of my ethnological research project is to better understand the process involved in Somalis' ongoing family reunification in Finland, particular ly from the perspective of immigration officials and NGOs.The importance of this research lies in the lack of information regarding the human and cul tural side of official immigration practices.In this paper, I concentrate on interviews conducted with Finnish officials working at the Embassy of Finland in Addis Ababa and in Migri.In addition, I have interviewed employees of the Finnish Red Cross 2 and two Finnish non-governmental organizations.These are the Finnish Refugee Advice Centre 3 and the Finnish Refugee Council. 4  In Finland, family reunification is a very current topic but only a small group of researchers has found it interesting. 5Instead, much research has been car ried out on Somali families in transnational con texts, 6 and the Somali diaspora has remained a focus of transnational migration research.In Europe, So mali immigrant minorities have thus far been stud ied mostly as religious and cultural minorities, and as targets of racism.A variety of new perspectives (on their wellbeing, employment, education, health, transnational political engagement, organizations, and gender roles) have also been adopted. 7But the official aspects of Somali immigration (asylum seek ing, citizenship and family reunification processes) still need to be further explored.
Because family reunification processes are central to Somali immigration to Europe, in this paper I focus on the conception of "family" among Finnish immigration officials and how this affects the pro cess through which Somalis receive or do not receive permission to migrate and join their families in Fin land.As an ethnologist, I agree with Jonas Fr ykman that postmodern (social) theory has led ethnological research to focus on discourses, verbal representa tions and cultural processes at the local level.The ethnological approach is therefore a valuable tool for understanding a number of issues pertinent to how social solidarit y and trust are built in a chang ing society (Frykman et al. 2008 : 7). 8I focus on the following questions : How do Finnish immigration officials and NGO workers view the family reunifi cation interview process for Somalis, and what are the Finnish officials' understandings regarding fam ily, children, and human rights that affect this pro cess ?The interviews 9 I carried out with immigration workers illustrate the complicated reality of transna tional family migration and can serve as an effective tool for building an ethnological understanding of these processes in Finland.

Somalis in Finland
Today the Somalis are the fourth largest foreign group living in Finland af ter the Estonians, Russians and Swedes.Somali immigrants therefore comprise a major category of immigrants in the countr y.Ac cording to Statistics Finland 's data on the population structure, the official total population of Finland at the end of 2014 was 5,471,753, of whom altogether 16,721 spoke Somali as their mother tongue. 10The Somali population consists primarily of Sunni Muslims, 11 while Finland is a country in which the majority of the population is nominally Christian (Alitolppa-Niitamo 2000, 2004: 23 -25;Martikainen 2004 : 118, 126 -128). 12 Historically, Finland has been described as a geo graphical borderland between Eastern and Western Europe ; for centuries it was part of Sweden, then an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Em pire some hundred years before gaining complete independence due to the Empire's fall in 1917 (see Laver y 2006).During Russian rule, Finland was open to migration from other parts of the Empire, and consequently other eastern minorities have impacted Finland 's religious composition.For ex ample, the history of a permanently settled Muslim minority (mostly Tatars) dates back to this period.This situation of openness to immigration persisted until the late 1920s.Then came a period of low im migration to Finland from the 1930s to the 1960s.The country was practically closed to new immi grants, while previous immigrants were integrated into Finnish society and granted citizenship.Before the 1980s there was also relatively little labour im migration to Finland.The number of foreign im migrant groups did not begin to increase until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 (Martikainen 2004(Martikainen : 116 -118, 2014: 88-89): 88-89).
From the early 1990s onwards, Finland began to take in new refugee groups on a larger scale.The arrivals were mostly UNHCR 13 quota refugees or independent asylum seekers from the conflict-rid den countries of Somalia, former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan (Martikainen 2014 : 89).The Somalis arriving in Finland in the early 1990s were for the most part young and relatively well-educated men who had left Somalia voluntarily or had been sent, with financial support from their families, to seek safety and better living conditions abroad.Since then, the number of Somali immigrants has steadily grown each year, and the number of Somali women, families, and persons with little education has mul tiplied.One of the Finnish Red Cross workers I in terviewed described the situation in Finland in the 1990s as follows : The Finnish Red Cross was actively involved in this reception of asylum seekers because natu rally there hadn't been any experience of receiving asylum seekers in Finland, so no one really knew [what to do].But since we had the capability any way, we had these structures that permitted rapid actions that allowed us to set up this kind of re ception activit y in a short time.(NGO2/2012) This example suggests how complicated the situa tion in Finland was in the early 1990s, when new ref ugee groups, who were mostly independent Somali asylum seekers, began arriving in the country on a larger scale.The Finnish press even started to speak of this new situation in terms of a "Somali shock " and an "immigration boom" (see Aallas 1990).In the early 1990s, immigration authorities did not know who the refugees were or why they had come specifically to Finland.It was not at all clear how they should deal with the immigration boom.It was therefore essential to involve the Finnish Red Cross and various other NGOs : Then the asylum seekers gradually began receiv ing residence permits, and they settled in munici palities.Then came the integration.And then it was realized that now the Red Cross also had to be involved in it: in what way could the Finnish Red Cross support that integration?(NGO2/2012) In the 1990s, new immigrant groups often remained exotic strangers in the eyes of many Finns.Especially the arrival of the Somalis took many Finns by sur prise, and their cultural, societal and religious back ground received much attention in the press and other media.The new situation caused a panic reac tion and the Somalis came to be regarded as consti tuting a clearly distinct categor y onto which many Finns projected all that was inherently frightening.The Finnish press wrote about Somali immigrants in a negative tone using ill-founded arguments, and the debate sparked by the media is still ongoing (Alitolppa-Niitamo & Addullahi 2001: 1-2): A ll the journalists were terribly interested, and they had to get quick permission to come and make interviews, and the information [they gave] was completely confused.This kind of thing remained in people's minds, and for example some where it was calculated in Finnish mark ka 14 that an asylum seeker cost a bit over 8,000 per month, which included housing costs, subsistence, health care and all such expenses.So, in the opinion of the people, the asylum seekers got paid a lot more than those Finns who were living on govern ment welfare, and this caused an aw ful [contro versy].[...] That misconception then lived on, and couldn't be stamped out [later].(NGO2/2012) Many Somalis now live in Finland's southern cities such as Helsinki, Turku and Tampere.For the So malis, the road to Europe has not meant an easy life.The journey has been a long one, both geographical ly and culturally.The Somalis' cultural background and daily life practices together with a non-Europe an language have created difficulties for them.Preju dice, racism and downright hostility undermine the integration of Somali families in Finland. 15Particu larly in times of recession, people seek scapegoats, and there have been many incidents in which So malis have been accused of consuming taxpayers' money and giving nothing back to Finnish society.Various racist acts have become a more direct and visible phenomenon in Finnish society.As a result of attitudes based on prejudice and ignorance, the role of various NGOs and the Finnish Red Cross in connection with Somali immigration has increased, as one of my informants explained: Recently a lot has been said out loud, people have taken stances about this family reunification situ ation of the Somalis because perhaps it's been quite a unique situation, because there have been so many of these applications ... on the political side the question of family reunification of So malis has been specifically raised as this kind of big problem; so, sure, we, when we've reacted to it, we've perhaps talked relatively more about the Somalis' questions than about the family reunifi cation of Iraqis, for example.(NGO1/2012)

The Somali Family
In Somalia, families are often large because of a traditional polyg y nous structure (a maximum of four wives according to Islamic code) and broad and flexible family ties and configurations.Living in an extended family organization is common, and ver y of ten grandparents, the parents' siblings, fos ter children and even ver y close friends are regarded as family members living in the same household.
Belonging to a Somali family functions like social insurance ; it supports a family member in times of crisis and provides help and welfare when needed (Fingerroos 2014 : 17-18 ;Lewis 2008 : 11-12).In a transnational diaspora context, this type of family connection means responsibility: global communi cation networks encourage more people from So malia to move to the West, and almost all who have resettled in Western countries send money to their relatives who have been lef t behind in far worse con ditions.Cindy Horst has even stated that their life choices to a certain extent are determined by these familial responsibilities and pressures.Therefore, the transnational links between emigrants and those who stay behind should not necessarily be viewed as entirely voluntary (Horst 2006 : 7-12, 18).
In addition to their identification with the religion of Islam and the nation of Somalia, Somalis can also identif y strongly with their own clan.Genealog y forms a web, which holds Somali families together, and underpins political life.There are six major clans in Somalia and many sub-clans, sub-sub-clans, as well as different clan coalitions and clan families.Clan identity is strongly based and defined by be longing to a patrilineal genealogical line, which is visible in the Somali naming system.For example, if the name of a Somali man is Abdul Ali Mohammad, the first name is his own, the second is his father's and the third is his grandfather's given name.The learned and some elderly people can recount their patrilineal lineages as far back as twenty or more generations.In the context of diaspora, genealog y is still important but is at the same time undergoing transformation.Some younger persons in this situa tion reject the idea of clan altogether and emphasize instead Somali national unity and Islamic tradition (Elmi 2010 : 29-30 ;Luling 2006 : 473 -475, 483).
Nevertheless, Somali marriage is traditionally per ceived first and foremost as a relationship between two families and two clans, and marriage is viewed as the moment when the young spouses will move away from their parent's household and begin a new family unit.On the other hand, elderly parents never retire from family management, and adult children of both sexes are expected to care for them in their old age.Therefore, families are highly involved in what happens when young men make known their plans to marr y (Abdullahi 2001: 119, 130 -132 ;Lewis 2008: 14 -16 ;Tiilikainen 2003: 33-34).
Millions of Somalis participate in families and kinship networks that have spread to different na tion states across the world.Multifaceted social re lations and different cross-border connections are important characteristics of Somali transnational family practices today.Finnish researcher Mulki A l-Sharmani has stated that family members and rela tives in diaspora contexts make decisions about who will migrate, where they will go and how they will manage it all.Decisions, arrangements and financial support regarding the marriage of individual Soma lis are thus collective choices (Al-Sharmani 2010 : 504).
In Western countries, the right to family reuni fication is laid down in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), and it relates to the protection of the fam ily in these Articles (see Cholewinski 2002 ;Hud dleston 2011;Jastram & Newland 2003 ;Schibel 2004).In Finland, provisions and policies on fam ily reunion are ranked ver y high in comparison with other industrialized countries, but family mi gration is a polarized topic in local media and po litical debate (Heinemann, Naue & Tapaninen 2013: 185 -186, 192).In Finland, the state decides whether somebody is eligible to enter the countr y on family grounds, and defines both what is a real family and who is a family member.

The Process of Family Reunification
For the Somali families waiting in front of the Finn ish Embassy in Ethiopia to be interviewed, the inter view represents a means of entering Finland, since the family presumably has a relative, a so-called family re-unifier or sponsor in Finland.The family re-unifier is a person who has been in Finland for some time, and on the basis of a family relationship with him or her, a person from abroad can apply for a residence permit to live in Finland.The family re unifier is often a former asylum seeker who has himor herself received a residence permit and sometimes even citizenship.He or she may also have moved to Finland in the 1990s as a child with his or her family and is seeking a residence permit for a compatriot spouse (see Walldén 2012).
Families from northern Somalia (including So maliland) applying for permits to enter Finland through the family reunification process mostly come across the border from Somalia to Ethiopia and Addis Ababa.Living conditions in many parts of Somalia are poor: the political situation is unsta ble, and there are numerous paramilitary groups with large weapon arsenals operating in the country.Consequently, the stream of refugees to neighbour ing countries has continued year by year.Most So mali emigrants dream of educational opportunities and a better life.They also have a support network provided by fellow countrymen and women already living in Finland or other parts of Europe, the Mid dle East or the USA (Alitolppa-Niitamo 2004: 51).
Family members seeking entry to Finland are interviewed at the Embassy in Addis Ababa or Nai robi, af ter which they may be granted a visa and a residence permit, in other words permission to enter and reside in Finland. 16At the moment, there are four officials dealing with immigration issues at the Embassy in Addis Ababa.They interview all the Somali families and also the individuals who wish to enter Finland on the grounds of marriage.When Somalis arrive at the Embassy in Addis Ababa for an interview, they are of ten already aware of the process and have also discussed it with the interpreter, who is always present in the interview situation.Inter views at the Embassy are conducted with each family member, including children, and last between two and four hours per family member.The interviewers attempt to ascertain the family relations of the So malis, and in unclear cases resort to a DNA analysis 17 carried out by the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Helsinki (Fingerroos 2014 : 19).
Getting to the actual interview is a difficult and expensive process for the applicants.The family member resident in Finland (i.e. the family re-uni fier) must have sufficient income (employment, pri vate enterprise, own capital or pensions) to fund his or her family's stay in Finland.The family member's income is calculated from the income that remains after taxes, and pension and insurance contribu tions. 18Today a residence permit application on the basis of family ties can only be submitted by the ap plicant living abroad.The family re-unifier cannot make an application on behalf of his or her rela tives.Processing fees are also charged at the Embas sies, and valid passports or other travel documents needed to enter Ethiopia or Kenya, where the near est Finnish Embassies are located, are expensive for many applicants.Applicants must also be legally re siding in the country from which they submit their residence permit applications, which can create dif ficulties for refugees without papers who have fled to Ethiopia from Somalia, for instance. 19 Even af ter they secure the possibilit y for an inter view, the interview situation at the Embassy is not an easy experience for Somali applicants.Nor is the situation an easy one for the inter viewing officials, fraught as it is with numerous unpredictable cultur al and linguistic problems.Many Somalis associate authorities with violence and fear, and an interview in a closed room sometimes causes them to experi ence panic reactions.Somalis generally do not have any experience of discussing their lives with non-So malis, and they do not always know how to behave according to the expectations of officials : [The inter view situation is affected] in a way by a kind of fear of authorities : Do you dare to speak, and what can you say?
Then sometimes there are the kind of clients who […] have certainly never been in any office before.First they put their feet up on the chair when they sit down; then they pull their trou sers up over their knees, spit into their hand and start to wipe them on their leg.We were sitting then in the same room, and I told the client to pull his trousers down and sit properly, other wise the interview would be over there and then, that I can't bear to watch him spitting around here.(R A4/2011) Such descriptions of inter view encounters offer con crete examples of the difficult situations that can arise in the context of official processes linked to immigration.
The executor of the family reunification process is Migri, which also makes the final decision af ter a long process of deliberation.According to Finn ish law, the time from the submission of a residence permit application to a decision should be at most nine months.In practice, it often takes much longer because the resources of the Embassy and Migri are insufficient to deal with the number of applications that need to be processed.Once a positive judge ment is made by Migri, the visa and residence per mit for persons travelling to Finland are prepared at the Embassy.The practical arrangements for the journey such as ordering fl ight tickets and escorting travellers to the plane are handled in Ethiopia by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).Representatives from the Finnish Red Cross meet (if necessar y) the arriving Somalis at Helsinki Airport and transfer them to the municipalities in which they are to be located (R A4/2011; Walldén 2012).
The family re-unifier is always the key person when an individual Somali attempts to enter Fin land through the family reunification process.Finn ish law (Section 37 of the Aliens Act) defines a family member as a person who is in an officially recog nized conjugal relationship with or is the guardian or ward of the person in question.Other relatives, such as grandparents, grandchildren, adult siblings, cousins, foster children and others who may co reside in multi-generational or fraternally extended households, are not included in this definition: When applying this Act, the spouse of a person re siding in Finland, and unmarried children under 18 years of age over whom the person residing in Finland or his or her spouse had guardianship are considered family members.If the person resid ing in Finland is a minor, his or her guardian is considered a family member.A person of the same sex in a nationally registered partnership is also considered a family member.(Finlex 380 /2006 [online]) It is evident that the family constitutes perhaps the most central unit in the migration process.The de cision for migration is made within a family and is based on networks within it.Somali families of ten do not have enough money to send the whole family abroad, and therefore, quite of ten only one family member is sent abroad (for example a young child under 18 years of age) to gain residence and then act as a re-unifier for other family members ; this per son is not actually emigrating alone but as an agent for the family (Abdullahi 2001: 119-132 ;Alitolppa-Niitamo 2004 : 51-52).Thus, families seem to be uti lizing some knowledge of the immigration processes in Finland to make their migration projects for the entire family possible. 20 However, general views held by Somalis on what constitutes a family or family members do not cor respond to those stipulated by Finnish law (Walldén 2012).In the case of family reunification involv ing Somali immigrants to Finland, the process of ten centres around children who arrive in Finland before their other family members.In many cases, Somali families applying to come to Finland do not realize or know the meaning of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) nor how the CRC is applied in decision-making on applications for resi dence permits of family members.The permit can be granted only on the basis of family ties, and this determination is always made according to Finnish law.Moreover, the Finnish definition of "family" is always connected with the concept of the nuclear family consisting of an adult couple and their chil dren.This is an example of how the state (Finland) in practice acts as a moral gatekeeper and decides who can enter the countr y.In this process, it is up to immigration officials to determine what a "real family" is.

Confl icting Conceptions of the Family
In modern Finnish, the word for family (perhe) means "a group of people living together usually comprising two persons living in wedlock or a com mon law marriage or who are registered as a cou ple and their children, or a single parent with his or her children or a childless couple" (MOT [online]).This terminological definition of the Finnish word includes the main characteristics attributed to "the family" in popular understanding, census statistics, and legislation.The Finnish family is thus under stood in both common parlance and in information issued by the authorities to be a unit that is most ty pically composed of adult spouses or partners and, if applicable, also their children.Single-parent fami lies and blended families, which include children born of an earlier relationship of one of the spouses, also belong to the categor y of t y pical families (SVT [online]).Other family compositions are exception al and are defi ned and limited by different criteria.
It is interesting that the present conception of the Finnish family took shape only af ter the Sec ond World War.In the nineteenth century, the word perhe was rarely used in Finland.The socio-cultural unit which served as the hub of ever yday life for both rural commoners and elites was the "household" rather than the "family" per se, and before the twen tieth century a more common designation for per sons who lived and ate together in the same house hold was ruokakunta (literally 'food communit y').Among rural commoners in the nineteenth centur y who formed the majority of the population, house holds often consisted of several generations, hired hands and maidservants as well as other workers and dependents who were not necessarily related by blood or marriage to the male head of the household.Finnish rural households up until the Second World War can best be characterized as economically adaptive communities of persons who pooled their labour and possible wage earnings, shared food, and ate, lived and slept in close proximity (although not necessarily under the same roof ) (Häggman 1994: 135-43;Forsberg 2003: 10 -11;Stark-Arola 1998: 78-86 ;Vuori 2003: 41-43).
The Finnish word perhe was established in its pre sent sense at the end of the nineteenth centur y and in practice, the nuclear family consisting of a mother, father and children was conceptualized as the "natural" form of the family in Finland only in the 1950s ; later it became a self-evident unit in both social life and social policy (Häggman 1994 : 135 -143, 215 -216 ;Nätkin 2003: 37;Pöllänen 2005: 2).According to Finnish family researcher Katja Yesilova, today the Finnish family is regarded as the heart of soci ety, with the welfare and happiness of the Finnish people being dependent on its wellbeing.Families are therefore given state guidance and financial sup port.In particular, Yesilova has criticized the idea that the nuclear family is essentialized and families that do not conform to this concept such as divorced families, single parent families, childless families, blended families and adoptive families are patholo gized as anomalies : problematic exceptions, lacking and incomplete.Any changes to the structure of the nuclear family are seen as a threat to the welfare of individuals and society as a whole (Yesilova 2009 : 11-12, 17;Vuori 2003: 44).This problem-centred way of thinking and the es sentialization of the nuclear family come into play unnoticed when new kinds of family combinations are created in Finland or are introduced through im migration.Particularly when a family comprising other members in addition to a mother, father, and their biological children attempts to enter Finland from abroad, a cumbersome official process drawing upon Finnish law is initiated to define the members of the family and to identif y and exclude those persons who are categorized as being outside of it (Fingerroos 2014).Both inter views to determine family ties and the decision-making processes of Migri are thus af fected by normative Finnish conceptions of family composition, which allow no room for alternative in terpretations.One of the NGO workers I interviewed in Finland described problems connected to the con duct of family reunification interviews as follows : Well, certainly people ver y of ten think that they're talking [in the interview situation] about the same thing, but they're not.How does some one understand the concept of a foster child, or a guardian, or co-habitation?Does somebody live with you?Well, even if someone has been stay ing for a year, for example, in one person's mind they haven't been living [in the family], but in an other person's mind they have.And if people live together, what does living together mean?Does it mean that you live in the same house or in adja cent houses?The way these concepts are used can mean quite different things [in different cultures and between different people].(NGO3/2014) An investigation recently conducted in Finland shows that the apparent bias inherent in the practis es by the Finnish immigration authorities is directed particularly at persons coming from non-Western countries outside the EU, and that a more deter mined effort needs to be made to achieve equality and impartiality in decisions affecting immigration (Oivo 2013: 54).The twenty-first-centur y immi gration of Somali families in particular has been framed in the media as such a significant problem that it continues to give rise to strong opinions.Anthropologist Marja Tiilikainen who has studied Somalis in Finland is justifiably concerned about the hostility directed towards Somalis and Muslims in Finland.When Somalis in media discourse are linked to terrorism and threats to the security of the state, it is difficult to achieve constructive debate about the welfare of immigrant families.According to Tiilikainen, Finland should now strive to ensure that resources are directed towards promoting the welfare and personal security of Somali immigrant families.Resources should also be allocated to eradi cating factors that give rise to social inequality and exclusion (Tiilikainen 2013).
The image of the Finnish normative family clearly influences official decisions made by Finnish immi gration authorities.Cultural differences in Somali family composition are interpreted negatively and rendered disadvantageous in the quest for family re unification.Families who seek entry to Finland be come potential threats to an imagined Finnishness.Moreover, the situation and composition of Somali families are assumed on the basis of insuf ficient information, and in unclear inter view cases, exclu sion is almost automatic.At my request, the official whom I interviewed reflected on the questions that were asked in the interviews regarding family ties.Inter viewers working at the Embassies must adhere to an extensive interview format, which they may supplement with further questions of their own.The answers given by Somali family members are dur ing the actual inter view situation entered into an electronic form, which is submitted to Migri for a decision (Fingerroos 2014 : 25).In the opinion of the interviewed official, tion that people's lives have been such that they have lived in homes and that they have perhaps moved twice.No one has died, no one has been killed, no one has been lost.And no one has been fished out of a ditch [and adopted] into their family, and no one who doesn't belong to it lives in their family.And they don't wander here and there.And one of them doesn't go around search ing for food all day long while the others squat inside because they can't go any where.[The in terviews] are not based on that kind of world ; in stead they're based on the idea that people dwell in houses and they live and go to work and buy food and cook it and go to school.... This, again, is my opinion.Depending on the interviewer, this aspect of the questions can be emphasized or de emphasized.(R A1/2013) This depiction exemplifies the exclusionary process es of "moral gatekeeping" that are expressed at the geographical borders of Finland and the EU through various tacit practices and assumptions held by im migration officials (Iacovetta 2006 ;Myrdal 2010 ;Razack 2004 ;Schmidt 2011).Immigration proce dures and regulations are founded on particular, morally charged understandings of how family members and a decent family life should be defined, and accompanying practices construe Muslim fami lies as suspicious "others" not only in a religious sense but also racially and ethnically (Horsti & Pel lander 2015: 6, 8 ;Pellander 2015).
My observations of family reunification interviews indicated that the behaviour of inter viewers and, it can be assumed, senior inspectors of Migri, are in fluenced by a Finnish frame of reference regarding the family and children's best interests (R A1/2013 ; Fingerroos 2014 ; Koskela 2009).Immigration au thorities base their activities on what they assume to be self-evident assumptions about a particular con cept of the family, but which in fact is, historically, a rather recent development.The definition of family enshrined in Finnish law is narrower than in many other countries and it should not be reason enough for breaking up families or refusing to recognize, let alone accept, different family structures.

The Best for "the Child" Is Not the Best for All Children
In Western countries, the official stance is that hu man rights apply to all persons irrespective of their age.The United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child was created in order to meet the special needs of children and secure their wellbeing.The Convention applies to all persons under the age of eighteen.Finland adopted this Convention in 1991, and it is binding on the state, the municipalities, the parents of children and other adults in Finland.Its contents can be condensed into three themes, ac cording to which a child has the right 1) to special protection and care ; 2) to partake of a sufficient share of the resources of societ y; and 3) to partici pate in making decisions concerning him-or herself in accordance with his or her age and level of devel opment.This being so, all children should be equal, the good of the child should be the priority in all decision-making and a child should have the right to a decent life -even to the extent that the child 's own views should be taken into account in society (Lapsiasia [online]).
The Finnish conception of the nuclear family and understanding of what is best for the child have be come self-evident truths.These views have become axioms that justif y limiting the circle of family members automatically and examining family ties from a single cultural and temporal perspective. 21In Finland, the understanding of the rights of the child and of families as a global phenomenon tends to be quite narrow.For example, according to my data, when a Somali adolescent is sent out into the world at an age under eighteen, he is not a small boy who needs a mother's care, but is seen by other Somalis to be -and may experience himself as -a self-suf ficient and successful Somali man, a ninka reerka, 22 who, even before he attains adulthood, is willing to bear responsibility for the family he has lef t behind (KSMA CD 13/10).
The question of what is best for t he chi ld in t he Finnish debate on the fa mi ly is inev itably linked to t he issue of how closely attached t he primar y ca regiver is to t he child.The tig htness of t he bond between relat ives is t he cent ral criterion for defi n ing who belongs to t he fami ly in t he eyes of Finnish authorities.In fami ly reunificat ion inter v iews, im migration aut horities interrogate Soma li careta k ers on t his subject.The question of how it is pos sible for parents to create and ensure the materia l wel lbeing of a child in war condit ions or in precari ous economic circumstances is not considered to be important enoug h to f unda menta l ly af fect t he decisions made by t he law yers at Migri.Soma li careta kers who pay human t raf fickers to send t heir chi ldren out into t he world are questioned about t heir actions, since, f rom a Finnish point of v iew, smugg ling children out of Soma lia is regarded as a mora lly questionable and neg lectf u l act.For Finn ish migration of ficia ls, the human traf fick ing of chi ldren from Soma lia becomes a n indication of t he wea k ness of the fa mily bond.The rig hts of So ma li children are by no means a lways realized in fami ly reunification because the "universa l " rig hts of t he chi ld as conceived by Finnish authorities do not a lways apply in cultura l contex ts w ith vast ly dif ferent socio-economic conditions a nd cultura l understandings of fa mi lia l relat ionships (Finger roos 2014 : 25 -26).A cer tain NGO of ficia l described t he Somali fami ly reunification situation to me in somewhat critical terms : Interviewee : Well, it's quite simple : the good of the child is not realized.

Conclusions
In public discourse surrounding immigration in Finland, both immigration authorities and Somali immigrants are of ten faceless.My discussions with the Finnish officials working at the Embassy of Finland, the Migri office, the Finnish Red Cross, and other Finnish NGO organizations have pro vided concrete evidence of the fact that not enough is known about the substance of the work they do.Moreover, our existing research-based knowledge is removed from the problems associated with practi cal immigration work.
In migration studies, it is common that the re searcher concentrates on the (cultural) understand ings of transnational families, asylum seekers and immigrants regarding the global diaspora, rather than the understandings of immigration officials.I agree with Frykman and colleagues' (2008) (Fr ykman et al. 2008 : 41).In my case, interviews have been a tool for reaching these multi faceted interpretations of Finnish society and fam ily-based immigration processes.My interpretation is based on immigrant workers' own experiences of the work they do.I have shown that for immigra tion authorities and NGOs, family reunification is a complex process involving personally gained tacit knowledge -knowledge that may not be sufficient to make decisions in the best interests of Somali chil dren and families.
In Finland, the modern concept of the family as a small, tightly knit formation consisting of mother, father and their legally-recognized children is a rela tively recent development.Despite the culturally and historically specific nature of this normative family concept, it is viewed as a self-evident universal when immigration authorities make official decisions re garding the reunification of Somali families, and its application leaves little room for alternative in terpretations.Finland's current immigration policy is officially based on the idea of multiculturalism in which Finnish authorities attempt to support the cultural and religious aspirations of new immigrant groups.In practice, however, Finnish legislation af ter the Second World War regarding immigra tion has been ver y restrictive (Martikainen 2004 : 118, 126 -128).Features of Somali family composi tion and family-based practices that differ from the Finnish family norm are interpreted as evidence of weak or questionable family bonds and lead to a de nial of permission to immigrate for family reunifica tion purposes.At the same time, those immigration officials who might be open to alternative perspec tives and who might want to promote multicultural ism in practice and not just its rhetoric suffer from a lack of resources and lack of opportunities to exert influence on decision-making criteria and official policy.2010 : 49-51;Lewis 2002Lewis : 16 -17, 2008: 2): 2).12 The religious activity of Somalis in Finland has not been measured.What is clear is that religious organi zations have assisted Somali immigrants in adapting to their new social environment.However, not all Somalis are religiously active and not all participate in Muslim organizations (see Martikainen 2004: 131-132).13 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN HCR).14 The markka was the currency of Finland until March 2002.The value of the markka at the time Finland adopted the euro was 0.17 euros.15 See Abdullahi (2001); Helander (2002); Niemelä (2006); Salmela (2004); Virtanen & Vilkama (2008).16 Queues for applications based on family ties have been very long in the Migri office during the past years, but at the moment (2015) the situation is better.See more at ht t p : //w w w.migri.fi /ser v ices /processi ng _times /pro cessing _t i mes _residence _per mits /1/ 0 /queue _of _ap plications_based_on_family_ties_16582.17 See Helén & Tapaninen (2013); Heinemann & Lemke (2012); Tapaninen (2013); Weiss (2011).18 See more at http://ww w.migri.fi/moving_to_finland_ to_be_with_a_family_member/income_requirement.19 See more at http://w w w.migri.fi/services.20 It has remained unclear (to me) how much knowledge Somali families really have of the Finnish law and rules.That is an interesting but very difficult question and it would be a topic for further study.21 See Cheal (1991); Forsberg (2003); Gubrium & Holstein (1990); Nätkin (2003); Pöllänen (2005); Stacey (1996); Vuori (2003); Yesilova (2009 : 13, 17).22 In the Somali language ninka reerka means "the man of the household."When a boy grows up he has to be suc cessful: to find work and to take care of his piece of land to ensure an income for his family unit.See Abdullahi (2001: 120 -123); Niemelä (2006: 168 -173).