Kerrottu ja muisteltu inkerinsuomalaisten paluumuutto

Authors

• Minna-Liisa Salonsaari

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.78986

Abstract

The remigration of the Ingrian Finns and other ethnic Finns from the territories of the former Soviet Union is a unique part of Finnish history. Ever since the beginning of the right of return established in 1990, about 30 000 returnees and their family members have moved to Finland. According to the amendments of the Aliens Act introduced in July 2011, remigration is supposed to end after the transition period. In her article Salonsaari writes about the narrated and remembered remigration of the Ingrian Finns. She deals with remigration issues through the interviews with two returnees. In her own concept of narrated remigration, she regards the presentations of the remigration experience as narrations, created, for example, within the framework of interviews. Interviews produce individual life stories focused on remigration experience. While analysing them, she discusses what kind of narrations they are and how remigration comes up. Those narrations show that there are different kinds of remigrations and remigration experiences, as well as different ways to narrate them. Narrated remigration includes, for example, meaning, turning points and interpretations on remigration experience. Salonsaari notes that, while listening to remigration narrations, it is possible to understand the returnees’ point of view, which can be used in practical work with the immigrants.