M easuring acceptance ?-Intermarriage levels as an indicator of tolerance in the Finnish context of integration

Beyond surveys on racist prejudices there are always underlying assumptions about what are the worsening factors of rejection. The influence of these presuppositions on interpreting the results only comes up when an alternative approach is introduced. lt would seem that national traditions do have a role to play in this: the Anglo-Saxon approach of the Chicago School is marked by pragmatic interests on the mechanisms of rejection by racist motives. Especially the negative image of a Black person occupies a central methodological role. Elsewhere, within the Durkheimian tradition of French sociology; neither "race '' nor "ethnicity" has been accepted as the basic constructive unit of society. In other words, the ultimate source of social cohesion - and exciusion - cannot be reduced to an issue of "ethnic relations ". Therefore it is not enough to fix ones interest on measuring negative ''ethnic attitudes" and rejection without paying attention to the coexisting mechanisms of inclusion. The approach briefly introduced in this article stems from the Durkheimian tradition of sociology and anthropology of viewing the integration of immigrants as a gradual process towards assimilation or isolation, eventually segregation. The Durkheimian preference on assimilation is not understood within the Anglo-Saxon tradition of research which gives priority to respecting ethnic differences. As a new recipient country of immigrants from the Third World, Finland pro vides an example where the prospects of integration of immigrants at times show contradictory tendencies depending on what is examined: integration to the labour market may be difficult but there seems to exist no equivalent obstacle in Finnish attitudes towards intermarriage. The prospects of integration of stigmatised minorities is therefore also a matter of an ideological perspective.


Introduction
The

Determinants of integration as a matter of perspective
The Whatever the approach, there are several determinants o f integration that are critical, such as the accessibility o f the labour market, housing conditions, and access to high education.Among these, access to employment, which often is the scope o f general interest, is undeniably a key factor for the new arrivals in a modem wage-eamer soci ety.Nonetheless, it could be argued that the so-called ' matrimonial market' is less cyclically sensitive than the labour market.Furthermore, the evolution o f the levels o f intermarriage probably reflects more genuine attitudes on the part o f the recipient soci ety than do attitudes garnered through surveys; in this sense it provides a method for reaching beyond the " politically correct" .9 Estimating the unemployment rate in Finland is complicated for several reasons, some of which are purely technical and shared by many other European countries.These difficulties become even more significant when it comes to measuring the unemployment of the foreign labour force.10 Note: The Anglo-American way to define "Blacks" which we are following here is truly ill-placed in the Finnish context: This figure includes Somalians who are also -or rather -associated to rigid interpretations of Islam.Finnish population registers use no ethnic distinctions, which means that the ethnic origin must be deduced from native language and birthplace.Therefore we can only assume that the individuals gathered by this sampling method are "non-whites".It must be emphasised that this information is gathered by foreign citizenship: it is likely that those who have Finnish citizenship are also better employed.11 Note: all the data in this paper concern only mixed marriages in which both spouses live permanently in Finland.The age factor is missing, but keeping in the recentness of immigration and the absence of the second generation of immigrants it is not necessary.As the level of intermarriage is calculated from all present marriages among foreigners, it automatically works as a selective factor of the underaged.
The average level, however, does not reveal the interesting fact that the spouses o f To investigate the trends in mixed marriages among the foreign-born population in Finland, Table 3, which was commissioned from S t a t i s t i c s F i n l a n d shows the inter marriages o f the most important foreigner groups by country or origin.♦The high percentage of Sweden is largely due to return migration of the descendants of the Finnish emigrants.In order to test that assumption, Table 4 shows the frequency o f intermarriage betw een a Furnish man and woman from a Muslim country.The faith o f an individual is not crucial here as we are more interested in the ideological and religious background.The   The tolerance of exogamy is by far not the only exceptional feature of Islam in Indonesia but is accompanied by a number of other indicators favorable to women, such as the decline of fertility, equal juvenile mortality and high level of education among women (see Gourbage 1997).16 As in Finland there exist no official institutional terms for somatic differences referring to ethnic origin, we use the term "dark skinned" which in Finnish ("tummaihoinen" ) is a neutral but vague qualification; the meaning of "skin colour" in this article refers to a contrast to pale skin, which is extreme in the case of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.We consciously avoid the English terms "coloured" or "Black" as they refer philologically to "a one-drop-rule principle"of classifying races in a fixed manner in which descriptive intermediate categories are missing (see 1996)

Source: Statistics Finland
paradigms used most often to measure racism usually rely on an underlying as sumption that especially visible differences increase any kind o f discrimination.Dark complexion acts as a perceptible symbol o f otherness especially in the United States; through the influence o f the empirically oriented C h i c a g o S c h o o l in the social sciences, race' has also attained a methodologically central position in Europe, although it is generally admitted that the historical and perceptual contexts are not similar (Castles & Kosack 1973; Taieb 1998; Waddington 1992).1 Nevertheless, faced with evidence, it would be audacious to claim that the visibility factor has no bearing on the discrimina tion o f immigrants (Lemaine & Ben Brika 1997).The issue reveals its complexity if we turn our attention to the ultimate reasons for an institutional rejection, as there exists, in parallel, an almost endless continuum o f poten tially stigmatising differences: age, sex, low social origin, physical handicap, under-or overweight, etc.These factors are equally contextual with history, time and, place.Therefore, if the emphasis is laid on the fact that the concept o f difference is prevailing in any human society, and that some differences presumably are more stigmatising and fatal than others, it appears merely simplistic to assume that a sudden arrival o f a new different-looking population would generate an invariable and universal form o f rejec tion called " racism" .2Although the issue o f contextuality is often faithfully mentioned, it still does not truly change this basic assumption.The justified concern about discrimination which accompanies unmigration has led to a certain methodological bias where the absence o f racism is a remarkable observation that requires explanation, whereas the presence o f prejudices is naturally what is ex pected and what is being constantly measured by surveys (see Thompson 1989).Re jection and aggression are understood as spontaneous, instinctive and institutional reac tions whereas acceptance and tolerance are supposed to be something one needs to be educated to possess.The question then arises, how could s p o n t a n e o u s a n d i n s t i t u t i o n a l a c c e p t a n c e be measured in quantitative terms?Our aim in this article is to introduce an alternative perspective in a contemporaryFinnish context: the integrative aspects o f matrimonial ties, in other words the statistical frequency o f mixed marriages, which can be observed as a domain that reflects the tendencies o f acceptance in the host country (see E. Todd 1994; M .Tribalat et al. 1996). 1 T h e im a g e o f the O t h e r in W e s te rn so cieties is e n ta n g le d w it h d eep-seated m y th o lo g ie s w h ic h d o share so m e u n iv e rs a l features.E s p e c ia lly the A fr ic a n o r ig in has in s p ire d w o r ld -w id e m yth o lo g ie s .B o th th e A r a b a n d J u d e o -C h ris tia n m yth o lo g ie s c a rry a lo n g lo n g tra d itio n o f a m b iva le n t infériorisation o f the B la c k s (D o ré s 1 9 9 2 , de N e g ro n i 1 9 9 2 ); in its m o d e m fo rm , " ra c is m " goes b a c k to the eighteenth ce n tu ry (P o lia k o v 1 9 8 2 ; see also T ia in e n -A n t t ila 1 9 9 4 .)In m o d e m tim es, there exists a nother institutional and h is to rica lly based fo rm o f p re jud ice connected w ith Is la m (S a id 1 9 8 1 ; R o d in so n 1 9 8 7 ). 2 T h e c la im e d u n iv e rs a lity o f the p rio r im po rtan ce o f ' race* has been challenged in the stu d y o f history, espe cia lly the e a rly c o lo n ia l h is to ry (e .g .F e rro 1 9 9 4 ); o r in classical a n tiq u ity (T h o m p s o n 1 9 8 9 ; S n o w d e n 1 9 8 3 ).
dominant orientation in Finnish research on immigration relies on Anglo-Saxon tradition which stresses the importance o f integration to the labour market and the right to cultural identity.The empirically distinguished and widespread approach o f the C h i c a g o S c h o o l actually presumes that there exists a distinct racial problem been less considered in the Finnish context is the " D u r k h e i m i a n " or " F r e n c h r e p u b l i c a n " model, which ignores the concept o f ' race' as a universal determi nant o f integration.The focus o f attention is on the success or failure o f an institution (in the final analysis, the State, with all its juridical apparatus) to " socialise" the new comers, especially the second generation.Therefore mixed social relations, and eventu ally mixed marriages, are regarded as important indicators o f ' success' (see Beaud & Noiriel 1991; Taieb 1998, 2 6 7 -2 7 2 ).From the majority's side, they reflect a level o f acceptance.From the minority's side, they suggest a level o f autonomous decisions which override the traditional endogamous matrimonial tendencies, or customs that are against human rights (such as marriages decided by parents) or that are against the o r d r e p u b l i c (such as polygamy).Perceived from the point o f view o f social mobility, the promotion o f an ethnic basis o f social relations is regarded as a dubious way to wards the segregation o f the poorest groups (see M .Tribalat 1996, 2 5 4 -2 5 5 ).In this regard, the Anglo-Saxon tradition in social sciences treats mixed marriages rather from the point o f view o f individual motivations, and more seldom as a mass phenom enon (e.g.Beigel 1975; Spickard 1989).This is intelligible, taken that the Anglo-Saxon multiculturalist approach values close community ties, as they are supposed to guaran tee the internal solidarity o f the ethnic groups (e.g.Modood & al 1997; Spickard 1989; Semprini 1997).
3 S till, u s in g a s u rv e y m e th o d related to that tra d itio n n a tu ra lly does not req u ire a d o p tin g that a ssum ption (see e.g.L e m ain e & B e n B r ik a 1 9 9 7 ).The introduced perspective to our object o f study pays attention to the immigrants' and host country's tendencies to allow or to deny marrying out, known as the dichotomy o f exogamy/endogamy in anthropology.Western societies, however, tend to be exclu sively exogamous through the influence o f Christianity (Goody 1994; Héritier 1994, 109-144).A closer observation o f customary limits on marriageability takes us back to the past.Towards the end o f the 17th century, Frédéric L e Play discovered and introduced the importance o f family structures to explain the differential social and economic develop ment on the scale o f Western Europe.Le Play claimed that a certain European type o f a household (stem family), with its integral mode o f transmitting the paternal estate was the most favourable type to promote regional economy and social stability (Le Play 1989; Clark 1973, 104-109).Le Play's central argument on the connection between family structure, value patterns and socio-economic outcome has contributed to the theory o f Emmanuel Todd on the determining role o f traditional family structures in economic and social development (Todd 1987; 1990; 1994).It is not possible to intro duce this theory in its totality here, but we shall introduce the basic idea in as much as it is relevant here.The basic implication o f this approach is that ideologies stem from family structures.A s the prevalence o f a particular type o f family was geographically defined, the ideological value pattern areas are correspondingly regional.The transmission o f the ideological values, since it takes place within a family, is more vertical than horizontal (diffusing); that is why local and national ideologies are marked by their persistent nature There fore, ideological influences o f the traditional anthropological systems still prevail in the modem world despite the disappearance o f the traditional family structures (e.g.Todd 1987, 1994; see also Mendras 1997, 148-157; 179-180).Finally, this theory suggests that matrimonial tendencies, as they represent a centra1 dimension o f an anthropological structure, are also to be regarded as manifestations o f specific value patterns.Hence, the explicit prohibition to marry a person from a lower caste (as in Southern India) or a non-Muslim man (as in Maghreb countries) is not only a matter o f a custom' .Neither is it only to be handled as an economically rational arrangement, taken the institutions o f bridewealth and dowry: it is equally based on a particular value pattern which differentiates between the marriageable and non-marriageable, the equal and the inferior.Likewise, the rarity o f Black-White mixed mar riages in the United States is not only a matter o f an institutional or personal ' prejudice' .It is based on a certain collectively internalised ideological way o f drawing limits on marriageability.C o n t r i b u t i o n o f a n t h r o p o l o g y The question o f w h a t the difference consists o f then becomes secondary: ' race' , and religion appear only as labels for difference, the importance o f which is anthropologi cally determined.This kind o f n o n -r a c i a l a p p r o a c h t o r a c i s m is most faithful to the often repeated notion that human " races" do not exist in any scientific sense (e, the global migrations, although they are primarily driven by economic factors and political crisis, offer an ever widening perspective to a "global matrimonial market" .A rough overview suggests some distinct tendencies, such as for example the massive emigration o f women from the Philippines.In this sense, the Philippines, in as much as its emigration provides female labour for services5, can also be characterised as a ' donor country' o f female spouses.On the other hand, the immigration o f men from the Maghreb and some North African Muslim countries towards Northern Europe and Scandinavia is characterised by motivations to marry a local woman (Wagner & Yamba 1986; Juntunen 1999).Partly this is a result o f European mass tourism to those regions.Still, the furthest structural push-factor beyond the phenomenon lies in the crisis o f the local economic development which has lead to an excess o f men o f marry ing age who cannot fulfil the culturally defined economic norms required to contract a marriage with a local spouse (ibid.).6 Furthermore, it is known that immigrants with the same origins integrate or assimilate in different ways in different countries: for instance in Britain, the " Black Caribbeans" from Jamaica are especially disadvantaged as to housing, unemployment and the explo sive growth o f the number o f single-parent families (Modood et al. 1997; 89, 22 3 , 35).In France, the socio-economic parameters o f immigrants from the Antilles have not 4 E x p la n a tio n s o f the k e y concepts as th e y are defined b y E .T o d d (1 9 8 7 ) : M a t r i lin e a r it y : the characteristic o f a fa m ily system that exalts k in s h ip v ia w o m e n , tran sm issio n o f p ro p e rty th ro u g h w o m e n , tran sm issio n o f p ro p e rty th ro u g h w o m e n a nd the m o th e r's role in the p ro creation o f a ch ild.P a t r ilin e a r ity : the characteristic o f a fa m ily system that exalts k in s h ip via.m e n , transm ission v ia p ro p e rty th ro u g h m e n and the father's role in the p ro creation o f a c h ild .B ila te r a lit y : the c h aracteristic o f a f a m ily system that considers k in s h ip th ro u g h m a le s a nd k in s h ip th ro u g h fem ales as e q u a lly im po rtan t, that transm its p ro p e rty th ro u g h both m e n a n d w o m e n , and w here the father a nd m o th e r are considered to have e q u a lly im p o rta n t roles in the p ro creation o f a ch ild. 5 E m ig ra tio n fro m the P h ilipp in es consists a lm ost e x c lu s iv e ly o f w o m e n m o v in g to H o n g k o n g (9 0 % ) and to Ja p a n ( 80 % ) ; a nd the fe m ale b ias is still rem arka ble in A u s tra lia (6 5 % ) .In general, e m ig ration fro m the P h ilip p in e s is m u c h m ore v o lu m in o u s than fro m the n e ig h b o u rin g countries, due to m assive u n e m p lo ym e n t co n ce rn in g also the q u a lifie d m a n p o w e r a nd the p o litica l a nd m ilit a r y ties to the U n ite d States (R a llu & Pictet 1 9 9 7 :2 9 4 -5 ).s Ju n tu n e n ( 1 9 9 9 ) treats the subject o f the im m ig ra tio n o f M o ro c c a n m en to F in la n d as a field o f c u ltu ra lly defined m a scu lin e c o m p e titio n fo r respect a n d honour.shown degrading tendencies, although little can be confirmed at the present stage (Todd 1994, 3 4 6 -3 4 7 ).A s to the effect o f skin colour in matrimonial ties in France, the average rate o f intermarriage with locals among immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa is the same as the average o f all first-generation immigrants, 2 0 % -30 % (Kuagbenou 1997, 3 3 ; see also Tai'eb 1998, 2 6 7 -2 7 7 ).According to Todd's theory, in the long run the tendencies o f matrimonial exchange reflect more the ideological qualities o f the dominant group or o f the recipient country than the cultural qualities o f the immigrants.If, in the long run and across several generations, intermarriages with a certain minority only occur very rarely, it no more reflects a perseverance o f the endogamous preferences o f that community but a rejec tion on the part o f the dominant society.Admittedly, this approach contains an inner discrepancy because it suggests that a certain prevalence o f racist opinions does not necessarily correspond with rates o f intermarriages.A classic example o f the coexist ence o f racial hierarchies and remarkable indifference towards ethnic blending has been the case o f Brazil (Wade 1999).The Finnish context A s a Nordic country, Finland is characterised by a high standard o f living, modest income differences and social security (Kangas & Ritakallio 1998), even though the welfare state model has been in a crisis since Finland experienced a severe economic recession in the beginning o f the 1990s, leading to mass unemployment.The shift o f the last decade was also the period when the first spontaneous asylum seekers arrived in Finland and the number o f immigrants began to rise alongside a diversification o f their origins.Now, the national economy has recovered, but the Finnish labour market is still unfavourably disposed towards unskilled or semi-skilled immigrants (, the number o f foreign citizens living in Finland permanently is almost 85,000.Despite recent growth, the percentage o f the foreign population is only 2 % , a propor 7 T h e m assive im m ig ra tio n fro m the C a rib b e a n to Fra n ce a nd to Q u é b e c is m ore recent (a b o u t th irty y e a rs ) than that to the U .K .* It is w o rth m e n tio n in g that in the m id d le o f the 1980s foreigners in the F in n ish la b o u r m a rk e t w ere a ctu a lly m o re often e m p lo ye d as u p p e r w h ite -c o lla r w o rk e rs than Fin n s and less seldom as b lu e -c o lla r w o rke rs.A t the end o f the 1990s, the situ a tio n o f fo re ig n la b o u r in the F in n is h la b o u r m a rk e t resem bles m o re the p re v a ilin g circ u m sta n c e s in W estern E u ro p e , w h ere im m ig ra n ts tend to be concentrated in lo w -p a id jo b s (J a a k k o la 1 9 9 1 ).T h is change is a result o f tw o m a in factors: first, the g ro w th o f im m ig ra tio n itself, in p a rticu la r o f the group s that do not have special education (u n lik e in the p ast), a nd second, to the lo n g -te rm effects o f the mass u n e m p lo ym e n t at the b e g in n in g o f the 1990s w h ic h reached re c o rd figures.tion which ranks among the lowest in Europe (Statistics Finland 1998).The number o f immigrants becomes naturally more important when it is calculated by birthplacemore than 120,000 persons -including those who have acquired Finnish citizenship, but also foreign citizens who have Finnish roots (ibid.).The foreign population living in Finland can roughly be divided in the following manner, depending on their primary reason o f arrival and by the country o f origin (see Korlaasaan & Söderling 1998; figures updated by the Population Register Dec. 31, 1998).Until the 1990s the growth in immigration was mostly a result o f r e t u r n m i g r a t i o n , especially from Sweden, the neighbouring country which attracted Finnish labour in the 1960s and 1970s.After 1990, another conceptually and legally more complicated group o f " return migrants" , namely the Ingrian Finns from Russia and Estonia, increased the number o f foreigners by over 17,000 persons within a couple o f years (see e.g.Kyntäjä 1997; Ylänkö 1999).In statistics sampled by nationality, the return migrants form an essential part o f the biggest groups, Russians (1 not been any systematic recruitment o f immigrant labour in Finland, the number o f immigrants w h o h a v e c o m e t o F i n l a n d t o w o r k is very modest.Usually they are experts working for multinational companies, language teachers, musicians, or other white-collar workers who also have Finnish spouses.They are mostly o f European or North American origin.A s such, m a r r i a g e has also been a common primary motive for coming to Finland, especially in the past when there was very little immigration.How ever, a marriage may eventually overlap with other reasons o f arrival, such as studying or working.Finally, in recent years, Finland has received a g r o w i n g n u m b e r o f f o r e i g n s t u d e n t s from Europe and from Third World countries.The estimated figure o f this group o f " non-returnees and non-refugees" is around 4 number o f refugees who have a residence permit is about 16,500, including family members.Throughout the last ten years, attitudes towards the reception o f refugees have been rather negative.The general prejudice is that non-European immigrants are a socio economic threat, and there is a general fear about eventual misuse o immigrants from the ex-Soviet Union (54 % ).The rate o f unemployment is highest among immigrants from Iraq (97 % ), Iran (85 % ), and Somalia (77 % ) .As for the least accepted nationalities to Finland, according to surveys, the percentage o data used here is elementary, it seems to be a fact that darkish complexion as a visible sign o f foreign origin hinders integration to Finnish society.Moreover, the unemployment figures o f immigrants coming from predominantly Muslim countries are above the average (3 9 % ) , except in the case o f Turkey -the figure is slightly lower.
are likely to reveal something essential about the predominant ethnic hierarchies.Like an esteemed and well-paid post, marriage to a local person may also mean access to social ascension for descendants.Mixed marriage is understood here as a statistical indicator o f absence o f prejudices; the general levels o f intermarriage are supposed to reflect ongoing processes o f assimilation and the degrees o f acceptance on the part o f the recipient country, but solely a t a m a s s l e v e l , with the expectation that the existence o f a mass phenomenon that is directly related to moral issues presupposes a certain tolerance on a collective level.This means that individual cases or motivations do not explain a mass phenomenon: many intervening factors such as class and wealth that must be taken into account.For instance, if certain mixed marriages tend to correlate with unemployment and low education o f the local spouses, it can hardly be regarded as a sign o f integration, at least in terms o f equality.Nonetheless, as the structures o f Finnish society are still relatively homogenous (Kangas & Ritakallio 1998), the level o f inter marriage as pure data may give us some hints on acceptance and possible determinants In this sense, even divorce is a secondary phenomenon as we are aiming to measure , we will observe the effect o f two possibly stigmatising factors, first, Islam in regard to women, and second, dark skin complexion, all the more as both are seemingly disadvantageous factors according to opinion surveys and in terms o f obtain ing employment.In doing this, we are fully aware that statistically, the sample is modest and that the duration o f residency in Finland is short, on average far less than 15 years.
e d m a r n a g e s c o n t r a c t e d b y F i n n s i n F i n l a

Besides, many
foreigners, especially refugees, are already married when they come to Finland.These factors would be fatal if our aim were to forecast the rate o f intermar riage in numerical terms or if we were to claim that the reason for coming to Finland did not regulate the marrying behaviour.In this context, we are simply interested in com paring the percentages o f intermarriage o f the foreigner groups in order to possibly identify some consistent trends.Thus, Table 2 presents the frequencies o f mixed marriage from the perspective o f the foreigners by birthplace.O f all the marriages in this population, the average level o f intermarriage to a Finn is 47 % , which in practise means that half o f the married foreigners (calculated by country o f origin) have Finnish spouses .12The age structure o f the population o f foreign origin differs from the general age structure in Finland,

Finnish
men and women tend to come from different countries and different parts o f the world.The importance o f geographical distance is clearly demonstrated here as the neighbouring countries, Russia and Sweden, score high in the number o f intermar riages.

A s to general
trends, it seems that women from the East and men from the South are most likely to marry a Finn; the former case being more frequent than the latter.This bias might be illusory because Finnish women who contract a mixed marriage are perhaps more likely to emigrate: the data used here concerns only mixed m am ages in Finland.It is noteworthy that the countries o f Europe show quite equal tendencies in intermarriages.The irregularities between the sexes are especially important in the cases o f Thailand and Estonia: it is much more likely that a Thai or Estonian woman marries a Finnish man than vice versa.On the other hand, the case o f Turkey presents a contrary example in which there is a strong masculine dominance in mixed marriages.Unlike what one would expect with common sense, the statistics on tourism (to Finland or voyages out o f Finland) do not explain these differences.13Yet it is unknown to what degree the mixed marriages o f Finnish men to Thai women are organised by marriage agencies.Nonetheless, the initial question concerning the reason for the gender-specific matrimonial preferences remains open even if there are clear distinctions between male and female tourism.In other words, they would only suggest that the geographical or ethnic preferences o f the future spouse already exist prior to the first meeting Another intelligible explanation for the disparities between the origin and sex o f the foreign spouse are o f course cultural differences.In many traditional cultures women stay close to the kin and family to an extent where they simply are not accessible to alien men.This feature is often attributed to religious factors, especially to Islam which formally prohibits women from marrying a non-Muslim M Islam would then be a nega tive determinant o f integration for women in the matrimonial market.

Finland 1 3
As to Thailand, in 1997, there were an estimated 7,334 voyages made by Finnish men versus 14,611 made by Finnish women.In the case of Turkey, there were an estimated 27,412 men and 56,065 women (Statistics Finland).14 The interdiction to marry a non-Muslim is traditionnally based on the Koran, surah 2:220 and 60:10.numbers o f married women are o f course very small but as an idea, the negative correlation o f Muslim women and frequency o f intermarriage seems quite logical in most o f the cases, though not all: as opposed to this trend, the cases o f Malaysia and Indonesia present a very sharp contrast with levels o f intermarriage o f 51 % and 67 % .This irregularity becomes even more interesting when considering that Indonesia is one o f the most Muslim countries in the world.The explanation is then most likely in the nature o f Islam, which in the Indonesian case allows female exogamy because o f the underlying local matrilineal structure.15Consequently, the disparities in the matrimonial market are rather due to anthropological determinants than to Islam itself, the extension o f which usually overlaps with patrilineal zones.Finally, as for studying the colour prejudice, Table 5 shows the levels o f intermarriage among the population originally from sub-Saharan Africa who would be classified as Black within the Anglo-American tradition o f Ethnic Studies.Even though it is not possible to contrast these figures with the rates o f unemployment, it is still interesting that the result, which shows very high frequencies, opens up a totally different perspec tive: if dark skin16 is a stigmatising factor on the labour market, it seems that when it comes to measuring acceptance by matrimonial ties, dark skin complexion would no more be a disadvantage when it comes to men -with the exception o f Somalians,

""
whose family structures are subordinated by endogamous practises.Measuring African women's rates o f intermarriage introduces problems because the overwhelming major ity are already married at the time o f arrival.Discussion The discovery, then, o f our general comparison o f the labour and matrimonial market is the paradox that t h e r e a r e g r o u p s , i.e .i m m i g r a n t s f r o m S u b -S a h a r a n A f r i c a , w h o a r e r e j e c t e d b y t h e l a b o u r m a r k e t b u t w h o a r e a c c e p t e d in t h e m a t r i m o n i a l m a r k e t.Could there be any coherent logic behind that?Perhaps not.Nevertheless, a cross-generational approach to the problem might unlock the immediate contradiction.To better understand this dimension, we suggest re-exam ining the results o f Magdalena Jaakkola (It is better for society ifpeople from different cultures live separated and do not mix together.It is against the laws o f nature for people o f different races to have children together." first statement, we see that in 1998 altogether 42 % were favourable to the idea that "p e o p l e o f c e r t a i n r a c e s a r e s i m p l y n o t e q u i p p e d t o l i v e in a m o d e m s o c i e t y " .However, the level o f racist opinions is mitigated when it comes to the question o f offspring.Only 19 % sympathised with the idea that " I t i s b e t t e r f o r s o c i e t y i f p e o p l e f r o m d i f f e r e n t c u l t u r e s l i v e s e p a r a t e d a n d d o n o t m i x t o g e t h e r " .When the question is put in concrete terms, " I t i s a g a i n s t t h e l a w s o f n a t u r e f o r p e o p l e o f d i f f e r e n t r a c e s t o h a v e c h i l d r e n t o g e t h e r " , the proportion o f those who fully or partly approved drops to13 % .17 In her survey M. Jaakkola also studied attitudes towards mixed marnages.After standardising the respondents' background, age, education and occupation did not explain positive attitudes towards mixed marnages with Russians, Estonians, Germans, the Sâmi and Romany; and Muslims.Education explained positive attitudes towards Jews.Religiousity explained positive attitudes towards Romanys and Jews(Jaakkola 1999, 95-99).
Our aim is not to challenge the interpretations o f Jaakkola on the existence o f ethnic hierarchies but to continue with the analyses in a new direction: On one hand, it is a fact that a different physical appearance and Islamic religion are perceived with disfavour.On the other, the question o f descendance is yet a different one.In other words, prejudice against certain immigrants and even mixed parentage does not determine the prejudice towards the offspring.A t the present early stage o f immigration in Finland, we do not know the extent to which somatic or religious differences will become so cially significant categories in a future generation.In conclusion, a metholodogical un derstanding which associates a fixed difference (religious, cultural or somatic distance, the latter being popularly called ' race' ) with rejection may not be able to identify oppo site tendencies where personal value becomes dissociated from a stigmatising origin or ascendance.At present, the findings on attitudes (see above) and the relatively high rates o f inter marriage in Finland reveal assimilationist tendencies, although from the point o f view o f sheer visibility, it would make sense since the majority o f Finns are ' pale Nordic people' .There is not much systematic effort to go beyond the differentiating labels o f " ethnicity" , race or culture An analysis on the anthropological value-pattem determinants in the Finnish case may offer an interesting perspective in the future.There are still several serious problems with the method we introduced.Marriage is losing its ground as a factor directly related to other demographic indicators such as birth rate, especially in the Nordic countries.18On the other hand, rates o f mixed co habitation pose technical problems and raises again questions about the reasons why the couple is not willing to legalise the relation: are the reasons similar to those among the local population or is it because o f the stigmatising nature o f the relation?In the Finnish case, a very important question that cannot be answered at the present stage is whether intermarrying will become a slow and constant phenomenon in the future or not.The mixed marriages contracted by the first generation o f foreigners are problem atic indicators in a sense that a marriage may take place before and without any other milestones o f integration, such as learning the local language and getting employment.Marriage that is contracted for the sake o f obtaining a residence permit represents a distinct problem because in such a case the motives are not commensurate with ' ordi nary' marriages that take place among the residents o f the host country.Finally, this method is by no means free o f ideological misuse.I f governments have been accused o f dissimulating racist discrimination in the labour market, it is equally true that over ** T h e ris in g d iv o rc e rate and cohab itation h ave contrib uted to the decrease in the n u m b e r o f w e d d e d couples.In 1 9 9 7 m a rrie d coup le s a ccoun ted fo r 6 9 % o f all fa m ilies, b u t cohabitation is the lifestyle a m o n g y o u n g couples.A s m a n y as 5 0 % o f the firs t-b o m c h ild re n are b o m o u t o f w e d lo c k today, b u t the parents often get m a rrie d later on , the respective percentage o f the th ir d -b o m b e in g o n ly 25 % .See Statistics F in la n d 1998.history some have intentionally glorified and exaggerated the magnitude o f matrimonial mixity and ethnic blending (Ferro 1994).In Europe, the latest and very dramatic case was revealed by the war in Bosnia (Bougarel 1996, 8 7 ).19For a social scientist who is familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature, the notion o f a " matri monial market" as a field to measure integration may appear very strange, if not ironic.Nevertheless, it is no more an abstraction than the labour market.In modem times, only the latter is regarded as a public political matter.20In today's post-industnal welfare society, the choice o f a companion undoubtedly comes within the private sphere o f life (Mendras 1997, 189).Nonetheless, according to the vision o f Durkheim, in any society there are lots o f rules concerning behaviour that are collectively internalised to an extent that an individual person cannot be conscious o f the all the determining factors beyond his/her choices, although they may appear to the individual as independent decisions (Durkheim 1973 (18 9 7 )).That is why ultimately nothing but the ideological atmo sphere, stemming from anthropological factors with their particular value patterns, can explain why in the long run, in certain regions, certain countries, mixed marriages occur more often than in others.15 D u r in g the c o n flict in 1 9 9 2 -1 9 9 5 , several surprised voice s recalled the h ig h frequencies o f in te rm a rry in g w h ic h w ere oftentim es e vo k e d as evid en ce o f the 'tra d itio n a l tolera nce ' o f the B o sn ia n society.T h e studies o f B o u g a re l revealed that m ix e d m a rria ge s o c cu rre d fre q u e n tly o n ly in urb a n and elitist areas o f B o s n ia -H e rz e g o v in a , w hereas the ru ra l areas w ere characterised b y an im p o rta n t ethnic d iv e rs ity to an extent that the general level o f interm arriages, 1 2 % , on the c o n tra ry attested to the p erm anence o f c o m m u n ita ria n ethnic borders.O n the con tra ry, o n the level o f the entire F o rm e r Y u g o s la v ia , the ave rag e level o f 12 % w a s u n d e n ia b ly im p o rta n t 20 In the p a s t in t e r m a r r y in g has been un d ersto o d as a state a ffa ir, as is k n o w n , there has been la w s th a t p ro h ib it in te rm a rria g e s b etw ee n " races" .O n the o th e r h a n d , w it h in the P ortug ue se e m p ire the g lo rific a tio n o f in te rm ix in g reached a level o f con sciou s b u ild in g o f a m y t h in the 193 0s ( Ferro 1 9 9 4 , 1 8 5).