Highly Educated Immigrant Women at Multilingual Workplaces in Finland

• In Event: Educational Opportunities Within and Beyond School

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates challenges that highly educated immigrant women face in Finnish language and interaction of workplaces. The study seeks answers to two questions: (1) How do highly educated immigrant women assess their Finnish language skills at workplaces? (2) How do they perceive social interaction at workplaces? Data were collected by thematic face-to-face interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The women evaluated their Finnish skills positively. However, they labeled their learning experiences and feelings to the Finnish languages quite unfavorably. Their social interactions at workplaces mainly occurred in meetings where Finnish language represented the dominant linguistic cluster showing certain characteristics. The woman also brought up positive experiences and consciously built strategies to manage in interaction.

Authors

• Carine A. Cools, University of Jyväskylä

• Johanna Lahja Lasonen, University of South Florida

• Marianne Teräs, University of Helsinki