Transnational fairytale: Finnish-Russian transnational families

The 2012-2014 years I have focused my studies on the problematic of Finnish-Russian transnational families and cross-border marriages. This book explores the transnational family life of Russian female migrants in Finland which is challenged by the possible misunderstandings in the transnational marriage. Such misunderstandings, as I propose, may be explained by the notion of mutual expectations of the foreign spouses.Their cultural backgrounds, social behavioural norms, gender order and personal traits make them look for a compromise and mechanisms of negotiation of their conflicts in their transnational relationships. Moreover, it is believed that more often cross cultural marriages and transnational families entail a greater source of family frictions, conflicts and misunderstandings than traditional nuclear families established in the local context. However, my fieldwork research revealed a different story, more subtle and positive and free from the common prejudices about transnational marriages that are exposed more to the conflicting situations. The study reveals not only the negative experiences of immigrant Russian women in Finland, but also the positive experiences.

Autorentext

Daria Chistiakova studied at the Master's Degree Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere. My interest lies in the area of transnationalisation, transnational movements, the questions of identity formation in the context of transnational processes.