Analysing and reporting the data

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After the background questions the interviewees were asked to explain what the line of motivation and its curves represented. The line helped the researcher during the interviews to follow the process of intercultural adaptation and the changes in the level of motivation. It was easier to focus on points in the line where the line went down or up or stayed stable and elicit the reasons for the changes or even for the stable periods. Going through the motivation line the researcher obtained information about the factors which had affected their level of motivation and willingness to learn and adapt. The interview followed the line of motivation and the researcher could ask for explanations when the direction of the line of motivation changed. When the curve made changes upwards or downwards, the researcher asked more about the reasons for those changes. The interviewees explained what had happened to them and gave more information. The interviewees gave reasons for their ups and downs in the line. The interviewees also talked about the reasons when the line levelled out. The researcher posed additional questions to elicit more detail. The interview process followed the interviewees‟ state of mind. They were allowed to talk about the issues they found important and meaningful for them. The researcher had certain themes in mind which she wanted to cover during the interview but in many cases she did not need to address these separately as they emerged during the interview.

The interviews were more like discussions because the interviewees could speak freely and the researcher reacted to what the interviewee said. The researcher made additional questions and drew conclusions which showed that she was interested in the interviewee‟s experiences. Probably this helped them to talk more and touch upon more sensitive topics. A couple of times the researcher referred to her own experiences abroad to show that she understood the interviewee‟s experiences. This had a positive affect and gave the feeling of sharing similar experiences and emotions. The interviews lasted from 45 minutes to 95 minutes. The average time was about one hour.

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situations had been significant and had meant something for them. Sometimes the even line also reported about important stages in the adaptation process – like a stable study or work situation. However, the situations have been significant and have meant something for them. When the interviewee explained about a significant moment, the researcher gained an understanding of the individual‟s thinking, feeling and acting in those situations. The explanation concerned the characteristics of meaning. This led to the content analysis of the meaning of those significant situations. The lines of motivation will be presented in coded form (see Appendix 1 and 2). One authentic drawing is shown in Chapter 5.3.2.

The data collected in the interviews is a collection of individual interpretations of the actions in the interviewees‟ lives and is unique to the person interviewed. In some of the cases these actions are personal acts but in most of them they are in connection to other people or circumstances.

All the interviews were taped, transcribed and classified into themes and sub themes. The analysis process of the present research follows the procedure defined by Miles and Huberman (1994) who claim that qualitative data has to be first reduced, second, categorised and finally, organised into theoretical concepts. Tuomi and Sarajärvi (2006, 111-115) present a process of analysing the qualitative data.

The process looks as follows.

1. Listening and studying the interviews and transcribing them 2. Reading the interviews and investigating the content

3. Making reduced expressions out of data 4 Making a list out of the reduced expressions 5. Looking for similarities and differences

6. Combining reduced categories and creating subcategories 7. Combining subcategories and creating upper categories 8. Combining upper categories and making joint concepts.

Analysing the data was a gradual process. It started straight after the first interview and continued to the last. Lehtovaara (1996, 34) emphasizes that when the researcher tries to understand the phenomenon, he or she cannot separate it from the whole. The interviews were listened through a couple of times to gain an overall understanding of the phenomenon. After listening the tapes were transcribed and read a couple of times.

Some themes seemed to appear in various interviews and they were listed and made into a table. During the interviewing and analysing process new categories were added to the list, if needed. The process of analysing and categorising always loses something and the researcher cannot report about everything. Eskola and Suoranta (1998, 175) note that defining the themes is most often the first approach to the analysis of qualitative data. The researcher had some tentative categories in mind based on her own experiences and on the pilot study, but the final categories emerged from the data.

The main themes were drawn from the data and they were categorised into subcategories. The categories were classified according to the mentioning frequencies. Hence some tendencies could be seen at early stage of the process.

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Some smaller categories were also formulated from the data. The main themes and the meanings connected to them recurred in many of the interviews. Clearly those issues had played an important role for the interviewees in their adaptation process and affected the amount of motivation and the willingness to learn more. Some of the themes were as follows:

Finland as a context for adaptation Natural environment Climate and food Size of the city Work and/or studies Language

Feeling safe and comfortable

Meaning of intercultural adaptation – cultural identity Characteristics of the adaptation process Variations of the adaptation process Adaptation in relation to self

Temporality

Interaction and sociocultural learning process – shared meanings Interaction with Finns

Social activities

Understanding Finnish culture Falling in love with a Finn

Adaptation in relation to other learning Competences needed in adaptation Participation

The analysed data seemed to show some common features in the stories about the adaptation and learning and about the level of motivation. Clear differences were found between the two groups studied. However, even if these categories were made and some similar tendencies were found, each interviewee‟s lived experiences were unique and carried individual meanings about the situations.

There were also clear differences in the meanings for the groups under study. For example, independence meant quite different things for these groups. Hence some of the meanings appeared quite differently for these groups. It was therefore a challenging process to look for meanings in these groups and on an individual level.

Table 21 presents an example of the process of defining the themes and main categories as Tuomi and Sarajärvi (2006) suggest. This example is about the factors affecting the motivation to adapt and it serves as an example of the analysing process. However, many times comments on certain issues could have been categorised into many categories. For example, language skills were mentioned on many different occasions.

115 Table 21. An example of the analysing process

Original comment

“I started to sing in a choir. I got my own Finnish friends which meant a lot to me. I felt alive again.”

“I had been unemployed some time. When I got a permanent job, my motivation

increased

dramatically. I was independent.”

“I learned Finnish and I enjoyed going to the marketplace alone and not being dependent on anyone else.”

Reduced expression

The meaning of own friends

The importance of a permanent job

To be able to do shopping alone Sub category Own social

relationships

Own work Language skills

Upper category Independence

Main category (part of it)

Migrant‟s experiences of the factors increasing the motivation to adapt

According to Eskola and Suoranta (1998, 182) typifying the data is a common process in qualitative research after determining the themes: the researcher can make typical stories out of the similarities in the stories. Mäkelä (1990) emphasizes that stories can also show the differences because after the differences have been found, similarities create a richer picture of the whole (Mäkelä, 1990, 45). These typical stories were also made in the present research. The clearest differences were found between the groups: The short-term sojourners and long-term immigrants in their adaptation processes appeared to be very different but instead of two typical stories four typical stories emerged from the data: visitors, hesitative adapters S and L and settlers. That was due to some hesitation during the adaptation process.

Sometimes a short-term sojourner became a hesitative adapter if she or he fell in love with a Finn and started to think about Finland in different way. Also among the long-term immigrants there were hesitant adapters because they were uncertain about their future and had thoughts about going somewhere else.

Quantifying (Eskola & Suoranta, 1998, 170) shows how often certain things are mentioned in the interviews. It reflects the relationships between the elements of meanings. It tells what kinds of things are connected together e.g. work and social life, work and professionalism, study and stress or study and friends. In this research this kind of quantifying was not systematic but some obvious connections and the meanings of certain people in the adaptation process will be reported.

Throughout the research, excerpts from the interviews are presented whenever illustrative for the topic. Sometimes the excerpts contain elements from more than one theme. The excerpts are coded as Table 22 presents.

116 Table 22. Coding of interviewees

S7/f/RU L3/m/NG

S/L S = short-term sojourner L = long-term immigrant 1 - 10 Tells about the length of stay in

Finland; the bigger the number the longer the interviewee has stayed in Finland

Tells about the length of stay in Finland; the bigger the number the longer the interviewee has stayed in Finland

f/m f = female m = male

RU/NG RU = Country code NG = Country code

The coding system does not show the absolute duration of stay in Finland. The number after S or L shows the order within the group when arranged according to their length of sojourn in Finland; the higher the number the longer the person has been in Finland compared to the other interviewees of the same group. For example, S2 has been a shorter time in Finland than S8. A list of interviewees has been given in Section 4.4. In the following chapters the short-term sojourners‟ comments will be reported first and the long-term immigrants‟ comments will be reported second within the separate themes.

Between the short-term sojourners and the long-term immigrants there were quite significant differences but they also shared similar situations and common feelings and meanings. There were differences and similarities in the significant situations and the meanings attached to them between the two different groups but also within the groups. The following section presents the results found in this research.

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