4. Synthesis of the Research
4.4. Findings of the Dissertation
The north can practise different models for community practice, planning policies and utilising those policies in practice. Community intervention is necessary to sustain the socio-ecological model of the North. Refugee and immigration flows have brought new neighbours to the Arctic society. The contact hypothesis suggests ways to improve relations among neighbours of different groups and races who experience conflicts in the society. Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination is a commonly occurring subject matter between Lappish and new neighbours, which indeed hinders the integration process and increases the risk of exclusion, self-exclusion and radicalisation.
Therefore, there is a need to explore possibilities to better integrate both new neighbours and the host society by increasing interactions between them and emphasising the factors that explore a resilient structure for the integration of immigrants in northern society. The role of public and personal aspects in fathoming the complex process of social integration is of interest and can be considered “new”, while issues related to the social dimension of immigrants’
entrepreneurship as a means of sustainable development can be rated as confirming previous knowledge.
Aiming to find a common model for the sustainable integration of immigrants would back up both the economic and social development of the north. In reality, the attitudes of dominant group members of the northern parts of the Nordic countries towards immigrants are competitive to some extent, such as the labour market competition, since both the minority and majority compete in the same labour market. Therefore, one way to improve the integration of immigrants could be to examine the sentiments of both the minorities and majority and other variables of institutional norms, policies and values to investigate the validity of theories. From the subjective perception of immigrants, it has come up in the study that they lack a social network, ties and interactions in order to achieve socio-economic integration. There are comparatively fewer social ties between immigrants and locals.
All societies are full of different social ties that can bring many benefits to one’s daily life. Not all social ties are equal though. Some ties are strong and some are weak, but all are worthwhile. Therefore, immigrants with weak ties can also be worthwhile for the host country. According to the institutional theory, society is based on isomorphism. Social connections also maintain mimetic isomorphism, and this structure is difficult to change. Now the question is whether it is possible to maintain effective integration without changing the
of and between immigrants and locals are problems that have not been well explored yet. Even America and Canada, countries that have a long history of immigration, have not yet effectively handled the integration of immigrants.
Still, immigration is a weak tie in American and Canadian societies, thus it is also obvious that the northern society needs some more time to explore the problem. Conversely, Mark Granovetter says that social networking interactions are a combination of strong and weak, and both are significantly important for networking. Strong and weak ties have different functions.
In the society, all have some connections, however not all connections are strong. Socially weak ties (W: Wa, Wb, and Wc = individual immigrant) and strong ties (S: Sa, Sb and Sc = individual local person) cannot make friendship, but can make connections. Sa+Sb+Sc could be good friends with strong ties;
however, S+W have weak ties as acquaintances. S+W are different groups of people; they can hold different sections of society together. S can learn much more from W because they do not know about each other. However, S has nothing new to learn from Sa or Sb or Sc, since S knows everything about Sa, Sb or Sc, since they live in a similar society by holding similar values and beliefs.
Therefore, there is nothing new to explore in their relations. But “S” and “W”
can explore a lot with each other.
Figure 11: Bonding network between weak ties and strong ties
ollaboration case nnovation ases
ase A bonding network with group ase B bonding network with individual and group
Wc Wa
Wb
Wc
Sa
Sb
Sc
Wa
Wb
Wc Sc
Sb Sa
Source: own elaboration (Ahmed 2011; Pehkonen 2017)
On the other hand, Wa+Wb+Wc could be good friends, but they lack acquired knowledge about S and their society in which Wa, Wb and Wc reside.
When weak ties move in their own circle, they lack information from strong ties and rely predominantly on ethnic networks, and this was found to be pervasive among immigrant communities (Ahmed 2011). Strong ties make relationships stronger, but weak ties make the relationship informative for strong ties. Since immigrants try to follow the information of the host society, conversely society should also need information about immigration. Immigration discourses attract the majority since it is the weakest part of their society. Stronger ties cannot create any information within or outside because of their similar acquaintances and there is no new information that could be mutually beneficial to each other. However, weak ties strengthen stronger ties by providing new knowledge and information. Every community contains both weak ties and strong ties.
However, they have to share those through a formal channel for fruitful results in the society.
Figure 12: Strengthening weak ties theory for effective integration
Weak ties of immigrants
(W) Strong ties (S) of
host socio-ecological trends
New information/
Resources
Asset for new economy
Effective integration Forming new bonds
Between existing relationships
Bridge between &
Strength of weak ties Bridge between &
Strength of weak ties Taking Benefit of weak ties
Attained target
Egocentric attraction
to
No new information/
Strong ties grasp Weak ties
Source: own elaboration from Gronovetter 1973
Therefore, to make the integration matter stronger, host ties must be stronger,
bring ideas of new jobs, a new start-up business, new transnational connections, new skills and abilities, which strong ties might not provide. Weak ties create an egocentric network that attracts strong ties to grasp weak ties. The relationship between immigrants and locals is a scale interaction, however this small-scale interaction has a macro implication. Dissemination of this small-small-scale relationship can influence and encourage other relationships to build, increase mobility, opportunity and community development by sharing information.
Societal structure deals with strong ties by narrowing their relative aspects to small ties, and this is the reasoning for not having an easy and simple definition of social structure.
The narrative presence of all kinds of ties are crucial for integration.
Immigrants are treated as subgroups separated by their race, ethnicity, and geographical characteristics. The social system of the Arctic also lacks weak ties and new ideas for the development of the region at the same time. The Arctic society perhaps combines weak ties and the new ideas that these ties stimulate in the evolution of the social system, since increasing specialisation and interdependency can result in a wide variety of role-sets. Immigrants and their weak ties can be transformed with new clusters of thoughts. According to Sack’s tendency “8”, if the Arctic characteristics are also a “mold” or empty container, it is possible perhaps to fill the container with innovative ideas and weak ties.
Arctic characteristics is one of the added values for weak ties to provide new insights to an innovative cluster.
The Yearbook of Polar Law V (2013): 603–640