Far-right European leaders argue non-Western immigrant culture is inherently incompatible with European values – that multiculturalism divides society rather than fostering acceptance. But it seems counterproductive to tell an immigrant teen that she will always be worlds apart from the classmates she sits next to at school every day. Immigrant teens are especially hard-hit by the far-right rhetorics, with researchers finding a relationship between anti-belonging discourse and lowered intellectual performance or worsening mental health. Yet a new Finnish study finds that immigrant teens are likely to make friends from both their origin culture and their new country at similarly high rates. The fears of long-term non-integration may therefore be somewhat overblown – today’s teens are already forming the bonds that will shape tomorrow’s Europe.
Yearning for a sense of cultural belonging within a national community goes beyond teen stereotypes of placing too much attention on others’ perceptions of them. Previous research has established the link between feeling socially excluded or sidelined in school and mental health, physical health, and developmental tasks, including academic performance. Compared to their native peers, immigrant teens who feel ostracised in their local community are at a higher risk of having anxiety, depression, and lower overall well-being.
In a 2024 paper, Rekar Abdulhamed and Kirsti Lonka develop a novel scale for quantifying the different ways immigrant-origin teens acculturate as well as their senses of belonging and employ their measure on data from youths in Finland. Finland stands out for two reasons: this Nordic country has one of the lowest immigration rates in Europe, and its educational system places strong importance on acculturation policies for foreigners. The Finnish context allows us to isolate how teens choose to acculturate in a supportive state system: if one believes that non-Western immigrants are inherently incompatible with Western culture, then even in a supportive, rich state they should resist integrating with their classmates.
The researchers used survey data both from first-generation migrants and those from a second (or greater) generation, i.e., teens who were born in Finland and had at least one foreign-born parent. The researchers’ scale, called the Compact Acculturation Scale (CAS), measures how young migrants balance their heritage culture and the culture of their new country. Six different profiles emerged from their survey data, from most to least acculturated: High Integration (22% of the sample), Medium Integration (49%), Neo-Culture Kids (15%), Assimilation (6%), Separation (6%), and Marginalised (2%).
Over half of all the surveyed teens fell into the High and Medium Integration groups and feel strong attachments to both the culture of their parents and of Finland. This represents the most common profile for first-generation teen migrants in the sample. The first-generation teenagers surveyed had only been in Finland for five years or less, so it is perhaps unsurprising that they are attached to their heritage culture. However, the finding that most of this group is also very integrated into Finnish society shows that they desire and can successfully adapt to their new country’s society.
Teens who had spent more than five years in Finland were predominantly in the High or Medium Integration categories. These groups included first-generation migrants who had lived in Finland for over five years and teens born in Finland with at least one foreign-born parent. However, these teens also made up the largest parts of the Separationist as well as the Assimilationist categories. Members of the former group emphasised their parents’ heritage over Finnish culture, and those of the latter focused primarily on adopting Finnish ways. Young people generally become closer to their host country’s culture the more time they spend in it, but this trend can be changed if they experience discrimination. Indeed, the paper found that teens who had spent over five years in Finland and had experienced discrimination were more likely to be closer to their heritage culture, suggesting that the experience of exclusion may push them towards their cultural roots as a coping mechanism.
Marginalised teens are disengaged from both cultural contexts and may lack social interaction. These respondents more often experience social isolation and are more vulnerable to discrimination compared to those integrating with at least one culture. Their experience raises the question of whether these individuals can indeed be classed as an acculturation type, or if their situation is more reflective of broader social-adjustment issues, which are linked with mental health burdens and disorders. Although only 2% of all the teens sampled fell into the Marginalised group, those who did were primarily first-generation migrants. Despite the majority of first-generation teens integrating very well, around 10% of them felt alienated from both social domains. The diversity of first-generation migrants’ experiences lends weight to calls for early acculturation initiatives, especially given how a lack of belonging can negatively affect mental and physical health.
A final group rejected binary attachments to either heritage or Finnish cultures. The Neo-Culture Kids created a ‘new’ culture based on their friendships. This profile was more common among girls and first-generation teens. Nonetheless, Neo-Culture Kids also reported lower self-esteem, suggesting that integrating through relationships alone may not provide enough stability if it is not accompanied by acculturation efforts as well. Tellingly, High Integration teens had the highest reported self-esteem, and Marginalised teens had the lowest levels, echoing the established links between well-being and sense of belonging.
Per the figure, five of the six profiles share high values for the two friendship columns, suggesting that regardless of the surveyed teens’ attitudes towards culture, they prioritise spending time with friends from both Finnish and heritage backgrounds. The authors remark that compared to adults, adolescents must acculturate in a school environment, where they closely interact with native Finns. The friendship indicator may therefore present a better picture of how much teens feel they belong on a day-to-day basis in their communities, such as school, independently of any acculturation pressures.
The six profiles are limited in their applicability beyond the sample, so they cannot paint the full picture for how migrants adapt in Finland or elsewhere – nor was this the scope of the research. The sample over-represented respondents from relatively high-income groups, whose parents had, on average, university degrees and had employment rates higher than average for immigrants in Finland. In the sample, Marginalised teens were more likely to have unemployed parents with little education, but looking at all the teens from families with lower-education backgrounds shows that most were in the High Integration category (41%). Overall, the study shows that regardless of background, all respondents were united by a desire to form personal relationships with friends of both cultures.
Migrants’ integration experiences are strongly shaped by their host country’s expectations of acculturation as well as the acculturation norms within their minority group. Finland is quite unique in its integration policies for migrants in school. The most recent Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) from 2020, ranked Finland second only to Sweden in its educational policies. Nordic countries’ integration systems generally use an individualised, needs-based approach. Finnish schools provide classes for minority students to continue learning heritage languages within the school system, as well as religious-studies courses in a diverse array of religions.
Admittedly, Finland has a smaller number of immigrant pupils than other countries. It is perhaps not surprising that countries facing unprecedented increases in immigration rates, such as Greece, score poorly on MIPEX’s education indicator. Nonetheless, as MIPEX notes, needs-based approaches like the Nordic countries’ are not the only way to help integrate migrants through education. Canada and Australia, among other countries, have strong policies centred on multiculturalism, while the United States provides increased support for vulnerable minority groups.
As the authors note, further research is needed to understand how immigrant-origin teens are impacted by the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric among Europe’s far right in particular. Part of nativist parties’ success hinges on their promises that they will ‘restore’ the nation’s forgotten community. As election data suggest, many young people are drawn to this rhetoric, even though surveys once indicated tha they were more liberal than their parents.
As The Economist have recently argued, young men especially are increasingly enchanted by promises of recreating a more exclusive vision of society, society vanquishing any value deemed “woke” – including multiculturalism. But given the interconnectedness of modern society and continuously changing global order, we should strive to carve out social landscapes where no group is forced to only look out for itself.