The societal participation of Vietnamese refugees: Case studies in Finland and Canada

This qualitative multiple case study looks at the integration of Vietnamese refugee communities in Finland and Canada, using societal participation as an analytic framework. In both sites, the high priority on economic aspects of participation is indicated by the self‐reported resettlement goals variably expressed as financial stability’, ‘a stable livelihood’, ‘a good job’, ‘a really good job’. These goals should be seen in the light of the aftermath of widespread disruption of regular economic participation in the home country. Vietnamese refugee resettlement in Finland and Canada displays a watershed between arriving ‘in the right place at the right time’ i.e., in a strong economy, when newcomers could be accommodated relatively rapidly into the labour market, or at a later time of harsh economic realities, a much less receptive public mood and bleaker employment prospects. In Finland the parity of opportunity to develop language and labour market related skills has had significant gender‐based implications, fostering the participation of women of all educational and socioeconomic levels in language and labour market training and later in the labour force. The ‘gates’ to economic participation in Canada included opportunities in ethnic enterprise, and ethnospecific settlement services, which are not developed in Finland, where alternatively, seasonal participation in the agricultural sector can be seen to represent a form of biological and geographical adaptation.