'THEY ALL ENCOURAGED ME TO DO IT, BUT AFTER ALL, THE DECISION IS MINE' : Marriage Practices among Diaspora Somalis in Finland

This article has two main goals. First, it describes the processes and practices of Somali marriages in Finland, in order to help fill the gap in the literature on Somali marriage practices. Particular attention is paid to three major aspects of the marriage process: finding a spouse, organising the marriage arrangements and the celebrations. The second goal is to contribute to the current debate on migration and arranged marriages. In doing so, particular attention is paid to the role of the family in these three aspects of marriage. This article draws from 35 individual interviews, participant observations in five marriage ceremonies, as well as five focus group discussions. I argue that, despite the deep involvement of family members in the marriage process, unlike in forced and (common) arranged marriages, Somali couples take a leading role and make major decisions, although they are expected to seek their parents' consent.Peer reviewe

Immigrant Children, Educational Performance and Public Policy : a Capability Approach

This article reports on the relationship between the educational performance of second-generation students, the attitude of majority society towards immigrants and integration policy in the destination country. It argues that the educational underperformance of second-generation students is to some extent a product of an inequality in different students’ abilities to materialise educational opportunities provided by the destination country’s education system. This inequality in abilities is generated by the human diversity of the different groups: immigrants vs. non-immigrants; voluntary immigrants vs. refugees. Depending on the integration context, the human diversity may exacerbate the inequality and cause the performance gap to get wider. The article uses data from two qualitative studies with the Somali community in Finland and employs the capability approach. Due to their background as the children of refugees from Somalia and the attitude of people in mainstream society, Finnish-Somali students face more challenges in materialising educational opportunities. The Finnish context in which they find themselves puts these students in a less encouraging position for two reasons. First, prejudice and discrimination may weaken their will and confidence to learn and reduces their parents’ will to cooperate with their schools. Second, their parents—due to their lack of knowledge of the school system and proficiency in the Finnish language—are also relatively less effective in the Finnish schooling system. To deal with the performance gap between immigrant and native children in schooling, public policy should focus on how the integration context is shaping diverse students’ abilities (capability sets) to succeed.Peer reviewe

Somali State Failure: Players, Incentives and Institutions

In Somalia the central government collapsed in 1991 and since then state failure became a widespread phenomenon and one of the greatest political and humanitarian problems facing the world in this century. Thus, the main objective of this research is to answer the following question: What went wrong? Most of the existing literature on the political economy of conflict starts from the assumption that state in Africa is predatory by nature. Unlike these studies, the present research, although it uses predation theory, starts from the social contract approach of state definition. Therefore, rather than contemplating actions and policies of the rulers alone, this approach allows us to deliberately bring the role of the society – as citizens – and other players into the analyses. In Chapter 1, after introducing the study, a simple principal-agent model will be developed to check the logical consistence of the argument and to make the identification of causal mechanism easier. I also identify three main actors in the process of state failure in Somalia: the Somali state, Somali society and the superpowers. In Chapter 2, so as to understand the incentives, preferences and constraints of each player in the state failure game, I in some depth analyse the evolution and structure of three central informal institutions: identity based patronage system of leadership, political tribalism, and the Cold War. These three institutions are considered as the rules of the game in the Somali state failure. Chapter 3 summarises the successive civilian governments’ achievements and failures (1960-69) concerning the main national goals, national unification and socio-economic development. Chapter 4 shows that the military regime, although it assumed power through extralegal means, served to some extent the developmental interest of the citizens in the first five years of its rule. Chapter 5 shows the process, and the factors involved, of the military regime’s self-transformation from being an agent for the developmental interests of the society to a predatory state that not only undermines the interests of the society but that also destroys the state itself. Chapter 6 addresses the process of disintegration of the post-colonial state of Somalia. The chapter shows how the regime’s merciless reactions to political ventures by power-seeking opposition leaders shattered the entire country and wrecked the state institutions. Chapter 7 concludes the study by summarising the main findings: due to the incentive structures generated by the informal institutions, the formal state institutions fell apart

Lawlessness and economic governance: the case of hawala system in Somalia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how informal money transfer system known as hawala works in Somalia. The paper also intends to contribute to the current debate on the lawlessness and economics of governance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an institutional approach and a simple game theoretical model. The author interviewed agents and informants of the hawala system but mainly relied on surveying the literature. Findings – To support economic relationships and increase the future cost of hold ups by their agents, the hawala companies, with the help of two main social institutions, use seven main strategies. Research limitations/implications – A research on contract enforcement should involve with the contract partners (i.e. firms and agents) and third part enfocers (i.e. social groups). However, the author findings are based on surveying the existing literature and interviewing on a small number of agents and other informants in the West. Further, research should examine the practical experience of owners/managers of the firms and the traditional/religious leaders. Practical implications – Establishing future formal commercial laws in Somalia, currently functioning informal mechanisms should be taken into great consideration. Originality/value – This paper is one of very few research studies on the hawala system. Further more, little if any attention has been paid on economic governance aspect of the system by these studies. According to the authors' knowledge the paper is the only one that considers economic governance with the case of complete picture of statelessness in our contemporary world.Commercial law, Governance, Money, Somalia

‘Doing family’ as a separated household: the experience of Syrian refugees in Germany and Lebanon

Tuzi I. ‘Doing family’ as a separated household: the experience of Syrian refugees in Germany and Lebanon. In: Tiilikainen M, Hiitola J, Ismail AA, Palander J, eds. Separated Families. Forced Migration, Everyday Insecurities and Transnational Tactics. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer; 2023: 165-181

International Human Rights Frameworks in Relation to National Family Reunification Policy and Administrative Practice

Palander J, Barake U, Gustafsson H, et al. International Human Rights Frameworks in Relation to National Family Reunification Policy and Administrative Practice. In: Tiilikainen M, Hiitola J, Ismail AA, Palander J, eds. Forced Migration and Separated Families. Everyday Insecurities and Transnational Strategies. IMISCOE Research Series. Cham: Springer; 2023: 15-40