Boundaries of Finnishness: How military-related encounters with majority Finns shape experiences of belonging to Finland for conscripts with a migrant background

Abstract

Although previous studies have shown that people with migrant backgrounds are often categorized as other in their everyday encounters with the majority, less is known about how the boundaries of belonging to a nation are shaped in the context of specific institutions. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we analyzed how conscript service makes Finnish conscripts with a migrant background visible in their military-related encounters with majority Finns both during conscript service and in civilian life and how this visibility produces experiences of (non)belonging to these conscripts. We identified three themes that depict how these conscripts had experiences of standing out among other conscripts for not representing the traditional view of a Finnish soldier, but also of having their Finnishness recognized by others due to performing military service. In addition, conscripts (re)negotiated their belonging to Finland by making their conscript service visible to others. Overall, the results highlight the intricate and context-specific ways in which militaries as social institutions shape perceptions of who is considered to belong to a nation creating both experiences of sameness and otherness for conscripts with a migrant background.

Introduction

Numerous studies have shown that people with migrant backgrounds are often racialized and categorized as other in their everyday encounters with the majority (e.g., Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Sparre, 2021; Toivanen, 2014). However, less attention has been paid to how specific institutions construct the boundaries of belonging to a nation. Militaries are social institutions that both construct and are constructed by society at large, its structures, and its values (e.g., Krebs, 2004). Social changes, such as increased migration and gender equality, shape military organizations challenging the typically masculine and white organizations to better reflect the surrounding society in Western countries (Kouri, 2021; Moelker and Salah, 2022; Ware, 2010). At present, however, militaries are still rather homogeneous organizations (e.g., Armor and Gilroy, 2010; Pendlebury, 2022) which makes it harder for minority group members to resemble the military culture’s ideal soldier (Kouri, 2021; Pendlebury, 2022). However, performing military service may also change the majority’s view of minority group members because serving in the military is often considered a valued service to the nation (Bontenbal et al., 2024a; De Rosa and Szvircsev Tresch, 2022; Kosonen et al., 2023; Ware, 2010).

This paper studies Finnish conscripts with a migrant background and uses reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2019, 2021) to examine how performing military service constructs experiences of belonging to Finland for them, focusing on the role of military-related encounters with majority Finns. We aim to address the following two research questions: (1) how performing conscript service makes conscripts with a migrant background visible in their encounters with majority Finns both during conscript service and in civilian life and (2) how this visibility produces experiences of (non)belonging to Finland to them. Our analysis is based on 24 interviews with conscripts with a migrant background. Drawing from previous research and theoretical discussions on racialization, (in)visibility and belonging (e.g., Ahmed, 2007; Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017; Yuval-Davis, 2006), especially in the contexts of Nordic countries (e.g., Garner, 2014; Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Lundström, 2017; Sparre, 2021) and militaries (e.g., Nguyễn, 2024; Pendlebury, 2022; Sion, 2016), we examine how the boundaries of Finnishness are constructed in the context of the Finnish military.

Migrant (in)visibility in the Nordic context

Previous migration research has used the terms visibility and invisibility to describe how certain migrant groups are categorized as other by the majority population, while other migrant groups are perceived to pass as majority group members (e.g., Fortier, 2000; Ghorashi, 2010; Juul, 2014; Leinonen, 2012). This is a complex racialization process in which (in)visibility is structurally imposed on individuals based on many intersecting features, such as whiteness, class, religion and language (Ahmed, 2007; Ghorashi, 2010; Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017; Toivanen 2014). Migrant groups that are perceived as similar to the majority group in the host country, for example in terms of being white, may blend in and move unnoticed thus becoming ‘invisible’ amongst the majority (Fortier, 2000; Lundström, 2017). At the same time, non-white migrant groups are perceived to stand out making them ‘visible’ as racial minorities (Ahmed, 2007; Juul, 2014; Sparre, 2021). This creates hierarchies between groups (Fortier, 2000; Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017) and often the invisible migrant groups are viewed more favorably by the majority and other migrants, whereas the visibly different groups may become excluded and targets of racism (Bontenbal, 2023; Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Lundström, 2017). Construction of (in)visibility, therefore, is about constructing boundaries of sameness and otherness and revolves around questions of who is considered to belong to the community and who is not and what are the requirements for belonging (Anthias, 2002; Fortier, 2000; Yuval-Davis, 2006).

In the Nordic context, national identities have been constructed in relation to an alleged homogeneity in terms of whiteness, culture, language, and religion (Garner, 2014; Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017; Sparre, 2021; Toivanen, 2014). These factors have an impact on who is considered to belong to the imagined community of the nation (Anderson, 1983) and who, on the other hand, to visible racial minorities (Sparre, 2021; Toivanen, 2014). This, in turn, may influence an individual’s sense of belonging to a nation, understood here as an emotional attachment and a feeling of being ‘at home’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006: 197). For example, a Swedish study showed that white migrants could pass as majority group members and were often assumed to be Swedes, whereas non-white Swedes were categorized as immigrants and had to prove their Swedishness to others by bringing up their citizenship or place of birth (Lundström, 2017). This demonstrates the role of racism and racialization processes in the construction of belonging in the Nordic context (Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017; Lundström, 2017).

In this regard, Finland is not different from other Nordic countries as the understanding of Finnish national identity has traditionally been constructed around ethnic and cultural homogeneity (e.g., Hoegaerts et al., 2022). Finnishness is often equated with whiteness excluding many from the category irrespective of their citizenship, Finnish language skills or period of residence (Hoegaerts et al., 2022; Rastas, 2005; Toivanen, 2014). This racialization process relates not only to embodied features but also to, for example, having a foreign-sounding name, dressing differently or speaking Finnish with an accent (Leinonen, 2012; Toivanen, 2014). All these aspects can locate people in the category “immigrant”, which often evokes problem-focused, racialized and class-based discourse, that is often associated with migrants from, for example, the global South and Eastern Europe, whereas migrants from Western countries are viewed more positively (Krivonos, 2020; Leinonen, 2012; Toivanen, 2014).

While prior research has strongly demonstrated that other groups and external structures, such as the state, media or other institutions, play a significant role in imposing (in)visibility on individuals (e.g., Ahmed, 2007; Ghorashi, 2010), less attention has been paid to how individuals negotiate their own (in)visibility (but see e.g., Juul, 2014; Sparre, 2021; Toivanen, 2014). Individuals may attempt to enforce their visibility in certain situations and downplay it in others in various ways to be seen by others in a way they prefer, for example, to become recognized by or to pass amongst the majority (Ahmed, 2007; Juul, 2014; Krivonos, 2020; Sparre, 2021). For example, a study about young Kurds in Finland showed that young people resisted and opposed the racializing categorizations imposed on them and re-negotiated “the meanings of “Finnishness” either through their membership in the community of Finnish speakers or through civic notions of belonging to the state” (Toivanen, 2014: 198). Based on the above-mentioned research, we understand (in)visibility as something that is both structurally imposed and under negotiation (e.g., Sparre, 2021) and examine it in the previously under investigated context of the military.

Migrant participation in the armed forces

In many Western countries, minorities including people with migrant backgrounds are underrepresented in the military compared to the overall population (e.g., Armor and Gilroy 2010; Pendlebury, 2022; Resteigne, 2022). Thus, the military is often perceived as white, which may exclude those who cannot relate to that and further constitute whiteness as the norm (Moelker and Salah, 2022; Nguyễn, 2024; Ware, 2010). Migrants’ participation in the military may be inhibited by both external and internal factors. The external factors include, for example, language requirements, legal immigrant status, citizenship and/or a security clearance (Holmberg and Pahv, 2022; Pendlebury, 2022; Resteigne, 2022; Sullivan, 2014), whereas the internal factors refer to military culture and resistance to diversification (Resteigne, 2022). For instance, children of unauthorized immigrants cannot enlist in the military in the US (Sullivan, 2014) and the military uniform instructions prevent the use of a hijab in Finland thus excluding some Muslim women from the military (Bontenbal et al., 2024b; Nguyễn, 2024). Hence, not all people with migrant backgrounds and ethnic and religious minorities have equal access to the military. In practice, while diversity may be stated as a goal, militaries may do little to achieve it (Moelker and Salah, 2022; Mylläri and Terävä, 2010; see also Ware, 2010).

As social institutions, militaries construct the boundaries of citizenship and nationality (Ware, 2010). The way the army is represented affects people’s perceptions of who represents a typical soldier, who feels included in the army, and who should be admitted to the army (Pendlebury, 2022). Having been born and raised in a country is often taken as a guarantee of one’s loyalty to and identification with the nation and as an assurance of sameness in terms of cultural values and practices (Holmberg and Pahv, 2022; for other contexts see, e.g., Ghorashi, 2010). Thus, migrants and other minority group members may be required to prove their trustworthiness and loyalty and be expected to assimilate into the military culture and become like the majority (Moelker and Salah, 2022). In a similar vein, previous research has shown that there are ethnic hierarchies between minority groups in militaries (Sion, 2016) and that navigating in the military’s social environment is easier for migrants whose characteristics resemble the military culture’s ideal soldier more closely than for migrants whose characteristics are viewed as different and who thus may experience othering and exclusion (Pendlebury, 2022).

While some studies have been hopeful of the military’s ability to support integration in societies (e.g., Mazumder, 2019), others have been more critical of this showing that migrants and ethnic minorities face various difficulties such as limited career opportunities, discrimination and/or racism in the military (e.g., Ben-Shalom et al., 2023; Kosonen et al., 2023; Nguyễn, 2024; Pendlebury, 2022). The military’s potential positive effect on integration is often associated with increased intergroup contact (Mazumder, 2019) and the idea that military service may serve as proof of being both a good soldier and a good citizen for migrants (Ben-Shalom et al., 2023; Sullivan, 2014). This is because being a soldier has a symbolic meaning as a valued service for the nation and as manifestation of national belonging (Ware, 2010). Indeed, a recent Swiss survey study found that migrant conscripts expected military service to act as a signal to others of one’s citizenship and thus result in their being seen as more Swiss (De Rosa and Szvircsev Tresch, 2022). However, these effects may not apply equally to all conscripts with a migrant background but may depend on their position in the military’s ethnic hierarchy and on how much they resemble the military culture’s ideal soldier (Pendlebury, 2022; Sion, 2016).

In Finland, only a few studies have investigated the experiences of people with migrant backgrounds or that of ethnic, religious or racialized minorities in the military. Previous research on conscripts with a migrant background has examined their labour market integration (Bontenbal et al., 2024a), reasons for joining military service (Bontenbal et al., in press), national defence relationship (Kosonen et al., 2023) and experiences of (in)equality (Bontenbal et al., 2024b). In addition, previous studies have examined military discourses, instructions and courses of action, revealing that they often construct normative notions of whiteness and masculinity, thus potentially excluding women and ethnic and religious minorities (Mylläri and Terävä, 2010; Nguyễn, 2024). To our knowledge, no research has yet examined how Finnish conscripts with migrant backgrounds become visible in their military-related encounters with majority Finns and how these experiences construct sense of belonging to Finland for these conscripts (for professional military contexts see Arribas et al., 2019; Sion, 2016).

Context of the study

We collected our data in Finland where currently, about 570 000 people (10% of the Finnish population) have a foreign background (Statistics Finland, 2023). Numerous studies and surveys have documented that people with a foreign background and racialized, ethnic, and religious minorities face racism and discrimination in Finland (e.g., ECRI, 2019; FRA, 2023; Kuusio et al., 2023). This includes, for instance, harassment, insults, impolite treatment and/or violence (Castaneda et al., 2015; FRA, 2023), discrimination in the housing and labor markets, such as difficulties obtaining job interviews (Ahmad, 2020; FRA, 2023), and hate speech (ECRI, 2019).

As the number of people with a migrant background has increased in Finland, so has the number of conscripts with a migrant background serving in the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF). Unlike in countries where serving in a professional army can lead to acquiring citizenship (see, e.g. Arribas et al., 2019; Sullivan, 2014; Ware, 2010), national defense in Finland is based on general conscription that requires citizenship and is tied to gender. All male citizens aged 18–60 have an obligation to take part in the military defense of Finland by completing either armed, unarmed or non-military service before the age of 30, while female citizens aged 18–29 can apply for voluntary military service (Conscription Act of Finland, 2007). In Europe, for example, Austria, Greece, Lithuania, Sweden, and Switzerland also have conscription systems (Lillemäe et al., 2023). Some countries (e.g., Estonia, Switzerland) have systems that oblige men to participate in conscript service, whereas others (e.g., Sweden, Norway) have implemented gender-neutral conscription systems (De Rosa and Szvircsev Tresch, 2022; Kosonen and Mälkki, 2022; Lillemäe et al., 2023).

In Finland, approximately 62–65% of every male age cohort completes their conscript service, 6-7% opt for non-military service and around 30% is exempted from military service due to various health and mental health issues and adjustment and behavioral problems. Only about a dozen individuals per every male age cohort refuse all forms of service in the conscription system (total objectors) with a punishment of imprisonment. In 2023, a little under 5% of the approximately 18800 conscripts who completed their conscript service were women (Finnish Defence Forces Statistics, 2024).

Conscript service lasts from 5,5 to 12 months depending on the type of military training (Kosonen and Mälkki, 2022). During conscript service, conscripts reside in military brigades sleeping in shared dormitories and eating, living, and participating in training together with other young people. On weekends and evenings, conscripts have free time, allowing them to leave the garrison (e.g., Hoikkala, 2009). After completing their service, conscripts are mustered out in the FDF’s reserve. Reservists can be commanded to participate in reservist training and to take part in the military defense of Finland if needed (Conscription Act of Finland, 2007).

Although the FDF does not collect information on conscripts’ backgrounds or countries of origin, a survey study by Leinonen and colleagues (2018) found that 94% of conscripts performing conscript service in 2016 and 2017 had a Finnish or Finnish-Swedish background. Thus, the FDF is still a rather homogeneous organization with most conscripts being young white Christian men (Kosonen and Mälkki, 2022; Nguyễn, 2024). Possibly related to this, experiences of discrimination in the military are more common among women and men with a migrant or ethnic minority background than among majority Finnish men (Leinonen et al., 2018). The FDF has recognized the need to consider the increasing diversity in the military and has issued instructions to its staff on how to take this into account (Defence Command, 2023; Finnish Defence Forces, n.d). However, prior research has shown that the military’s official instructions and informal culture are not always aligned and that both Finnish conscripts with a migrant background and racialized Finns experience othering and racism in the military (Bontenbal et al., 2024b; Mylläri and Terävä, 2010; Nguyễn, 2024).

In Finland, participation in national defense is often considered an important aspect of active citizenship (Riikonen et al., 2019) and performing conscript service is thought to reflect one’s national belonging and loyalty to the state (Kosonen et al., 2019). Military service has traditionally been regarded as an important unifying experience and as a rite to male adulthood for Finnish men across generations resulting in an overlap in conceptions of a good soldier, a good man and a good citizen (e.g., Hoikkala, 2009). Seeing conscripts’ increasingly diverse backgrounds against this traditional view of conscript service as a symbol of Finnishness, it is important to understand how conscript service and related encounters construct experiences of belonging to Finland for conscripts with a migrant background.

Method

Participants

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 voluntary Finnish citizens with a migrant background (age 18–44 years). Seventeen of the respondents were performing conscript service at the time of the interviews, and seven respondents were reservists who had already completed their conscript service 2–20 years ago. The respondents’ backgrounds varied: 10 were born in Finland, 11 had moved to Finland and three had never lived in Finland before entering conscript service. Nine respondents had dual nationality and 15 respondents had only Finnish nationality. Twenty-two were men and two were women. Geographically, the respondents’ backgrounds varied from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

All respondents identified as having a migrant background. They had, however, different positions within social categories, such as religion, gender and race, and thus differed in their visibility in relation to the norm of a white Christian male soldier (Nguyễn, 2024). For example, some interviewees had multiple marginalized positions (e.g., they were Muslims, part of a visible racialized minority and their first language was other than Finnish), whereas others were only distinguished from majority Finns, for example, by their names or Finnish language skills (e.g., they were white Christian men born abroad). It is therefore important to note that our interviewees differed considerably in their opportunity to pass as majority Finns.

The data collection was organized in co-operation between the Army Command and two brigades of the Finnish army. The respondents who were performing conscript service at the time of the interviews were recruited in co-operation with the social curators of the two brigades. In the brigades, the first and second authors presented the research to conscripts during classroom lessons and asked voluntary conscripts with a migrant background to participate in the research interviews. The category ‘migrant background’ was not defined to respondents to allow all respondents who categorized themselves as having a migrant background to participate in the research. The voluntary respondents were then interviewed face-to-face at the army facilities, mainly in empty dormitory rooms or classrooms, during the conscripts’ scheduled conscript service time. The support of the staff, particularly social curators, played a key role in the smooth conduction of the interviews and in generating the interviewees’ trust in the research project. The respondents who were reservists at the time of the interviews were recruited through NGOs, emailing lists, personal contact and snowballing and were interviewed either face-to-face, online or by phone depending on the respondent’s wish.

The interviews were conducted in Finnish (20) or in English (4) and the length of the interviews varied from 30 to 60 minutes. In the interviews, the respondents were asked about their reasons for joining conscript service, their experiences of conscript service, social relations during conscript service, their relation to national defense in Finland and how they and other conscripts with a migrant background were treated during conscript service (see Appendix for the interview schedule).

The study followed the administrative instruction of the FDF for research permits and the FDF’s ethics for humanities research (Finnish Defence Forces, 2017). The voluntary interviewees were thoroughly informed about the research project and its data collection, handling, and use of the research data. To protect the interviewees’ privacy, the data is not publicly available, and all identifiable details have been pseudonymized. The data extracts presented below have been translated by the first author.

Analytic approach

The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2019, 2021) to explore the ways in which conscript service makes conscripts with a migrant background visible in their military-related encounters with majority Finns and how this visibility affects these conscripts’ experiences of (non)belonging to Finland. The analysis aimed to generate and interpret patterns of shared meaning, themes, around a core unifying experience across respondents (Braun and Clarke, 2021). The analytic process was more inductive and data-driven than theory-informed, while the researchers’ prior theoretical knowledge of (in)visibility also informed the analytic process and the interpretations. In the analysis, we paid attention to individual meaning-making while also recognizing the role of social context in respondents’ sense-making of their experiences (see, e.g., Fernandez-Jesus et al., 2023).

Following the six-phase approach developed by Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019, 2021), the first author began the interpretative and reflexive analysis process by carefully familiarizing herself with the data by repeatedly listening to the interviews and reading the transcriptions while taking notes (phase 1). By way of this approach, a data set was produced by collating respondents’ accounts of their military-related encounters with majority Finns. All forms of verbal (e.g., commenting on military uniform) and non-verbal (e.g., gazing) encounters with majority Finns were included in the data set when there was a clear link to the military (e.g., an encounter occurred during military service or an encounter in civilian life involved a direct reference to conscript service, such as talking about the army). The first author systematically coded the data set with a data-driven approach capturing semantic meanings (e.g., received attention based on military uniform) (phase 2). Each code represented one observation. The codes were then sorted, and three initial themes were generated after a careful and continuous reflection on the similarities and contrasts in the data (phase 3). A theme identified a unique and coherent pattern of shared meaning that was relevant to the research question and was brought up by various respondents (Braun and Clarke, 2019). The three themes were formed around a core experience, the meaning of which was shared by the respondents, representing the different forms of visibility produced by military service (standing out among other conscripts, having one’s Finnishness recognized, being able to negotiate Finnishness) and the resulting shifting sense of (non)belonging. The themes were then carefully revised and defined (phase 4) through discussions involving all three authors. The themes did not change considerably during the discussions, but the discussions allowed for a more nuanced and reflexive understanding of the themes. After this, the themes were refined and labelled with names that properly described the themes (phase 5). The analytic process was recursive and nonlinear, and it continued until the end of the final phase of the analysis: writing the report (phase 6) (Braun and Clarke, 2019, 2021).

Results

We developed three themes which represented conscripts’ different experiences of belonging to Finland based on their visibility in military-related encounters with majority Finns. The first theme is centered around experiences of standing out among other conscripts and demonstrates how, despite having Finnish citizenship and serving in the military, respondents became categorized as racial minorities in their encounters in the military. The second theme delves into experiences of becoming recognized as Finnish addressing the types of military-related encounters discussed by the respondents in which others categorized respondents as Finns based on visible and audible markers of conscript service. The third theme is centered around experiences of negotiating Finnishness and describes how respondents used conscript service to (re)negotiate their belonging to Finland in encounters with majority Finns.

‘Some people see me and immediately think ‘okay, he does not speak Finnish’’: Standing out among other conscripts

In the first theme, respondents described situations where they had been marked as different by other conscripts, military staff or other personnel during their conscript service. These situations included, for example, staring and questions based on external factors, such as race, ethnicity or a foreign-sounding name, background-based joking, racist name-calling, and impolite treatment. In all cases, the respondents’ assumed migrant background attracted attention from others, and the common experience was being noticeably different from other conscripts, described by one respondent as ‘white Finnish-born Christians’ (see also Nguyễn, 2024). Although all our respondents reported such experiences, these experiences were more common among respondents who had multiple marginalized positions (e.g., were non-Christian and non-white). These experiences were followed by feelings ranging from acceptance of background-based joking as a part of military comradeship to feelings of frustration and exclusion when respondents felt they were unjustly discriminated against because of their background.

When respondents had been targets of racism and had experienced, for example, harassment or impolite treatment from others, this negative visibility produced nonbelonging to Finland. One of these experiences was described by a reservist with a Middle Eastern background, who told the interviewer about repeated negative encounters with a non-military staff member at the garrison logistic facilities. He recalled how this person had spoken to him and another migrant conscript in a racist and demeaning way and accused them of stealing. He was particularly disappointed when no action was taken towards the staff member. Later in the interview, when he was asked if conscript service had affected his feelings of belonging to Finland, he came back to the subject.

Extract 1: A reservist with a Middle Eastern background

I thought that before [conscript] service I had it [feeling of belonging to Finland] a bit more, and then what happened to me during service decreased it. […] I thought that when they called me into the Finnish military, they accepted me as a Finn, and then when you go there, and based on the fact that you don’t understand the instructor’s speech perfectly because your first language isn’t Finnish, and you’re not perfect in terms of culture in the same way as a Finn, [people] don’t understand what Muslims do, or a person who comes from another culture. […] There has been a lot of misunderstandings and I thought in the beginning that surely people would understand these things, but maybe not.

In this extract, the respondent explains how he had first felt ‘accepted’ as a Finn when he had been invited to enter conscript service, but how instead others had treated him differently during service because ‘you’re not perfect in terms of culture in the same way as a Finn’. He recalls that there were ‘a lot of misunderstandings’ related to culture, language and religion that constantly reminded him of his place as other and located him outside the boundaries of Finnishness. This extract shows how this conscript felt that he stood out among other conscripts based on the intersection of his Finnish language competence, culture and religion and how the unjust and discriminating behavior decreased the respondent’s sense of belonging both to the army and to Finland in general. In contrast, some incidents that our respondents perceived as more minor, such as background-based joking or being talked to in English based on a foreign-sounding name, were often experienced as irritating but could be laughed at or dismissed as part of military bonding (see also Anthias, 2002). In the next extract, a reservist explains how the military service made her realize the ways in which she was different from the majority.

Extract 2: A reservist with an Asian background

Of course, I knew I was stared at a lot. […] If you have to work hard as a woman to be credible in a man’s world, you have to work even harder when you are a woman and member of a minority. […] Like I went there as a woman until I realized that oh yes, I’m not the traditional woman, I’m a member of a minority. But this is maybe kind of a blind spot for me that I don’t spend every minute thinking ‘oh yes, I have dark skin’.

In this extract, the respondent describes how being in the military, a traditionally masculine institution (Kouri, 2021), reminded her that she is not only a woman but a member of a racialized minority in Finland as her race and gender together attracted attention from others. Both women we interviewed described similar experiences of being the object of stares and questions due to their double minority position as minority women. Thus, for these respondents, the practices of institutionalized whiteness and masculinity together differentiated them from other conscripts making them visible among them (see e.g., Ware, 2010).

While all interviewees recalled some experiences of drawing attention based on not resembling the ideal of a white Christian male soldier (Nguyễn, 2024), for instance, for having a foreign-sounding name (see also Kubota et al., 2023), these experiences of standing out were more common among members of visible minorities, especially if they had multiple marginalized positions. This illustrates the hierarchical boundaries between different minority groups in militaries (Sion, 2016) and that it is easier to pass among other conscripts and experience belonging for conscripts who resemble more closely the military’s ideal soldier (Pendlebury, 2022).

‘I remember when wearing the military uniform, you somehow became a better citizen’: Becoming recognized as Finnish

In the second theme, respondents described situations where they had been unexpectedly recognized as Finnish by majority Finns both in public space and in the military. All of these situations were initiated by others. In public space, respondents frequently described occurrences where they had attracted attention from others for wearing army clothes or using army terms, such as the name for the canteen for conscripts (‘sotilaskoti’), while speaking in another language when using public transport or walking down the street. Most of these occurrences were described by non-white respondents possibly because these respondents did not represent the typical image of a white Finnish soldier (Nguyễn, 2024). For example, one white Christian male respondent reasoned that he did not get any attention in public because he could blend in with other conscripts: “there are definitely Finns who look pretty much like me in army clothes”. In the military environment, respondents described situations in which other conscripts or military staff had emphasized that serving in the military makes one Finnish. These situations were generally experienced as positive. While most respondents were pleased by the attention, some also described being surprised and perplexed by the unexpected categorization, as the next extract from the context of conscript service shows.

Extract 3: A conscript with an African background

I thought that Finnish citizenship and Finnishness are two different things. But when I went there [to conscript service], I was told ‘No, you’re a Finn’. Then I tried to haggle a bit and say, ‘I’m a Finnish citizen, but I’m not a Finn.’ Then they said ’No, after all you’re a Finn if you have citizenship and anyway you’re here with us marching, so you belong with us!’ So, I was surprised that the army or any kind of service to Finland fosters your belonging to the society.

Although the respondent had been born in Finland and had spent his whole life in Finland, he entered conscript service thinking that ‘Finnish citizenship and Finnishness are two different things’, possibly relating to his position as a member of a racialized minority and the common understanding of Finnishness as whiteness (e.g., Hoegaerts et al., 2022; Krivonos, 2020). This extract shows the symbolic value of serving in the military in Finland; for his army companions, the combination of civic belonging to the state and active citizenship in the form of serving in the military made the respondent Finnish in their eyes and produced a space of belonging to Finland (see also Toivanen, 2014). The next extract shows how the respondents experienced being recognized as Finnish in military-related encounters in civilian life.

Extract 4: A conscript with an African background

When I go on vacation [from conscript service], when I wear my vacation clothes, the military uniform for vacations, many people encourage [me] if they see me, for example, out in the street. They tell me ‘It’s good that you serve [in the military]’. They encourage me. That really motivates me. Also, my friends are like, they also tell me ‘You’re a Finn once you’ve been in the army’. They suggested [to me] that ‘You’ll become almost Finnish’.

This extract shows how the military uniform acts as a visible marker of the respondent’s Finnishness in the civilian context and makes the respondent’s active participation in Finnish society visible to others, thus attracting positive attention from them. The respondent seems delighted by the strangers’ attention, saying how the attention makes him more motivated. In this way conscript service can increase one’s belonging to Finland both in the eyes of the majority and as an emotional attachment (Yuval-Davis, 2006). The respondent adds that also his friends acknowledge the importance of conscription in Finland, stating that ‘you’re a Finn once you’ve been in the army’. The respondent then clarifies that his friends suggested to him that ‘you’ll become almost Finnish’ constructing Finnishness in this way as something that is nevertheless beyond his reach. In this way the boundaries of belonging were shifting and situated in this theme.

In a similar vein, another respondent described how he was once approached by a stranger in public for wearing the military uniform and how the stranger appraised him saying: “as far as he is concerned, I can live in Finland for as long I like!”. While this positions the respondent as an accepted member of the community, it simultaneously positions him as someone who is assumed to not have the right to live in Finland to begin with and whose belonging is established and earned only through military service (Sullivan, 2014). Thus, performing military service marks the respondent as an active citizen who is not a burden to the state and locates him in the category of “the good migrant”, typically thought to be someone who is similar to Finns, conforms to Finnish norms and is well integrated into society (see, e.g., Bontenbal, 2023). While performing military service made some respondents visibly Finnish for others thus allowing them to feel a sense of belonging to Finland, as in the first extract, other respondents’ experiences indicate that their belonging was constructed as more conditional. Thus, complete belonging to Finland continued to be unattainable for them revealing the exclusive ethnic/racial aspect of belonging to Finland (Toivanen, 2014).

‘You can always tell your military stories’: Negotiating Finnishness

In the third theme, respondents described occurrences in which they actively used their experience of military service to negotiate their belonging to Finland and to make their Finnishness visible to others. All of these instances occurred in civilian life. The experience of being able to show one’s Finnishness had two facets: the respondent either used their military experience to prove their Finnishness in instances where it was or could be questioned by others, or they described instances in which they could use the knowledge gained in the military, such as army language, to join a social group. It was common in both cases that the respondents would actively bring up their conscript service themselves and use it to claim belonging to Finland. In contrast to the other two themes, these experiences did not differ between white and non-white respondents or respondents with multiple marginalized positions. The respondents felt pleased or even triumphant due to this opportunity, depending on the nature of the encounter. For example, a respondent with a European background described how he has referred to his army background in instances where his Finnishness has been challenged, such as ‘in some bar queues’, to resolve the situation.

Extract 5: A reservist with a European background

In that kind of situation […] if somebody comes to, like, if somebody begins to question my Finnishness or something, then it’s usually easy to silence them, as typically this kind of person who’s shouting insults has just barely survived the six-month service, and I have completed the Reserve Officer Course, so at that point, it’s easy to silence them.

This extract shows how completed military service can be used to prove one’s Finnishness and belonging to others who question it. The respondent describes how he has used his military service, and particularly his experience of the Reserve Officer Course, a leadership training for reserve officers in the military, and the value attached to it, to counter others’ categorization of him as an immigrant and to make his Finnishness visible. In this way, the respondent turned the negative experience of racism to his advantage by capitalizing on his military experience and was able to claim belonging to Finland. This made him feel triumphant.

Respondents also used their military service experience as proof of their Finnishness in situations where they thought it could be questioned such as when applying for jobs. For example, a respondent with a Middle Eastern background described how he puts information of his completed military service on his curriculum vitae to improve his chance of getting job interviews because ‘Finns believe that if you have been in the army, you have learned their culture’ (see also Bontenbal et al., 2024a; Toivanen, 2014). In this way respondents used military service to make their Finnishness visible to others who could potentially question it based on, for example, their foreign-sounding name. Others also discussed how military service has helped them to feel socially connected to majority Finns, especially to other men, enabling a sense of belonging among them. For example, in the next extract, a respondent describes how he has been able to draw on his military service to connect with other men in civilian life.

Extract 6: A reservist with a Middle Eastern background

There were a lot of certain words, which are used in spoken language, that I didn’t understand before conscript service. Now in civilian life when I see other men, men that have performed conscript service, they use [these words], talk about the army, I [can] immediately understand what’s going on. […] I feel that it [conscript service] has enabled me to, for example, be part of some social group because nearly every man has performed military service, so I can […] at least talk about the army, [about] everything we did there, and because the men have experienced the army, all the suffering and the joyous moments. The other man has gone through it, and I have gone through it, so it easily becomes so that we are in the same wolf pack.”

In this extract, the respondent describes how performing military service has helped him to feel a sense of belonging to other men in Finland ‘because nearly every man has performed military service’ which, at the same time, constitutes male participation in the military as the norm. He feels joy over the opportunity to bring up his conscript service to showcase his sameness with other Finnish men and to negotiate his belonging in this way, enabling him to be part of ‘the same wolf pack’. In this way, the conscription system creates a common narrative in Finland that unites Finnish men (see, e.g., Hoikkala, 2009) and our respondents used their military stories to bond and showcase their sameness with other Finnish men.

Our female interviewees also had experiences of being able to make their Finnishness visible to majority Finns and claim belonging in this way. For example, one female interviewee described that when she brings up her military service to Finns, they often respond surprised saying that “well you’re one of us then!”. However, as negotiating Finnishness through military experiences and stories is closely linked to masculinity, especially in the context of social bonding, gendered military narratives may limit women’s possibilities to use their military service to claim belonging in these situations.

Discussion

This article has explored how performing military service shapes experiences of belonging to a nation for conscripts with a migrant background. We focused on Finnish conscripts with a migrant background, examining how conscript service made them visible in their military-related encounters with majority Finns and how this visibility produced experiences of (non)belonging to these conscripts. We identified three themes that illustrate how military-related encounters can produce both experiences of sameness and otherness for conscripts with a migrant background, depending on the way they are treated by majority Finns, and how conscripts can also claim and (re)negotiate their belonging to Finland by making their conscript service visible to others.

Our findings contribute to existing research in various ways. First, our results demonstrate how performing military service can, at least in certain situations, shape perceptions of who is considered to belong to a nation (see, e.g., Pendlebury, 2022; Ware, 2010). Our interviewees described many experiences of being recognized by majority Finns as active Finnish citizens fulfilling one’s duty to the nation, for example, by wearing their military uniform in public. While all conscripts, regardless of their background, may become recognized in this way as active citizens who are fulfilling their duty, in our data those interviewees who differed the most from the norm of the white soldier (Nguyễn, 2024) reported the most such experiences of becoming recognized. The interviewees also had experiences of being able to use their conscript service to claim belonging to Finland and to emphasize their sameness with other Finns. These results support the quantitative findings of De Rosa and Szvircsev Tresch (2022), according to which migrant conscripts in Switzerland expected military service to allow them to be seen as more Swiss by the majority. However, our findings additionally reveal that this effect of conscript service is not straightforward and may not be realized: the interviewees were not always considered as fellow Finns during their military service and instead they were categorized as immigrants producing feelings of nonbelonging. This result fits with previous research showing that both social institutions and the attitudes and behavior of the majority can produce (non)belonging (Anthias, 2002; Arribas et al., 2019).

Second, our results show that just as various visible markers of non-Finnishness, such as having a foreign-sounding name, speaking Finnish with an accent or being non-white, categorize people with a migrant background as racial minorities in wider Finnish society (e.g., Krivonos, 2020; Leinonen, 2012; Toivanen, 2014), these same markers locate conscripts with a migrant background outside the boundaries of Finnishness during conscript service. This shows that putting on the military uniform does not automatically eliminate the structural differences and hierarchies between people in society (see also Nguyễn, 2024). Although all conscripts in Finland are Finnish citizens, many of our interviewees’ Finnishness was still questioned during their service and they had experiences of standing out among other conscripts for not representing the traditional view of a Finn. These experiences were more common among conscripts who differed from the ideal soldier of a white Christian man through multiple marginalized positions (e.g., race, religion, gender) and less common among conscripts who resembled more closely the image of the ideal soldier (see also Nguyễn, 2024; Pendlebury, 2022). This shows that there is a hierarchy between minority groups also in the Finnish military context (Sion, 2016) and that participation in key national practices does not make one entitled to belong to a nation when social locations, such as origin, are emphasized in ‘the politics of belonging’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006, 197).

Third, our results contribute to existing research on migrants’ (in)visibility (e.g., Ghorashi, 2010; Guðjónsdóttir, 2014; Sparre, 2021) by revealing how specific institutions and their symbols can make minority group members’ citizenship visible to the majority. As conscript service is a social practice that is deeply rooted in the Finnish society (e.g., Kosonen and Mälkki 2022), performing it can link individuals to the nation producing a place for belonging based on participation in the community (Yuval-Davis, 2006). However, the effect of the visible and audible markers of the military is naturally limited to situations where these markers of civic belonging are or are made apparent. When these markers were absent, our interviewees described experiences of being categorized in the negatively connotated category of immigrant (Bontenbal 2023; Leinonen, 2012; Toivanen, 2014), as in the extract where the interviewee’s Finnishness was questioned in a bar queue. It seems that while the visible markers of the military, such as the military uniform, can have temporary benefits, they do not always protect minority group members from racism or discrimination as the first theme showed (see also Nguyễn, 2024). It is also noteworthy that most of our interviewees had experiences related to two or all three themes and consequently had shifting and sometimes contradictory experiences of belonging. Our results thus show that the construction of (in)visibility and the related sense of belonging in the military context is dynamic and situational process where structures and social relations play a key role, but where there is also room for negotiation (for other contexts see e.g., Sparre, 2021; Toivanen, 2014).

Fourth, our interviewees’ experiences of standing out among other conscripts during conscript service because of their physical appearance, race, religion, language skills or a foreign-sounding name support previous findings of the institutionalized whiteness of the Finnish military and the ideal of the white Christian male soldier (Nguyễn, 2024; for other military contexts, see, e.g., Moelker and Salah, 2022; Ware, 2010). In this context, institutionalized whiteness refers to ‘the repetition of the passing by of some bodies and not others’ constituting a ‘white space’ where individuals passing as white can move comfortably and unnoticed, whereas non-white bodies stand out and become exposed for being out of place (Ahmed, 2007: 159). Moreover, the experiences of our interviewees belonging to visible racialized minorities, of being surprisingly approached by majority Finns in public for wearing their military uniform or using military-related vocabulary, further make the norm of the white conscript apparent. Although the received attention was positive, possibly because the military service is valued in Finland, what attracted the attention of the strangers and made the conscripts stand out was the visible markers of conscript service combined with the interviewees’ non-whiteness (see also Ahmed, 2007). Thus, while performing military service can increase migrants’ belonging to a nation in the eyes of the majority thus enhancing, for example, their career opportunities (Bontenbal et al., 2024a; De Rosa and Szvircsev Tresch, 2022), this does not challenge the existing power relations, but instead reproduces them as the criteria for those who belong and who do not remain the same (see, e.g., Ahmed, 2007; Krivonos, 2020).

In terms of visibility and belonging, it is also important to consider the role of gender. Historically, the military has been a male-dominated environment (e.g., Yuval-Davis, 2006), and prior research has indicated that the bodies of female officers become visible in the Finnish military for not representing the masculine ideal (Kouri, 2021). Also our female respondents reported experiences of standing out due to their double minority position as women with a migrant background in the military. While the experiences of becoming recognized as Finnish did not differ between female and male respondents, gendered military narratives that unite men (Hoikkala, 2009) may constrain minority women’s possibilities to negotiate Finnishness especially concerning bonding. At the same time, performing conscript service may also serve as a greater sign of national belonging for women as it is voluntary for them. This may explain why our female respondents’ right to be in the military was not questioned based on their double minority position, although they stood out among other conscripts, contrary to findings in other military contexts where minority women have been accused of taking the places of majority men (see e.g., Pendlebury, 2022).

From a practical perspective, our findings demonstrate that performing military service can produce both experiences of belonging and nonbelonging for conscripts with a migrant background, depending on the way they are treated by personnel and other conscripts. This can influence how these conscripts perceive their time in conscript service and how they feel included in society after completing their service. Therefore, it is important for militaries to carefully review their formal and informal norms and practices and whether they produce a sense of belonging, a feeling of being ‘at home’ (Yuval-Davis, 2006: 197), to all soldiers regardless of their background. Militaries should also further consider how they can better take into account those soldiers who do not fit the traditional norm of the white and masculine soldier (Kouri, 2021; Moelker and Salah, 2022; Nguyễn, 2024; Ware, 2010). This is especially important in countries such as Finland where national defense is based on mandatory conscription and thus a large proportion of each age cohort enters conscript service every year.

Our study also has limitations. First, our positions and previous knowledge naturally influenced and shaped the data collection, the analytic process and the interpretation of the data and thus shaped the knowledge this paper produced (Braun and Clarke, 2019, 2021). For example, the interviewers’ position as white women representing the non-military personnel of the Army Command of Finland may have promoted open discussion of some topics (e.g., by increasing a sense of shared understanding of the military environment) while restraining it for others (e.g., by being considered majority Finns). This may have encouraged interviewees to give answers they considered as socially acceptable and encouraged conscripts with more positive experiences to participate in the research, while conscripts with more negative experiences may not have wanted to share their stories. Nevertheless, many interviewees brought up critical perspectives and negative experiences, giving us confidence in the richness of our data. Second, there were only two women among our 24 interviewees. While both women brought up being the object of stares and questions due to their double minority position, our small sample prevented us from conducting a detailed analysis on the intersection of gender and migrant background. Third, our respondents’ backgrounds and positions were diverse, and they were not part of a single marginalized group. While this choice allowed us to show, for example, how the experiences were both similar and different between people with different positions, focusing on particular minority groups, such as religious and/or racialized minorities, could bring out the uniqueness of their experience. Future research with an intersectional approach is needed to further examine how gender, race, migrant background and other minority positions intersect in producing (non)belonging and whether the possibility to negotiate Finnishness based on military service applies equally to all minorities.

To conclude, by focusing on how military-related encounters with the majority make conscripts with a migrant background visible and thus shape their experiences of belonging to Finland, our research reveals the intricate ways in which the boundaries of belonging are constructed in relation to an institution considered to be a symbol of national identity. While the positive value attached to military service in Finland enhanced these conscripts’ Finnishness in the eyes of the majority population momentarily in instances where the conscripts brought it up or when it was visibly marked by, for example, the military uniform, these conscripts also experienced standing out among other conscripts for not representing the traditional narrow understanding of the ideal Finnish soldier. This shows that the military can produce both experiences of sameness and otherness. Future research is needed to examine how these processes shape belonging in other institutional contexts.