Multicultural Marriages and its Challenges

Study indicates mixed marriages end much more often in divorce
Cultural differences, speedy marriage, and prejudices hamper relationships

By Ann-Mari Huhtanen

Marriages made across cultural lines have appreciably smaller chances of succeeding than those made within the mainstream Finnish population.
This is the rather grim prognosis for mixed marriages in Finland, where a union between a Finnish and a foreign partner is almost three times as likely to end in separation and divorce as one in which both spouses are of Finnish origin.

The less than appealing numbers have come from Elli Heikkilä, Research Director of the Institute of Migration, and Tarja Niemi, Chairman of the Union of Multicultural Families, who have carried out a study of mixed marriages.
At the same time, they only confirm calculations made by Statistics Finland from 2007.
For every 100 marriages between two Finnish partners, the figure for divorces in a single year was 1.3. The corresponding figure for mixed marriages was nearly three times greater.

Of the marriages celebrated in Helsinki in 2007, a total of 14.4% were between a Finnish citizen and a foreigner.
Nearly half of all multicultural knots in Finland are tied in the Greater Helsinki area.
Gender does seem to matter in the divorce statistics: if the man is a Finn and the woman a foreigner, the relationship is more likely to break down than in the case of a Finnish wife and a foreign husband.

"The more distant the culture, the more often a marriage ends in separation", comments Elli Heikkilä, by way of an explanation for the imbalance leading to Finnish men parting more often from their foreign wives.
Finnish men tend quite often to find a foreign spouse from the Philippines or Thailand.Russian brides are also quite common.
Finnish women, on the other hand, tend to marry "outside of the fold" with men from Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East and Turkey.
"Roughly 60 per cent of the immigrants coming into Finland do so for family reasons, accompanying a spouse", says Tarja Niemi.

Multicultural unions are forged more quickly than marriages among the mainstream Finnish population.
The time to get to know the other partner is often quite short, when the path to marriage is speeded up in order to secure a residence permit.
The depressing divorce statistics cannot be explained away merely by indecent haste over getting married, by cultural differences, or by questions of values, however.
Relationships are also buffeted by pressures from the surrounding society, and by prejudices and entrenched attitudes.
"Friends and relatives do not necessarily warm to the new spouse or give their approval very quickly. Acceptance depends on whether a common language can be found and common interests", Niemi goes on.

The local bureaucracy does not help overly much. A spouse who does not speak Finnish requires his or her partner's help in getting residence documents, language training, and in applying for work.
"The authorities also tend to rely on the fact that a Finnish spouse will always be on hand to help out in practical matters", notes Niemi.
The Finnish partner in the marriage often tires of looking after the other. By the same token, the situation is hardly pleasant for the foreign spouse. The sense of not being able to do anything and of being outside the society eats away at the relationship over time.

"A foreign spouse in Finland has to search for his or her role in the society. Back home he has known who he is, but over here he is suddenly nothing", says Niemi.
Pressures on a married relationship are also brought to bear by the suspense over whether or not the other partner will even get a residence permit to live in Finland. Insecurity and long waits while applications are handled are an everyday feature of mixed marriages in this country.

Those who move to Finland for family reasons are often left high and dry without support or advice, even though other immigrants and refugees are provided with help, for instance in adapting to a new culture and society.
Niemi from the Union of Multicultural Families and Heikkilä from the Institute of Migration both call for a greater measure of societal support for multicultural marriages.
At present, help for the marriages and the arranging of peer-group support are seen to be the responsibility of the third sector, in other words voluntary non-profit and non-governmental organisations.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.7.2009