The national network

The third network that came up is the national network. The national network refers to contact the women have with people from the same home country. This network seems to play a central role in the social life of the women. The national network provides them with opportunities for social activities as well as it is described as having practical and emotional benefits. However, the women also mention caution in contact with their national network, and the contact is not always perceived as wishful.

4.4.1 Informal social activities

Contact with nationals is seldomly mentioned in association with social activities within voluntary organisations. Most of the interaction with nationals seems to occur in informal and leisure activities. When one woman was asked where the people, she did leisure activities with came from she answered with:

“From my home country.”

The activities undertaken seem mostly based on food or outdoor life. These are activities generally associated with more relaxation and activities the women enjoy undertaking. One example is given by one of the women:

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“(..) And the next time our friend comes here and sits with my mother and me. We eat together and then he goes back to his town. He came around three to four times, also sometimes with his children.”

Outdoor activities are mostly based on going hiking or skiing when it is winter. A woman describes that she likes to go skiing in Norway. She mostly does this with her husband, but in some cases, she also invites her friends over. On these occasions she enjoys teaching her friends to ski:

“I like to go skiing. In the picture, you see me and my friends, but often I went out skiing with my husband. Sometimes I go skiing with my friends. (..) We taught other people from our home country.”

Picture 4: Teaching friends to ski

Otherwise, nationals seem to be met in a variety of different activities. Giving a bigger scope of social activity than is seen in either the Norwegian or international network. One woman describes the activities with nationals as following:

“We go skiing, we have picnics, we meet each other at parties. Sometimes we have ‘traditional’

parties, so we meet there. And sometimes we meet at just on the streets when I am out.”

It seems that the above-named activities offer a greater deal of relaxation than activities with the majority population. This could be explained by various factors such as: not needing to struggle with language and expressing yourself, not needing to adapt to a different (social) culture, and not being an ‘outsider’.

4.4.2 The duality of the national network

Interaction with members of the national community seems to provide several benefits. The first one being of a more practical kind. One of the women says that she utilized her national community first when settling in Norwegian society. The national community provides the women with a great deal of information relevant to integrating into the new society. She tells

60 how she would gather information in her mother tongue about different topics. If necessary, she could then translate this information into Norwegian later:

“For example, I talk first with those who speak my mother tongue. Those who have lived in Norway for a long time. And they talk with me in my mother tongue, I would then do it in Norwegian. They tell me in my mother tongue how to meet people, where I can find a job etc.

And then I just go there and ask them. This way one can learn a bit better, a bit more gradually, so.. that worked well for me.”

Even one of the women who expressed not to be very keen on engaging with her national community, talked about the benefits that they represented to her. She was in contact with somebody from her homeland that was able to help her with learning the new language.

When talking about the contact one of the women had with her national community she was asked of the contact and the network she had with her national community was a first step towards meeting people from outside that network, she answered:

“Yes, that’s how it happened.”

Her answer indicates that the national community can function as a steppingstone into other social areas.

A benefit with connection to the national community can be that the national community seems to be more easily contacted than for example the majority population. For example, the following quote shows that this woman’s national community uses digital tools to keep or come in contact. Utilizing the national community can therefore be an attractive option for building out the network, because it seems to be more undemanding and leads to quicker results. As one of the women expresses:

“One can also use the internet. I wrote something on a forum for people from my home country, inviting people to drink some coffee somewhere and if somebody has time for that. That wasn’t so difficult (..) I just wrote: Hey, I am new here, do you have time to drink coffee? I got many replies.”

Besides the practical benefits, some of the women also express benefits that have an emotional aspect. The women experience a greater feeling of relaxation in interacting with their national community. One woman explains this as follows:

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“Contact with the people from my home country is very important because I think in English, I speak either Norwegian or English, so sometimes to just speak in my own language I need to meet them. And then the food helps because I do not make that at all. So … it, it is good to vent or just, because when I am speaking in English or Norwegian, I am constantly thinking about something, maybe not translating all the time, but I am thinking all the time. Sometimes it is just to let go, I really like to let go. Much comfortable.”

As mentioned in paragraph 4.3 about the international network, contact with nationals too seems to have a more relaxing influence on the women. As this woman mentions who was in contact with internationals, she is still using a language that is not completely relaxing. Even though her skills in English are good, and she is not translating in her head all the time, the subconscious effort of speaking in a different language is still there. Contact with the national community can therefore be experienced as more relaxing, as the barrier of talking in another language has been removed completely. As her referring to the food, might indicate that it is important for her to be able to partake in some cultural activities that are recognizable for her and not something she needs to think twice about. Partaking in activities and social customs that are recognizable might also enhance the feeling of comfort and relaxation, as there will not be insecurity around correct social behaviour.

Besides the relaxation and comfortable aspect of contact with the national community, one woman also describes the importance of being close with people from her national community.

Her examples also refer to a relationship that seems to be more substantial, such as also mentioned in the paragraph about the international network. She informs us about the following:

“She is from the same country as I. She is my first friend here. We talk a lot about different things. We are very close. She is very important to me.”

She clarifies that contact with the national community is important to her, as she feels that she can talk more about issues that she finds important, as well as she experiences a feeling of understanding. Conversations are described as being

unchallenging. This might point towards the importance of deeper social interaction in connection with the well-being of these women. Her experience also highlights the issue that language and a common (cultural) understanding can play in interacting.

Picture 5: Relaxing with a friend who understands you

62 The same woman goes on to talk about the people she knows here, which she experiences as quite some people. On the other hand, she mentioned that she does not really feel close to many of them:

“I know.. I know quite some people, but I am only close to a few of them. Maybe 10 of them.

They are from my home country.”

She experiences that she knows a lot of people but is not very close to many of them. All of those she is close to, are those from her home country. During the interview, she was laughing a bit when saying this and seemed to give the impression to be a bit ashamed. The fact that for some of the women the people they are close to are from the national community, might not only represent positive aspects. An abundance of contact with the national community in combination with a lack of contact with the majority population might give the impression of being lesser integrated into society or not having tried hard enough to become part of the new society.

Even though contact with the national community is predominantly experienced as positive, the women also mention aspects of contact with the national community that they perceive as negative. The more serious case is one of the women that generally says not to want to be in contact with her national community. In her case, she is familiar with members of her national community but does not have the desire to interact with them. According to her contact with her national community does not always play out well:

“I know many of them, but do not want to be together with them. I do not have the possibility to know all, but I also do not like it. (..) It does not always go well.”

It is conceivable that for some women with an immigrant background, contact with the national community can resemble, or be a potential arena for conflict. To get around these conflicts, the best option might be to avoid the national community. Another factor that could play a role is the presence of social control by the national community. When it comes down to acceptable behaviour, women with a different cultural background might experience a form of social control in the new country. When the women adhere to the new social and cultural norms, this situation might raise conflict with the rest of the community. Distancing oneself from the community can be a strategy to avoid conflict.

63 For other women minimizing contact with the national community is often based on practical grounds. The national community allows them to communicate in their mother tongue, but inherently it also takes away the possibility to practice the new language. Interacting with the national community is therefore seen as a threat for improving the Norwegian skills, and therefore also a reason to circumvent. One as the women puts it as follows:

“Because for example, if somebody comes from my home country, I can talk with them in my mother tongue. That is quite easy. But I do not want to get to know them, because I want to improve my Norwegian. If I just talk in my mother tongue with them all the time, I cannot talk so much Norwegian. So, at school, I do not want to talk in my mother tongue, and that is why I do not want to get to know them at school. In other places it is okay, but at school, I want to speak Norwegian.”

One other woman mentions the disadvantage the national community has in connection to opening for meeting a diverse group of people. She says:

“I do not know if everybody wishes to have it (red: contact with the national community). It is maybe not such a good possibility to just know people from your home country. One must have different friends, I think. I should not... be stuck in my national roots. We are in a different country and must have different friends. And it also helps with the language.”

Minimizing her contact with the national community seems to be about opening for diversity and new possibilities. With the sentence stressing that “we are in a different country and must have different friends” it also seems that she feels the expectation of having friends from different nationalities as she is living in another country. Copious contact with the national community might be perceived by her as a lack of intention in getting to know other people than the people of her home country, which may be perceived as negative by others as well.

What others might think about immigrant women and their contact with the national community could also play a role.