Negotiating migrant community needs through social work research: a Finnish example

The implications of increased immigration have been at the top of the political agenda in many European countries for the past decade. The boundaries of inclusion in national welfare states are a fraught political issue provoking heated debate on the limits entitlements. Human services workers are thus often thrust into the forefront of national integration efforts by having to act as gatekeepers to social and health interventions to increasingly diverse populations in homogenously constructed welfare states. This article explores integration in the Finnish human services through an analysis of the secondary data obtained from two migrant community research projects produced by migrants themselves, a project facilitated by the author. Utilizing a narrative approach to knowledge development, the migrant researchers outlined their communities’ concerns and experiences in the Finnish welfare state. By focusing on how voice and identity was narrated by the migrant researchers, this article explores the relevance of using community research methods to reveal the complexity of migrant community needs. It argues that locally based, community research has the potential to provide a more inclusionary, community-based methodological approach to migrant issues in European social work.