Abstract
Russian citizens currently constitute the second largest immigrant group in Finland; Russian women represent well over a half of all Russian immigrants. Statistically, a Russian woman is most likely to migrate due to her marriage to a Finn. This visible gender discrepancy in favor of Russian female immigrants only further perpetuates the widely spread stereotype of Russian women as “prostitutes.” Judging gazes on public transportation, poor customer service and inappropriate sexual comments are only a few examples of how the frequently implicit stereotype can affect Russian women’s everyday lives. By using my informants’ narratives as a lens for this study, I explore how the existing stigmatization impacts the ways in which Russian female immigrants in the Helsinki area construct and experience their identities. I argue that women use their agency to shape their national/cultural and gender identity in order to disassociate from the publically homogenized and stereotyped image of Russian female immigrants in Finland. Moreover, I explore how the women’s identity as immigrants offers them flexibility to renegotiate their identity boundaries and create a public image that reflects more appropriately their ideas of self. By focusing on the stories of particular immigrant women, this thesis contributes to understandings of globalization and transnational mobility--moving beyond broad analyses of migration patterns to see immigrants as primary agents in shaping their narratives.