My many communities
How I experience living in an increasingly global world.
I’m a young woman from Finland, but I also identify as an European citizen. I’ve lived in the UK for two years now, and am completing my multimedia journalism studies next year.
Before university I wasn’t a very avid social media user, but it’s now an integral part of my life. I use it to keep in touch with my family and to talk with friends, both near and far away. I don’t necessarily feel like a migrant, as I’m quite certain that I will go back to Finland once I finish my studies. I would like to have the chance to live in other countries as well.
I have a lot of friends who are migrants, or first generation natives. Through them, my eyes have been opened to discrimination and the issues that they face due to their ethnicity or religious beliefs. I have also faced some discrimination myself while living in the UK, but my experiences are nothing compared to what some people have gone through.
In my mind, I belong to both Finnish and European communities. There’s a set of values that I identify with, like appreciating nature, entrepreneurship and holding equal rights in high value. Not everyone in my community shares these values, of course, but I feel like the general sentiment is like that.
Europe is a big cluster of differing traditions, foods and peoples — somewhat artificial, somewhat organically shaped by the past shared experiences. As a member of the European community, I feel like I have a connection to other Europeans. Since I speak English, German and Swedish, I think that I have a better understanding of those cultures through language. I have an easy access to other countries thanks to EU.
This easiness guided me to move to a different country to study, and it has also allowed me to grow up thinking I could live and work anywhere in the world.
In the UK, the trust in media is high — though some people feel like sensitive subjects like migration, Syrian crisis and refugees aren’t covered objectively. I think that the media has a great potential in shaping the general opinion. Though the UK media is generally reliable, it is also shaped by the political views and more knowledge is needed. Scaremongering is common in the tabloid papers and diversity is still lacking in eg. the entertainment sector, like drama.
Similarly, European media should do more versatile programmes from different parts of the world and also make sure that the people we see in the media are diverse, both in fictional and non-fictional setting.
At the moment the UK is going through some turmoil with the Brexit vote. Previously, I’ve felt comfortable in the UK for most of the time. Even though EU and Europe aren’t exactly the same thing, knowing that so many people in the UK don’t want to be part of this community I identify with saddens me. Openness and borderlessness are both beautiful values — with the Brexit vote the UK people have officially resigned themselves from the two values that I identify to be an essential part of the European community.
We live in an increasingly global world. Because of that, it’s sometimes hard to pin down what communities I belong to — in addition to Finnish and European communities, I’m also a part of smaller communities made of my friends, hobbies, interests and so on.
Here at the Salzburg Academy I’ve been a part of a very vibrant, multi-cultural and passionate community of young people who truly want to change the world for the better — perhaps this experience will open even more communities for me.
This personal narrative was written at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. It exists as part of a digital publication called MOVE which aims to educate readers on the social, political, and cultural impacts of global migration. All stories published in MOVE were created at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change by students and faculty from around the world.
