Migrants’ Informal Learning and Education in Transnational Family Space: 'The Experiences of People Migrating between Estonia and Finland'

• Main Author: Pauliina Alenius
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Helsinki University Press 2018-03-01
• Series: Nordic Journal of Migration Research
• Subjects: informal learning; immigration; transnational space; informal education; migrant families
• Online Access: https://journal-njmr.org/articles/256

This study investigates informal learning processes and informal education in the transnational family space. Informal learning is examined through the theoretical lenses of situated learning that draws attention to how people learn through engaging regularly in shared, socially situated practices. The data consist of 98 interviews with people who have migrated from Estonia to Finland or who are transmigrating between these countries. While there is a large body of research on migrants’ transnational activities in social, economic and political spheres, only a few studies have explored their border-crossing engagements from the learning perspective. The results show that families and kinship networks provide informal learning environments for mobile and non-mobile people. The key social learning processes in the transnational family space include constructing ethno-national identities through shared social practices, adopting sociocultural traditions and transnational brokering of conceptions and practices. Informal education is connected to passing cultural traditions and stimulating language learning of children.