Trust Shaping in Forced Migrants’ Institutional Encounters in the Finnish Welfare State

Abstract

This article examines institutional encounters in the light of trust in the contemporary welfare state context of Finland from the perspectives of young forced migrants. Young persons with a forced migration background constitute a growing group in Nordic welfare societies, and institutional encounters are an essential part of their everyday life. Still, little is known about how trust is shaped and experienced in this context. Drawing on 12 interviews with young forced migrants, I examine how trust and distrust is shaped in the series of institutional encounters. In my analysis, I identify two dimensions of facework interactions affecting trust: the administrative and emotional dimension. Thus, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how the dynamic, multifaceted, contextualized concept of trust is shaped in the series of institutional encounters migrants face as part of migration governance.

Keywords

• institutional encounters
• trust
• distrust
• forced migration
• nordic welfare state