Immigrant Russian Women in Helsinki

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.