Indian wives and husbands on the move

Conjugal relations experienced by women living in Finland

Abstrakti

This article examines Indian immigrant women’s experience of changing family relationships and conjugality after settlement in Finland. The data consists of 14 thematic interviews of women originating in Northern India and living in the metropolitan area of Helsinki. The interviews were carried out in Hindi by a trained Indian anthropologist. The interviewees or their husband were either from the ICT sector or from business in the catering and trade sector. The class position of these two categories diff ers in the country of origin and in Finland which infl uences importantly women’s attitude toward and practice of conjugal life. Conjugality was stressed more by the upper middle-class ICT women. However, the sharing of domestic duties tended to become more equitable in both class categories. Women often started their married and migratory life in a kin-oriented set up but the social conditions they faced in Finland structurally pushed them towards tightening conjugal relationships.