Conclusions

The idea of the good life has historical connotations, and each generation seems to have its own ideas regarding what it entails. These ideas are strongly entangled with contemporary prerequisites.

In both Finland and Canada, the oldest generation seems to possess singular ideas of the good life. The good life consists of an ethos of hard work, religious ideas, and nationalistic values. The network generation has denied the old values; for them, health, education, and security are important. These issues are clearly supported by the welfare state. The youngest generation is still open-minded to new ideas, but friends, family, and nature are part of their ideals. What is most important in terms of the good life still remains open for them.

The pillars of the welfare state—having, loving, and being—are important to the network generation. The sacrosanct position of the welfare state in the northern countries is understandable only when keeping in mind the fact that life from early childhood to old age is determined by state services. The dream of the good life was almost realised, except for the hard years of the early 1990s in Finland (Roos 1999), which severely shocked the generation and caused whole kin networks in Päijät-Häme to lose their jobs. A similar occurrence happened due to structural changes in the 2000s in Thunder Bay, which tarnished the pride of a whole generation since alternative sources of work in the area were rare. Unemployment hit the Finnish community harder, however. On the other hand, it might have been a question of the special ethos of ‘managing on one’s own’. In an immigrant community, this evaluation is continuous because the history of immigration and its sensibility is always ‘on the table’.

There were important differences between the sexes. Female informants more highly valued so-called soft values, like family, friends, health, and religion. Males emphasised success, money, education, business, and occupational issues. The families clearly differed from each other. There were business-, academic-, religious-, and athletic-oriented families where every generation shared similar ideas of the good life.

When comparing the ideals in Finland to those in Canada, remarkable similarities were to be found. The concept of the good life has a special meaning for the first-, second-, and third-stage immigrant generations. It has been used in problematising the original act of emigration when questioning the act’s validity. In this sense, the concept has been used in identity construction.

How have the older generations succeeded in transmitting their ideals to the following generations? Some facts became evident when analysing these mechanisms. There were families where the transmission of family capital or family values to the following generation succeeded well. These were typically academic, religious, athletic, or entrepreneurial families. The transmission was realised by investing in material and non-material resources, by setting an example, and by engaging in family practices—words were only words unless backed with action. The dining table must be understood as a large physical and mental space, a process and configuration, a concentration of material and immaterial resources that has strongly kept its power. Because of external pressures, this phenomenon was even somewhat stronger in the local Finnish community in Canada than it was in Finland. This is probably why family ties seem to be stronger in the Finnish community in Canada compared to those among Finns from Päijät-Häme, Finland.

Interviews

Fourteen (14) interviews by Antti Häkkinen, Kaisa Kauranen, Eila Linnanmäki and Marko Tenhunen. Location Finland. Interviewed between June 4 and August 3, 2004.

Five (5) interviews by Antti Häkkinen. Location Canada. Date Interviewed between October 5, 2009, and June 9, 2013.

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