Sense of belonging and years lived in Finland: associations among foreign-born population

Background Belonging to different groups is associated with migrants' health. In this study, we examined the associations between sense of belonging (SoB) and years lived in Finland. Methods The data from the cross-sectional Survey on Well-Being among Foreign-Born Population (FinMonik, n = 6 836), conducted in Finland in 2018-19, was used. SoB was assessed by the question “Which of the following areas or groups you feel you belong to?” with options: local municipality; Finns; Europeans, country of origin; world citizens; religious or spiritual community; professional group or colleagues; political or ideological group. The data of years lived in Finland were linked from the National Population register and classified into three categories: less than five years; five to 10 years; over 10 years. Those who had lived less than one year in Finland were not included in the survey. Logistic regression was used to test the association between SoB and years lived in Finland, with age, sex and country of origin as confounding variables. In the analyses, weights were used to reduce non-response bias. Results Those who had lived in Finland over 10 years had higher odds for SoB towards Finns (OR = 1.74, p = <0.001), local municipality (OR = 2.41, p = <0.001) and Europeans (OR = 1.54, p = 0.001) and lower odds for SoB towards country of origin (OR = 0.68, p = 0.003) and religious or spiritual community (0.73, p = 0.043) when compared to those who had lived in Finland less than five years. No significant differences in SoB were found between less than five years in Finland and five to ten years in Finland. Conclusions SoB varied considerably when comparing those who had lived less than five years in Finland and those who had lived more than 10 years in Finland. Belonging to local people is more likely when one has lived in Finland more than ten years. Belonging to country of origin and religious or spiritual community is less likely when lived more than ten years in Finland. Key messages Sense of belonging seems to change over the course of stay in the new home country, but first after 10 years of stay. Identifying with local people and even with Europeans becomes more prominent after 10 or more years in Finland.