FINLAND. They sit in a circle in the light canteen of the folk high school: a future electrician, history teacher, ambulance driver, biologist and nurse. The youths are united by their underage refugee status, their departure country, Somalia, and their realistic future plans.

SAADAQ HUSEIN ABDI, 17, is interested in history and is planning a career as a teacher. Well over a month ago, he returned to the school desk with his friends at the Kitee Evangelical Folk High School.

The plan is clear: First, attain a secondary school leaving certificate from the folk high school. Then study in a field that has jobs.

The youths' future is in Finland, maybe in their current home town, maybe in a big city, like Tampere or Turku. Abdi, however, would like to return to Somalia.

“Only if there is peace”, he specifies.

In 2009, 557 underage people like Abdi came to Finland to escape the wars and insecurity in their home country. This was a fifth less than in 2008.

If the Ministry of the Interior had not have interpreted the decrease in refugees as straightforwardly as it did, Saadaq Husein Abdi would be studying in the folk high schools' own study programme for underage refugees. However, the Ministry concluded that the stream of arriving refugees is drying up and the education provided for them can be discontinued. This was done in the beginning of the year.

That was not the end of the schooling, however, as the liberal folk high school also offers the possibility of going to secondary school. For the spring term, the youths stayed in the folk high school to learn the language and culture.

FRIENDS FROM THE FOOTBALL FIELD

The Somali youths have developed a picture of Finland close to the Russian border, in a rural town with a population of 9,500. Kitee is known for its bears, bright liquor called “pontikka” and championship-level Finnish baseball players.

The boys have not played Finnish baseball. However, from their time on the football field and at the gym, they feel like Kitee residents.

“It was nice to move to Kitee where people are nice and there are no fights”, explains Abdi’s friend, 19-year-old IID IBRAAHIM ALI, with his fluent Finnish.

Good-natured people and a lack of fights cannot be taken for granted, because the immigration discussion is a heated one. The supporters of multiculturalism are responding to the critics who deride immigration, at least non-work-based immigration. Their voice is heard in the discussion forums of the Internet, although according to Statistics Finland’s latest information, only 2.9 % of the Finnish population are foreigners.

There are even less in Kitee – around one percent, according to the social services' estimate. Due to the town's location, the majority of these are Russians. The folk high school has broken new ground among immigrants from the late 90s.

VEGETABLE STEW IS COOKING ON THE STOVE

Abdi, Ali and their friends are settling down to normal life in Kitee. In the town's rented two-room flat, hip hop music is playing and Somalian-style rice and spicy vegetable stew are cooking on the kitchen stove.

Any everyday problems are resolved with the help of HANNA-LEENA PARTINEN, who works at the folk high school. She is the link to the authorities and lessor, but only if requested. The line between help and patronage is blurring.

“My departure point is that the need for help comes from the boys. Boundaries are set as to what belongs to the folk high school and what to social services. The need for help is, however, decreasing day after day”, rejoices Partinen.