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EESTI ELU reedel, 6. mail 2022 — Friday, May 6, 2022
Interpreting the mobility of Estonian young adults with Dr. Terje Toomistu Vincent Teetsov For Canadians of Estonian heritage, Estonia can be seen as quite an idyllic place to be – to the extent that some wouldn’t understand why an Estonian would want to leave the Estonia of today. Anthro pologist and documentary filmmaker Dr. Terje Toomistu, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Tartu’s Department of Ethnology, has revealed the reasons for leaving in detail in her postdoctoral research, for which the new film Homing Beyond (Põlvkond piiri taga) is a central part. In an event presented by the Estonian Arts Centre, Dr. Toomistu will screen her film and discuss it with audiences at the Alliance Française de Toronto (24 Spadina Road, M5R 2S7) on May 18th at 6:45 PM. Before that, however, read about some of her key findings on the motivations and migra tional patterns of Generation Y Estonians. How would you summarize the main thesis of Homing Beyond? My idea was not to create a homogenized view of the young Estonian diaspora, but rather, to do the opposite; to show that there are a variety of experien ces, a variety of reasons why someone leaves Estonia to begin with. To open up the plurality of voices in this experience of migrating from a small East European country such as Estonia and going to places which can be seen as the West. What would you outline as
the most common reasons why people desire to leave Estonia? For the generation that grew up during the years of transition of the 90s, their childhood was very much influenced by the public discourse in Estonia, of catching up with the west, of the transition from a socialist state to an independent demo cratic state, of a symbolic jour ney to the west. So it is really not surprising that when this generation became adults, a lot of them wanted to go abroad. We made an online survey with over 2,000 respondents from that generation who have had migratory experiences, and 80% of them listed a desire to see the world as one of the main reasons. To go abroad to study or to work or to have an adven ture. If you look at the statistics, quite close after that come economic reasons, such as bet ter life circumstances, or better remuneration, better salary. But it’s not just so-called “pull factors” that make people move, things you’re attracted to abroad. There are also “push factors” – when you can’t be where you are. These affect a smaller portion of people, but I think it’s necessary to show because this is something that has been silenced so far. Among those people who desired to see the world, did you find that a lot of them wanted to return eventually? Yes. Our survey showed that three quarters of people who are currently living abroad are thinking about returning. Fairly often, they don’t think that
The poster for Homing Beyond, used with permission from Terje Toomistu.
leaving is an existentially im portant step. These people don’t see themselves as immigrants, per se. And so, there have been instances where someone says that they never left, that they’re just a little bit outside of Estonia, and this has already lasted for 11 years. In speaking with Estonian youth, what is one interaction that made the deepest impression on your work? After travelling and visiting these people and having 21 very deep, very long interviews, plus about 15 interviews on Zoom, I think the message is that these people would like to see them selves more as part of Estonian society. What really moved me personally is the tension be tween generations. I sympathize with the anxieties that older generations might have about their children deciding to go abroad, creating new families there, the fear that their grand children perhaps wouldn’t be able to speak Estonian and communicate with them, that they might not be able to see their grandchildren. But I think this widening of mobility is inevitable. You don’t need to stay forever in a place where you were born and raised. I think it is especially important for a tiny society like Estonia to have transnational experiences. The key question is how to keep the door open, so that when people have either gained international experience or finished some education abroad, that they would feel welcome, or they would have something attractive in Estonia for their return. Sexual and racial discrimination are some reasons why Estonians leave the country. In your anthropological re search previously, you have studied marginalization in other parts of the world, particularly the waria community of transgender women in Indonesia. Are there parallel concepts that appear in both situations? I wouldn’t say that emigra tion from Indonesia for this reason is comparable to the relative size of Estonian emi gration. But certainly, when we think of transgender women in Indonesia, they are often migrating from smaller villages to bigger cities where they would have a community where there is a possibility of self- expression. So I think this migratory pattern is comparable. When we think of some Estonian women or men, whether they are part of sexual minorities or they simply feel that the way gender is orga nized in Estonia is somehow limiting their ways of being, they move to other cities where they suddenly feel more at home. And it’s simply related to finding similar values and attitudes. For the documentary screen ing on May 18th in Toronto, what ideas would you suggest audiences con sider before watching? This film is about a specific generational pattern. It’s im
Koop Cup ’22.
The record-breaking… (Continued from page 11)
said “It seemed that the more technically demanding an event was, the better Karl Trei liked it. He learned many of the tech niques that later brought him so much success as a masters athlete when he was a young man growing up in Estonia. He didn’t start competing in mas ters events until he was in his 70s, but almost immediately he was winning medals in his many events... His fellow com petitors held him in great es teem, not only for his technical expertise but also for his humble manner.” Each athlete mentioned here was a powerful force in masters sports, with an inspiring indi vidual story. Yet, everywhere they competed, they were unit ed as Estonians, as members of the Kalev team. And they travelled quite a bit to compete, going all over Canada and abroad to countries such as the United States, Italy, South Africa, and Japan, comparing their performance with their contemporaries from all over. A highlight for five of these Estonian-Canadian athletes was the ninth World Masters Athletics Championships, tak ing place in Turku, Finland in July 1991 – a competition that drew approximately 5,000 ath letes. From this competition, there’s a great photo of five Canadian team members at Paavo Nurmi Stadium, all wear ing matching red and white tracksuits. From left to right are Karl Trei, Valden Sadul, Aleksander Ernesaks, Elga Meri, and Helgi Pedel. These five athletes on the Canadian
portant to pay attention to the experiences on screen, which may enable us to shift our understanding of the Estonian diaspora on a political, sym bolic, or everyday level. The film also questions how open Estonian society is to welcome return migration – let’s say, of people who are of Estonian identity but may not speak Estonian, or who might have a
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Photo: Tommy Ray
team were all Estonian, and from this group, nine medals were won: three gold, four silver, and two bronze. Among these medals, some highlight performances include Elga Meri’s gold medal in W70 category discus (22.22 metres, a Canadian record), silver medal in long jump (3.05 metres, a Canadian record), and the silver medal in triple jump (5.46 m etres, also breaking a Canadian record). Helgi Pedel won a gold medal in the W65 high jump. Karl Trei won a sil ver medal in the M80 high jump. Aleksander Ernesaks and Valden Sadul didn’t win medals at this particular championship, but Sadul achieved fourth place in M65 long hurdles and Aleksander Ernesaks achieved seventh place in the M75 400-metre dash. Overall, the Estonians won approximately a quarter of the Canadian team’s medals. Also competing in Turku were Canadian Masters Hall of Fame winners Jean Horne and Earl “The Great Earl” Fee. To make the moment even more exhilarating was the fact that this was happening just before Estonia re-gained its independence. Truly, there is never a dull moment in sports. So, if you’ve never been super athletic before, but you’ve always wondered if you had it in you to excel in this regard, why not go for it? Age certainly doesn’t have to be a barrier. As Elga Meri liked to say, “you are as young as you think you are.”
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partner who is not Estonian, who might not be white. All these ideas are related to these testimonies that we see in the film. This interview has been edited and condensed. ••• To register for the reception, film screening, and discussion, visit estoniancentre.ca. This is a pay-what-you-can event.
