Sustainable Consumption Among South Asian Immigrant Students in Finland : (Business Implications and Market Opportunities)
Sunar, Bimala (2025)
2025
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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060420438
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060420438
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This thesis investigates cultural identity and the impact of host-country norms on integrating sustainable consumption lifestyles among South Asian immigrant students in Finland. Research on the environmental practices of immigrant populations is vital in an era of increasing global interest in sustainability. It has scholarly goals and aims to support thoughtful business expansion. Finland’s highly developed sustainability regime has made it possible to investigate how South Asian students conform to, adjust to, or strive against institutionalised expectations of sustainable consumption.
The study carries out qualitative analysis through frameworks, including the theory of Planned Behaviour, cultural hybridity, and the sustainable consumption ladder. Data was collected with the help of ten semi-structured interviews from students from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and analysed using thematic analysis. However, students encounter many barriers attempting to bring these practices together. Respondents report chronic problems, including expensive sustainable goods, resource-scarce culturally appropriate goods, social stigmatisation for purchasing second-hand goods, language barriers, and lack of culturally informal sustainability messaging. Even in such difficulties, students blend social learning, peer networks, and institutional guidance to follow Finnish sustainability standards without losing touch with their cultural roots.
The research points out that South Asian students in Finland use a mixed strategy toward sustainable living, influenced by their values and the culture around them. From this research, we learn how sustainability efforts can succeed even as groups of people from different cultural backgrounds interact. The results provide helpful information, though they cover only a few students, so more research needs to be done on immigrants in general.
The study carries out qualitative analysis through frameworks, including the theory of Planned Behaviour, cultural hybridity, and the sustainable consumption ladder. Data was collected with the help of ten semi-structured interviews from students from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and analysed using thematic analysis. However, students encounter many barriers attempting to bring these practices together. Respondents report chronic problems, including expensive sustainable goods, resource-scarce culturally appropriate goods, social stigmatisation for purchasing second-hand goods, language barriers, and lack of culturally informal sustainability messaging. Even in such difficulties, students blend social learning, peer networks, and institutional guidance to follow Finnish sustainability standards without losing touch with their cultural roots.
The research points out that South Asian students in Finland use a mixed strategy toward sustainable living, influenced by their values and the culture around them. From this research, we learn how sustainability efforts can succeed even as groups of people from different cultural backgrounds interact. The results provide helpful information, though they cover only a few students, so more research needs to be done on immigrants in general.