Kirjoittaja: Aappo Kähönen ja Veera Laine |  Julkaistu: 2019

Artikkeli osallistuu suomalaiseen keskusteluun Venäjästä, korostaen valtion ja kansakunnan rajojen monikerroksisuutta historiallisesta näkökulmasta. Kirjoittajat käyttävät kahden tyyppistä lähdeaineistoa, joista ensimmäinen perustuu dokumentteihin rajan valvonnan käytännöistä ja poliittisista linjauksista, ja toinen kuvastaa Venäjän nykymedian näkemyksiä valtion ja kansakunnan (todellista ja toivotuista) rajoista. Suomen ja Venäjän rajavalvontaorganisaatioiden näkemysten yhtäläisyyksien ja erojen analysoinnin pohjalta tekijät esittävät että imperiumin perinnöllä on yhä merkitystä Venäjän federaation nykyisille linjauksille, sekä periaatteessa että käytännössä. Kansallisvaltioon verrattuna imperiumin rajat ymmärretään sekä haavoittuvaisina että muuttuvina. Vastaavasti myös venäläisen kansakunnan rajoista on keskusteltu laajasti: Venäläiset ”jaettuna kansana” –retoriikka ottaa kantaa siihen, ettei valtion rajoja Neuvostoliiton hajoamisen jälkeen koeta yhteneväisiksi kansakunnan rajojen kanssa. Siksi venäläiset esitetään joskus valtion rajojen puitteissa ”sorrettuna enemmistönä”. Nämä näkemykset rajoista ja monikansallisesta yhteiskunnasta nostavat esiin venäläisessä kansakunnan rakentamisessa vastaamatta jääneitä kysymyksiä ja samanaikaisesti korostavat ajatusta rajasta muuttuvana ja dynaamisena käsitteenä.

Asiasanat: Venäjä, raja,monikansallisuus, nationalismi, kansakunta

Kirjoittaja: Jaana Palander |  Julkaistu: 2019

Syrjimättömyys ja hyvät väestösuhteet lainvalmistelusta lainvalvontaan. Siirtolaisuus-Migration, 1/2019.

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan, liikkuvuuden politiikkaa ja hallintaa käsitelleen Argumenta-seminaarin innoittamana, viimeaikaisten turvallisuuteen ja yleiseen järjestykseen liittyvien lakiesitysten vaikutuksia etnisiin vähemmistöihin ja ulkomaalaisryhmiin. Sen lisäksi, että turvallisuutta edistävällä ja viranomaisten toimivaltuuksia laajentavalla lainsäädännöllä on vaikutusta turvallisuutta uhkaavien henkilöiden oikeuksiin ja velvollisuuksiin, voi sillä myös olla laajempia yhteiskunnallisia vaikutuksia. Hyvät väestösuhteet, yhdenvertaisuus ja luottamus edellyttävät oikeudenmukaista ja hienotunteista valvontaa. On tärkeää
huomioida etniset vähemmistöt ja ulkomaalaisryhmät jokaisessa hallinnan vaiheessa – lainvalmistelusta lainvalvontaan. Artikkelissa osoitetaan, että lainvalmistelun ohjeet eivät riittävällä tavalla huomioi kaikkia väestöryhmiä.

Kirjoittaja: Olga Davydova-Minguet, Tiina Sotkasiira, Teemu Oivo, and Janne Riiheläinen |  Julkaistu: 2019

Mediated Mobility and Mobile Media: Transnational Media Use among Russian-Speakers in Finland.  Journal of Finnish Studies, 2019.

Systems of communication and media are an important area of mobilities research. Because of the digitalization of media and changes in other social institutions, mobility and migration are not only stimulated by the media, but also people who are on the move and who settle in new locations, are affected by transnational and overlapping digital spheres, which relate them both socially and emotionally. Transnational media use produces communities, belongings and ideascapes that transcend national borders.

This article focusses the intersection of migration and media use in contemporary digitalized societies, namely in Finland. It examines the multifarious ways in which Russian-speakers in Finland use and engage with media and analyses the ways in which Russian-speakers adjust media to their everyday lives. Russian-speaking Finns are targeted with information influence by their country of origin. The article sets elucidates this phenomenon by identifying the factors that engage Russian-speakers with Russian media in this conflict situation and how Russian-language media in Finland has responded to this development. We also present some insights on how the involvement of Russian-speakers in the Finnish mediascape can be developed. The article is based on the findings of the research project titled Finland’s Russian speakers as media users, which was implemented in 2015–2016.

Keywords: Russian-speakers, media use, transnational media, information influence

Kirjoittaja: James Scott |  Julkaistu: 2019

Mobility, Border Ethics, and the Challenge of Revanchist Identity Politics. Journal of Finnish Studies, 2019

Kirjoittaja: Jaana Palander and Saara Pellander |  Julkaistu: 2019

Mobility and the Security Paradigm: How Immigration Became Securitized in Finnish Law and Policy. Journal of Finnish Studies, 2019

Kirjoittaja: E.-K. Prokkola |  Julkaistu: 2019

Border-Regional Resilience in EU Internal and External Border Areas in Finland. European Planning Studies, 2019.

European border regions have witnessed a long history of remarkable mobility shocks stemming from complex ecological and economic changes and geopolitical events. The experience of nearcontinuous regional and global crisis has increased interests towards the idea of resilience, that is, the ability of communities and regions to adapt and cope with disturbances and transitions. Inspired by the literature of regional resilience and the evolutionary approach, this paper will examine the difference that borders and geopolitical conditions make from the perspective of regional resilience and especially ‘border-regional resilience’. Particular focus will be on irregular cross-border mobilities and consequent transitions in EU external and internal border towns, here the Finnish towns of Lappeenranta and Tornio. The study points out that the geopolitical environment and the openness of the border partly determine the regional development trajectories and the ways of coping with cross-border mobility-related changes. Although the border location entails some vulnerability, formal and informal cross-border institutions and relations of trust are of crucial importance from the perspective of border-regional resilience. The paper proposes a research agenda for studying borderregional resilience in the context of environmental, economic and social changes and geopolitical events.

Kirjoittaja: V.Laine |  Julkaistu: 2019

The  ‘Russian World’ and the Orthodox Church in the Post-Soviet Space. In the FIIA report 58: What has remained of the USSR: Exploring the erosion of the post-Soviet space. February 2019.

In her article, Veera Laine argues that religious bonds, even if they are truly important for many of the citizens of the post-Soviet space, are insufficient when it comes to holding the ‘Russian World’ together.

Kirjoittaja: P. Kettunen |  Julkaistu: 2019

The Conceptual History of Welfare State in Finland. In The Changing Meanings of the Welfare State: Histories of a Key Concept in the Nordic Countries, edited by Nils Edling 2019.

Description

In discussions of economics, governance, and society in the Nordic countries, “the welfare state” is a well-worn analytical concept. However, there has been much less scholarly energy devoted to historicizing this idea beyond its postwar emergence. In this volume, specialists from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland chronicle the historical trajectory of “the welfare state,” tracing the variable ways in which it has been interpreted, valued, and challenged over time. Each case study generates valuable historical insights into not only the history of Northern Europe, but also the welfare state itself as both a phenomenon and a concept.

Kirjoittaja: Sotkasiira, T. |  Julkaistu: 2018

Tietävä, tulkitseva ja taisteleva asiantuntijuus turvapaikanhakijoiden sekä ammattilaisten ja vapaaehtoisten välisissä kohtaamisissa. Janus Sosiaalipolitiikan Ja Sosiaalityön Tutkimuksen Aikakauslehti, 26(4).

Artikkeli tarkastelee diskurssianalyysin keinoin Suomeen saapuneisiin turvapaikanhakijoihin kohdistuvia integraatio-odotuksia. Siinä pohditaan, millaisia tulkintoja eri paikallistason toimijat, joiden on suoraan tai epäsuorasti mahdollisuus vaikuttaa turvapaikanhakijoiden kokemuksiin ja arkeen vastaanottokeskuksissa, antavat vastaanottotoiminnalle ja kotoutumiselle osana tätä toimintaa. Artikkelissa esitetty analyysi perustuu haastatteluaineistoon, joka on kerätty vuosina 2016 ja 2017 viideltä eri paikkakunnalta, joista jokaiseen avattiin vuonna 2015 turvapaikanhakijoiden vastaanottokeskus.  Integraatio-odotuksia analysoimalla artikkeli tuo esiin, miten vastaanottotoiminnan ja kotoutumisen välisen rajan hämärtyminen virallisella hallinnollisella tasolla mahdollistaa paikallisesti hyvin vaihtelevat tulkinnat vastaanottotoiminnan luonteesta ja tavoitteista. Diskursiivisen neuvottelun tuloksena vastaanottokeskuksiin rakentuvaa sosiaalista todellisuutta artikkeli kuvaa pakotetun toimettomuuden käsitteellä.

Kirjoittaja: Pöllänen, P. |  Julkaistu: 2018

Karkotetut — puuttuva näkökulma turvapaikanhakijoista käytävään keskusteluun. Janus Sosiaalipolitiikan ja Sosiaalityön Tutkimuksen Aikakauslehti, 26(4).

Pirja Pölläsen arvio teoksesta Kaisa Viitanen & Johanna Kippo & Anne Ignatius & Katja Tähjä & Laura Oja: Karkotetut – Mitä heille tapahtuu? S&S, Helsinki. 2016

Kirjoittaja: Haverinen, V.-S. |  Julkaistu: 2018

Pakotetusta toimettomuudesta – turvapaikanhakijoiden kotoutuminen vastaanottotoiminnan osana. Janus Sosiaalipolitiikan Ja Sosiaalityön Tutkimuksen Aikakauslehti, 26(4).

Artikkeli tarkastelee diskurssianalyysin keinoin Suomeen saapuneisiin turvapaikanhakijoihin kohdistuvia integraatio-odotuksia. Siinä pohditaan, millaisia tulkintoja eri paikallistason toimijat, joiden on suoraan tai epäsuorasti mahdollisuus vaikuttaa turvapaikanhakijoiden kokemuksiin ja arkeen vastaanottokeskuksissa, antavat vastaanottotoiminnalle ja kotoutumiselle osana tätä toimintaa. Artikkelissa esitetty analyysi perustuu haastatteluaineistoon, joka on kerätty vuosina 2016 ja 2017 viideltä eri paikkakunnalta, joista jokaiseen avattiin vuonna 2015 turvapaikanhakijoiden vastaanottokeskus.  Integraatio-odotuksia analysoimalla artikkeli tuo esiin, miten vastaanottotoiminnan ja kotoutumisen välisen rajan hämärtyminen virallisella hallinnollisella tasolla mahdollistaa paikallisesti hyvin vaihtelevat tulkinnat vastaanottotoiminnan luonteesta ja tavoitteista. Diskursiivisen neuvottelun tuloksena vastaanottokeskuksiin rakentuvaa sosiaalista todellisuutta artikkeli kuvaa pakotetun toimettomuuden käsitteellä.

Kirjoittaja: V. Konrad V, J. P. Laine, I. Liikanen,  I., J. W. Scott & R. Widdis |  Julkaistu: 2018

The Language of Borders. In Handbook of the Changing World Language Map, edited by Stanley D Brunn & Roland Kehrein. Springer, Cham 2018.

Limits and edges of human experience, power, and control have been expressed in language from the time of earliest writing, and likely before then in the spoken words of ordering and bordering space and territory among people. Our brief discussion of the language of borders is not a comprehensive examination of the topic, but an invitation to evaluate how we speak and write about borders that are increasingly a part of our world. This chapter conveys our view of components and processes which help to understand how language of borders emerged, where border vocabularies are headed, and why this matters as we attempt to comprehend how to accommodate global diversity and population in a finite, changing global environment. To accomplish this, we explore the imaginary of border conceptions and social construction of border words, address the expanding border lexicon, examine the expression of meaning of borders, and assess the efficacy of the language of borders in a world at once more bounded and more” “borderless”.

Kirjoittaja: Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola |  Julkaistu: 2018

Geopolitics of Border Securitization: Sovereignty, Nationalism and Solidarity in Asylum Reception in Finland. Geopolitics 2018 (published online 16 Oct 2018).

The paper examines the recent security interventions at the northern Finnish-Swedish border crossing point in the town of Tornio, the particular focus being on the 2015 migration influx in which Finland received a tenfold increase in asylum applications compared with the previous years (~3000 → 32 476 asylum applicants). The resultant securitization of the Finnish-Swedish border and the organization of asylum reception practices, in which nongovernmental organizations played an important role, created tension between the Finnish and Swedish authorities, borderlanders, and within wider Finnish society.

An empirical study of various materials (documents, interviews, social media debates and media reports) is used to examine the coexistence and intertwining of different border securitization practices and discourses. The analysis is structured around three story lines that disclose border securitization as multiple and aims to problematize the assumption that states, as entities holding sovereign authority, fully determine matters of border securitization. Firstly, the state intervention examined here occurred through and fully depended on collaboration with local authorities and nongovernmental actors. Secondly, nationalistic groups mobilized demonstrations against immigration and started independent street patrols in the name of security, throwing into question the effectiveness and authority of the state government in matters of border securitization. Thirdly, the discourses of the securitized Finnish-Swedish border reflect the wider solidarity crisis between EU countries with respect to shared sovereignty. The study complicates the understanding of border securitization as a straight forward state effort and provides a picture of a hybrid border securitization environment.

Kirjoittaja: Laura Assmuth, Marina Hakkarainen, Aija Lulle, Pihla Maria Siim (eds.) |  Julkaistu: 2018

Translocal Childhoods and Family Mobility in East and North Europe. Studies in Childhood and Youth, Palgrave Macmillan 2018.

This collection explores mobile childhoods: from Latvia and Estonia to Finland; from Latvia to the United Kingdom; from Russia to Finland; and cyclical mobility by the Roma between Romania and Finland. The chapters examine how east-to-north European family mobility brings out different kinds of multilocal childhoods. The children experience unequal starting points and further twists throughout their childhood and within their family lives.

Through the innovative use of ethnographic and participatory methods, the contributors demonstrate how diverse migrant children’s everyday lives are, and how children themselves as well as their translocal families actively pursue better lives. The topics include naming and food practices, travel, schooling, summer holidays, economic and other inequalities, and the importance of age in understanding children’s lives.

Translocal Childhoods and Family Mobility in East and North Europe will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology and human geography.

Kirjoittaja: Jussi Laine, Ilkka Liikanen, James W. Scott (eds.) |  Julkaistu: 2018

Post-Cold War Borders. Reframing Political Space in Eastern Europe. Routledge Borderlands Studies, Routledge 2019.

In the aftermath of the Ukraine crises, borders within the wider post-Cold War and post-Soviet context have become a key issue for international relations and public political debate. These borders are frequently viewed in terms of military preparedness and confrontation, but behind armed territorial conflicts there has been a broader shift in the regional balance of power and sovereignty. This book explores border conflicts in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood via a detailed focus on state power and sovereignty, set in the context of post-Cold war politics and international relations.

By identifying changing definitions of sovereignty and political space the authors highlight competing strategies of legitimising and challenging borders that have emerged as a result of geopolitical transformations of the last three decades. This book uses comparative studies to examine country specific variation in border negotiation and conflict, and pays close attention to shifts in political debates that have taken place between the end of State Socialism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of the Ukraine crises. From this angle, Post-Cold War Borders sheds new light on change and variation in the political rhetoric of the EU, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and neighbouring EU member countries. Ultimately, the book aims to provide a new interpretation of changes in international order and how they relate to shifting concepts of sovereignty and territoriality in post-Cold war Europe.

Shedding new light on negotiation and conflict over post-Soviet borders, this book will be of interest to students, researchers and policy makers in the fields of Russian and East European studies, international relations, geography, border studies and politics.

Kirjoittaja: Toomas Kotkas, Heikki Kallio, Jaana Palander |  Julkaistu: 2018

Ulkomaalaisoikeus. Alma Talent 2018, ISBN 978-952-14-3131-9.

Kirja on ulkomaalaisoikeutta kattavasti käsittelevä suomenkielinen teos. Kirjassa esitellään ulkomaalaislain mukaiset maahantulon eri muodot (työperäinen maahanmuutto, kansainvälinen suojelu, jne.), oleskelulupajärjestelmä ja maasta poistaminen. Kirjassa tarkastellaan erityisesti kolmannen maan kansalaisten ja kansalaisuudettomien asemaa ja oikeuksia.

Kirjassa käsitellään yleisen ulkomaalaisoikeuden lisäksi erityiskysymyksiä: perheenyhdistämistä, ulkomaalaisten oikeuksia hallintomenettelyssä ja hallintolainkäyttömenettelyssä, ulkomaalaisten oikeutta työntekoon, ulkomaalaisten toimeentuloturvaa ja oikeutta toimeentulotukeen sekä ulkomaalaisten oikeutta sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluihin.

Ulkomaalaisoikeus-kirjan sisältö:
I Ulkomaalaisoikeuden sääntelyjärjestelmä (Jaana Palander)
II Ulkomaalaiset hallinnon asiakkaina (Ulla Väätänen)
III Maahantulo ja maassa oleskelu (Heikki Kallio)
IV Ulkomaalaisen oikeus työntekoon (Heikki Kallio)
V Ulkomaalaisen oikeus opiskeluun (Jaana Palander & Jaakko Hyytiä)
VI Kansainvälinen suojelu (Juha Similä)
VII Perheenyhdistäminen ja perhe-elämän suoja (Jaana Palander)
VIII Lapsen etu ulkomaalaisasioissa (Suvianna Hakalehto & Katariina Sovela)
IX Maasta poistaminen (Heikki Kallio)
X Muutoksenhaku ulkomaalaisasioissa (Kati Korsman & Mirjami Paso)
XI Ulkomaalaisten oikeus toimeentuloturvaan (Toomas Kotkas)
XII Ulkomaalaisten oikeus sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluihin (Eeva Nykänen)

Kirjoittaja: Sari Lindblom-Häkkinen, Maisa Anttila |  Julkaistu: 2018

Asylum seeker or seeker of a better life? What makes a difference within categorization? Border Security and Management 2018, vol. 2, no. 7.

Migrants are often classified based on the reasons of emigration and way of travel. In this paper our aim is to focus on the stories and discourses of humanitarian migration from different perspectives offering first; the new category of classification of the migrants, second; the new way to face asylum seekers and third; to make a questionable necessity of classification over all: what kind of added value the classification gives and to whom in the end of the day? We are focusing on this phenomenon in the context of border security. We will identify how the consequences of natural forces (e.g. earthquake) impacts emigration. In this paper, we argue that the individual life situations, cultural discourses and societal factors all are important for understanding the phenomenon of migration. Thus, suggest of a new category of migration, is “seeking better life”. However, at the same time we recognize that often the categories overlap and depend on the perspective.

Kirjoittaja: Tiina Sotkasiira, Janne Riiheläinen |  Julkaistu: 2018

Teoksessa Elina Melgin ja Hannu Nieminen (toim.): Diplomaattinen viestintä. ProComma Academic 2018.

Tarkastelemme tässä artikkelissa diplomaattisen viestinnän muutosta analysoimalla Venäjän Lontoon-suurlähetystön ylläpitämän Twitter-tilin sisältöä kolmen kuukauden ajanjaksolla 1.2.–30.4.2017. Pyrimme analysoimaan muuttuneita diplomaattisen viestinnän käytäntöjä sekä purkamaan auki uudenlaista diplomaattista informaatiovaikuttamista, johon on omaksuttu välineitä poliittisen kampanjoinnin ja tiedustelun maailmasta. Tämän tapaustutkimuksen avulla pyrimme lisäämään viestinnän ammattilaisten ja muiden lukijoiden valmiuksia tunnistaa disinformaatiota sekä kuvaamaan sen tuottamisessa ja levityksessä käytettäviä keinoja.

Kirjoittaja: Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola |  Julkaistu: 2018

Rajan turvallistaminen ja poikkeustilan arjen geopolitiikka. Alue ja ympäristö 2018, Volume 47, Nro 1.

In the autumn of 2015 more than 32 000 asylum-seekers arrived in Finland, most of them traveling through the Tornio border crossing point from Haparanda, Sweden. The situation was exceptional and as a response, the Finnish government relocated hundreds of security authorities and servicemen to register the asylumseekers and to control the border crossing. In the research literature such a border securitization, an approach where migrants and asylums are approached from the viewpoint of security instead of human rights, is considered problematic.

This paper examines the local authorities and civic actors’ stories of border securitization and asylum reception in Tornio by employing everyday geopolitics as a theoretical and methodological framework. Everyday geopolitics approach is sensitive to the practices and experiences of border securitization at local and intimate scales. The main research finding is that local actors are aware of the wider geopolitical and societal discourses of threat. However, their stories of local and everyday practices emphasize feelings of safety, trust and cooperation at both national and supranational scales. Instead of focusing the feelings of safety merely on the discursive production of threat and danger, it is important to unfold the more contextual, local and mundane interpretations of border securitization.

Kirjoittaja: Pöllänen, Pirjo & Davydova-Minguet, Olga |  Julkaistu: 2017

Welfare, work and migration from a gender perspective: back to ”family settings”? Nordic Journal of Migration Research 2017, Volume 7, Issue 4.

Since the collapse of the Soviet system, many significant changes have occurred, not only in the former socialist countries, but also in western societies. One remarkable change is the mass of post-Soviet emigration from the former Soviet Union. In this article, we analyse the everyday welfare experienced by the Russian immigrant women living in the border area of Eastern Finland. We study the interrelation of family relations, the experienced welfare, transnational care, and work in the lives of Russian migrant women in North Karelia. According to the analysis, we argue that the welfare of Russian immigrant women is mainly produced by their family networks and precarious work.

Kirjoittaja: Assmuth, Laura |  Julkaistu: 2017

Kulttuurisista törmäyksistä erilaisten ihmisten kohtaamiseen – rajojen tutkimuksen näkökulmia. Teoksessa Rohkea kynä – Syntymäpäiväkirja Maria Lähteenmäelle, toim. Oona Ilmolahti ja Sinikka Selin. Helsinki: Työväen historian ja perinteen tutkimuksen seura, s. 181-191.

Tieteen vapaus, sivistys ja ihmisoikeudet tarvitsevat rohkeita puolustajia nyky-yhteiskunnassa. Tutkijat voivat toimia tällaisina tekemillään aihevalinnoilla sekä uusia näkökulmia esiin nostaen, itsestäänselvyyksiä ja valtarakennelmia kyseenalaistaen sekä demokratian, läpinäkyvyyden ja oikeudenmukaisuuden merkitystä korostaen. Kirja kietoutuu näiden ajatusten ympärille.

Tieteelliset artikkelit piirtävät henkilökuvia tienraivaajina ja ”muurinmurtajina” toimineista naisista, nostavat esiin perustutkimuksen ja pitkien linjojen merkityksen sekä pohtivat muun muassa demokratian juuria, patriotismia, rajoja ja erilaisuuden kohtaamista. Kirjassa pureudutaan rohkeuden ja inhimillisyyden teemoihin myös henkilökohtaisemmalla tasolla ystävyys- ja perhesuhteiden kautta.

Teos on syntymäpäiväkirja professori Maria Lähteenmäelle hänen merkkipäivänään 9.6.2017.

Kirjoittaja: Laine, Veera & Saarelainen, Iiris |  Julkaistu: 12.9.2017

Spirituality as a political instrument: The Church, the Kremlin, and the creation of the ’Russian World’”. FIIA Working Paper 98.

This Working Paper analyses the way in which the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox Church use the claims related to spirituality in their public diplomacy in domestic and foreign policy matters. A key impetus for the study has been the “conservative turn” in Russian politics since 2012, when the state leadership placed traditional, spiritual-moral values at the core of the political discourse and thus paved the way for the Russian Orthodox Church to become an even more influential actor in politics.

The “Russian World” concept has been an important keyword both for representatives of the Kremlin and the Church alike in recent years. The emphasis on conservative values functions as a partial support basis for the current state leadership, which benefits from the high level of trust that the Church enjoys as an institution. In domestic politics, the Church has used formal institutions for promoting legislative changes which aim, for example, at condemning offending religious people’s feelings and decreasing punishments for domestic violence.

In the foreign policy context, the actors support each other in representing the distinctive Russian values that contradict the “Western” ones – a move that can be seen as a securitization process. The “Russian World” concept functions as a geopolitical metaphor that resembles the concept of Holy Rus, reinforcing the idea of spiritual connections between all Russians, not only within the borders of today’s Russian Federation. In Ukraine, which both the Kremlin and the Church consider to be a part of the Russian World, the Church has been compelled to consider the division of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches and possible losses for the Moscow Patriarchate. In Syria, the Church has expressed strong support for the Kremlin’s actions.

The interests of Church and state are not always fully congruent. The Church is not merely the Kremlin’s puppet; it functions as its own, sometimes internally divided entity. Thus far, it seems that both the Kremlin and the Church have benefitted from their cooperation. The Working Paper concludes that by consolidating spiritual values as being reminiscent of a state ideology, the Russian Orthodox Church and the state leadership have made it increasingly difficult to change the course of the “conservative turn” in the future. The “spiritual” legacy of Putin’s era will have a long-lasting influence on Russian politics.

Kirjoittaja: Pellander, Saara & Horsti, Karina |  Julkaistu: 2017

Visiblity in mediated borderscapes: The hunger-strike of asylum seekers as embodiment of border violence. Political Geography, 1-10.

In 2012, two Afghan asylum seekers camped outside the Parliament building in Helsinki during a hunger strike that lasted for 72 days. Although the protest was very visible in the city space, the mainstream media and most politicians ignored it. This paper analyzes the protest and its mediation through the concepts of borderscape and visibility. Using methods of visual and discourse analysis, we examine the ways in which the hunger strike protest – and its mediation – negotiate the (in)visibility of borders. We show how the city can be a site for both policing and for politicizing asylum issues. In particular, we focus on the ways in which protesting asylum seekers embody borders and border control, making dis-located borders visible in spaces where citizens do not see them. The concept of “borderscape” is an example of the view on borders that sees bordering as a practice that disperses borders in physical and socio-political space. Moreover, we examine the mediated reactions of various agents, such as the Lutheran church, activists, politicians, and journalists, as well as the protesters themselves, focusing on visibility as social recognition. Our analysis of the hunger strike reveals the situated gaze of social actors. It shows how border struggles are situated within landscapes of politics of protection and politics of listening.

Kirjoittaja: Kaján, Eva |  Julkaistu: 2017

Virtual discourses of hate: Anti-immigration rhetoric in Darknet. Nordia Yearbook 2017, Vol 46 No 3.

The worsening conditions in the Middle-East and Sub-Saharan Africa have resulted in millions of asylum seekers entering the European Union. Also, Finland received over ten times more asylum seekers in 2015 than the previous years. The irregular migration has generated many public discussions and demonstrations at the local and national level against and for asylum seekers. Furthermore, online hate speech has increased and intensified. This research examines how asylum seekers are portrayed in a discussion forum inside Darknet. The results show that this forum holds three distinct hate-related themes when discussing asylum seekers. These were related to imported violence, economics and cultural identity. Hate speech is targeted towards very specific ethnic groups and religion(s), which resonate the current geopolitical situation in Finland concerning asylum seekers. In addition, hate extends beyond asylum seekers into Finnish society, where it’s expressed as negative speech towards the authorities and pro-immigration movement. The results also indicate that despite the Darknet’s reputation of being an unregulated online space, there are some rules, which guide the dialogues.

Kirjoittaja: Paasi, Anssi ja Metzger, Jonathan |  Julkaistu: 2017

Foregrounding the region. Regional Studies vol. 51 (1), pp. 19-30.

This paper scrutinizes the everlasting but transforming significance of the concept of region for regional studies and social practice. After tracing the changing meanings of this category, it highlights one characteristic aspect of the progress of the academic conceptualizations of the region: recurrent iterations of critiques regarding various forms of essentialism and fetishism. The main focus then moves to the conceptualization of the region and the articulation of ideas about what regions substantially ‘are’ and ‘do’, and what makes the region a worthy object of attention (scholarly or otherwise). The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of the perspective on regions developed in the article for the future of regional studies.

Kirjoittaja: Scott, James |  Julkaistu: 2017

Extreme and extremist geographies: commentary on the revanchist impulse and its consequences for everyday bordering. Fennia 195: 1, pp. 102–105.

Political xenophobia needs to be explained politically. At the same time, while political xenophobia is not a necessary consequence of neoliberalism, the idea of what counts as ‘political’ needs to be expanded. I suggest that one fruitful, non-reductionist strategy for understanding the consequences of identitary bordering consists in exploring links between securitization and the politicization of identity and national belonging. Inspired by the ideas of Henk van Houtum and Rodrigo Bueno Lacy, I approach the extreme geographies of identity politics from an ethical and philosophical perspective, arguing that a powerful revanchist and self-referential narrative of authenticity and autonomy is influencing both everyday bordering practices and the way security is discursively framed.

Kirjoittaja: Scott, James |  Julkaistu: 2016

Constructing European Neighborhood: Critical Perspectives from EU-Ukraine Interaction and Civil Society Actors. Journal of Borderlands Studies 40 1: 1-17.

How can EU actorness be conceptualized within the context of Neighborhood? The central purpose of this essay is to contribute a “bottom-up” and more contextually sensitive perspective to the critical assessment of European Union actorness and, in this way, also contribute to a more inclusive understanding of Neighborhood as a regional cooperation project. In doing this, the essay also deals with local Ukrainian rather than EU-centric perspectives on the EU’s more general societal impacts. Based on research that specifically targeted civil society actors in Ukraine with clear pro-EU sympathies the essay explores the ambivalent nature of the European Union as a political actor on the international scene. This also includes perceptions of the evolving quality of the EU’s social and political influence. Rather than pre-supposing a specific geopolitical role for the EU within the so-called Neighborhood, this contribution will emphasize perceived contradictions and contested political and socio-cultural underpinnings of EU cooperation policies. At the same time, the paper will also indicate the ways in which local actors interpret the EU as a potential promoter of greater intercultural dialogue and social transformation. While the picture that emerges is one of a policy divide between the EU and Ukraine, spaces for social engagement and dialogue nevertheless exist and urgently need to be developed.

Kirjoittaja: Palander, Jaana |  Julkaistu: 2016

Kansalaisten heikko mutta yhdenvertainen oikeus perheenyhdistämiseen – EIT suuri jaosto: Biao v. Tanska 2016. Oikeustapausanalyysi. Lakimies 2016/5.

Kirjoittaja: Prokkola, Eeva-Kaisa & Lois, Maria |  Julkaistu: 2016

Scalar politics of border heritage: an examination of the EU’s northern and southern border areas. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2016, Volume 16.

This paper studies the production and representation of border heritage in tourist sites and events. Understanding heritage as a form of collective memory, subject to continual active renegotiation in which past events and artifacts are portrayed selectively, border heritage is a focal element in the shaping of spatial identities. The empirical focus is on the EU border regions that have become arenas for collaborative tourism development. Since the internal border regions are the key sites of the territorial cohesion policy of the EU, the selection of a particular heritage may be indicative of the development of the spatial identities in the area. Yet the type of the border has an impact on the modes of heritage-making. Drawing on various materials, documents and fieldwork at sites of heritage tourism, the study examines how the traditions and past events of the Finnish-Swedish and Spanish-Portuguese borders are memorialized in EU-funded tourism development. The approaches of geographical scale and scalar politics are employed as an analytical lens through which the sites and events of border heritage-making are examined. The study shows that border heritage in the EU border areas is constructed through multiple scales, thus offering parallel versions of the past.