Jussi Laine

University of Eastern Finland | UEF · Karelian Institute

Focusing on the social impact of migration, this book explores migration as an inevitable part of rural development and transition in light of the sharp political divides in European and national political arenas on the topic. It provides an innovative immigration impact assessment based on recently conducted empirical work to enhance local develop...

Migration is an inevitable part of development and transition. Migrants can be agents of development, contribute to economic growth, sustain jobs, and improve rural livelihoods. Exploring local partnerships in rural areas, in turn, is a core element in the development and implementation of inclusion and integration policy. At the same time, immigra...

This concluding chapter summarizes the major findings in this volume on how TCNs can contribute to renegotiate and redefine remoteness. Three overarching conclusions can be made: (1) The contributions confirm the potential immigration has when it comes to revitalising these regions, but the findings also suggest that this potential is underutilised...

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Whether we talk about the global scale of the threat or focus on the disruption and potential reversal of processes and realities that we assumed immutable, the epochal significance of the COVI-19 pandemic is indisputable. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, no other event has revived territorial borders and sent territorialist shockwaves across the...

The inclusion of migrants in rural and mountain territories is a multi-level and multidimensional process which needs to involve newcomers and receiving societies equally, but which also seeks to blur the social boundaries between these groups. Inclusion must be considered as a non-linear and reciprocal interaction through which new population grou...

Borderlands around the globe have been undergoing considerable transitions due to the ever-escalating trend of tightening control at state borders. We have witnessed a consistent drive for ever-stricter border and migration policies that have not only changed the role borders play but become inherent parts of a wide range of polices and societal pr...

Sitkeä covid-19-pandemia on jättänyt jälkensä niin yhteiskuntaan, jossa elämme, kuin myös sitä käsittelevään tutkimukseen. Julkisessa ja poliittisessa keskustelussa – tosin osin akateemisessakin – covid-19 on kelvannut syyksi ja motiiviksi moneen; miksi asiat on tehty miten ne nyt ovat tai miksi jotain on jätetty tekemättä. Kyseistä asiaa ei tarvit...

Borders remain vitally important features of our political world. Throughout the Global North, the common response to the broad challenges and the multiple overlapping crises has been to regress to state-centric thinking and nationalist agendas and revert to ad-hoc border closures. We have witnessed a consistent drive for ever stricter border and m...

The narrative of the Eastern threat has long been extensively used in Finland. The narrative builds on actual historical military conflicts, yet has also attained more ideological if not physiological functions. In Finland the customary acknowledgement is that “the threat is located to the East, not to the West” (Laitinen, 2006: 45) – or in any dir...

This book critically analyses the changing EU-Russian security environment in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, with a particular focus on northern Europe where the EU and the Russian Federation share a common border. Russian involvement in conflict situations in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood has drastically impacted the European security environ...

One of the main messages of this still new Millennium is that realist geopolitics is back with a vengeance. It is of course debatable whether “hard power” geopolitics actually ever disappeared from the scene, and its role is obviously key in any discussion about the darkening of optimistic visions of a post-Cold War order based on multilateralism a...

This statistical briefing note intends to provide background information on the relevance of migration flows towards MATILDE regions and through detailed presentation of key features to contribute to a deepened understanding of the spatial contexts for TCNs integration processes and social impacts.

Tapamme keskustella yhteiskunnallisista asioista on muuttunut rajusti viime vuosina. Median hybridisoituminen, sosiaalisen median luoma uudenlainen keskustelun tila ja tapa sekä populistinen vastakkainasettelulle perustuva puhe ovat saaneet aikaan laajan murroksen siinä, miten yhteis kunnallinen julkisuus muotoutuu. Polarisaatio, kovat sanat, uloss...

This report presents the results of in-depth and narrative interviews (at least 10 per country, at national or regional level), focus groups (at least 3 per country, at the regional level, with different stakeholders), SWOT analysis for case-studies analysis and visual graphs for social network analysis at local level. Reports focus on practices of...

This booklet presents cartographic representations created for each of the regions covered by MATILDE, providing visual representations of the salient features of the regions under scrutiny

Millaista on suomalainen maahanmuuttokeskustelu? Julkisuudessa puhutaan ”pakolaisaalloista” ja ”tulvista” ja näytetään karttoja Eurooppaan ”hyökyvistä siirtolaisvirroista”. Todellisuudessa valtaosa pakolaisista on lähellä kriisialueita, muualla kuin Euroopassa. Miten puhetavat ruokkivat ennakkoluuloja ja ääriliikkeitä? Miten poliittinen ilmapiiri...

This book discusses regional and continental integration in Africa by examining the management of migration across the continent. It examines borders and securitisation of migration and the challenges and opportunities that arise out of reconfigured continental demographics. The book offers insights on intra-Africa migrations and highlights how in...

This document presents the impact assessments of a range of policies on migrants’ interaction with the social and economic structure of the remote and rural areas in the MATILDE countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and in the United Kingdom.

Reframing African Migration to Europe: An Alternative Narrative

This report presents the impact assessment of a range of policies on migrants’ interaction with the social and economic structure of the remote and rural areas in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and in the United Kingdom.

اليوم، تعتبر الحدود ظاهرة معقدة متعددة المستويات ترتبط بالتنيم الأساسي للمجتمع كما بالسيكولوجيا البشرية. رغم ذلك ليس هكذا الحال دائما، لكن الطريقة التي تم النظر بها الى وتأويلها قد تطورت سيرا في حذو التغيرات المنطقية العريضة في العلوم الاجتماعية، وكذلك في علاقتها بتراكب الأحداث الجيوسياسية. وهذا يؤدي الى تغيرات استطرادية في فهم وتأطير الحدود . إن ا...

In Europe, as well as generally throughout the global north, there has been a consistent drive for ever stricter border and migration policies. Irregular migration has become a field in which estimations often prevail over researched actualities, and hearsay and myths over concrete evidence. The situation has become increasingly paradoxical: what w...

This book challenges the common European notions about African migration to Europe and offers a holistic understanding of the current situation in Africa. It advocates a need to rethink Africa-Europe relations and view migration and borders as a resource rather than sources of a crisis. Migrant movement from Africa is often misunderstood and misre...

Africa and Europe seem increasingly interconnected, yet divided. Apart from the commonly mentioned factors of history and geographical proximity, both continents face a growing number and a broader variety of shared challenges, interests, and goals. Migration remains as the most pressing challenge, yet rather than considering this as a mere phenome...

ABSTRACT In Europe, as well as generally throughout the global north, there has been a consistent drive for ever stricter border and migration policies. Irregular migration has become a field in which estimations often prevail over researched actualities, and hearsay and myths over concrete evidence. The situation has become increasingly paradoxica...

An important characteristic of contemporary border studies is its increasingly prevalent ethical nature. While the field has been engaged with questions of justifiable state borders and the ethical concerns related to their mere existence already for long, the aim here is broaden the discussion by bringing in a more holistic, and hopefully more bal...

This book examines the enduring significance of borders in Southern Africa, covering encounters between people, ideas and matter, and the new spatialities and transformations they generate in their historical, social, economic and cultural contexts. Situated within debates on borders, borderlands, sub- and regional integration, this volume examines...

In Europe, as well as generally throughout the Global North, there has been a consistent drive for ever stricter border and migration policies. The persistent attempts to keep immigrants out is, however, at odds with the continent’s increasing need to bring immigrants in (Carr 2012). Irregular migration has become a field where estimations often pr...

The Nordic countries, or the Nordic, is a collective term used for five countries in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, consisting of the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, including their associated territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, both autonomous regions within the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Åla...

The increased flow of refugees and migrants poses challenges, opportunities and obligations for countries around the world. In the EU, these flows have resulted in substantial political tensions and divisions, whereby migration has emerged as a key theme and policy instrument. While the African and the European Unions have long been engaged in a pa...

Migration is a force that has led to the transformation of modernity (Papastergiadis, The turbulence of migration: Globalization, deterritorialization and hybridity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000). This transformation has taken many forms and continues to do so. In order to better understand the complexity of the situation, this book addresses both...

The historical continuities around migration suggest that it not only is a potent force and phenomenon but also has the capacity to transform societies. Africa-Euro migrations point to the need to move beyond a narrow, misinformed populist narrative of a flood of African refugees and migrants flowing into Europe. Further, intra-Africa migration, wh...

This research supports the evolution of border studies by advancing recently elaborated theoretical insights convincingly captured as borders in motion and the multiscalar nature of borders. Drawing on ongoing empirical research in Yunnan province, China, the combined perspectives tender a new approach of ‘relational motion’ to inform analyses inte...

Although direct migration flows from Sweden to Portugal have been marginal, the actual number of citizens from Sweden living in Portugal continues to increase every year. Many Swedes appear to move to Portugal via a third country. By far the largest number of Swedish citizens permanently residing in Portugal settles on the Algarve or in the Lisbon...

Migration is a much broader phenomenon than the common descriptions would have us believe. Its very complexity creates the demand for simplistic and simplifying explanations and descriptions. Various offers of easy answers to the many open questions have gained wide support-despite their inaccuracy. Yet they have seldom been enough to thoroughly co...

This conference report reviews the open access digital publication of the Global Track organized within the framework of the Second World Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies in Vienna on July 10 and 11, 2018, with the aim to offer an overview of border studies worldwide. The track consisted of nine ninety-minute conference session...

This book examines Africa-Europe relationships and intra-Africa relationships vis-à-vis migration. It analyses the African integration project that is being used to effectively manage migration within Africa and across its RECs, and harnessing it for development. The book presents debates related to the EU’s hardening and securitisation of its exte...

In contrast to the complexity and differentiation suggested by much recent academic literature, borders continue to be conceived of and represented by mainstream politics and the media in an overly simplistic way. Much recent political and public debate has regressed into nationalistic, state-centric thinking and populist rhetoric, reducing the ide...

While the media has always been crucial in framing events, during the recent migrant influx into Europe it has played an even more important role because of the enormous scale and rapid speed of events. The analysis presented here relies on material collected from tabloid journalism. The intention is not to provide a detailed content analysis, but...

As part of the wider debate interrogating ethical consequences of managing mobility through borders, questions related to everyday ontological security (such as the identity of the self) and disruptions of self-referential ways of seeing the world need to be taken seriously. Identitary bordering within the EU is not only fed by social media and pop...

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 evalu...

In today’s networked world developments in distant areas may rapidly emerge as broader security issues with multiple and multi-layered bearings. This paper examines the crisis in Ukraine not as a single isolated incident, but rather as a more profound “game-changer” that has had a broad impact on the security environment in Europe and beyond. In it...

This brief reflection is written from the standpoint that much of the witnessed suppression of welcome derives from either a lack of fully understanding, or misunderstanding, the reasons for and circumstances of the perceived crisis, as well as of the histories and motivations of the people who have arrived in Europe in great numbers. Rather than s...

In today’s networked world developments in distant areas may rapidly emerge as broader security issues with multiple and multi-layered bearings. This paper examines the crisis in Ukraine not as a single isolated incident, but rather as a more profound “game-changer” that has had a broad impact on the security environment in Europe and beyond. In it...

During the Cold War years, the idea that political borders had somehow achieved a state of permanence and immutability enjoyed currency as an almost common-sense notion, despite lessons of history and long-durée processes of state formation in Europe and Eurasia. For countries on the frontline of the Cold War in Europe, especially on both sides of...

This book has sought to explore different political and social contexts as a backdrop for re-bordering processes in Europe subsequent to the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This has been done by examining conceptual change in rhetoric connected to the definition, negotiation and conflict over borders. Both continuity an...

Since 1995 the Finnish-Russian border has been the longest border shared by any European Union (EU) member state and the Russian Federation. Before then it had been the borderline between a Nordic state presumed to be neutral and a socialist superpower, symbolising the ideological and political division of the Cold War era. The border has a long hi...

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...

It is not the intention of this chapter to rehearse the whole history of anthropological ethics across borders; nor is it to seek to engage fully with the dense body of migration literature that the recent and ongoing European crisis has fuelled. Rather, this is an attempt to approach the situation by using borders as a prism which may allow us to...

In 2015, as the EU started to face the social and political challenge of managing the “refugee crisis” and maintaining internal coherence, and several nation states’ governments were closing their borders, de facto impeding the movement of thousands of refugees mainly fleeing the conflict in Syria, we began the discussion that gave rise to this spe...

Based on an analysis of the leading Finnish newspaper, Hels-ingin Sanomat, this paper explores Finnish attitudes towards and understandings of Russia. It pays special attention to the so-called Karelia Question and the way it has shaped public discussion in Finland. The article seeks to investigate human signifying practices in the region's specifi...

Drawing conclusions from a collection of different research papers – deriving from a variety of contexts and addressing diverse topics – is challenging, yet it is also a product of the fact that border dynamics are context-specific. While most borders are prone to the same global phenomena (Laine 2016), there are, as the articles in this special is...

High geopolitics can exert profound local cross-border impacts on mobilities such as tourism in sensitive borderland areas. Global travel and tourism are determined not only by an individual’s choices and preferences, but are increasingly influenced by geopolitical events and their resulting economic conditions and uncertainty. This study draws on...

In today’s increasingly tense geopolitical climate, the connective potential of borders is easily overshadowed by their capacity to divide, and we regress into state-centric thinking. Represented as lines, the analysis of borders easily becomes fixated on its opposing sides, rather than on the system in which it can have meaning (Salter 2012). To c...

1300 километров, Финляндия всегда была тесно связана со своим восточным соседом. Однако несмотря на географическую близость, закрытость границ в эпоху холодной войны увеличила пси-хологическое расстояние между двумя сторонами и способствовала формированию стереотипных представлений друг о друге. В резуль-тате укоренившееся в сознании многих мышлени...

Bordering, Political Landscapes and Social Arenas: Potentials and Challenges of Evolving Border Concepts in a post-Cold War World (EUBORDERSCAPES), financed though the EU's 7 th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, was a four-year research project that tracked and interpreted conceptual change in the study of borders. As...

摘 要：随着社会的变化，相关研究的范式往往也会发生改变。本文对边界研究中概念的变化作出了解释。在边界 仍然具有重要作用的今天，我们需要重新审视这些概念在不断变化的历史、政治和社会背景下体现出来的时空变 化性和不确定性。本文强调了边界不仅是国家主权的分界线，还具有从地缘政治，到边界和跨边界的社会实践和 文化生产的多层次复杂性。本文力求对边界研究中的相关争论作出建设性贡献，以促进对边界的过程化、去领域、 分散性的本质，及其在全球化和跨国流动时期保证政权的作用的充分理解，展现边界研究作为一个跨学科的领域， 仍具有自身内涵的学术地位。本文以边界景观的概念为核心组织元素，提倡在边界研究中采取相关的研究方法， 从互补的视角考虑政治愿景与日常社会文化实践之间、社会表现和艺术想象之间的相互作用。 关 键 词...

In the post-Cold war era, the construction of new state borders, on the one hand, as well as the changing significance of old borders, on the other hand, have been at the heart of border studies. The parallel processes of de-and re-bordering, together with the changes in the nature of European borders that they have implied, have been interpreted i...

Russian translation of Introduction to the boundaries of research / ed. SV Sevastyanov, J. Laine, AA Kireev. - Vladivostok: Dal'nauka, 2015. - 400 p. ISBN 978-5-8044-1579-3

This article sheds light on the continuing relevance of borders from the Finn- ish perspective, and demonstrates how the recent geopolitical situation arising from the Russian–Ukrainian crisis has also had a clear impact on other countries neigh- bouring Russia. It uses the border and relations between Finland and the Russian Federation as an examp...

The EU's borderland between Finland and Russia provides a fascinating setting to study how different understandings of state and civil society meet, overlap, and fuse. Focusing on this border region, this study pits the conventional bilateral framework against the more recent EU one in depicting a cross-border space for civic activity. It offers a...

The present geopolitical situation has made the debate on borders and their functions, significance, and symbolism more prominent than at any time since the end of the Cold War. While the various processes of globalisation have challenged the traditional border concept, the scalar model of identity and society remains primarily anchored in national...

Finland’s security is integrally linked with its immediate surroundings,Europe, and global development. Given that Finland considers Russia to be one of the main challenges to its security, cross-border security cooperation with it is limited. Over the years the Finnish border authorities have, nevertheless, developed effective joint working practi...

Using the borderscapes concept, this book offers an approach to border studies that expresses the multilevel complexity of borders, from the geopolitical to social practice and cultural production at and across the border. Accordingly, it encourages a productive understanding of the processual, de-territorialized and dispersed nature of borders and...

Recognising the close interrelationships between social change and paradigm shifts, this book contributes to an interpretation of conceptual change in the study of borders. In so doing, the book responds to the challenge for generating different ways of conceptualising borders, thereby offering a chance to cope with the ‘real danger of a growing di...

Tensions between securitisation and cross-border interaction have been a major focus of European border studies - particularly as a result of human suffering and deaths of immigrants "sans papiers" attempting to enter the EU from the South and East. Perceptions of a Fortress Europe and a unilateral imposition of border security regimes in many ways...

While the Finnish-Russian relations of today cannot be fully understood without understanding the past, it is equally important to know how to break away from it. When discussing cross-border interaction, one must be aware of the broader context within which these processes take place. The territorial sovereignty of the nation-state continues to fo...

Finland and the Russian Federation share significant overlaps in history. With the exception of a couple of conflicts, the relationship between the two is commonly described as friendly. With a common border of more than 1,300 km, Finland has always been closely tied to its eastern neighbor. Despite the physical proximity, the Cold War era closure...

The collective work prepared by an international team of authors covers a wide range of problems of border studies within the space of the largest, culturally and politically diverse continent of the planet. Sections of the book are devoted to theoretical and comparative aspects of study of boundaries in Eurasia, the formation and historical develo...

This paper investigates the role of tourism in the construction of (un)familiarity in Karelia at the Finnish–Russian borderland. From a historical perspective, it deals with a culturally homogenous space, which more recently became divided by the border into two nation states that differ politically, ethnically and linguistically. In the course of...

While the field of international relations has evolved from its positivist premises—from a single means of understanding world politics towards a more nuanced and holistic approach—it still remains insufficient to understand the big picture. Despite recent efforts to broaden the field, it remains tied to great power politics and its basic unit of a...

Author: Laine, Jussi New Civic Neighborhood: Cross-border Cooperation and Civil Society Engagement at the Finnish-Russian Border, 461 p. University of Eastern Finland Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, 2013 Publications of the University of Eastern Finland, Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, no 58 ISBN (bind): 978-...

Author: Laine, Jussi New Civic Neighborhood: Cross-border Cooperation and Civil Society Engagement at the Finnish-Russian Border, 461 p. University of Eastern Finland Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, 2013 Publications of the University of Eastern Finland, Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, no 58 ISBN (bind): 978-...

This paper presents results from research projects that have investigated networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) between EU member states and neighbouring countries. The focus here is on Finnish-Russian civil society co-operation in the areas of social welfare provision as well as regional and economic development. One major objective in th...

No matter how the North is demarcated, the Russian Federation constitutes a significant share. Already its mere physical size and numerous neighboring states make Russia a noteworthy player and its actions, or lack thereof, are likely to affect other countries. Accordingly, it is in the interests of these countries to try to have a say in the direc...