Parallels are drawn between representations of early 20th century Finnish maritime labourers on foreign merchant ships and present-day Estonian blue-collar commuter workers who work in the construction sector in Finland. We ask how the workers at both the times comment the media representations of them and how the possible analogues can be understood. The study focuses on two themes: stereotypes and

This article discusses migratory gender roles within a north/north movement context. Using the case of older Norwegian women migrating to England while young, actively making migration part of their lives, it combines life course theory and migration theory about transnationalism, and presents three migratory life trajectory typologies. These are developed from life course interviews, based on class

In recent years, a large number of refugee children have arrived in Sweden. In this article, 15 Afghan boys tell us about their normative longing for education and schooling (should), their experiences of school as an opportunity structure (being) and the resilience of their personal agency as regards succeeding in school (doing). Our empirical data indicate that, particularly thanks to the efforts

This paper presents an overview of the landscape of immigration and integration policies in Sweden and Norway. The study sheds light over differences and similarities between these countries, based on an analysis of official government documents in the period 2010–2018. Empirically, a variety of topics concerned with immigration and integration policies are analyzed, how immigration influences the

In recent years, a body of research has aimed to ‘de-demonise’ distance in transnational family lives, arguing that transnational families compensate for physical co-presence with other means of caring and ‘being there’ for each other, particularly by way of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although many researchers claim to study transnational families, they mostly study the

The article tackles the question of how place matters to migrant physicians in the regions of Agder in Norway and Skane in Sweden by exploring how place-specific conditions affect their experiences in the work, private, family and social domains of life. For this purpose, the article uses thematic analysis of the narrative material gathered through 25 semi-structured interviews. The lens of work/non-work

This article analyses the ‘European refugee crisis’ in the context of Northern Finland, building on the concepts of exceptionality and affect. Conventionally, exceptionality is conceptualised from the perspective of the state that does not enable analysing exceptional situations in their broader social context. A shift in focus is required to understand how people perceive and experience exceptionality

Multiculturalism is a controversial concept and a debated topic. To develop scientific analysis and inform political discussions, it is important to study how lay people evaluate it. Previous research has mostly regarded attitudes towards multiculturalism as unidimensional. This research often relies on the operationalisation offered by the Multicultural Ideology Scale (MIS), in which minorities’ cultural

This article addresses the relationship between highly skilled international mobility and knowledge by focussing on knowledge transfer work. Empirically, this study is based on interviews of professionals in the Swedish medical field who returned to Sweden after a period of work in other countries. The medical field harbours many transnationally valid competences and standardised lines of work, but

Seeking asylum is characterised by long waits and great uncertainty, often categorised as an exercise of power. Recently, most European countries have made their asylum systems stricter and, in this way, less attractive to potential asylum seekers. With this context as a starting point, this article explores the everyday life of women seeking asylum and living in asylum centres in Norway. It examines

This article presents results from in-depth interviews with 18 newly arrived refugees in 2016, focusing on their usage of cell phones underway to Europe. The (anonymous) informants are from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Relating to previous findings and theories of globalisation and media ecology, the research concludes that the phone is used for a wide range of purposes, such as connectivity (with

Multiculturalism is a controversial concept and a debated topic. To develop scientific analysis and inform political discussions, it is important to study how lay people evaluate it. Previous research has mostly regarded attitudes towards multiculturalism as unidimensional. This research often relies on the operationalisation offered by the Multicultural Ideology Scale (MIS), in which minorities’ cultural

In this article, we study whether social capital contributes to ethnic inequality in education or whether there is evidence of counter-stratification. We use data from three surveys of Swedish ninth-graders in different contexts to fit regression models for access to social capital and educational returns. Our results show that students with parents from Asia or Southeast Europe had equal or better

This article analyzes through qualitative content analysis what role the populist radical right parties have had in Scandinavian immigration debate in the press from 1970 to 2016. The press may highlight other dimensions of these parties’ relationship with the immigration issue than party programs and statements. I identify six distinct roles the parties have performed in the debate: the radical traditionalist

The overall aim of this article is to explore the ways in which refugee reception and integration work is storied in the local newspapers of two rural municipalities in northern Sweden. Our results show that the strong emphasis on integration through employment present in national policy regimes is not readily visible in local media portrayals of integration. Instead, integration work is framed as

This article focuses on the life courses of young people of migrant origin who are active in civic and political fields in Finland. The aim is to analyse, from the micro-level life course perspective, the issues in their lives that have helped them to become active. The article draws on empirical data collected using participatory methods. Four young people of migrant origin participated in the research

This article argues that authorisation and moral evaluation are the dominant legitimation strategies used in asylum decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). After the migration events of 2015, the percentage of accepted asylum claims dropped dramatically in Finland, causing concern about the legal rights of asylum seekers. Drawing on theoretical literature concerning asylum decisions,

This article argues that authorisation and moral evaluation are the dominant legitimation strategies used in asylum decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). After the migration events of 2015, the percentage of accepted asylum claims dropped dramatically in Finland, causing concern about the legal rights of asylum seekers. Drawing on theoretical literature concerning asylum decisions,

Abstract This article explores the experiences of queer children who have sought asylum alone in Norway, focussing on hope, fear and despair. The children who are denied asylum relate an experience of standing at the brink of death, while those who are granted asylum describe how the queer life they have hoped for is postponed by the settlement and integration system, where they live in isolation and

Abstract From 2002 to 2018, Denmark was the only country in the world to enforce a migration law demanding that couples seeking family reunification in Denmark documented their combined “attachment” to the Danish nation. This article investigates the practice of documenting such national attachment through the so-called “application packets”. Investigating the attachment requirement as a migration

Abstract This article investigates the link between family migration and integration. It is based on a literature review of existing research across the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, focusing on examples from Denmark and Norway. Much of the existing literature on family migration and integration analyses legal changes and policy arguments. Focusing on literature

Abstract In the early 2010s, transnational surrogacy was a hotly debated topic in Norway following Norwegian citizens’ repro-migration. One of the oft-repeated policy proposals in the debate was to criminalise transnational surrogacy in the same fashion as the purchase of sex. However, instead of introducing a prohibition, the Parliament, in 2013, voted in favour of an addition to the Biotechnology

Abstract According to the Swedish science fiction TV series Äkta människor (Real Humans, SVT and Matador film 2012-2014), humanoid robots called “hubots” are replacing the human workforce in care work and assembly line industries. Against the backdrop of current debates about immigration and citizenship in the Nordic countries, this article does a close, contextual reading of the series, exploring

Although historians of all sorts and persuasions practised comparative history during the twentieth century, by the end of this epoch comparative history as a genre still seemed in need of theoretical legitimation and explication. So much can be inferred from the fact that, even in the 1990s, several books and articles were devoted to the subject by practising historians, Kaelble's Der historische

In his recently published memoirs, the former Danish Minister of Justice Søren Pind (2019) reveals that in 2015, when many refugees crossed into the European Union (EU), the Danish conservative-liberal government made detailed plans to erect a wall on the border between Denmark and its southern neighbour, Germany, to stop refugees from entering into the Danish territory. The border wall project was

This handbook takes a regional perspective to the study of politics of migration. Research on politics of migration in Europe has previously focused mainly on West Europe, and hence a comprehensive ‘European approach’ to this subject has been lacking. The ambitious aim of the book is to go beyond the Western-centred focus by considering research in all geographical areas of Europe. It also aims to

Abstract Bringing together theories of media and policy frames of Norwegian Muslims as governance instruments, this article performs a microanalysis of the Norwegian 2015 de-radicalisation seminar Together against Radicalisation and Extremism as an instance of governance of religious diversity. The seminar was organised by an interfaith forum based in the conservatively Christian ‘Bible Belt’ of southern

Abstract The focus of this paper is to examine how immigrants become constituted as ideal care workers in educational settings. By analysing the everyday practices in two educational contexts in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland, the authors explore how these practices that are influenced by the national and transnational immigration and integration policy, regardless of their well-meant actions

Abstract Based on fieldwork among Kurds in Norway, this article explores how participants described the presence of female genital cutting (FGC) in Kurdistan as a difficult topic to address in public. Perceptions of how FGC should be addressed ranged from acknowledging and directly confronting it to silencing and rejecting it as a Kurdish practice. The participants associated FGC with a “traditional

Abstract This article uses the case of Denmark to critically discuss key assumptions in the theoretical literature on dual citizenship. When Denmark surprisingly accepted dual citizenship in 2015, the decision reflected two distinct lines of argument: first, accepting dual citizenship would allow Danes living abroad to keep their Danish citizenship; second, because it is considered illegitimate to

Abstract The aim of this article is to study the experiences of highly skilled migrants from an intersectional perspective. Based on a case study of a group of skilled migrants in Finland, this article explores the interplay of various social identities and categorizations in their everyday life. I argue that although class markers are an important element in the self-defined group identification for

Abstract This article focuses on the process through which intergenerational ambivalence is experienced by a group of adult children and their parents with an Iranian refugee background living in Finland. This ethnographic study provides an insight into how the families’ struggles to mobilize capital in different forms can contribute to their experience of intergenerational ambivalence. The study indicates

Abstract The paper explores the social integration, well-being and self-healing strategies and outcomes of a sample of second-generation Turkish-Germans who were deported to Turkey due to conviction for youth crimes. Based on the life-story narratives of 14 male participants living and working in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, I analysed the way in which this tourist city offers spaces for self-discovery

Abstract Citizenship is defined in terms of national contexts, institutions, or practices. Apart from noting one’s membership in a certain polity, citizenship can be understood to have – at least – three meanings as follows: it can signify access, identification, and practice. This article examines these three dimensions based on the experiences of highly skilled Finns living in other European Union

Abstract In this article we investigate what happens to the children who are brought to a new country along with their parents, and how they, now young adults, narrate the ‘self’ as a migrant child and adolescent in different temporal and spatial contexts. We draw on five long narrative interviews with young women who were born in Latvia and came to Finland during their childhood. For our analysis

Abstract Based on 41 semi-structured interviews with young Latvians and Romanians in Malmö, Sweden, this article explores why Europeans from new European Union (EU) member states want to move to, and stay in, Sweden despite economic difficulties and underemployment. Six main factors for explaining mobility patterns are highlighted: free university education, romantic relationships, cosmopolitan lifestyle

This introductory paper, reflecting the rubric of the special issue, brings together two themes that have recently become prominent in migration research: a focus on youth mobilities, and a concern to analyse the process and outcomes of migration through a well-being lens. The five papers that follow approach this intersection in a variety of European contexts and from a plurality of theoretical, methodological

Abstract Based on 20 in-depth interviews with young Spaniards aged 20–35 years in the London region, this article explores the linked processes of migration, adaptation, and young–adult life transitions from the perspective of psychosocial well-being. Although most young Spaniards have moved for economic reasons, they also have personal and emotional motivations. The article explores factors that mediated

Abstract In recent years, Sweden has been one of the largest receiving countries of unaccompanied minors, compared to other EU member states. Recent studies have increasingly stressed the strength, resilience and agency of unaccompanied minors, despite the traumatic experiences and challenges they face. In this article, we study unaccompanied minors in the Swedish education system and the labour market

Abstract This study analyses the discussion of four Finnish parties – Centre Party, National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) and Finnish People’s Democratic League/Left Alliance (SKDL/VAS; Suomen kansan demokraattinen liitto/Vasemmistoliitto) – on foreign workers, refugees and asylum seekers in 1986–1991. The turn of the 1990s marked a period of substantial change in Finnish

Abstract The belief that hard work can lead to advancement in a society stands as a key motivation for migrating. The literature on migration, however, has viewed meritocratic attitudes in a different light, arguing that a belief in a meritocratic society can cause migrants to be more accepting of inequalities and blind them to structural explanations of it. To add to this debate, I therefore study

Abstract This article analyses migration decisions and labour market manoeuvring of Latvian migrants to Norway, as well as the economic and social conditions that influence their choices. How do they adapt to the labour market in Norway? Do they practise circular migration, or do they aim for more permanent settlement? For some circular migrants, ‘reinforced’ motivation for migration emerges gradually

Abstract Belonging to religious communities is of great importance for many migrants coming to Europe. This article focusses on one such community, a Lutheran Ethiopian/Eritrean Mekane Yesus association in Stockholm, and its relations with the Church of Sweden. The article discusses identity formation and belonging in a situation of living in the diaspora, as well as analysing the processes of integration

Abstract European labour markets have become increasingly accessible to foreign workers because of increased global migration and the implementation of international labour mobility agreements. Yet, skilled immigrants have lower occupational attainment. The regulated occupations, however, are more inclusive of immigrants than unregulated occupations. This article investigates immigrants’ likelihood

At the close of the 18* century, a team of French scholars under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte diligently documented the natural history, geography and ancient monuments observed during their journey along the Nile, which ended at the 1st Cataract. Their annotations and engravings resulted in a massive 24-volume publication, La Description de 1 'Egypte, that inspired other adventurers to investigate

Abstract Based on two ethnographic studies on the experiences of high-skilled migrants in Denmark, we argue that it is problematic to presume a simple correlation between ‘deskilling’ and what is often regarded as low-status jobs. We claim that many of these migrants are, albeit discreetly, actively gaining new skills and knowledge through low-status jobs not related to their qualifications and/or

Abstract In this article, we examine the experiences of students in the ninth grade (aged 15–16 years) in relation to harassment, discrimination and racism. The study was carried out at eight Finnish lower secondary schools with a high proportion of students with an immigrant background in 2015. The sample consisted of survey data (n = 445) and thematic interviews (n = 112) conducted with young people

Abstract Professional social work was established and expanded in a historical moment marked by intense nation-building; it was organized along and in parallel with other welfare state services which functioned to strengthen the nation-state. Today social work is at practice in a society marked by intensified globalisation; social needs and social problems that social workers are confronted with in

Abstract As the world rapidly becomes a different place for migrants and non-migrants alike, this article asks whether transnational migration scholars have an adequate conceptual toolkit to address the temporal dimensions of mobility regimes. The article notes the way those who initiated the transnational framework for the study of migration conceptualised temporality, critiques the failure of subsequent

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among circular migrants from present-day Poland to Denmark and by revisiting the classic The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-1920), the article brings together two examples of migration flows: the late 19th century outmigration from the then divided Poland to the U.S. and the present-day intra-EU circular migration between Poland and Denmark. The

On the occasion of the tercentenary of the death of Fr. Bartolomeo Barbieri da Castelvetro (1615-1697), his Capuchin heirs from the province of Parma decided to honor the memory of this important professor of the colleges of Ferrara and Modena, at a colloquium held in Vignola in October 1997. The now available proceedings of this colloquium shed an interesting light on seventeenth-century religious

Abstract The article presents results from research on migrant entrepreneurs from Turkey in Finland. Previous research on migrant entrepreneurship indicates that transnational ties may play a role in the running of migrant businesses. In this article, I argue that there is a need to analytically make a distinction between the transferability and the mobilisability of transnational social resources

Abstract In this article, I reflect on changes in the conditions of transnational mobility over the past 25 years. Drawing on continuous engagement with Dominican migrants in sending, transit, destination and return situations, I argue that increasingly strict migration control measures during this period have profoundly altered the existential option of living lives across borders. I specifically

Those who live their lives across the borders of nation-states as well as scholars and policy makers who research transnational lives are facing rapid alterations in mobility regimes. The articles in this special issue represent trends among transnational migration scholars who have been documenting various aspects of these changes. In order to be able to respond adequately to the transformations in

Abstract This article explores tensions between visibility and invisibility of irregularity in Sweden. It focuses on irregular migrants’ social rights and their self-representation. The analysis builds mainly on ethnographic material mapping migrants’ and activists’ experiences of seeking asylum, living in irregularity and/or getting involved in struggles for migrants’ rights in Sweden. Furthermore

Abstract Norway provides limited healthcare for irregular migrants, partly to make the country an unattractive option for ‘would-be refugees’. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, this article discusses the use of healthcare to regulate migration and how irregular migrants make use of different tactics (creative access, selfcare, ignoring symptoms and raison d’être) to gain access to healthcare despite

Abstract As the external borders between Finland and its neighbouring countries have become more permeable for some migrants after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the EU enlargement, the internal borders have become more ubiquitous and enforced by various kinds of bordering practices. Drawing on a qualitative research on Russian-speaking women engaged in commercial sex in Finland, we have examined

Abstract This article explores how the concept of dependency is used when scrutinising residence permit applicants of the elderly who fall into the category of “other family members” for family reunion. Through an analysis of interviews with immigration officers, as well as Finnish and European Union (EU) legal documents, the article shows that contestations of the concept of dependency become part

1Migration Institute of Finland, Turku, Finland & Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 2Political History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 3Cornelia Goethe Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany 4Centre for Research on Migration, Refugees and Belonging, University of East London

Abstract This study explores how social inclusion and exclusion manifest as a dynamic continuum in the everyday lived realities of irregular migrants. Based on narratives of Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers, who were eventually deported from Finland, the analysis depicts the ways in which societal structures, personal negotiations as well as relationships and social networks interplay in lives characterized