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A Lost Mitten and Other Stories

The project, Lost Mitten and Other Stories, examines a new sense of neighbour relations that transpires as a result of growing mobility. The project focuses on the ways in which these new neighbour relations or a sense of neighbourliness emerge from stories related to personal items of significance, and the way in which these stories are perceived. Lost Mitten and Other Stories is an interdisciplinary project that seeks collaboration between art and science. The project is carried out in eastern Finland.

The main concern of the project is to find out how the items of personal significance and the stories related to them help establish dialogue and, consequently, new kinds of mobile and cross-border neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. Furthermore, the purpose is to explore how dialogic interaction helps promote, for example, the construction of cultural citizenship and create new, migrating, deterritorial cultural heritages. The items of personal significance as well as the stories relating to them are examined through a materialistic, cultural, linguistic, and narrative point of view and are, additionally, exhibited through artistic, interactive displays. The items of personal significance are understood as a poetic and political medium of various dialogues between past and present, between immigrants and natives, between different generations, between mobile and sedentary people.

The approach and the subject matter of the project are topical: immigration, different mobilities, the encounter of languages and cultures, and thereby, emerging new neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. The multidisciplinary approach, combining different methods of science and art, enables new ways of examining the issue of neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness.

The project combines science and art innovatively and, therefore, generates new methods to investigate the current issues of different mobilities, language and cultural encounters, and challenges arising from new neighbour relations.

The project is funded by the Kone Foundation.

Alex Berg (alex.berg@uef.fi)

The current project that I am working on currently at the UEF Law School addresses the Legal Rights of Older Immigrants and Immigrants with Dementia in Finland.

The legal rights of older immigrants and immigrants with dementia have not been researched extensively globally. In Finland, the research in this area is scarce. It is important to study these groups of people as the numbers of older immigrants and immigrants with dementia is increasing in the country. The study aims at investigating their lived experiences and the obstacles they might face regarding their legal rights and access to justice, and whether they feel stigmatized in society because of their vulnerable situation. It is also necessary to find solutions and strategies that aim at improving their lives and welfare in the Finnish society. The study will primarily employ an empirical approach to investigate the firsthand experiences of these groups through conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews with them. The inputs and experiences of people dealing with these groups will be considered as well in the data collection process. From a legal perspective, the research will analyze the policies regarding access to justice for these two groups, such as the Elderly Care Act, the Non-Discrimination Act, and the Social Welfare Act. From a social perspective, the problem will be looked at from a social stigmatization standpoint. This is in the sense that belonging to one of the categories of being ‘immigrant’, ‘old’, and ‘ill’ can lead to stigmatization. This research addresses groups of immigrants who belong to at least two of these categories, hence what can be identified as ‘intersecting stigmas’, and potentially a reinforced experience of hindrances to access to justice.

Ella Heimonen (ella.heimonen@uef.fi)

I work as a doctoral researched in FriendMUM research project in the Department of Social Sciences. In my social psychological doctoral research I am studying the process of shared identity in friendships between mothers from immigrant and Finnish backgrounds.

Helena Rovamo (helena.rovamo@uef.fi)

Hi! I’m Helena, a PhD researcher in social psychology. Nice of you to check out my profile! 😊

I am currently finishing my dissertation on populism. In my dissertation, I aim to explore the appeal of populism through qualitative research. My dissertation is part of a broader research project called Mobilizing Populism led by Professor Inari Sakki of the University of Helsinki.

My research is based on interview data collected in the research project in 2021. In these interviews, we discussed with voters of different Finnish parties different political issues, such as immigration and populism, and the reasons for their voting decisions. In my research, I have focused primarily on examining the divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ as constructed in the interviewees’ talk. The sub-studies of my dissertation have been published in social psychology journals and I actively communicate about my research on my LinkedIn profile. The sub-studies are listed below:

Rovamo, H., Pettersson, K., & Sakki, I. (2023). Who’s to blame for failed integration of immigrants? Blame attributions as an affectively polarizing force in lay discussions of immigration in Finland. Political Psychology, 45(2), 235–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12917

Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2023). Lay representations of populism: discursive negotiation of naturalized social representation. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology., 34(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2755

Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2024). Mobilization of shared victimhood in the radical right populist Finns Party supporters’ identity work: A narrative-discursive approach to populist support. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54(2), 495–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3021

Since spring 2024, I have been working as part of a research project called Intergroup Relations and Local Encounters, led by Jari Martikainen from the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Kone Foundation. The research project focuses on studying how Ukrainian, Middle Eastern, and Finnish young people living in the Savo area perceive each other, their lives, and their future in multicultural Savo.

Alongside my research, I teach and supervise students in social psychology.

Before my studies in social sciences, I graduated as a nurse from the Savonia University of Applied Sciences. I consider that my professional strengths are, on the one hand, my ability to be analytical and systematic and, on the other, my ability to listen and have empathy towards others.

In my work, I get excited about learning or practicing something new every day. I enjoy conversations and listening to others. I sometimes immerse myself in details, but I also love to outline big patterns.

Katja Lötjönen (katja.lotjonen@uef.fi)

I work as a researcher in the research project Intergroup relations and local encounters – Immigrant and Finnish young people’s perceptions of each other, their lives and future in multicultural Savo. In addition, I am working on my doctoral dissertation on young people’s  lay perceptions related to social classes and their agency. I also teach part-time in the subject of social psychology.

My research interests are related to themes of inequality and young people, viewed from the young people’s own point of view, in the way how they themselves perceive society and what kind of connection these lay perceptions have on how they perceive their opportunities and alternatives in their own lives. Methodologically, I am interested in mixed method research and especially its integrative approach.

Pedagogically, I am interested in developing multi-modal teaching, especially in an online environment, in the way that it supports meaningful learning for students from different backgrounds. Also developing more diverse evaluation methods in online teaching is one of my core interests.

Lindsay Doran (lindsay.doran@uef.fi)

Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. MA attained in Transnational and Comparative History. Studying with a major focus on modern Europe, and hold minors in Public History and Comparative Indigenous History. Currently specializing in modern Finnish and North American Indigenous history, and conducting a research project designed to explore the role of state paternalism within the development of Indigenous boarding school policy.

Of secondary research interest are the concepts of Indigenous American communities intersecting with Finnish immigrants in the Great Lakes Region of the United States during the twentieth century. Doran examines the idea of perception and cultural stereotyping in relation to the Ojibwe and Finnish communities, and how these perceptions may have traveled from the United States to Finland today.

MATILDE – Migration Impact Assessment to Enhance Integration and Local Development in European Rural and Mountain Areas

The EU-funded MATILDE project is based on the hypothesis that non-EU immigrants represent a challenge for rural and mountain areas in Europe. However, these third-country nationals (TCNs) could contribute to the local economic and social development. In addition, TCNs affect the relationship between urban areas and rural and mountain zones. As a result, the project will estimate the dimensions of the economic and social impacts of TCNs on European, national and local levels. The project intends to engage local stakeholders and elaborate proposals concerning the redistribution of resources in the EU rural and mountain areas as well as recommendations concerning government policies. The project will offer policymakers and stakeholders a better understanding of the migrant integration process.

Meysam Haddadi Barzoki (meysamh@uef.fi)

Dr Barzoki currently foucese on the sexual objectification among Muslim immigrant women in Europe as a vulnerable group who suffer from serious psychological trauma raises from difficult time of immigration and resettlement in Europe.