
Authors: Päivi Pirkkalainen, Viivi Eskelinen, Gwenaëlle Bauvois, Ángel Iglesias Ortiz
ETMU celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! As editors of the Liikkeessä yli rajojen-online magazine, we are honouring ETMU’s birthday by inviting former ETMU chairpersons and ETMU award winners to write a text in which they reflect on their experiences with ETMU.
In this introduction, we want to review the past 20 years of ETMU by analysing its different roles and the growth, change and development of its activities. We are very pleased to be part of such a well-established, mature scholarly society that has solidified its role among scholars working on issues of immigration, diversity, and ethnic relations, while continuing to be a reflexive, non-hierarchical, and supportive network. Congratulations to ETMU on its anniversary! Stay strong!
Various roles of ETMU
As the first ETMU chairperson Tuomas Martikainen writes in his blog text, ETMU traces its origins to the national research program on ethnic relations. This program was established in 2003, building upon the research program funded by the Academy of Finland named ”Marginalisation, Inequality, and Ethnic Relations in Finland” (SYREENI). This lasted for two years and brought together numerous researchers based in Finland who were interested in immigration and ethnic relations and wished to continue their collaboration. ETMU was originally established in Helsinki in 2002 during the Nordic Migration Research conference. The official history of ETMU began with the ETMU meeting on June 2, 2003 at the House of Science in Helsinki. Since then, ETMU has served the academic community, researchers in the field of immigration and ethnic relations at all career stages and positioned itself as an actor in the international research field and in Finnish society at large.
ETMU for researchers
ETMU has fostered the growth of the research field of migration and ethnic relations by providing a forum for researchers. It has worked – and continues to work – to promote multidisciplinary and ethical research and education in the field of ethnic relations and international migration in Finland, welcoming researchers at all career stages.
The email list, established at the inception of ETMU, remains a vital communication channel for numerous scholars throughout Finland and beyond. ETMU not only provides opportunities for researchers with innovative and forward-thinking ideas to publish but can also be viewed as a pioneer in its publications endeavours. As noted by former chair Lotta Haikkola in her blog post, ETMU operated a scientific open access journal well before universities implemented open access policies, and maintained an online blog before popularisation of science became mainstream. ETMU established the Finnish Journal of Ethnicity and Migration (FJEM) in 2006, which eventually merged with the Norwegian journal Norsk tidsskrift for migrasjonsforskning in 2011 to form the Nordic Journal of Migration Research (NJMR), which still exists and is supported by ETMU. Over the years, FJEM and NJMR have been – and still are – important publication channels for researchers in the field of migration and ethnic relations.
ETMU researchers have also published scientific edited volumes. Edited volume Ylirajainen kulttuuri (SKS) was released in 2006. Furthermore, to celebrate ETMU’s 10-year anniversary in 2014, ETMU researchers Lotta Haikkola, Merja Pentikäinen, Niko Pyrhönen, and Teemu Pauha published a book Ulos kammioista! Muuttoliikkeiden ja etnisyyden tutkimus yhteiskunnallisena vaikuttamisena. This publication reflects on how researching migration and ethnic relations serves as a social action against xenophobia. Ten years later, a group of researchers will publish ETMU’s 20th anniversary publication to critically reflect on integration.
Since its inception, ETMU has been a non-hierarchical organisation providing a platform and responsibility for young scientists and, increasingly, international scientists. For example, the first chair, Tuomas Martikainen, took on a leadership role while still a PhD student. Our current chair, Camilla Marucco, and the two chairs before her, Johanna Ennser-Kananen and Saara Pellander, are all scientists who have come to Finland from abroad. On a positive note, the ETMU Board has also become more diverse in terms of nationalities and cultural backgrounds. ETMU also supports the participation of PhD students in international research conferences through the Annika Forsander Memorial Fund. This fund was established on May 4, 2018, to preserve the memory of Annika Forsander and her work by helping young scholars.
ETMU in scientific networks
Since its foundation, ETMU has had an international and transnational focus. The association’s initial model was drawn from other Nordic countries and the Netherlands. As former chair Marja Tiilikainen points out in her blog, ETMU, based in Finland, has facilitated international networking and provided support for the Nordic Migration Research Network, which was founded in Norway in 2007.
ETMU has also been very active in maintaining multidisciplinary research in the field of science policy in Finland, where multidisciplinary research is often not very strong and established. To this end, ETMU has become a member of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies and has over the years networked with other scientific associations, such as the Youth and Children research network, as former chair Lotta Haikkola writes in her text.
ETMU in the society
ETMU responds to the society in which it lives. ETMU strives to promote and support the work of non-governmental organisations and activists who contribute to a more just and equal society. It is a visible civil society actor, working with NGOs, government agencies, decision-makers and the media. ETMU strives to influence public opinion on migration and ethnic relations as well as migration and integration policy making through research-based outputs, for example, by publishing research-based blogs on current issues in its online magazine Liikkeessä yli rajojen.
It can be observed that ETMU’s activities are gradually moving more towards societal engagement. ETMU is actively engaged in bringing research-based evidence to bear on policy -making, a role that has become more important in recent years as part of the overall policy shift toward more restrictive immigration policies that disregard the human rights agenda in immigration policies. Currently, ETMU is represented on the advisory boards of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy’s Centre for Expertise on Immigrant Integration and Statistics Finland’s Immigration Statistics. In addition, it is becoming increasingly important for ETMU to advocate for humanitarianism and peace outside Finland. This is because many conflicts around the globe have negative consequences for both immigrants and non-white Finnish people.
ETMU confers visibility to scholars and civil society actors by annually awarding the ETMU prize at its conference. The award seeks to highlight major contributions to the promotion and research of ethnic relations such as Professor Erik Allardt, Professor Emerita Marja-Liisa Swantz, Professor Karmela Liebkind, Professor Tom Sandlund, Chancellery Counsellor Risto Laakkonen and Professor Elina Pirjatanniemi. Moreover, the award also recognises the work and engagement of societal actors such as the Right to Live Collective, Koko Hubara and the Ruskeat Tytöt (Brown Girls) Collective and Medical doctors Hibo ja Ibrahim.
ETMU in the future
ETMU will persistently work towards combating the challenges posed by xenophobic political forces and rising discrimination in diverse forms, as they continue to remain an integral part of our daily lives. These first 20 years of ETMU show the importance of critical thinking and active engagement among scholars and civil society actors. This special issue also celebrates all the people who have been part of ETMU – board members, chairpersons and supporting members – and whose work continues to advance ETMU’s vision, goals and actions for an equal and just society.
Reflection texts to celebrate ETMU 20 years
The first reflection text about ETMU is written in Finnish by the ETMU’s first chairperson Tuomas Martikainen (Ph.D., dos.) who is a religious studies scholar specialised in researching the religious activities of immigrants in Finland. Currently, Martikainen is the rector of the Swedish School of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Second reflection text written similarly in Finnish by Marja Tiilikainen (Ph.D, dos.) who served as a chairperson of ETMU in 2005-2007. Tiilikainen is a docent in religious studies focusing on researching the everyday lives and family relationships of forced migrants. Presently, Tiilikainen works as a research director at the Migration Institute of Finland.
The third reflection text is written in Finnish by Sari Hammar (Ph.D.), who was one of the founders of ETMU and chaired ETMU in 2009-2010. Hammar currently works at the Deaconess Foundation as director of international services and immigrants related services. Lotta Haikkola (Ph.D, dos.), who served as ETMU chair in 2014-2016, is the author of the fourth reflection text, which is written in Finnish. Haikkola currently works as an academy research fellow in the Youth Research Network. Haikkola specialises in ethnography and is currently researching young people in changing labour markets, with a particular focus on workers in the logistics and restaurant industries.
Haider Yas writes in English the fifth text as the representative of the Right to Live Collective reflecting the experiences after receiving the ETMU award in 2017. The Right to Live collective received the award for their tireless struggle for fairness in the asylum-seeking and decision-making processes, which highlighted the plight of those seeking refuge in Finland, and in Europe in general, while also exposing the discriminatory structures underpinning the current asylum policies in Finland. The sixth text was written by Johanna Leinonen (Ph.D, dos.), the ETMU chair from 2017-2018. Leinonen specialises in migration history and is a docent in multiculturalism research at the University of Turku (2016). Currently, Leinonen works as a researcher at the Deaconess Institute and is involved in various research projects.
The seventh reflection text is written in Finnish by Saara Pellander (Ph.D, dos.), who held the ETMU chair in 2019-2020. She is a docent in political history at the University of Helsinki and works currently as director of the Migration Institute in Finland. The eighth reflection text is written in English by Johanna Ennser-Kananen (Ph.D, dos.), who held the ETMU chair in 2021-2022. She currently works as an Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Language and Communication, University of Jyväskylä researching the intersections of language, knowledge, and racialization in schools.
The last two reflection texts of this special anniversary issue are by ETMU Prize winners: Professor of constitutional and international law and director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi Elina Pirjatanniemi (Ph.D), who received the 2019 ETMU Prize, and medical doctors Hibo ja Ibrahim, who received the 2022 ETMU Prize. Professor Pirjatanniemi received the prize for her scientific and social commitment to human rights. Doctors Hibo and Ibrahim received the award for their medical practice in Finland with the aim of making Finnish healthcare equitable and accessible to all.