The Migration Institute of Finland is celebrating its 50th anniversary and is organizing a lot of anniversary events and programs in different parts of Finland. One series of events is the “Research Seminar on the Move” seminars in eight different university cities during the jubilee year. In connection with the seminars, a roll-up exhibition will also tour the cities, based on the Migration Institute’s “Tervetuloa, tervemenoa” podcast series by journalist Nadja Mikkonen. The podcast series has been financed by Tieteen tiedotus ry. The Migration Institute of Finland has also published a 50th anniversary book called Tervetuloa, tervemenoa – Suomi muuttoliikkeessä, which is also based on Mikkonen’s podcast series. The exhibition’s illustration consists of e.g. old photos from the Migration Institute’s archive and Nora Sayyad’s photographs.
The exhibition covers various stories about migrations in Finland, from Finland and to Finland, and brings together both historical and contemporary phenomena. Mikkonen describes how moving from one place to another is strongly perceived as some kind of exception to the norm, and only the concepts of refugee and asylum seeking are strongly associated around the topics. Migrations, however, deal with much more and touch us Finns more closely than we think. Mikkonen describes migration as follows: “We Finns are a nation of migrants, no matter which way you look at it”.
The stories in the exhibition connect history to the present day. Topics in the exhibition include, for example: How does migration affect the Finnish language here and elsewhere? Utopias of Finnish immigrants as part of the history of colonialism and Estonians and Tatars invisible minorities? The exhibition consists of a total of nine roll-ups. Exhibition locations, schedule and durations vary. You can find the entire anniversary event list here.
Photos: Nora Sayyad