Staff

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Director

Saara Pellander

Director +358 40 127 1070 saara.pellander@migrationinstitute.fi

D. Soc. Sc., Associate professor

Researchers

Marja Tiilikainen

Research Director, Senior Research Fellow (Research leave in spring 2026) +358 40 684 3814 marja.tiilikainen@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD, Associate professor

Transnational families and everyday security
Illness and healing as cultural phenomena
Everyday religiosity
Somali diaspora
Ethnographic methods
Research Integrity Adviser at the Migration Institute of Finland
Finland Country Coordinator for the Migrant Integration Hub

ORCID

Samira Saramo

Deputy Research Director, Senior Research Fellow +358 40 355 5816 samira.saramo@migrationinstitute.fi

Ph.D., Associate Professor

Migration and Ethnicity in Canadian and United States History
Settler Colonialism and Migration
Place, Environment, and Community-building
Histories of Experience and Emotion
Transnational Death and Mourning
Transdisciplinary Methodologies

ORCID

Tomas Hanell

Senior Research Fellow +358 40 120 4573 tomas.hanell@migrationinstitute.fi

D.Sc (Tech)

Domestic migration
Regional development
Geography of quality of life
Statistical indicators and the politics of measurement

ORCID

Markku Mattila

Senior Research Fellow +358 44 259 2447 markku.mattila@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD, Associate professor

Population policy
Minorities
Migration
Social history
History of science and ideas

ORCID

ResearchGate

Eveliina Lyytinen

Senior Research Fellow +358 400 219 184 eveliina.lyytinen@migrationinstitute.fi

DPhil, Associate professor

Forced migration
Exile
Deportation of asylum seekers
Qualitative research methods
Research ethics
Urban exile
Deputy Research Integrity Adviser at the Migration Institute of Finland
IMISCOE Standing Committee on Forced Migration and Refugees, Event Coordinator

ORCID

Magnus Enlund

Project manager +358 44 559 2447 magnus.enlund@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD

Finland-Swedish migration

Mika Raunio

Research Fellow +358 44 925 5042 mika.raunio@migrationinstitute.fi

LicSc (Admin)

Migration and regional development
International migration of talent
Regional attraction
Emerging economies

ORCID

Toni Ahvenainen

Junior Research Fellow +358 40 164 6762 toni.ahvenainen@migrationinstitute.fi

MSSc

Urbanisation
Regional development
Project communication

ORCID

Sari Vanhanen

Research Fellow sari.vanhanen@migrationinstitute.fi

D. Soc. Sc., adult educator

Multi-agency collaboration
Two-way integration
Professional knowledge and guidance related to ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity

ORCID

Linda Bäckman

Research Fellow +358 40 6857413 linda.backman@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD

Multilingualism
Language and identity
Narrative research
Superdiversity and integration
New speakers of minority languages
Research and social activism

ORCID

Camilla Marucco Al-Mimar

Research Fellow +358 406 739 120 camilla.marucco@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD

Refugeehood and citizenship
Temporalities
Feminist methodologies
Research ethics
Chairperson, ETMU ry
Co-coordinator with Leonardo Custódio, Activist Research Network
Board member, We See You ry

ORCID

Erna Bodström

Research Fellow +358 40 678 2021 erna.bodstrom@migrationinstitute.fi

D. Soc. Sc.

Refugeehood and residence permits
Asylum process
Asylum politics
Asylum activism
Integration and citizenship
Administrative texts
Textual and visual methods

ORCID

Pekka Kettunen

Senior Research Fellow pekka.kettunen@migrationinstitute.fi

D. Soc. Sc., Associate professor

Organisation
Implementation and evaluation
Comparative study
Municipal research
Integration

ORCID

Tuire Liimatainen

Research Fellow tuire.liimatainen@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD

Ethnicity
Identity and belonging
Diasporas and transnational communities
Ethnopolitics and minority activism
Sweden-Finns
Expatriate Finns
Digital media

ORCID

Jaana Palander

Research Fellow +358 44 4915830 jaana.palander@migrationinstitute.fi

Dr. (Admin)

Migration management
Migration law
Basic and human rights
Family reunification
Legal aid
Climate migration

ORCID

Nina Carlsson

Research Fellow nina.carlsson@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD

Citizenship and naturalization
Language and civic knowledge testing
Linguistic justice
National minorities
Mainstreaming of the far right
Deportability
Critical policy analysis

Kaiju Harinen

Research Fellow kaiju.harinen@migrationinstitute.fi

Phd

• Decolonial research, anti-racist pedagogy, and literary arts
• Representations of intersectional discrimination and migration in literature
• Empirical research on literature and reading
• Development of reading circle methods
• Research on young people’s experiences of multiple crises
• French-language literature
• Minority literatures
• Social influence/activism

ORCID

Mimosa Suontama

Research Assistant mimosa.suontama@migrationinstitute.fi

VTK

Bordering
(Non)belonging
‘Migrantizing’ the citizen
Narrative research

Elli Heikkilä

Research director emerita +358 40 069 5452 elli.heikkila@migrationinstitute.fi

PhD, Associate professor

Immigrants in the labour market
Multicultural marriages
International students
Unaccompanied refugee children
Expatriate Finns
Internal migration
Regional development

ORCID
ResearchGate

Support desk

Kirsi Sainio

Administrative director +358 40 668 5904 kirsi.sainio@migrationinstitute.fi

Secretary of the Board of Directors and Board of Administration
Financial and human resources management
Coordinating the production of publications

Mika Orjala

Research Funding Specialist +358 40 120 4409 mika.orjala@migrationinstitute.fi

MSc

Support in applying research funding
Grant Writing
Support in implementation and reporting of projects
Fundraising for the Migration Institute of Finland

Jarno Heinilä

Archivist +358 40 631 3042 jarno.heinila@migrationinstitute.fi

Reception, acquisition and management of and access to archival materials
Information service: Migration Collections, Emigrant register
Tasks related to the management of the organization’s archive

Katri Kanervo

Information specialist +358 40 130 4681 katri.kanervo@migrationinstitute.fi

Information services
Library: Information search, collection management, acquisition, cataloguing, customer service, inter-library loans
Classification and storage of electronic data and traditional written information material
Communications: Daily communications, press releases, newsletters, brochures, social media, website of the Migration Institute of Finland, media monitoring
Tasks related to event production
Tasks related to publication production