Eveliina Lyytinen

Introduction

My research and expertise cover a broad range of themes related to forced migration and refugees. I have studied, among other things, older refugees, mixed-citizenship couples, the removal of asylum seekers, the employment of young people with refugee background and the protection of urban refugees. I am particularly interested in the integration of concepts of human geography into refugee research, in qualitative research and in research ethics. I feel that research in this area should seek to make legislation and politics more humane.

Projects

Older persons’ experiences of ageing, integration, and trust (Mobile Futures and Endings projects, 2025–2027)

Mobile Futures: Diversity, Trust and Two-Way Integration (Funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Academy of Finland, 2022-2027)

Endings – Refuge, Time, and Space (Kone Foundation, 2023-2027)

Intimate geographies of bordering: Deportability and its effects on Finnish citizens with foreign spouses and their extend (Academy of Finland, 2022-2024)

Action-oriented Research on Asylum Seekers’ Deportability (post-doctoral research project, Academy of Finland, 2018–2022)

Coming of Age in Exile (CAGE) – Health and Socio-Economic Inequities in Young Refugees in the Nordic Welfare Societies (NordForsk, 2015–2018)

Spaces of Trust and Mistrust: Congolese Refugees, Institutions and Protection in Kampala, Uganda (doctoral thesis project, School of Geography, University of Oxford, several funders, 2009–2014)

Essential publications

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2026) “Two small people in a war against the whole state”:  Feminist geolegal analysis of mixed-citizen couples’ accounts of deportability. Fennia – International Journal of Geography, 204(1), https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.160151

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2026) ‘I Have Completely Exhausted Myself During This Journey’: Female Citizens’ Experiential Migrantisation in the Face of Their Foreign Spouse’s Deportability. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 16(2): 2, 1–17, https://doi.org/10.33134/njmr.979

Siim, Pihla & Eveliina Lyytinen (2025) Mixed-citizenship couples’ emotional geographies of ‘doing family’. Comparative Migration Studies, 13(93), https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-025-00509-0

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2025) Legal geographies of deportability – Entanglements of power between nomospheric guardians, technicians, and figures. Political Geography, 119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2025.103333.

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2023) Superdiversiteetti kotouttavassa turvapaikka-aktivismissa. In: Martikainen, T. & S. Pöyhönen (eds.) Superdiversiteetti. Näkökulmia maahanmuuton monimuotoisuuteen. Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki, 373–398, https://doi.org/10.21435/skst.1489

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2022a) Kokemuksia ja havaintoja lain väkivallasta karkotuksissa. In: Pirkkalainen, Päivi, Eveliina Lyytinen & Saara Pellander (eds.) Suomesta poistetut – Näkökulmia käännytyksiin ja karkotuksiin. Vastapaino, Tampere, 223–246, http://doi.org/10.58181/VP9789517689960

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2022c) ‘I have my everything in here’: Welcome, unwelcome and rewelcome in asylum seeker’s deportability. Hospitality & Society, 12(2): 145–163, https://doi.org/10.1386/hosp_00042_1

Pirkkalainen, Päivi, Eveliina Lyytinen & Saara Pellander (2022) Johdanto. In: Pirkkalainen, Päivi, Eveliina Lyytinen & Saara Pellander (eds.) Suomesta poistetut – Näkökulmia käännytyksiin ja karkotuksiin. Vastapaino, Tampere, 223–246, http://doi.org/10.58181/VP9789517689960

Pirkkalainen, Päivi, Lena Näre & Eveliina Lyytinen (2022) ’I do not trust any of them anymore’: Institutional distrust and corrective practices in pro-asylum activism in Finland. Current Sociology, 72(3) 3: 562–580,  https://doi.org/10.1177/001139212211293

Lyytinen, Eveliina (ed.)(2019) Turvapaikanhaku ja pakolaisuus Suomessa. Turku, Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-7167-59-5

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2019) ‘In a group you feel OK, but outside there you are ready to die’ – The role of a support group in disabled refugees’ struggles for their ‘right to the city’ in Kampala, Uganda. In: Michael E Leary-Owhin & John P McCarthy (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Henri Lefebvre, the City and Urban Society. London, Routledge.

Lyytinen, Eveliina & Nita Toom (2019) Two-way labour market integration? Perspectives on youth with a refugee background and employers in Finland. Coming of Age in Exile project report (https://siirtolaisuusinstituutti.fi/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/two-way-labour-market-integration-cage-report-2019.pdf) (pdf)

Gauffin, Karl & Eveliina Lyytinen (2017) Working for Integration – A Comparative Analysis of Policies Impacting Labour Market Access among Young Immigrants and Refugees in the Nordic Countries. Coming of Age in Exile project report. (https://siirtolaisuusinstituutti.fi/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/cage-policy-report-1.pdf) (pdf)

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2017) Refugees ‘Journeys of Trust: Creating an Analytical Framework to Examine Refugees Exilic Journeys with a Focus on Trust. Journal of Refugee Studies, 30(4): 489–501, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/few035

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2016) Informal places of protection: Congolese refugees’ ‘communities of trust’ in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(6): 991–1008, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2016.1207506

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2015) Congolese refugees’ ‘right to the city’ and urban protection in Kampala, Uganda.Journal of Eastern African Studies, 9 (4): 593-611, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2015.1116142

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2015) Refugees’ Conceptualizations of “Protection Space”: Geographical Scales of Urban Protection and Host–Refugee Relations. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 34(2): 45–77, https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdv001

Lyytinen, Eveliina & Janosh Kullenberg (2013) Urban Refugee Research and Social Capital. A Roundtable Report and Literature Review. International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), New York, https://alnap.org/help-library/resources/urban-refugee-research-and-social-capital-a-roundtable-report-and-literature-review/

Lyytinen, Eveliina (2009) A tale of three cities: Internal displacement, urbanization and humanitarian action in Abidjan, Khartoum and Mogadishu. Research Paper No. 173, New Issues in Refugee Research. UNHCR, Geneva, https://www.unhcr.org/media/tale-three-cities-internal-displacement-urbanization-and-humanitarian-action-abidjan-khartoum

Teaching and supervision

XSTL1054 Forced Migration and Refugee Studies course (University of Turku, 2020-)

PhD supervisees: History, University of Oulu; Theology, Åbo Akademi University; Social Policy, Åbo Akademi University (defended 2024); Geography, University of Turku (defended 2024)