Saara Pellander

Introduction

I am the Director of the Migration Institute and responsible for leading, developing and supervising the fulfillment of our foundation’s purpose and strategic goals, as well as organizing its operational activities. I am a Doctor of Social Sciences and Associate Professor (Title of Docent) in Political History at the University of Helsinki. I am currently the PI for the Academy of Finland funded INDEFI project on deportability and family ties. I furthermore lead the interaction-workpackage in a consortium project called Diversity, Trust, and Two-Way Integration (Mobile Futures), which is a six-year research project, funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Academy of Finland.

I have worked and published on issues related to the regulation of cross-border intimacies and family reunification especially from the perspectives of bordering processes in policies and their implementation, as well as media representations of (forced) migration and related activism.

I am the editor in chief of the Migration Institute’s publication series as well as its Migration-Muuttoliike journal.

Projects

Intimate geographies of bordering: Deportability and its effects on Finnish citizens with foreign spouses and their extended families (Suomen Akatemia 2021-2025)

Diversity, Trust, and Two-Way Integration (Mobile Futures), (Suomen Akatemian yhteydessä toimiva Strateginen neuvosto, 2021-2027)

Essential publications

Articles:

Pellander, S. (2023) “Buy me love: Entanglements of citizenship, income and emotions in regulating marriage migration.” Cross-Border Marriages. Routledge. 140-155. DOI: 10.4324/9781003372400

Shindo, R. et al. (2023) “Collective discussion: Movement and Carceral spatiality in the pandemic.” International Political Sociology 17.3: olad011. DOI:10.1093/ips/olad011

Kotilainen, N. & Pellander S. (2022) “(Not) Looking Like A Refugee: Symbolic Borders of Habitus in Media Representations of Refugees.” Media History 28.2: 278-293. DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2021.1932445

Leinonen, J. & Pellander S. (2020) “Temporality and everyday (in) security in the lives of separated refugee families.” Family life in transition. Routledge,118-128.DOI: 10.4324/9780429024832

Hiitola, J. & Pellander S. (2019) “The alien child’s best interest ignored: When notions of gendered parenthood meet tightening immigration policies.” NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 27.4: 245-257. DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2019.1655093

Palander, J. and Pellander S. (2019) “Mobility and the security paradigm: how immigration became securitized in Finnish law and policy.” Journal of Finnish Studies 22.1-2: 173-193. DOI: 10.5406/28315081.22.1.2.10

Tervonen, M. et al. (2018) “Everyday bordering in the Nordic countries.” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 8.3: 139-142. DOI: 10.2478/njmr-2018-0019

Pellander, S. & Horsti K. (2018). “Visibility in mediated borderscapes: The hunger strike of asylum seekers as an embodiment of border violence.” Political Geography 66: 161-170. DOI:10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.01.005

Pellander, S. (2018) “The Ageing Body as a Bordering Site.” Nordic Journal of Migration Research 8.3: 159-166. DOI: 10.2478/njmr-2018-0021.

Horsti, K. & Pellander S. (2015) “Conditions of cultural citizenship: intersections of gender, race and age in public debates on family migration.” Citizenship Studies 19.6-7: 751-767. DOI:10.1080/13621025.2015.1008998

Pellander, S. (2015) ““An acceptable marriage” marriage migration and moral gatekeeping in Finland.” Journal of family issues 36.11: 1472-1489. DOI:10.1177/0192513X14557492

Leinonen, J. & Pellander S. (2014) “Court decisions over marriage migration in Finland: a problem with transnational family ties.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40.9: 1488-1506. DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2013.846825

Books:

Kettunen, P. et al (2022) eds. Nationalism and democracy in the welfare state. Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI: 10.4337/9781788976589.00008

Pirkkalainen, P. et al. (2022) “Suomesta poistetut: näkökulmia karkotuksiin ja käännytyksiin.” Vastapaino. DOI: 10.58181/VP9789517689960