CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories and Historiographies

Editors: Seija Jalagin, Johanna Leinonen, Miika Tervonen, Malin Thor Tureby & Heidi Vad Jønsson

Deadline: August 31, 2022

Keywords: forced migration, displacement, refugees, asylum seekers, deportations, Nordic countries, nation-states, migration regulation, public discourses, memories

This peer-reviewed anthology explores histories of forced migrants in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, highlighting how these histories bring out transnational connections as well as disconnects within the Nordic region. Histories and policies of migration, as well as the experiences of war and other crises producing displacement, are different in each Nordic country. Nevertheless, they share many historical phases and state constellations that have molded them, also in regard to migration histories. In addition, they share societal structures that are built around the logic of the welfare system.

Conventional narratives of the Nordic countries and their pasts tend to buttress the myth of exceptionally homogeneous nations. These narratives have systematically omitted histories of refugees, deportations, and other forms of forced migration. Therefore, it is pertinent to examine histories of forced migrants particularly in the Nordic context. By using the concept of forced migrants, we consider not only refugees and asylum-seekers but also internally displaced people, evacuees, and deportees. Scholarship on forced migration typically focuses on refugees and their reception in nation-states of the Global North (cf. Chimni 2009). Histories of internal displacements, as well as forced migrations produced by states in the Global North through deportations, have remained marginal research topics. We argue that we need to examine different forms of forced migration in order to gain a temporally and geographically more diverse understanding of displacement in Nordic histories.

The anthology will be the first one to analyze histories and historiographies of forced migration in the Nordic countries transnationally, allowing an analysis of similarities and differences in the national histories as well as connections between the national settings. It focuses on three themes through which forced migrants can be integrated into the broader Nordic histories:

The first theme of the book is the regulation of forced migration. Forced migration to, from, and within the region has taken place in the context of welfare/nation-states developing side by side with migration control and a sharpening division between citizens and aliens (Torpey 1998). The countries have adopted policies, legal systems, and practices to regulate the entry, reception, aid, and statuses of forced migrants. As Frank and Reinisch (2014) argue, refugees are “barometers of intolerance” in the sense that states’ responses to the needs of displaced people tell something about the ideological groundings of the states. The regulation of forced migration in the Nordic countries stems from and has developed according to national and international value systems and conventions but also depends on the contemporaneous political and economic needs.

The second theme focuses on forced migrants in public discourses, aiming to investigate how forced migrants have been discussed, debated, and framed in, for example, political forums, media texts, art, and popular culture. The purpose is to study discourses, rhetoric, and visualizations related to forced migration as products of temporally and politically specific settings. While public discourses may tell something about their target groups, they typically expose more about the multilayered and contested views evolving in the host society.

The third theme, memories of forced migration, takes the viewpoint of forced migrants themselves and pays attention to their agency, experiences, and memories. This enables writing history with forced migrants rather than of them (cf. Banko, Nowak & Gatrell 2021), and critically reflecting on the existing scholarship on histories of forced migrants that tends to treat refugees as indistinguishable and helpless victims and focus on nation-states’ and NGOs’ acts during so-called “refugee crises” (Gatrell 2013; Bon Tempo 2014). However, history matters for forced migrants, too, and they may use histories and memories for different purposes.

We welcome contributions that address one or more of the themes outlined above. The articles can focus on any historical context from the early modern period to the 20th century and address one or multiple Nordic countries.

The proposals should include the title of the paper, an abstract (max. 500 words), and a short bio of the author(s) including the contact details (name, email address, affiliation). Please send your proposal to Senior Lecturer Seija Jalagin (seija.jalagin(at)oulu.fi) and Academy Research Fellow Johanna Leinonen (johanna.leinonen(at)oulu.fi) by August 31, 2022. The accepted proposals will be announced by September 15, 2022. The book proposal will be sent to an international academic publisher in November 2022. The deadline for the article manuscripts is December 15, 2022. The articles will be submitted to a peer review process in February 2023.

Ystävällisin terveisin – Kind regards

Johanna Leinonen

Akatemiatutkija | Academy Research Fellow

https://www.oulu.fi/en/researchers/johanna-leinonen

Oulun yliopisto | University of Oulu

Historia-, kulttuuri- ja viestintätieteiden tutkimusyksikkö | Research Unit for History, Culture and Communications

Tel. +358 50 306 6920

PO Box 1000, FI-90014 OULUN YLIOPISTO

www.oulu.fi

Research projects:

Refugee Journeys: Narratives of Forced Mobilities (PI, Academy of Finland, 2018-2023)

Postmemory of Family Separation: An Intergenerational Perspective (PI, Academy of Finland, 2019-2023)

Histories of Refugeedom in the Nordic Countries (PI, NOS-HS, 2020-2022)

Mobile Futures: Diversity, Trust, and Two-Way Integration (Deputy PI, Strategic Research Council, established within the Academy of Finland, 2021-2027)