We look at Finnish border towns and study relationships between their Finnish residents and recent migrants from Russia and other places of the former USSR. We also consider cross-border neighbor relationships between the residents of Finnish and Russian border towns, focusing on their perception of each other and their use of the spaces of neighboring towns/countries.
In Finland, research is carried out in Tohmajärve, Imatra and Lappeenranta - border cities with a significant number of Russian-speaking population; in Russia - in Vyborg and Svetogorsk.
The first case is Tohmajärve. Tohmajärve is located in close proximity to the Finnish-Russian border in Finnish Northern Karelia, in the third largest Russian-speaking city municipality in Finland. The study develops the concept of "everyday neighborness" in a multi-ethnic border context and uses the data collected earlier in the framework of the international project "Perception of Russia in Eurasia", supported by the Finnish Academy. Olga Davydova-Menge and Pirjo Pollanen (University of Eastern Europe, Joensuu) are working on the Tohmajärve case.
The second case focuses on Lappeenranta-Vyborg and Imatra-Svetogorsk, two pairs of border towns whose residents are constantly present in each other's daily life and engage into routine interactions. The study is conducted by Olga Brednikova (CISR) and Virpi Kaisto (University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu).