Deportations are taking place on an unprecedented level in Finland and other countries of the Global North. However, there continues to be a severe lack of long-term understanding of deportations as state practice. The GATE project addresses this and undertakes the first systematic long-term analysis (1970–2025) of the Finnish deportation policy and practice. Using previously unexamined archival material, this project utilizes interviews and ‘reading against the grain' of administrative records to find agency and voices of the past and present deportees. GATE further creates a quantitative time-series of deportations, and analyses transnational and foreign policy elements in the deportation policy. The project forms an internationally novel contribution that seeks to bridge the gap between historical and social science research on forced removals, as well as to shed light on a highly non-transparent area of state power.

2023

2027