IHRC’s Partnership with the IHRCA and the Migration Institute of Finland

In 2024, the IHRC, the Immigration History Research Center Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries (IHRCA) and the Migration Institute of Finland (MIF) secured a Public Diplomacy Grant from the U.S. Embassy in Finland for our year-long project, Migrant Experiences, Past and Present: A New Finland-U.S. Research and Archival Partnership. Through this project, the program partners had an opportunity to attend to both the historical and contemporary dimensions of migration, integration, inclusion, and equity in both countries.

Migration, integration, inclusion, accessibility, and equity have been emotional and contentious issues throughout the histories of both the US and Finland, though in different ways and scales. Current conversations about migration have significant implications at the societal, political, policy, economic, and educational levels. Yet, in both countries, current debates over the nature and impact of migration have been clouded by an abundance of myths, misinformation, and disinformation that frequently goes unchallenged and has real repercussions on the lives of people with migrant backgrounds.

The IHRC, IHRCA and MIF were all originally established to research and interpret European migration flows and cultures. While these continue to be strong areas of interest to all of us, global migration, integration practices and discourses, racism and discrimination, and settler colonialism have become increasingly central issues in society and in our research profiles and archival priorities and practices. Our institutions now address a broader range of immigrant/refugee/migrant experiences and global, transnational, comparative, and relational approaches. Our institutions have become sites of critical public conversation, advocacy, and innovative archival services to diverse communities. We can collaboratively build innovative new strategies and approaches for serving these research and societal needs, and to better bridge our historical and contemporary foci.

Our partnership makes a tangible contribution to promoting evidence-based knowledge on migration, integration, and equity through the development of research, teaching, and public programming, and digitizing and making available a significant corpus of migration-related archival materials. The goal of Migrant Experiences, Past and Present: A New Finland-U.S. Research and Archival Partnership is to foster new exchange, dialogue, and documentation about migration that bridges Finland and the US, historically and contemporaneously.

Finns in the US and Minnesota

The US is now home to approximately 650,000 people who identify as Finnish Americans, and more than 100,000 of them live in Minnesota. Interested in learning more about Finns in the US and Minnesota? More information is available from the Library of Congress, the Finland Minnesota Historical Society and The Minnesota Historical Society and the IHRCA’s digital exhibit, Juhla!

About the Migration Institute of Finland

The Migration Institute of Finland (MIF) is the only institute in Finland specializing in both the research and documentation of migration flows. Their interdisciplinary research addresses historical and contemporary emigration from Finland, immigration to Finland, and internal migration and regional development. MIF’s mission is to study the interaction between migration and society; to produce, gather, record, and make available research material on migration flows; and to actively participate in migration-related and research-based societal discussions. MIF is also an active publisher, maintains a significant archive, emigrant register, and specialty library, organizes events and exhibitions, and cooperates actively with Finnish and international universities and other institutes. The researchers teach and supervise graduate and undergraduate students in Finnish universities.

MIF has a further special task in documenting and promoting the cultures and lives of Finns abroad. The MIF has a long tradition of researching US Finns, and their archive specializes in collections focused on Finns in the United States. In 2024, MIF celebrated its 50th anniversary.