My name is Matti Välimäki and I am a post doc researcher in Contemporary History at the University of Turku. I identify as a historian/political scientist.
My research and teaching activities focus on the history of political parties’ immigration policy outlooks, public discussion on immigration and immigrants, and on the communication of nationalist-populist parties. I defended my dissertation in December 2019 and it sheds light on the Finnish political parties’ views regarding immigration and immigrants from the 1970s to the 2010s. My doctoral dissertation can be found here.
My post doc project examines Finnish immigration and security authorities’ discourses and practices treating migration issues as security concerns in the 1980s and 1990s and the implications thereof on providing international protection, designing reception facilities, and policies. In future, I have also recently worked on analysis and planning of the Baltic Sea region’s and Turku region’s immigration and integration policies.
This is my third year in the ETMU Board where I am a jolly part of the social media team. In addition to the academic wrestles, I play fixo position in futsal and center midfield in football.