Achieving the goals - an analysis of irregular migrants' possibilities to transform their space-times in Finland
: Gadd Katri
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Commercial Publisher)
: 2022
: Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography
: GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B-HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
: GEOGR ANN B
: 104
: 2
: 112
: 126
: 15
: 0435-3684
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2021.1958358(external)
: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04353684.2021.1958358(external)
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/69102865(external)
This article demonstrates the usefulness of time-geographic approach in research with irregular migrants. Time-geographic approach acknowledges individual space-times as being assembled of multiple elements (e.g. housing, the Internet, friend, fear, legal status). Through an ethnographic research with 50 irregular migrants in Finland, I demonstrate how these irregular migrants try to transform their space-times in order to overcome the adversities in their lives. To transform one's space-times, it is necessary to intervene on the elements that affect it. Irregular migrants in this research transform their space-times, by trying to withdraw from constraining elements (e.g. unpleasant places, dangerous people, fears) and approaching inciting elements (e.g. safe place, friend, knowledge). In this article, I suggest this theoretical-methodological framework to investigate the interlinkages of these multiple elements in the lives of irregular migrants.