Pondering the non-return of ageing migrants in the Finnish–Russian everyday transnational context

In the Finnish–Russian migratory context, return migration does not exist as such. In this article, we examine the non-return migration of Russian-speaking elderly migrants through the lens of the transnational everyday. The transnational everyday of Russians in Finland has, until recently, enabled their back-and-forth trips from Finland to Russia. The combination of Finnish and Russian migratory regimes, welfare policies, closeness of places of birth and dwelling, as well as the constantly changing and tightening geopolitical situation can be seen as explanations for the almost non-existent return migration. This article also questions the concept of the ‘host’ and the ‘home’ society and explains that, in everyday transnational reality, which is lived ‘in between’ the ‘host’ and the ‘home’ concepts do not meet the lived experience of immigrants. The article is based on our long-term ethnographic work on immigration in the Finnish province North Karelia since the beginning of the 2000s. We have used ethnographic data (interviews, observations, ethnographic and autoethnographic notes) accumulated during our long-term studies in the Finnish–Russian border area. We are committed to a transnational multisited methodology. Additionally, our view is situated in border and everyday ethnography and in narrative ethnography. As a result of the study, we conclude that the contemporary geopolitical situation with the closure of the border in 2023 forces elderly Russian-speaking immigrants to become immobile, or at least diminish their travels to Russia. The everyday transnational ties of Russian speakers in Finland are now possible only in virtual forms or through laborious and expensive back-and-forth trips through Estonia, Norway, Turkey or some other third countries. This situation has tied elderly Russian speakers even more closely to Finnish society and its welfare system. The closure of the border has affected social ties of ageing Russian immigrants in different ways: Some are keen to keep up social relations despite political disagreement, but some social relations have, however, severed.