Mismatched planning and place-based identity in Helsinki: The impacts of anti-segregation policy on ethnic retail, and socio-cultural inclusion

Declining independent retail and oligopoly of retail chains are common in Helsinki, leaving many premises at strip malls erected in the 1960s vacant. Despite this, ethnic retail has spontaneously clustered at two malls converting them into livable hubs. Both malls have been announced as destinations for tourists and food lovers on the city webpage by Marketing Helsinki. In 2019–2020, two planning competitions were held with the objective of forming urban centers through densification. Through two case studies, this paper examines the role of urban planning policy in supporting the branded destinations and their place-based identity. The findings show that innovative ethnic neighborhoods acknowledged in many European cities played no role in the process. On the contrary, both clusters face displacement in an urban renewal steered by anti-segregation policy. The city will lose authentic destinations and the immigrant community will consequently lose places of jobs and attachment. Non-decision-making ignored ethnic retailers in defining the actors and urban diversity as a value. There is limited research on contested spaces in semi-peripheral areas and their relation to urban planning. This paper contributes to the research body studying the implications of urban renewal on ethnic retail hubs and interplay of power.Peer reviewe

The Big Issue. The Religious Dimensions in Muslims' Housing within HMA

Multiculturalism is neither a new phenomenon nor could it be studied from a single perspective. Immigrants have different needs and preferences. Accordingly, migration has deep and demanding effects on the social, economical, political and cultural policy of the receiving societies. Finland, compared to other Europeans countries, has a relatively low percentage of immigrants. However, this is changing due to asylum seekers, as well as the incoming labor force urgently needed in the near future. A considerable population of Muslims already exists in Finland. But new immigrants are dealt with as one package under the umbrella of multiculturalism and integration policies. In the best circumstances, immigrants are divided into ethnicities. On the city level, this research is mainly concerned with the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), and addresses these questions: where do Muslims live within the major district of HMA, and what are the religious dimensions in Muslims' housing? The resource for this information is research prepared by Urban Facts. The geographical data available through this research is the first ever produced data based on the religious background of inhabitants. Islam is not only about worship and belief, and not about what a Muslim wears, but it 15 an entire lifestyle. Thus, the religious dimensions mainly relating to faith and its effect on Muslims' housing and the identification of these dimensions will be the main interest of this study. The religious dimensions are all the faith-related obligations for a Muslim household that may constrain or define the way of using spaces of a residential unit, seeking a certain pattern of privacy or choosing its location. The methodologies used here are interviews, questionnaires and a theological approach referring by to the Quran and Sunnah* to analyze the information obtained through interviews held with Muslims or their comments through questionnaires

Maahan muuttaneiden kätketty kaupunki ylijäämänä - Tutkimus Helsingin kaupungin homogenisoitumisesta ja kadotetusta monimuotoisuudesta

Cities acknowledge the diversity of their population and consider the multicultural component a richness of their socio-cultural assets. Immigrants contribute to the reshaping of urban space in many European cities through their amenities. Such amenities, be they secular or spiritual, are a clear spatialization of multiculturalism. Ethnic retail is an emerging phenomenon in Helsinki, and it has increasingly replaced declining independent mainstream retail. Often, clusters of immigrant amenities are formed around Muslim prayer rooms activating a mosque-bazaar alliance that enjoys a dynamic footfall. Such a setting takes place spontaneously and typically at abandoned spaces, called in this dissertation urban leftovers. The leftovers are located in, or nearby, the neighbourhoods with a relative overrepresentation of immigrant population. However, these neighbourhoods are exposed to urban renewal steered by anti-segregation policy, thus facing the threat of erasure. This dissertation examines the capacity of urban planning to plan for diversity. It further studies the characteristics that ethnic retail requires to survive and emerge. The paradigm of The Right to the City is deployed to interpret the response of urban planning to multiculturalism. The findings are numerous. First, immigrant amenities prove their capability to play a role in place making and act as catalysts for public life recovery. Second, in doing so the created places not only fulfil the socio-cultural needs of immigrants, but they also attract mainstream clientele. Third, spontaneity, improvisation and authenticity are the main characteristics empowering the emergence of ethnic retail. However, the findings also show a failure of urban planning to reflect multiculturalism in the growth of the city. Often, the retail premises used by immigrants are demolished. Furthermore, conventional planning as well as alternative planning methods, such as scenario planning and urban planning competitions, have failed to reflect immigrants in the development. The main constraint preventing planning from being multicultural is the absence of a political interest and, accordingly, a clear vision to deal with the spatialization of multiculturalism. On the contrary, the clear vision of the city is its anti-segregation policy, which is by nature a homogenizing mechanism. Thus, the dissertation concludes that immigrants' Right to the City has been ignored. Kaupungit arvostavat nykyään väestönsä moninaisuutta ja pitävät monikulttuurisuutta rikkautena ja osana sosiokulttuurisia voimavarojaan. Maahanmuuttajat vaikuttavat monissa Euroopan kaupungeissa kaupunkitilan muokkautumiseen palvelutarjonnallaan. Tällaiset palvelut, olivatpa ne sitten maallisia tai hengellisiä, edustavat monikulttuurisuuden tilallistumista. Etninen vähittäiskauppa on nouseva ilmiö Helsingissä, ja se on enenevässä määrin korvannut valtavirran taantuvaa itsenäistä vähittäiskauppaa. Usein maahanmuuttajien palveluiden keskittymät muodostuvat muslimien rukoushuoneiden ympärille luoden moskeijan ja basaarin aktiivisen liiton, joka houkuttelee paljon kävijöitä. Tällainen asetelma syntyy spontaanisti ja on tyypillistä muun väestön hylkäämille tiloille, joita tässä tutkielmassa kutsutaan termillä 'urban leftovers'. Nämä kaupungin 'tähteet' tai 'rippeet' sijaitsevat kaupunginosissa tai niiden lähiympäristössä, joissa maahanmuuttajaväestö on suhteellisesti yliedustettuna. Nämä alueet ovat kuitenkin alttiita segregaation vastaisen politiikan ohjaamalle kaupunkiuudistukselle ja ovat täten vaarassa hävitä. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan kaupunkisuunnittelun kykyä suunnitella monimuotoisuutta. Lisäksi tutkitaan ominaisuuksia, joita etninen vähittäiskauppa tarvitsee selviytyäkseen ja kehittyäkseen. Oikeus kaupunkiin -paradigmaa käytetään tulkitsemaan kaupunkisuunnittelun vastausta monikulttuurisuuteen. Tutkimus osoittaa ensinnäkin, että maahanmuuttajat osoittavat palvelujensa kautta osallistuvansa paikkojen luomiseen ja toimivansa katalyytteinä julkisen elämän elvyttämisessä. Toiseksi näin luodut paikat eivät täytä ainoastaan maahanmuuttajien sosiokulttuurisia tarpeita vaan ne myös houkuttelevat valtavirran asiakaskuntaa. Kolmanneksi spontaanius, improvisointi ja aitous ovat tärkeimpiä ominaisuuksia, jotka edistävät etnisen vähittäiskaupan syntymistä. Tulokset osoittavat kuitenkin myös, että kaupunkisuunnittelussa ei ole onnistuttu ottamaan huomioon monikulttuurisuutta kasvavassa kaupungissa. Usein maahanmuuttajien käyttämät liiketilat puretaan. Lisäksi perinteinen suunnittelu ja vaihtoehtoiset suunnittelumenetelmät, kuten skenaariosuunnittelu ja kaupunkisuunnittelukilpailut, eivät ole onnistuneet huomioimaan maahanmuuttajia kaupunkien kehittämisessä. Tärkeimmät esteet monikulttuurisen suunnittelun tiellä ovat poliittisen kiinnostuksen puute ja puuttuva visio monikulttuurisuuden tilallistumisestasta. Kaupunki pikemminkin haraa segregaation vastaisen politiikkansa kautta vahvasti monikulttuurisuuden tilallistumista vastaan, mikä on omiaan homogenisomaan kaupunkitilaa. Näin ollen väitöskirjassa päädytään siihen, ettei maahan muuttaneiden oikeus kaupunkiin ole toteutunut

The hidden city of immigrants in Helsinki's urban leftovers – the homogenization of the city and the lost diversity

Cities acknowledge the diversity of their population and consider the multicultural component a richness of their socio-cultural assets. Immigrants contribute to the reshaping of urban space in many European cities through their amenities. Such amenities, be they secular or spiritual, are a clear spatialization of multiculturalism. Ethnic retail is an emerging phenomenon in Helsinki, and it has increasingly replaced declining independent mainstream retail. Often, clusters of immigrant amenities are formed around Muslim prayer rooms activating a mosque-bazaar alliance that enjoys a dynamic footfall. Such a setting takes place spontaneously and typically at abandoned spaces, called in this dissertation urban leftovers. The leftovers are located in, or nearby, the neighbourhoods with a relative overrepresentation of immigrant population. However, these neighbourhoods are exposed to urban renewal steered by anti-segregation policy, thus facing the threat of erasure. This dissertation examines the capacity of urban planning to plan for diversity. It further studies the characteristics that ethnic retail requires to survive and emerge. The paradigm of The Right to the City is deployed to interpret the response of urban planning to multiculturalism. The findings are numerous. First, immigrant amenities prove their capability to play a role in place making and act as catalysts for public life recovery. Second, in doing so the created places not only fulfil the socio-cultural needs of immigrants, but they also attract mainstream clientele. Third, spontaneity, improvisation and authenticity are the main characteristics empowering the emergence of ethnic retail. However, the findings also show a failure of urban planning to reflect multiculturalism in the growth of the city. Often, the retail premises used by immigrants are demolished. Furthermore, conventional planning as well as alternative planning methods, such as scenario planning and urban planning competitions, have failed to reflect immigrants in the development. The main constraint preventing planning from being multicultural is the absence of a political interest and, accordingly, a clear vision to deal with the spatialization of multiculturalism. On the contrary, the clear vision of the city is its anti-segregation policy, which is by nature a homogenizing mechanism. Thus, the dissertation concludes that immigrants' Right to the City has been ignored

Serving whom? Immigrant entrepreneurs in a new local context

In Helsinki, the current number of immigrants is quickly rising. Ethnic retail has emerged as a new, but visible, part of the city landscape. Compared to other European countries, becoming an entrepreneur is typically not very popular in Finland. Therefore, in this paper, we seek to comprehend this phenomenon and more specifically discover: what motivates immigrants to become entrepreneurs; what is the impact of their background and culture on the phenomenon; and finally, is the help provided by the city useful for them? Based on interviews and observations, we conclude that immigrant entrepreneurship facilitates in fluid ways the maintenance of cultural practices, while simultaneously enhancing meaningful encounters between immigrants and mainstream society. In our sample, we identify three types of entrepreneurs: growth-oriented, investors and status builders, as well as freedom and stability seekers. Although the groups are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive, they display differences in certain aspects, which include their ways of entering into entrepreneurship, how their business is run, who their main clientele is, as well as in the future prospects for their businesses. We further infer that immigrant entrepreneurs, via their practices, also participate in making immigrant needs visible to politicians and policy-makers, thus also adding a layer to the local context within which they operate. However, we surmise that more effort is needed in addressing the freedom and stability seeker entrepreneurs if the aim of the city is to anchor immigrant retail in the city

Proudly Rejected: The Case of Grand Mosque Initiative in Helsinki

In 2014, an initiative to build a mosque in Helsinki was presented to the Deputy Mayor. The founders of the initiative had been promised royal funding from the Kingdom of Bahrain for the implementation of the project. The initiative stimulated a public debate that reached its peak during the municipal election campaigns in 2017. In December 2017, the City of Helsinki unanimously decided to reject the proposal. This article examines the response to the initiative by the city planners and whether it was treated differently from other applications. Data was collected through interviews, document review and spatial analysis. The article found that a destructive atmosphere was created through the (mis)representation of the initiative founders and the funding resources in the politicians arguments, which were problem-oriented and transnational in nature. On the contrary, planners were responsive to dealing with a socially and politically sensitive topic without prior experience but with a few shortcomings. The article contributes to the literature bridging architecture, explicitly mosques and their symbolic meaning in European cities, and social sciences concerning the integration of immigrants and their well-being. It suggests that there is a need to normalise the purpose-built mosque issue.Peer reviewe

Lähiöiden maahanmuuttajayrittäjät osana kaupunkiuudistusta

Lähiöiden kivijalkaMAahanmuuttajayrittäjät osana KaupunkiUudistusta (MAKU-hanke) -loppuraportti.Yhä useampi lähiön asukas on ulkomaalaistaustainen. Maahanmuuttajien yleistymisen myötä uudet tavat käyttää kaupunkia ja moninaisemmat palvelutarpeet tulevat näkyvämmäksi osaksi kaupunkikuvaa. Samaan aikaan juuri maahanmuuttajavaltaisiin lähiöihin kohdistuu useita kaupunkiuudistusohjelmia. Tutkimusta läpäisee pohdinta siitä, miten erityisesti Lähi-Idästä ja Afrikasta tulleiden maahanmuuttajien kasvava määrä näkyy ja tulisi näkyä lähiöiden kehittämisessä. Miten näiden maahanmuuttajien ääni kuuluu, voi kuulua ja pitäisi kuulua kaupunkiuudistuksessa, sekä erityisesti lähiöiden palveluiden kehittämisessä? Millä tavoin maahanmuuttajien tuottama tila kehittyy ja elää ja toisaalta, mitä se tuottaa kaupungin kehittämisen näkökulmasta? Tutkimus toteutetaan neljän osatehtävän kautta. Ensin tehdään laaja kirjallisuuskatsaus, jonka tavoitteena on ymmärtää maahanmuuttajien roolia kaupunkikehittämisessä. Sen jälkeen tutkitaan, miten työpajojen kautta voidaan edistää maahanmuuttajien osallistumista, miten virkamiesten ja maahanmuuttajien kohtaaminen järjestetään ketteräksi ja kuinka maahanmuuttajayrittäjyys voidaan integroida osaksi lähiöiden skenaarioiden rakentamista. Kolmanneksi tutkitaan jo olemassa olevia maahanmuuttajayrittäjien keskittymiä ja niihin liittyviä narratiiveja. Neljänneksi luodaan lähiökehittämisen parissa työskenteleville laajasti palveleva havainnollinen kivijalkamaahanmuuttajayrittäjyyteen liittyvä opas, joka on vapaasti ladattavissa PDF-muotoisena hankkeen verkkosivuilla