Re-imagining the ‘Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’ : Europe’s security measures experienced by African migrants

This book challenges the common European notions about African migration to Europe and offers a holistic understanding of the current situation in Africa. It advocates a need to rethink Africa-Europe relations and view migration and borders as a resource rather than sources of a crisis. This book constitutes a valuable resource for research scholars and students of Border Studies, Migration Studies, Conflict and Security Studies, and Development Studies seeking specialisation in these areas. Written in an accessible style, it will also appeal to a more general public interested in gaining a fuller perspective on the African reality.This chapter examines how the EU’s and Schengen countries’ security measures and related bordering practices are experienced by sub-Saharan African refugees, migrants and returnees in various stages of the displacement, on state borders as well as before and after crossing them. Drawing on research material gathered through multi-sited fieldwork in Kenya, Ethiopia, Cyprus, Italy and Finland the chapter elaborates how European securitizing response to migration does not stop migratory movements, but rather causes insecurity and suffering to migrants and leads to the EU compromising its self-proclaimed values.Peer reviewe

Methodological nationalism and migration studies : historical and contemporary perspectives

This chapter approaches the issue of methodological nationalism in the social sciences from both a historical and a contemporary perspective, with particular emphasis on migration studies. First, it offers a historical overview of the problem and delves into its early intellectual history by examining Eric Voegelin’s reflections on ‘national minds’ in the interwar period This anticipates many questions and challenges that future critics of methodological nationalism would consider to be central. Second, we examine the persistence of nation-state-centred concepts and methods in the context of migration and refugee studies. Third, the chapter discusses different conceptual tools for overcoming the insufficiencies of methodological nationalism, weighing both their fruitfulness and their limits. Notwithstanding the ineradicability of nation-state-centred frameworks in social science as well as in the self-perceptions of migrant populations, we show that it is possible to conceive of both ‘community’ and ‘knowledge’ in non-national terms to investigate the possibilities of knowledge produced through experiences of displacement.Peer reviewe

Turvassa maailmalla? : Suomalaisten vaihto-opiskelijoiden käsityksiä ja kokemuksia turvallisuudesta

Liikkuvuus on yksi globalisoituneen maailman keskeisimpiä piirteitä. Erityisesti nuoret liikkuvat paljon, ja tälläkin hetkellä miljoonia nuoria opiskelee kotimaansa ulkopuolella. Vaihto-opiskelun suosion kasvu on kuitenkin lisännyt erilaisten kriisitilanteiden, kuten onnettomuuksien, sairastumisten ja rikoksen uhriksi joutumisten määrää vaihdon aikana. Siksi vaihto-opiskeluun liittyvälle turvallisuustutkimukselle on tarvetta. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan Suomesta, Helsingin yliopistosta kansainväliseen opiskelijavaihtoon lähtevien opiskelijoiden käsityksiä ja kokemuksia ulkomailla opiskelusta turvallisuuden näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen fokuksena on turvallisuuden merkitys ja rooli vaihto-opiskelijoiden jokapäiväisessä elämässä. Tutkielmassa selvitetään, miten vaihto-opiskelijat suhtautuvat turvallisuuteen ja miten turvallisuuteen liittyvät tekijät vaikuttavat heidän elämäänsä vaihdossa. Tarkastelun kohteena ovat myös vaihtokohteeseen liitetyt turvallisuuskuvat sekä niiden vaikutus turvallisuuteen suhtautumiseen. Lisäksi työssä eritellään, minkälaiset asiat vaihto-opiskelijoita uhkaavat, millaisia valintoja opiskelijat tekevät turvallisuuteen liittyen sekä kuinka tärkeää turvallisuus heille on. Näitä teemoja tarkastellaan erityisesti vaihto-opiskeluun liittyvän tilallisuuden ja sen kokemisen kautta. Tutkielman tavoitteena on luoda kattava yleiskuva suomalaisten vaihto-opiskelijoiden turvallisuuskokemuksista ja heitä uhkaavista vaaroista. Tutkimus on ensisijaisesti ihmisen kokemuksen monitieteistä empiiristä tutkimusta. Aineisto koostuu kahteen kirjoittajan laatimaan internet-kyselyyn saapuneista 192 kyselyvastauksesta sekä kymmenestä keskimäärin vajaa tunnin mittaisesta haastattelusta. Aineistoa analysoidaan kontekstualisoiden ja käsitteellisesti analysoiden tutkimukselle keskeisten teemojen kautta sisällönanalyysin menetelmiin ja kokemuksen tutkimuksen teoriaan tukeutuen. Tutkimusote on vahvasti käsitteellinen. Kulttuurintutkimukselle tyypillisellä tavalla tutkimuksessa pyritään erilaisten tutkimussuuntausten piirteitä yhdistellen monitieteisesti jäsentämään aineistosta kumpuavia kulttuurisia merkitysjärjestelmiä. Vaihto-opiskelijat kokevat opiskelijavaihtonsa pääpiirteittäin turvalliseksi. Erilaisia uhkaavia tilanteita kuitenkin esiintyy suhteellisen paljon liittyen esimerkiksi onnettomuuksiin, sairastamiseen sekä rikoksiin, ja suurin osa opiskelijoista kertoo pelänneensä tai kokeneensa turvattomuutta vaihdon aikana. Turvallisuus ja turvattomuus kiinnittyvät opiskelijoiden ajatuksissa tilaan ja paikkaan sekä erityisesti tilan sosiaaliseen ulottuvuuteen. Vaihtokohteella ja sen erityispiirteillä sekä urbaanilla kaupunkiympäristöllä on suuri vaikutus opiskelijoiden turvallisuuskokemuksiin. Toisaalta myös ajallisuus muodostuu tärkeäksi tekijäksi, sillä turvattomuuteen liittyvät kokemukset kiinnittyvät usein pimeään yöaikaan. Eurooppa nähdään opiskelijoiden vastauksessa usein hyvin turvallisena, vaikka terrorismin uhka vaikuttaa opiskelijoiden ajatuksiin suurien kaupunkien turvallisuudesta. Useat Euroopan ulkopuolella vaihdossa olleet opiskelijat sitä vastoin toivoisivat lisää informaatiota turvallisuuteen liittyvissä asioissa yliopistoilta

Observation of burst activity from SGR1935+2154 associated to first galactic FRB with H.E.S.S.

Fast radio bursts (FRB) are enigmatic powerful single radio pulses with durations of several milliseconds and high brightness temperatures suggesting coherent emission mechanism. For the time being a number of extragalactic FRBs have been detected in the high-frequency radio band including repeating ones. The most plausible explanation for these phenomena is magnetar hyperflares. The first observational evidence of this scenario was obtained in April 2020 when an FRB was detected from the direction of the Galactic magnetar and soft gamma repeater SGR1935+2154. The FRB was preceded with a number of soft gamma-ray bursts observed by Swift-BAT satellite, which triggered the follow-up program of the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). H.E.S.S. has observed SGR1935+2154 over a 2 hour window few hours prior to the FRB detection by STARE2 and CHIME. The observations overlapped with other X-ray bursts from the magnetar detected by INTEGRAL and Swift-BAT, thus providing first observations of a magnetar in a flaring state in the very-high energy domain. We present the analysis of these observations, discuss the obtained results and prospects of the H.E.S.S. follow-up program for soft gamma repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

The young massive stellar cluster Westerlund 1 in gamma rays as seen with H.E.S.S.

Massive stellar clusters have recently been hypothesised as candidates for the acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays up to PeV energies. Previously, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration has reported about very extended $\gamma$-ray emission around Westerlund 1, a massive young stellar cluster in the Milky Way. In this contribution we present an updated analysis that employs a new analysis technique and is based on a much larger data set, allowing us to constrain better the morphology and the energy spectrum of the emission. The analysis technique used is a three-dimensional likelihood analysis, which is especially well suited for largely extended sources. The origin of the $\gamma$-ray emission will be discussed in light of multi-wavelength observations

Observation of burst activity from SGR1935+2154 associated to first galactic FRB with H.E.S.S.

Fast radio bursts (FRB) are enigmatic powerful single radio pulses with durations of several milliseconds and high brightness temperatures suggesting coherent emission mechanism. For the time being a number of extragalactic FRBs have been detected in the high-frequency radio band including repeating ones. The most plausible explanation for these phenomena is magnetar hyperflares. The first observational evidence of this scenario was obtained in April 2020 when an FRB was detected from the direction of the Galactic magnetar and soft gamma repeater SGR1935+2154. The FRB was preceded with a number of soft gamma-ray bursts observed by Swift-BAT satellite, which triggered the follow-up program of the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). H.E.S.S. has observed SGR1935+2154 over a 2 hour window few hours prior to the FRB detection by STARE2 and CHIME. The observations overlapped with other X-ray bursts from the magnetar detected by INTEGRAL and Swift-BAT, thus providing first observations of a magnetar in a flaring state in the very-high energy domain. We present the analysis of these observations, discuss the obtained results and prospects of the H.E.S.S. follow-up program for soft gamma repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

Deep observations of Kepler's SNR with H.E.S.S.

Kepler’s supernova remnant (SNR) which is produced by the most recent naked-eye supernova in our Galaxy is one of the best studied SNRs, but its gamma-ray detection has eluded us so far. Observations with modern imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) have enlarged the knowledge about nearby SNRs with ages younger than 500 years by establishing Cassiopeia A and Tycho’s SNRs as very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray sources and setting a lower limit on the distance to Kepler’s SNR. This SNR is significantly more distant than the other two and expected to be one of the faintest gamma-ray sources within reach of the IACT arrays of this generation. We report strong evidence for a VHE signal from Kepler’s SNR based on deep observations of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) with an exposure of 152 hours, including 122 hours accumulated in 2017-2020. We further discuss implications of this result for cosmic-ray acceleration in young SNRs

Revisiting the PeVatron candidate MGRO J1908+06 with an updated H.E.S.S. analysis

Detecting and studying galactic gamma-ray sources emitting very-high energy photons sheds light on the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays presumably created in these sources. Currently, there are few sources emitting photons with energies exceeding 100 TeV. In this work we revisit the unidentified source MGRO J1908+06, initially detected by Milagro, using an updated H.E.S.S. dataset and analysis pipeline. The vicinity of the source contains a supernova remnant and pulsars as well as molecular clouds. This makes the identification of the primary source(s) of galactic cosmic rays as well as the nature of the gamma-ray emission challenging, especially in light of the recent HAWC and LHAASO detection of the high energy tail of its spectrum. Exploiting the better angular resolution as compared to particle detectors, we investigate the morphology of the source as well as its spectral properties

Revisiting the PeVatron candidate MGRO J1908+06 with an updated H.E.S.S. analysis

Detecting and studying galactic gamma-ray sources emitting very-high energy photons sheds light on the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays presumably created in these sources. Currently, there are few sources emitting photons with energies exceeding 100 TeV. In this work we revisit the unidentified source MGRO J1908+06, initially detected by Milagro, using an updated H.E.S.S. dataset and analysis pipeline. The vicinity of the source contains a supernova remnant and pulsars as well as molecular clouds. This makes the identification of the primary source(s) of galactic cosmic rays as well as the nature of the gamma-ray emission challenging, especially in light of the recent HAWC and LHAASO detection of the high energy tail of its spectrum. Exploiting the better angular resolution as compared to particle detectors, we investigate the morphology of the source as well as its spectral properties