Urbanization, Mobilities and Immigration (URMI)

Public description of the goals at the beginning of the project

The research project URMI (Urbanization, Mobilities and Immigration) conducts research about the state-of-art and future of urbanization in Finland, urban sustainability policies and practices in Finland and the impact of immigration, including segregation and spatiotemporal practices of asylum-seekers in the largest urban regions in Finland. URMI produces significant international scientific publications and practical applications for urban regions and policies.

Public description of the results at the end of the project

URMI (Urbanization, Mobilities and Immigration) generated research-based results about urbanization in Finland towards 2039. Themes were urbanization, mobilities (sustainable urban development) and immigration (ethnic segregation in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku urban regions; asylum-related processes, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, especially in Finland. The main results were: 1) Urbanization continues and becomes more diverse in Finland, and qualitative locational factors grow their significance; 2) Many middle-sized cities cooperate nationally in sustainable and climate policies but the time spans of administration and politics do not fit well to the sustainability goals; 3) Spatial segregation between immigrants and Finns has barely grown in the early 21st century in the Helsinki, Tampere and Turku urban regions. The amount of immigrants grows also due to asylum processes, and so does the amount of undocumented migrants, in particular in larger cities.