Abstract

This paper reports a study that examined peoples’ attitudes towards borders, border surveillance and cross-border mobilities in the Finnish–Russian and Finnish–Swedish border areas. The study is based on a postal survey that was conducted among the residents of Lappeenranta and Tornio in 2017. The analysis points out differences in the attitudes towards the borders and crossborder mobilities between and within the border cities. With the exception of cross-border petrol shopping, people in Tornio have more regular interaction across the Finnish–Swedish border than people in Lappeenranta have across the Finnish–Russian border. An interesting research finding is that people in Tornio consider the free mobility of locals across borders more important in both border contexts compared to people in Lappeenranta. In both research areas, however, border surveillance is considered of high importance. The concept of border-regional consciousness is proposed as a key for understanding the divergence of attitudes towards the rights of mobility between different legal-administrative and geopolitical border contexts.