I was contacted by a consultancy company to join them as a software developer. All communication, initiated by them, including the interview, were conducted in English. I was never asked about my Finnish language skills. I was told after the interview that they cannot continue because I don’t speak Finnish. I am fluent in Finnish and have been working in project for Finnish government, where all work was done completely in Finnish. When I explained that, I got a quick argument that I did not have enough years of experience. The person assumed my language skills, even though the CV that I sent her clearly stated that I am fully proficient in Finnish. When she realised that she made a dreadful mistake and racist judgment, instead of apologising, she quickly made up another excuse!

The restaurant that I started working in was full of young adults & teenagers (ages between 17 -22), I was 30 years old. Later I discovered that the restaurant manager has been saying to everyone before I started that I am 24 years old.. I knew that when I started meeting coworkers and getting to know each other the subject come to age and I say how old I am they are surprised and say well “……” she said that you’re 24… I didn’t like it, but just corrected them and moved on.. later, a new restaurant manager came to work and he was hired by the old restaurant manager (the same one I was taking about).. when we asked about who is the new manager she told us about his background and experience and said he was 24 years old…. a month and a half after he started working, a conversation led to age and turned out that he was 30 as well! And that old restaurant manager did the same with him by telling everyone that he was younger than he really is… as if ut was a shame that we 30 years old people and we need to hide that!! I don’t know why she chose the age 24 specifically in both cases, but it sure says a lot about her and her inner self worth. Cuz I never thought that I would at all be ashamed of how old I am, I love life and I think the 30 are the times when people make big accomplishments after spending their 20 trying out stuff and figuring themselves out. I was excited for my 30 since I was in the beginning of my 20s. But people like her believe that their self worth decline over time and when they reach a certain age they’ll be filled with self hate and insecurities.

I started working in a restaurant that had Finnish workers since it was founded 2 years ago. Large part of the daily customers are regulars, so they already knew the staff.. I was the first and only brown girl in there. During the first few weeks of my work, I’ve seen customers back off when they see me coming to the cash register to take their orders and stand far away just waiting and then as soon as I leave and another colleague comes to the cash register (white finn) they come close by and start placing their order. One time, a customer told a colleague that “it is nice that only neat blonde women work here” Not to mention many annoying and weird looks from customers. That didn’t really bother me to point of -for example- ruining my day or making me angry, etc… I just observed the situation and went on with my day. Before, it used to make me angry, but now I just say it’s Finland, a racist country anyway, so of course people of color would face these kind of things every now and then..

I had given birth to my daughter 4 months ago and was really suffering from anxiety. I called my local terveysasema and managed to get an appointment with w nurse. I have been living in Finland 2.5 years and my Finnish was very poor. I asked the nurse if I could talk about my issue in English. The nurse was very unfriendly and said in Finnish: „Asutaan suomessa, niin puhutaan suomea!“

I was attending one of my courses at uni and the whole class got into a conversation about when it’s appropriate to speak Finnish or English to someone. One of my Finnish classmates said that if the person “looks like a foreigner, [she] will automatically speak English to them.” I’m a first generation POC American with immigrant parents, so hearing this statement made my blood boil. I quickly responded, asking her ” Ok , but what does a foreigner looks like?” After hearing her answer of “darker skin, dark hair, brown eyes…” I then made the example that our white Dutch classmate sitting in the room is also a foreigner and does not speak Finnish. “So how would [you] know whether to speak Finnish or English to him?” I could see in her face that she was feeling shy and embarrassed to answer that, but I explained that foreigners have all different skin colors, hair colors, and eye colors and that even in the country I was born in, grew up in, and identify with culturally, people still assume I cannot speak my native English because I also look like a foreigner. I then suggested to her that if she speaks to someone, she should speak Finnish first because we are in Finland, regardless of what the person looks like. If the person does not understand and asks you to speak English to them, then switch to English.

I have been living in Finland since 2017. I found job just 4 months after my arrival and at first the boss told me to learn Finnish but he was really kind and open to speak in English. When my boss retired and a colleague became the new boss everything changed. After being in maternity leave, she was expecting me to speak like a native speaker or refused to talk to me saying things like “hey please, can you speak to her because she didn’t understand” or excluding me from conversation about projects in which I was directly involved! I told her about this disrespect attitude but I don’t know if this changed. It’s an international company but still the Finnish language is compulsory. Even if now I am able to use finnish at work, after many courses and efforts made by myself, she refuses to speak slowly or help if needed. I cannot even think to grow or have a career because of the language and this is not nice at all. I hope things will be different instead of being present in meetings where everyone says “we should find new people but please Finnish should be the first language”…. It’s really frustrating 🙁

Yes I speak Finnish with accent, don’t know all words. After living 15 years abroad when returning back to Finland applied Kela card and the woman who served asked me to prove my resident permit. Discrimination based on that I wear hijab, she assumed me to be refugee and that was so rude and insulting experience. I am born here and assumed I am here after western welfare.

I (a brown skinned woman) was hired as a Service and UI/UX designer at a company in Helsinki. They paid well and the person who hired me was kind and valued my skills but left the company in my first month. When I was hired, I was promised that I could attend meetings with clients that have projects that involve UI in English or are from outside Finland. I got inducted into many projects and I helped with the UI of each of these. However, every time I asked to join a customer meeting or workshop that was going to be conducted in English, I was promised an invite which never came. Instead I would get silly excuses about technical errors. I was given instructions on what UI to make after these workshops from a Finnish colleague. Over time I realised that I was being used as a diversity hire who could do all the backend work but never be worthy enough to be customer facing.