Thomas

/ Gender, Race, Sexual identity, In public

Finland is praised as the happiest country, and while it has given me good opportunities, I’ve never felt a true sense of belonging. This isn’t about race—I have white skin—yet I’ve noticed a lack of openness toward immigrants. Many Finns carry a quiet superiority, a passive-aggressive attitude that says, I am better than you.

One night, while waiting for a bus near a nightclub, every Finnish man who passed made rude comments to me in Finnish. Then, a drunk man got so close that cameras couldn’t capture him. Thinking he wanted to say something normal, I smiled. Instead, he whispered:

“You piece of worthless human, go back to your land. Don’t even think about hitting on a Finnish woman. They are not yours.”

Then, he punched me in the stomach—deliberately, knowing what he was doing. That night I went to the police man who was 5 meters from
This incident he didn’t even recognize or pay attention to me. I am sure if I was Finnish and that guy was immigrant he would have deported and ended up jail.

Another matter is that during the day when I randomly pass over teenagers they keep telling bad Finnish slang to me and laugh. At that time I was thinking ok this is teenage hood but it clearly reveals what they parents are saying to them about immigrants

Finland is calm safe with high quality of education but during my time I could never feel home or sense of community and belonging.

Anonymous

/ Race, Sexual identity, In business, Immigrant, Language

Reading through other stories I am saddened at the amount of discrimination foreigners face in Finland… But I am not surprised!
1) Personal observation:
I am a non-EU foreigner in Finland. Before Finland I lived in another EU country which is kinda known for being racist and intolerant. It is unacceptable what foreigners and LGBTQ community face in there. BUT at least a lot of the instances of discrimination are open and manifested in the daily acts and interactions of locals. Pretty much “you get what you see”. Here in Finland it is relatively not as open. Locals tend to keep their true beliefs to themselves, and manifest it via closed doors, be it recruitment, elections or other decision-making instances. And when there is a report saying a substantial amount of voters do not want to elect Haavisto as president due to his sexual orientation, many people are shocked.

2) Personal experience:
I may not have faced confrontational discrimination like other foreigners do, but there was one very explicit instance. I have a very non-Finnish name. A couple of years back I applied for a job post for which I was qualified and it did not require Finnish language. We had a nice round one with the recruitment agency, but then I was told the hiring manager decided to pursue other candidates. No problem, moved on. But some time later I discover that a summer intern that I worked with got the same position. See, we had similar education level, but I had much more experience that the job clearly required. But somehow the hiring manager decided to skip my name and opted for a more “familiar” name. God bless them!

Still, I love Finland and it’s a wonderful place in many ways. But it’s important to bring awareness to the difficulties foreigners face here. Cheers!