Someone

/ Race, At work, In business, In public, Near home

Older women especially in my experience, almost most of the Tokmani shopping centers that I go to buy my daily groceries the older ladies who work in the counter look at us in a very exaggerated way. Narrowing their eyes and behaving in a sense that we are a piece of extra thing at the counter. But immediately after they do our job. They laugh smile and say with open face hello to the Finnish costumers. This feeling in a daily regular basis is so hard. I wonder if the managers of these big companies even pay attention to these things.

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!

Anonymous

/ Race, In business, Immigrant, Language

I once participated in an event aimed at international students that were seeking employment opportunities in Finland. The event was organized by city of Jyväskylä. Most of us understood this was a job fair, but no, basically it was just bunch of representatives of different companies telling us that they are currently not employing but they want to give advice on good ways to apply for a job in Finland. It was organized as a word café, so people could go around and talk to the representatives. I was standing at a table and there was a representative of one well-known company which I will not name. There was at least 10 of us immigrants standing at this table. He told us directly that they have no open positions at that moment. A few minutes later two Finnish students approached, they said they were looking for a job, and the guy handed them his business card and told them they might have something for them and told them to contact him. And then they continued the discussion in Finnish which at that time I did not understand. This felt like a slap in the face and like a clear message that we stand no chance as immigrants. 99% of participants were foreigners in this event. Another “fun” part of this event was that there was a panel discussion with 5 representatives (HR and similar roles), and they were giving advice on how to apply for a job in Finland. When they were asked about how many foreign employees they have, not a single representative had an answer to provide (e.g., some specific number, percentage, etc.)

Anonymous

/ In business, In public, Immigrant, On public transport, Language

I was married to a Finnish man for 15 years. During those 15 years I would tell other foreigners what do you mean discrimination? I have been welcomed with open arms. I really never saw it. Until the first time I had to go to the bank after my divorce and changing my last name back to my maiden name. Then after being a client in the bank for 10 years as a property owner, they tried to refuse me bank codes. My ID that I had used was no longer valid (this was before the mandatory change of everyone needing Finnish ID and driver licenses no longer being a valid form). I got rather upset and new immediately the issue was my very foreign last name and the fact I was speaking broken Finnish. I told the gentlemen very clearly that these “issues” were not an issue when my last name was Finnish and my Finnish husband was with me. Which he then turned red and gave me my bank codes. This was the first case over another 10 years of being made to feel less then. “You’re a cleaner! Oh how wonderful. Oh wait, you got a marketing job? How did YOU get that? *insert repulsed pull back and snide smile* My sister (Finnish) has been trying for years” I have been spat on, I have been insulted and almost assaulted on a bus by a drunken young 20 year old because he could not understand why I needed to be here in his country. Thankfully there were enough YOUNGER generational people on the bus to get him to back off. The older generation (40+) sat there staring, ignoring or trying to explain his repulsive behaviour. I am trying to be fluent in Finnish. Languages are struggle for me and it will never be good enough. The only thing going for me is I “look” Finnish. Can’t imagine what life would be like if I didn’t. I have more faith in the younger Finnish generation.

americandreaminfinland

/ In business, In public, Immigrant, Near home, Online, Language

I started TikTok and Instagram channels under the name americandreaminfinland, making videos comparing my life living in Finland to my life in the US, telling the story of how I moved to Finland, how I found work in Finland, how I applied for studies in Finland, etc. In the comments sections of those videos, I regularly got comments telling me to “go home,” ” go back where you came from,” “don’t bother speaking Finnish because you suck at,” and on and on.

I’ve also received threats in my direct messages such as the following one:

“terve vaan saatanan homo. toivottavasti osaat puhua suomea kun paskiainen oot haaskannut verovaroia asuessasi täällà saatanan haaska. oikeesti sut pitäisi puukottaa kuoliaaksi. tollasia saastaisia epäpuhtaita maahanmuttajapaskoja ei suomeen kaivata.
joten ota kivääri ja ammu ittesi kuoliaaksi. koko suomen kansa iloitsisi jos tappaisit itsesi, hirttäisit ittesi. kaltaisesi maahanmuuttajapaska ei ansaitse asua tässä kultaisessa maassa. tapa ittesi paskiainen.”

In my spare time, I work a side gig at a bar. I’ve had a customer tell me I was a nice person but they are not allowed to like me because I’m a foreigner. Also I have had two customers tell me I’m an embarassment for not speaking Finnish and I should go home.

In my past relationship, myself and my ex were spending time in the courtyard of my apartment. One of my neighbors swore at and spit at my ex telling her to go get f’d by her immigrant man.

anonymous

/ In business, Immigrant, Language, Government agency

I wrote to HEKA, the City of Helsinki housing company, to express my deep disappointment and concern about an incident during a service visit to my new home, related to a faulty electrical installation. This is a new house.

Two electricians, outsourced by HEKA, came to address the electrical issues at my residence. During breakfast, while my family and I were getting ready for the day, they resolved the problems. However, one of the electricians made unprofessional and discriminatory comments, speculating that the issues might be due to the work of foreigners during the installation of the circuit breaker switchboard. As an immigrant myself, and with enough understanding of spoken Finnish, this was hurtful and unacceptable.

I let them finish their job, which ended up not being fixed at all, as a new intervention had to be made, and confronted them about those comments, simply saying: “Next time you’re fixing something at someone’s home, be professional and leave your political ideologies outside.” Silence was the answer.

When confronting HEKA about this, no formal apology was given, and there was no manifestation of concern—just indifference.

Anonymous

/ Race, In business, Immigrant

I am a foreigner living in Finland for 8 years now. I’m married to a Finn and have Finnish children. I have a fairly good employment and decided to buy a house. I booked a meeting with OP bank in Tampere City centre for a loan application. I easily qualified for the loan and had an ASP account while my Finnish wife was unemployed. When we showed up for the meeting they informed us that the English speaking person was not available and a Finnish speaking person will take over instead with someone translating for me. When we explained everything to the loan officer she started talking to my wife and for some reason the translator stopped translating. This continued for a while and when I intruppted and asked my wife, she explained that they were telling her to ask for 50% of the house. My wife had no savings and did not have the intention of taking a loan but they insisted that she should have 50%. They even said which is untrue that ASP account doesn’t qualify without her who did not have an ASP account. Instead they insisted I add her to my ASP account.
Not only was this unprofessional but it crossed a lot of boundaries. Very disappointed in Finlands banking personell, apparently it’s systematic as I’ve heard of similar experiences.

Anonymous

/ At work, In business, Immigrant, Language

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 🙁

Anonymous

/ Race, At work, In business, Immigrant, Language

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.

Anonymous

/ At work, In business, Immigrant

I once applied for a job and got a nasty e-mail reply from the person taking applications: “Why did you even bother applying for this job? You don’t fit all the requirements.”

I was so angry at her message that I actually replied that they would never find the perfect candidate, so it was a worth a shot.