Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Discrimination and Racism cases are rising in Finland

These days, I am getting several emails and phone calls about students sharing their experiences on how they are discriminated or face the racial attack against International Immigrants. I am sharing some of those incidents:

In a Polytechnics college in Helsinki, a teacher was teaching in English medium. Meantime, he asked a question in Finnish to students which have international students as well. A South Asian student who can not understand Finnish, asked the teacher to translate that question in English if it is study related, it would be useful for him as well. Teacher did not hear it. Then, the Finnish student also replied the answer in Finnish. Then, a Finnish-African guy who can understand Finnish translated that question answer happened in Finnish language. Hearing this, teacher scold the Finnish-African guy, asking why he translated it. Teacher also told, "Because of these foreigners, our country getting worse". Finnish-African guy protested about this comment along with South Asian guy. Teacher left the class saying, "If it could be done by my decision, I would have blocked admission for international much before because why should we teach them for free with our resources?".


In a Technical University in Northern Finland, a Master's Degree student asked about a book in University Library. The library staff pointed out to a place where the information was only in Finnish. Student replied she was not familiar with Finnish, so she asked for help. Staff replied, "If you don't know Finnish, Why the hell do you come to Finland?" She protested. She was replied again as "You were not welcomed, you stuck here as intruder".

In a workplace on Helsinki, a person was politely told to leave the job saying, "Your work is very good. I don't have any complaint it. I am pretty impressed with your work. But other Finnish people did not like you hair style, did not like your body smell and did not like your look; even they did not like the scent you use"

In a northern city of Finland, a South Asian student works as a newspaper carrier. One day, when the subscriber saw this South Asian guy delivering the newspaper to his home, he ordered, "Don't come to deliver from tomorrow since I don't like International people". But, it was his duty, so he went another day as well. The owner scold him with very bad words. Third day, he opened his dogs and order to chase. Next day, this carrier guy went to that house along with his supervisor, and this owner guy told the supervisor that "If this newspaper is to be delivered by non-Finnish, I would be happy to terminate the newspaper subscription".

I was travelling on a city bus along with my friends. A lady came near to our seat and told politely, "I hate foreigners. Why did you come to our country? I never want my grandchildren to grow seeing these dark faces. Why don't you all go back and let us live peacefully"

These are just few cases of discrimination and racism in Finland. South Asian and African people have reported many much similar incident to me on emails and phones.

But, no offense to those very good Finnish people. In general, Finnish people are very gentle, friendly and heartly welcoming to International People. But, due to few such above cases, it sometimes feel very bad to be in Finland !!
Categories: at 4:09 AM

16 comments:

  1. Ooops!!! why we are facing such a condition even in finland, a developed country.May be, we all have to gather at a single point and remind to the administration.Even the south asian and afrikkan people respect heartly to foreigner but, why these cases are increasing???
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  2. Hello,

    I am student in the North Finland, am an African. I have not encountered any raciest in my stay until now. The Finnish people specially in Lapland they are nice and kind. But like in any society there are very few people who are bad, who are raciest. I came from a country where there is a racism, ethnic and sexual racism. There is nothing perfect, there may be some few racist people. These does not make the country racist.

    The Finnish people are very silent and shy. But when they drunk they are very funny people. It takes time to make them friendly. Sometimes some teenagers when they get drunk, they are aggressive and kind of racist.

    Some Immigrants act very unethical, like they give un-polite look in Bars, or clubs. I have seen a violent immigrant student in Club. Such things doesn't represent all immigrant students. As far as you respect the society, there is no one who want to fight you. But don't be scared to feel free.

    Respect and you will be respected.

    4th year student
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  3. Are you lying or telling things non-truthfully?

    If these things you told here were true (it seems highly unlikely), improvements could be achieved by, say, reporting the polytech teach to the school administrator, the librarian to the library director, suing the employer or reporting him to the employment authorities or trade union, the newspaper subscriber to the police and the (middle-aged?) lady could use a telling-off.

    But, as I said, I don't believe you.
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  4. what about coming to finland ? do we have to be frightened about coming there and residing please give me/us some informaton
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  5. Though I don't have first hand experiences of discriminations and racisms, I have been told of such cases even by Finns. But I believe only a sporadic cases, every now and then, happen here in Finland as compared to, say other countries.

    I read Finnish language forums also. Some (or most people there) are extremely negative about immigrations (esp. refugees) in Finland but good thing is that those Finns don't show it in their behaviours.
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  6. I am a student studying here in finland(central), and all I have got to say to this artical writer is F*** U!!!! you think you say these bullshit things and we ought to believe it!!!??? I have met different people from many nationalities...and I feel glad to say Finnish people are the best amongst them.And a request to this website owner, don't publish these kind of outrageous news which is nothing more than a lie, this news has certainly given your site a bit publicity but it's fu***** with the good behaviour of finns.
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  7. Thanks that I came to this insolicite webpage because I feel like improving in my English writing. Whatever you say about, I do not give a damn. If your country is the best stay there. If you are in another country do as the romans do.
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  8. Hi...

    I am a young finnish woman and I happened to come across this site. What you told in this post is something I haven't heard of before, but just as there is racism in other countries there is in Finland as well.

    But I want to encourage all of you who are interested in studying here - if you get the chance, take it! The majority of the finnish people are friendly and ready to help you.

    There are cultural differencies no matter where you go, and as a foreigner you'll probably meet with difficulties and misunderstandings everywhere. So please don't be discouraged when hearing about these things, there are a lot of good things as well!!
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  9. I liked Maria's interpretation.
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  10. Hi to all of u guys,I have already given my entrance examination and hope that I'll get admission.But after reading this news I am quite sad and a bit scared to move to finland.Is the cases of racism really rising? will this make finland a good destination? should I not come to finland if i am admitted?
    please reply
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  11. I'm a Finn studying in a Finnish university in the capital area.

    I think racism is existent everywhere in the world where there are ignorant people. It's hard to cure them all, so it's just a fact of life to those who are in some way different than most of the population (looks, skin color, clothing, different opinions...). The bigger the city, the more likely you are to find like-minded (good) people.

    I haven't heard about single case of racism in my university, and I think most of the international students are happy to be here. Anyway, it might sometimes be hard to break the language barrier with Finns, but once you do it I think Finns are quite friendly and reliable people. :)

    What comes to this article I think the people who where discriminated against should have told what happened to the discriminators supervisors or the police (which is one of the most trusted professions in Finland). You cannot assume that things get better if you yourself don't do anything about the wrongdoings and just complain Anonymously about them in the internet!

    -Agreeing with Maria-
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  12. It is another example that Finnish people are racist. They can't respect other's culture while they expect others to respect their culture. They don't accept other's existence while they expect others to respect them:

    http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/09/buddhist_temple_desecrated_1967408.html
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  13. That is the reason I am leaving Finland!(I have lived here 6 years.) I will not let myself living on the edge of the society anymore!
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  14. Hello everyone,

    I'll be in Finland come Fall. Although, it is a good habit to do extensive research before making a long term move to another country, an important thing to remember is that you are using INTERNET as the source for extraction. Let me repeat - INTERNET.

    If you're going to believe everyone and everything that's being said, I doubt you'd ever go to Germany, because of the bad rep they get in the world "online". Germans have worked hard to change their image and no matter how hard they try, they'll be brandished as haters, racists and xenophobes for a long time to come. That's just how life works.

    Nobody likes to write a blog about an elderly German couple who help out an International student in Frankfurt, despite knowing nothing more than his name, University and itsy-bitsy pieces of general information.

    My point is that if you want to loved by people, be like an empty mug(not a thief), willing to learn and respect. I'm not saying you should completely conform to your hosts' culture. Just give them some time. They may not be as talkative as Americans(I've lived there for 5 years and I know that talking to Scandinavians can be a bit boring, because of their reserved nature) or your typical Southern Asians(whose lives are very family and friend-circle oriented).

    Having said all that, if what this guy has written about those specific cases of racism he or his friend encountered are indeed true, I hope they'll approach the embassies they can talk to and resolve the issues. It surprises me that no major news portal has ever talked about this. I mean a guy losing his job because of bad hair-do, funky body odour just screams LAWSUIT(but that's because I've spent time in America, where lawsuits like these are filed a dozen a day).

    Listen to everyone, but trust your intuitions.
    Give Finns a chance! If you're searching "Are Finns racist" on Google, I'm afraid you're just looking for excuses. Try searching "Google is run by Satan" and who knows, you might find some whack-job dedicate a whole blogpost to it.

    If you're a humble and tolerant human being, I see no reason why you wouldn't be accepted and lauded by a foreign country. If you don't have confidence in yourself, why would others?

    Sid
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  15. Not all the Finnish people are racists. It really depends on some cases. If you come here as an immigrant, at first you might not be treated really nicely, only because we dont know you. As you start really knowing Finnish people, they start to treat you more nicely and with respect. You WILL get made fun of but Finnish people really doesn't mean what they are saying. That's just their kind of humor. Dont take it seriously. I have a friend from Vietnam and couple friends from Turkey. We make fun of them but thank god they have a good humor.

    But on the other hand, if you just come here as an immigrant and you do absolutely NOTHING.. that's all different story. You will NOT be treated nicely. You have to try to find a job or get an education so you can get a job!

    Finnish government grants you housing, money and health care!! And for the kids, Finnish government pays all the costs of one hobby. So you can just buy your little child a pair of 200-euro soccer cleats and just send the bill to government and they will pay it. That's what I was told by a kid from Iran who plays in my soccer team.

    And as the 'club' where I play has so many kids from Iran.. They are in their own separate groups and they start talking their own language at the Finnish people. Usually we get really offended, as all the other people in the group start laughing and we have no clue what they are talking about.

    I have to admit that I have had some stereotypes about people but not anymore, when I spent three years in United States and damn that place is surrounded with different kinds of cultures. You just have to deal with them, even if you really dont like them. But you still dont have to act like a racist.

    There is one thing I hate tho.. When a kid from different culture acts like a douchebag and you say something bad about them afterwards, people say you are a racist. That makes me so mad. If you come to other country you cant act like a king of the world. Because you are not. And if you do, dont come cry on these forums that people are 'racists'.

    And by the way, if you cant find a job in Finland, you can start your own business. My friend's family from Turkey came to Finland 20 years ago and they started their own pizzeria. And it's still up and doing good. And government gives you some money to help you with starting a new business.

    Just remember that if you are nice and stuff to the Finnish people, they will most likely be nice to you too. Dont be a total douche and act like king. Anywhere you go in the world, you will find discrimination.
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  16. I lived in Finland 3 years, I can tell you that Finland is a racist country, where foreigners face discrimination, the problem is their history, they were ruled by other nations, that is why they have this hatred against other nations, well if you look at their society, high level of alcohol consumption, depression, high suicide rate, high divorce rate, loneliness, domestic voilence...and further social problems. Finnish people have been moving to other countries for decades, then what is the problem for them to have some visitors here? if you do not like foreigners in Finland, then first bring back your people to Finland. If you suffering from phobias and complexes, then solve it with psycologist and not by expressing your anger towards inocent foreigners who are not the reason of your unhappyness.
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