Finnish People and racism

Hello,

      Your information on study in Finland has been joy to study as well as very useful in the same time. You have been providing information about the entrance, survival tactics, job opportunity, and other things. But I would like to drag in the matter of Finnish people and their behavior. I mean how do they treat the foreign elements landing on their land. Are Nepalese people sufferers of anti-racism or any kind of mis-behavior only due to their color of skin? I mean do these things exist predominantly or only on exceptional cases not to be concerned of?

      I just wanted to know what kind of reception we all(Nepalese students) can expect to receive if we are lucky enough to come there in our near future.

      I have searched in different sites and found Finland to be one of the most safest and with low rate of crime in comparison to other countries. But I wanted to clarify that from you as you are studying there.

I am really happy to know that you are being aware about the Finnish Education, culture and related stuffs. I really appreciate your concern about the people's behavior in Finland. I am really glad to share my experiences about their treatment towards Nepalese.

In summary, I would say, Finnish people are the best people of the world. They are so quiet, peaceful and non-violent. They are the real Gandi-badi people when you say, "ready to accept slap on other cheek if you slap on one". They are so creamy and good people with superior civilization and culture. I believe, we Nepalese are very much violent than these Finnish people when you talk about their decency.

Finnish people have two best friends, Sauna and Beer. One of my Japanese friend says, these Finnish drink more beers than water. I think, he is absolutely right. And, Sauna bath is another essential factor on their life. There are 1.7 Millions Sauna places while the total population of Finland is just 5.6 Millions.  There won't be any house without sauna and there won't be any Finnish inside sauna without beer in his/her hand. Finnish people get wild after drinking beer but they won't be violent and they won't harm anyone even after drinking.

It is really true fact that Finland is the safest place of the world. You will be so assured about you, your security and such issues once you get adopted with the Finnish system. There is no chances of theft of stuffs, no threats, no chances of harm, no road accidents, no crime, no bloodshed and no noises and loud voices. One of my friend told it dead-land as well since we Nepalese are so habitual with noises and such stuffs while these Finnish get surprises when we make some loud voices. Everyone is peaceful and so quiet. Everyone respects the human rights of other people and respect the individuality of each other.

But, you should remember, here are International people as well who come here carrying their culture along with them. So, being alert is really a good idea to avoid any of the forthcoming accident. But, there are very less number of international people; so these international people are also influenced with the Finnish system and become peaceful on most of the cases.

About racism, I am still on doubt. I can't say whether these people are racist or not. Naturally, Europeans are slight racist towards South Asians. I would say, these Finnish people are silently racist, it means, they don't show their biasness towards us and treat us like they are treating us good, but they are biased when it comes about implementation. Let's take an example of job issues: if there is a opening for job where English speaking is only the criteria of selection and there is one Finnish applicant, then your chances of getting job will drastically drops down though your English skills might be far better than that Finnish Applicant. They might say, they don't make any discrimination depending on any kind of factors but it happens sometimes. Similarly, the teacher will be teaching in a classroom filling with majority of International Students and one Finnish students asks a question in Finnish language, then the teacher gladly answers in Finnish language and don't care what these International Students might be thinking about. It is natural that Finnish people should get advantage in Finland since its their homeland and it is the place where they will struggle and contribute for their nation. But, it does not mean that you are welcoming International Students as guest and making them feel humiliation by your act. For example, you are giving an interview for a Programming post which says, you should be fluent in some programming language and you did very good during the interview. Later, you got a mail stating "We can't accept you for this position since you don't have Finnish language skills". The funny thing is that the company website of that company states they operate in English and have English as the medium of communication inside the office. Even, the job description says, should be good in English and no Finnish Language needed. Another example, when you go for searching some cleaning job like Dish washing in restaurant, he/she will ask you every possible question and could not find any further one question, he/she will ask how much fluent are you in Finnish Language? Understand that he/she could not say NO to you so asking this question, so, answering negative means, he/she will say, "We can't take you since you have Finnish language". Only these Finnish people can understand why they need Finnish language to wash dishes. If you say, you are fluent and show your fluency in front of them and if they don't want to take you, they will say, "We don't have any vacancy now and we will call you later when there will be any vacant place" though you went there after seeing a vacancy on a newspaper this morning only. You reached there on exact nine O'clock and notify them and you came here only after seeing the vacancy so there must be that position vacant till yet since you reached there on first minute of first hour of office opening. But if they need not to take you, they will say, we just confirmed one this morning. This funny logic really works that they took one when the office was not opened. Unfortunately, immediately after you, a Finnish one walks in and happily comes out by getting that job for which you were passed through such a long drama of "Finnish Language", "Position not available", "Position already reserved". I don't know whether these Finnish people don't want to say directly NO or any other reason of biasness, but they are not kind enough towards South Asian.

Being specific to the treatment about Nepalese, they are really so kind to Nepalese. They treat us good than other South Asian citizens. They believe us and really feel us honest rather than other South Asian. The above paragraph is the iron gate that every Nepalese need to pass through and once you pass through it, these Finnish people treat us are the dearest one than all of the other South Asian people.