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!