I was recently attending an informal dinner before a seminar meant for about 30-40 people. During the dinner, a colleague that I have known for several years suddenly threw a very irrelevant question at me: “What is your socioeconomic status in your home country?”. I am the kind of person that wants to be approachable to my colleagues. So, keeping that in mind, I started explaining and even over explaining myself. Since the question from my Finnish colleague caught me off guard, l don’t know if I was able to give a satisfactory answer. Now, here’s my concern. Was this question asked just out of curiosity? Was it asked because this person thinks I am escaping my socioeconomic situation from my home country? Does this person somehow think lowly about me already?
After that day, I have been feeling very insecure in general. Of course, this incident wasn’t the only one I have faced in Finland. I’m still working out the best response to such questions in the future. Although, what worries me is that if I am too outspoken and straight with my replies, would that seem overly repulsive? Will my colleague think that I am being rude?
At this point, I am sick to my stomach trying to figure out how to process this. If my ethnicity, skin colour and pre-conceived notions about my socioeconomic status precedes me, then, will I ever feel fully accepted in this country?