Experiencing racism in the Finnish Education System: the importance of speaking up
Moving to Finland proves both exciting and challenging. When it comes to adapting to the education system, the Finnish one has a remarkable reputation, but you will most likely face linguistic barriers if you choose a Finnish speaking institution for your child. While most people are welcoming and friendly, unfortunately, discriminatory behaviour towards foreigners can make the adjustment process even harder.
I only started to notice racism, after many years living in Finland, when my child started going to preschool. At the beginning, I felt I was being oversensitive and avoided using the term racism. Later, I was surprised that some of my Finnish friends showed white fragility* when I labelled a certain behaviour as racist. I have realised that it is "uglier" to call someone a racist than to exhibit racist behaviour.
Recently a friend complained about the lack of communication with her child’s teacher. She joked how a good friend of hers said the teacher’s behaviour was racist and she laughed, answering to her friend: you see racism everywhere. Well, hearing her story I had to agree with her friend. I felt that it was important to name this kind of behaviour for what it was and raise awareness about it. We have to start sharing our stories with others who may have experienced similar situations. I know many parents who do not speak Finnish also feel excluded from their children's school. We don’t like it, and we ourselves resist accepting we experienced racism.
In a conversation with my daycare director, I pointed out that they should reach out in a different way to non-Finnish speaking parents. I explained that non-Finnish speaking parents had not participated in a class meeting despite more than half of the group being non-Finnish speaking kids — parents of all Finnish speaking children attended. She stated that all children were the same to her and no different treatment was necessary for non-Finnish speakers. The colour blindness* in her treatment of migrant children and their families was appalling. She flatly refused to organise parents meetings and any other suggestions to improve the communication and integration of parents.
I know many “little” stories of racism in the Finnish education system: a child who hears from adults that maybe he misunderstood a bullying situation because he is a foreigner; a mother whose teacher prioritises communication with her ex-husband because he is Finnish and she is not; a mother who doesn’t like the way the teacher treats her son but doesn’t know what to do about it because of the linguistic barrier; another mother that knows her children’s level of Finnish is insufficient despite having been born in Finland; a child that goes with inappropriate clothing to an event or doesn’t have the right material because of the poor communication from the school; a girl that calls out on a teacher using racist terms and the teacher answers “this is a history lesson and these are the terms used then, so it is appropriate to use them in class”.
It is crucial to speak up about these issues and make them visible. Too often, we feel alone or like we are the only ones experiencing such discrimination, but by sharing our stories, we can raise awareness and work towards change. I don’t know of an official channel to report racist behaviours in daycares and schools in Finland. I also wonder who would report these incidents that feel small, hardly racist, but that weight in your heart leaving a stinging pain whenever you remember them. I don’t know how to change the system, but I know that the first step consists in creating awareness by talking about it.
* White fragility = discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted with information about racial inequality and injustice.
* Colour blindness = the concept that race-based differences don't matter, ignoring the realities of systemic racism. Colour blindness doesn’t make you Not racist, often it means the opposite.
