Tag Archives: finland

in english

Immigrant taxi driver

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For the first time in 7 years altogether I've lived in Finland I took a ride with a taxi driver of a foreign background.  Born in Turkey and around my age, he has been here for more than twice as long as me, so pretty much half of his life.  The funny thing of course is that we were discussing in Finnish abou this experiences here and he told me something very revealing:

Almost every time he picks up a white, blond, blue-eyed customer, they speak to him in English and are surprised when he answers in Finnish (which he finds rather ridiculous as he's a Finnish taxi driver).  Furthermore, he mentioned a couple of "adventures" with skinheads in Tikkurila during his youth that fortunately came to nothing.  The most interesting of his experiences for me was when we discussed about our Finnish friends. He said once, after going out for drinks, one of them said: "Hey, we're not that different after all".  Notice that this was his friend, so I wonder what does the average Pekka Virtanen in the street think when he sees somebody like him or like me…

We had a very good discussion during the whole trip and I really enjoyed hearing his take on certain things I've also experienced.  Wish him the best of luck.

in english

Recommended Book: The Flight of the Creative Class

I've followed Richard Florida's theories for a few years.  Building upon The Rise of the Creative Class, where he introduced us to his model whereupon a certain group of people whose job relies not only on the consumption of knowledge, but also on the creation of it, and how the world economy is changing, he introduces this book where he expands on the concept and what does it mean for individuals and countries.

The edition I bought starts with his essay The World is Spiky where he critiques The World is Flat, saying that it only looks flat from one peak to the next, but there's plenty of places that haven't yet gotten connected.

Furthermore, the whole idea of the book is simply that the people constituting this creative class are highly mobile and will settle wherever they see fit, therefore having a huge influence in the prosperity of the places they choose.  According to his analysis, this choice is guided by 3 factors: Talent, Tolerance & Technology, and he goes on identifying places in the United States and abroad that are doing all they can to attract and retain their "brains".

Whereas his results for North America seem well founded, he tends to get in a flimsier position when identifying creative class hubs outside of that zone.  He, for example, lumps Helsinki-Tampere-Oulu as an area (which is rather like talking about Brussels, Barcelona and London being in the same neighbourhood). 

There are, however, certain things that leaders in Finland should take to heart, as he mentions explicitly in page 173: "Not all cities are able to compete effectively for global talent.  There are a signficant number… indicating that they are either attracting a very narrow band of immigrants or not attracting many immigrants period.  Cities in this group include… the Scandinavian centers of Helsinki and Oslo.  These places are challenged by their lack of appeal to global talent and will need to improve their diversity and tolerance if they wish to compete at the global cutting edge."

In other words: your educational system is excellent, your use of technology second to none, but the lack of diversity puts a hold on the ideas and points of view you can create here, which is a definite minus in these terms.  As I've mentioned before, there's a lot of foreigners here who work as hard as everybody else here, and not feeling welcome will make them leave, taking their skills with them.  Furthermore, as more and more Finns get to know and appreciate that kind of diversity somewhere else, they will also leave.

For Mexico there is also a lot of lessons to be learned from this book, but I have mostly covered them in another post.  Further moderation of Mexican racist attitudes would also be most welcome.

in english

Kudos to the Espoo Police

If you are a regular reader of this blog (or an immigrant yourself), you know immigration procedures are not easy.  Therefore, I would like to give a big thanks to the Espoo Police.

I went to renew my residence permit last week, which is a process that nominally takes three months.  We arrived at their office at 8 a.m., and since all my papers were in order and they had me in the system, they did all the process on the spot and one hour later I left with a new permit for another couple of years.  I found excellent, courteous service and as you can see a very fast turnaround.

It seems the authorities do want my taxes after all ;-).

in english, suomeksi

“Being born in Finland is like winning the lottery”

"On lottovoitto syntyä Suomeen" is a phrase you hear often enough in Finland, referring to their perceived fortune at their high standard of living.  Whereas I agree that it is indeed a nice place, I believe the statement is flawed for the most important thing is not where are you born, but what you do with your life. 

I've seen plenty of people of advantaged backgrounds but self-destructive attitudes.  Yes, a good starting point is nice to have, but shouldn't allow you to get overconfident or, shall I say, cocky.

in english

Learning Finnish swearwords

Surgeon general warning: if you get easily offended please skip this post. Move along.

I guess it is true that one of the first things people want to learn when starting a new language is the profanity… which in my case caused a couple of hilarious situations, as I came to Finland being able to utter only "kiitos" (thanks) and "perkele" (a general swearword of very strong intensity).

One of my first encounters with other vocabulary was in the public transport.  I used to live in a rather bad area (for the standards here) of east Helsinki and for a long time I would hear teenagers finishing their sentences with something that sounded like "tu".  Something like "Yadda yadda yadda tu, yadda tu. Tu, tu, tu".  Further down the line I understood that they meant "vittu" (cunt, but used as the local alternative to fuck).

Then came the summer, and a game called mölkky.  The problem was that I had some difficulty with Finnish frontal vowels (ä, ö, y), which led to me referring to it as mulkku (prick).  Hilarity ensued.

in english

The kind of foreigners I know in Finland

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Well, I'm still not very happy about the police doing spot checks on people who look or sound foreign, since it assumes that we are all in some way or other breaking the law just because we don't look like the mainstream and happen to live here.  Of course, the most ironic thing of it all is that this activity is financed with my taxes.

Since in the news you only hear about those foreigners who are breaking the law, I wanted to show plenty of examples of those of us who aren't and are not exactly of Caucasian origin.

  • A, Turkish, male, works as a consultant, has two masters degrees.  Is married to a Finn.
  • B, Mexican, female, works as a designer, also has a masters degree.
  • C, Indian, male, works as a computer engineer.  Married to an Indian.
  • D, Malay, female, works in marketing.
  • E, Thai, female, is an IT specialist.
  • F, Venezuelan, male, is finishing his studies doing his thesis in an IT company.  Is married to a Finn.
  • G, Mexican, female, works in finance.  Is married to a Spaniard.
  • H, Japanese, female, works in finance.
  • I, Pakistani, male, also an IT specialist.  Is married to a Pakistani.
  • J, Turkish, male, owns and runs his barbershop.  Married to a Finn.  Has Finnish citizenship.
  • K, Nigerian, male, is an IT specialist.
  • L, Chinese, female, works as a strategist.
  • M, British of South Asian origin, male, works in business development.
  • N, American of Central American origin, male, works as a consultant.
  • O, German with African roots, male, works in a media-facing role.

I have plenty more, but I guess you get my drift.

I feel like I should be wearing a T-shirt reading "Olen ulkomaalainen.  Mitä sitten?" (I'm a foreigner.  So what?).  Who's with me?

in english

WTF?!?!

Finnish police is now spot-checking foreigners to find those without residence permit (myös suomeksi). Is racial profiling making its way here?  This, and the fact that I have to renew my residence permit again (after 7 years altogether living in Finland) and have to tell the authorities how I met my wife for the third or fourth time shows how welcome foreigners are over here, even when we contribute to society and pay our taxes just like everybody else.

I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I find this just insane.