Natasha Petrell

At present the attitudes of Finns towards immigrants are similar to those prevailing a couple of decades ago when Finland had few immigrants and a flourishing economy. The recession turned the opinions negative once the country started receiving refugees and other immigrants in greater numbers than before.

Magdalena Jaakkola, senior researcher of the Rehabilitation Foundation, provided Monitori with some advance information on the survey called Finns´ attitudes towards immigrants in 1987–2007. A sample of over 1000 interviewees covering the whole country gives a clear picture of the changes taking place in people´s way of thinking. Compared to the previous studies, the survey, conducted for the fifth time, was more limited with fewer questions and focusing on just five nationalities instead of twenty in the past.

– Estonians and Russians are the biggest immigrant groups. With Poland becoming a member of the EU, it´s to be supposed that the number of Poles will be growing in the near future. The municipalities in Uusimaa intend to recruit labour from China. Somalis, the biggest refugee group, are included since Finns´ attitudes towards them have been very negative right from the beginning, Jaakkola gives her grounds for selecting the nationalities.

According to the survey, Finns currently have the most tolerant attitudes towards Estonians, followed by Chinese and Poles, while Russians and Somalis bring up the rear.

People used to be more tolerant before the recession

Magdalena Jaakkola has participated in the research project from the start, in other words, since 1987. Her own thesis dealt with Finns living in Sweden.

– When I was writing my thesis, several surveys related to immigrants had already been published in Sweden because immigration was well under way there, compared to Finland. I wanted to work on something similar as immigration was just about to start here.

In 1987 the attitudes towards work-related immigration and the reception of refugees were positive.

– At that time not many refugees or asylum seekers had applied for residence in Finland. The annual refugee quota was 100. There was an economic boom in the country and people used to talk about a shortage of labour.

In the recession year 1993 Finns´ attitudes had turned negative towards all the nationality groups in the whole country. Afterwards they have become more positive year by year while the number of immigrants has increased manifold. 

Once again, people keep talking about a shortage of labour and their attitudes towards immigrants have reached the same level as twenty years ago. However, their attitudes towards Russians have not returned to the level before the recession.

– Before the 1990s, there were hardly any Russians in Finland. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finns feared that millions of Russians would rush into here.

What has changed within twenty years is that in 1987 people had more positive attitudes towards refugees than towards those applying for work while presently job seekers are now more welcome to enter Finland than refugees are. Positive attitudes towards alien job seekers have increased in all the population groups after the recession. Compared to the previous survey delivered in 2003, favourableness has been on the rise.

Marked regional differences

In the Metropolitan area, the residents seem to have more tolerant attitudes than in the countryside. Largely, it is because the population living in the Metropolitan region is more educated. In general, the region is a forerunner as far as changes in attitudes are concerned.

– What I feel concerned about is that young men in small municipalities may have strong prejudices. Men with little education living in rural areas don´t generally mix with immigrants. The more immigrants a person knows, the more positive attitude he adopts. Not even the recession had any impact on it, Magdalena Jaakkola says.

The survey reveals that those residing in rural areas had very negative opinions of Somalis originally, which were more positive in the Metropolitan area. However, favourableness in the countryside has risen at the same time while the attitudes in the Metropolitan area have remained the same. Presently the situation seems to be nearly even.

– Managers as well as professional and managerial employees have a lot more favourable attitudes than workers and farmers, for instance.

There are also differences between men and women. Women tend to take a more positive attitude towards immigrants. On the other hand, men´s attitudes towards Estonians are more favourable than those of women. The difference is particularly apparent in the Metropolitan area, but smaller when the whole country is considered.