As a foreigner

Axis of Ævil and Katri (in Finnish) started a very interesting conversation on the topic of Finns and foreigners. Ævil is an American living in Finland who says that according to her experiences, it's a difficult place for a foreigner to live and that Finns are at worst very xenophobic. Like to Katri, this comes to me as a surprise, and she goes on to analyze the issue quite eloquently and received quite a few interesting comments too.

I, too would have described Helsinki to be much more international than it used to be, and find it a bit shocking that it may just all be just on the surface. And if this is indeed the true - and I have no reason to doubt it - I can vouch for one thing: it's not the same everywhere. So far I've lived in two countries as a foreigner - UK and Canada - and I've never come across the kind of hostility Ævil is describing. Quite contrary - most people seem to find my nationality interesting, or at least quaint. Yeah, it's small talk, but it's friendly and it makes me feel accepted.

Everywhere I've been able to meet people who have accepted me as I am, invited me to their homes and made me feel incredibly welcome and liked. I think I've always always been a social person, and fairly talkative when it comes to being with friends - still, smalltalk is the most difficult thing to learn. And contrary to popular belief, not all Brits or Canadians or Americans are good at it either. At the international party on Saturday it became a custom to start the conversation with "So where are you from" when you heard an unusual accent - and pretty much everyone had one. So that's what I said when guy with what sounded like a German accent came to me and introduced himself - turned out he was Canadian to the boot, but had recently suffered brain damage that had changed his speech, or added an accent like he put it. So there's no safe small talk topic!

But it's not just small talk - other cultural things have their effect on it too. Language barrier is one thing, but language culture is another - the fact that Finnish language is by default very "rude" compared to English. There is no word for "please" and there is a tendency to say "give me that" instead of "could you give me that", and it's not just on the surface as it might seem. In the same way people look me funny when in Finland I'm extremely polite - "voisinko saada kaksi lippua" eikä "kaksi lippua" - because it's not the way. We always suffer a culture shock coming to Finland - eating in a restaurant is an experience when waitress is not friendly and shops don't employ people to help you but to (just) charge you.

I think this is an important topic - as Finland can't afford to shut out all foreigners, they are needed both economically and intellectually. If Finland wants to be a big player, for example in the mobile computing field, they need foreign help to do this - there just aren't enough people in Finland to make it work otherwise. Nokia has understood this, and I dare say most foreigners come to live to Finland because of them - still, even they have a lot to improve on when it comes to recruiting (said with first hand experience). In addition, like in most highly industrialised countires, the original population often becomes very picky with jobs and poorly paid foreigners end up doing the shitty jobs. This I've seen in all countries I've lived in - it's kind of a sneaky way to globalise a country, but very effective.

On the intellectual side, Finland would have a lot to learn if they just bothered looking around a bit. Living in UK for seven years and having seen what Margaret Thatcher's goverment did to the country - mainly privatization of state property and services - and seen how it has brought the country to shambles in twenty years. These are important lessons that Finland should keeping in mind when doing exactly the same thing - putting efficiency and money before people might seem like a good idea now, but just wait for ten or twenty years, and the country and your children will pay the price.

Oh well. I didn't mean to get all political, but that's what it comes down to in the end. Change is inevitable, and people should just accept it and embrace globalisation. This means to let go some of the culture, as culture is organic and lives with the times and the people. It's not ok to just say anymore that "we Finns are like this, quiet and grumpy" and that's that and we're not going to change - because it's not good enough. You can't just sit in your little corner anymore and play with your own toys - in fact you might find that your toys were actually manufactured in China and that the chair you're sitting on was sold to a German company last week.

For me, living abroad has been a huge blessing - my world is some much bigger as a result. There are lot of Finnish expats around the world, and I just hope most of them return back to Finland some day to share their experiences and knowledge. They are much needed.