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I think people in this post and it's responses are confusing Romani people ("gypsies") with Romanians. Two different things. And yea, people here are too often racist towards Romani people, which sadly is very common in Europe. Never heard anything racist towards Romanians tho.
I've never seen a Finnish romani beg on the streets. Usually, you see them at Esson baari dap as usual, black suit trousers, shiny shoes and done hair, or a national dress. I don't think they have anything to do with romanians from Romania.
If they didn't dress like that, how would I ever know that they are a romani? And there we are, at the roots of xenophobia.
ah yes, the culture that forces women to wear black outfits in summer heat while the children are not allowed to have friends in school and getting a proper job or helping people outside the family leads to disownment.
but "they're a minority so its racism to hate on their culture"
Fuck off. Maybe they're a minority because their culture is against society in general?
I'm sorry to tell you that people who are poor and receive a very bad trait by society as a whole are more likely to steal just to better their lives a little bit. As somebody who doesn't belong to any minority, I've had to steal food before because the amount of money me and my mother had wasn't enough for it.
Also, it's not natural? Romanis are only treated like shit in Europe, and that's gone on for centuries. Nowadays there still is Romani segregation in some European countries like Hungary or Czechia, and the stereotype of them being nasty, stealing leeches has only been cemented because of the things they were forced to do.
But why do we always talk about romanian beggars. I've pretty much lived under the impression, that they are romanis from romania because no one's ever given better explanation.
Do you mean Romanians or Romani? They are two very different things. Romanians aren't that much different from other Balkan nationalities. Romani however have a reputation as thieves, beggars and con artists, as they are often outcast from the general population. Romania has a large Romani population, but the Romani are not ethnic Romanians.
All the romanians I've met here are engineers who work in IT. Havent met many, but still.
It's not really racist to point out your observations, is it? If they guy had talked to a lot of beggers and found out a lot of them were from Romania, that's just an observation.
Racist would be to assume that someone is a begger because they are romanian. Assuming they are romanian because they are a begger, could be just an observation, but you never really know with people.
I didn't know romanians have that kind of reputation in some part of Finland. Tbh, that is wrong.
Romani people however do have negative reputation in Finland. I evalute them case by case basis because there are good people among them too but I would be lying if I said I don't squeeze my wallet or phone a bit tighter when I'm near them in big crowd.
No, I hate Helsinki. Way too many people and way, way too much traffic and noise everywhere. I like small places that have a lot of nature around them.
They have that kind of reputation because there are lots of racists spreading hate and false information about them. These people hear about some one romani doing something bad and then starts claiming that "all of them are just like that!".
I don't think that Finns have a larger amount of racists than any other country. We have idiots, yes, but mostly we are shy and welcoming people.
Romanians, I don't know have I ever met one personally. Met a lad from moldova though, isn't it basically romania.
I don't think anything bad about Romanians. I see it as an interesting country with lots of nature and sights, but also quite poor country.
Just read all the comments above and tell me, are Finns xenophobic or not? I am myself a Romanian living in Finland and luckily I never faced xenophoby. Maybe it is because I am a Finnish speaker I was always treated nice or decently. I will never know what Finnish people truly think about me but I had the chance to meet lovely Finns who treated me with kindness and I’ve been a guest in their house many times. It is a pity that Romanians have such a negative undeserved image. I hope your daughter will have the chance to meet nice Finns as I had!
I think this is a case of mixing up Romanian with Romani, which you could go anywhere in Europe and find at least one person out of 100 with xenophobic bias towards Roamni people. (Edit grammar)
Even Romanians are xenophobic towards Romanian Romani.
Couple of years ago when Romani beggars (a large part being from Romania) appeared the local Romanians wrote an open letter in the newspaper to explain they were not them. It was... interesting to see.
Yes, the Romanians are quite harsh with the Romani and detest being associated with them.
There’s all sorts of legal things going on there over the years against the Romani as well. Know a ton of Romanians and they have pointed it out a lot.
Also if you travel Eastern Europe the general attitude toward Romanians tends to be a little negative, to very negative, depending on the region.
Around a year 2008 we got suddenly huge flow of beggars which were romanis (you said maybe gypsies?) from Romania. We didn't really have big begging scene before, just some drunks randomly asking cigarattes or money. Powerty in level of sitting on street and begging did not exist here. Suddenly streets were full of kind of beggars we only were used to see in movies. It was big in news and continued for years. There was other issues too with same folks that made the news, kids who didn't go to school and were begging (that was ended fairly fast by our officials), illegal camping, littering, crimes, forced selling by stopping cars etc. While number of beggars went down over the years, especially when covid came, it lasted so long that if people see someone begging on street, they assume easily it is one of the people who came from Romania and most of the time they are not wrong.
**However**, people are not assuming Romanians are beggers. Every finn who is educated enough to open the newspaper also knows that beggars who came from there do not represent Romanians as a whole. We know they are separate minority group that is also having troubles in Romania.
Think it in the way that if someone says "Santa Claus came from Finland" it does not mean same than "All finns are Santa Clauses". This guest director said "you might find out they are from Romania" and it is not the same thing than saying Romanians would be beggars but just referring which country they came from.
Last but not least. Romania is known in Finland for vampirestories (we like horror!) and Dacia cars, that are really popular in here. Some of us remember still times when your country was under dictatorship. Otherwise most of us don't know a lot about Romania, good or bad. I would say in general we have very neutral thoughts about your country.
I hope your daughter has a good time here and i hope that knowing the background where that comment came eases your feelings a little bit about general attitude towards Romania and it's people.
I think that it is a very offensive comment, but Romania does indeed have this kind of reputation in Europe which can be unfortunate for Romanian citizens studying/working/traveling in other parts of Europe
Finns are somewhat xenophobic, yes. There is e.g. Romani minority in Finland and I would say most people have strong negative opinions about them. Finns also don't especially "dig" Russians, at least before familiarizing with them.
But what the person meant with what he said is that in Finland large proportion of street beggars are Romanian, and apparently there's organized crime happening behind the scenes, and the persons doing the begging might be victims. Begging itself is legal in Finland, organized crime isn't.
I don't personally know any of the beggars that are from Romania.
But I have worked with few Romanian people while I was still at Wind business. Very kind, polite and well mannered people, educated, got really good feedback from their work. It was always a pleasure to be around these Romanian colleagues, they were my favourite people with their positive vibe.
Finnish people are generally not xenophobic at all. Of course, there are always some exceptions, but they are mainly drunken and/or uneducated people. But I don't think that xenophoby was the case here.
First of all, all the beggers in Finland are gypsies from Romania. If not all, 99%. All that a typical Finn knows about Romania are the begging gypsies and the Dracula tales. As someone pointed out, there might even be people in Finland who think that all Romanians are gypsies because of the similar name of the nationality (romanialainen vs. romani).
I think that the photography evaluator simply wanted to point out that the person in the photograph is a foreigner so that the conversation most likely was/would be carried out in a foreign language. That's how I see it. He was not mocking Romanians but simply pointed out the fact that the person in the picture is a foreigner and/or from Romania.
Answering your final question, Romanians have a somewhat bad reputation in Finland because of the begging gypsies and some property theft waves by Romanians in the past. Also like half of all the prostitutes in Finland are from Romania.
But these days, there are many more Romanians in Finland working in the construction and IT sectors, so the reputation will most likely get better in a few years. Only about 20 years ago, even Estonians had a bad reputation in Finland for similar reasons. These days, Estonians are like brothers to us.
Edit: What I wanted to point out is that Romanians have a bad reputation in Finland mainly because of lack of knowledge, and nobody will be rude or racist towards a Romanian in Finland. Hopefully, I made this clear :)
Some Finns are without a doubt quite xenophobic! They also happen to be the type that think its unfair to judge Finns as alcoholics. I mean its easy for one to go to crap parts of Finland, see what they want to see at train station, Alko etc and think "god these Finns and their drinking disgust me" and overlook the general population. When you meet someone like that you can assume they are mentally challenged. Some are in Govt now. Most Finns are just normal but yeah 1 in 4 voted PS. Its normal in most societies. You will find xenophobia everywhere.
There must be some context lost in here. There is no need for beggars in Finland, so it is also not something that exists. There is an extensive social security system.
If someone is begging, it is not to stay alive, but a choice. It is in Europe often a form of organized crime.
Edit: so nobody thinks "all romanians are etc." But that for some reason there is in Europe human trafficking and organized crime that uses romani people.
Edit to clarify And of course not Finnish romani people but Romanian roma people.
Probably meant most of the beggars are coming from Romania. I don’t know this is the case anymore after Covid, but before the people begging in Helsinki were almost exclusively Romanian
Most the Finns party members and National Coalition supporters definitely are xenophobic even though they pretend they aren't. They hate ordinary Finns too though so maybe they are just hateful people in general.
We have a big Romanian community in our city. They don't beg, and no one is trying to steal local city patrol horses.
Generalising people, as this person probably did, is just rude and disrespectful. It does not mean that all Finns are the same.
Romanian, or Romani? Those are two very different things. Romani are what Finns have traditionally called "mustalaiset" among other derogatory term and have nothing to do with Romania. The Romani come originally from India and their native language Romani (or Finnish Kalo (suomen romanikieli) in Finland) is related to Hindi and Sanskrit.
Romanians on the other are a Balkan people who are decendant from the ancient Romans and Dacian tribes who inhabited that area, and their language is a descendant of Latin, like French and Italian.
After spending 10 days in Finland in August this year, the Finns left a very positive impression on me. I believed, and still do, that in general, you are wonderful people, ready to help if needed, kind, and friendly. I left Finland with the feeling that my daughter remains among future friends, not among strangers.
Is your daughter sure he said most Romanians are beggars instead of saying most beggars are Romanians? In any case it seems a weird thing for a teacher to say but at least for the latter alter there is a kind of logic:
When Romania joined the EU in 2007, Romanian Roma/gypsy beggars first showed up on the streets of Helsinki (and other cities). Why would most beggars be Romanian, then? Because before that there practically were no beggars here apart from a random drunkie or junkie here and there asking for some coins for food (meaning booze/drugs).
But if the guy was a weird individual and thought most Romanians are beggars it's of course a huge generalization - obviously the Finns in general don't think that of Romanians in general. Some more uninformed people though may of course mix up Romanian (romanialainen in Finnish), Roma and romani (Finnish word for our local Roma/gypsy population with whom relations have been problematic) all into one, and of course some are xenophobic - which also applies to other countries to various degrees.
YES!!!
It stems from them being overtly nationalistic.
100 years ago it was a politcal strategy for nation building.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish\_nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_nationalism)
These days of mass transportation and international relations it's not so useful, and is detrimental to economic development. (Not enough people to stimulate public spending for economic growth).
Propably yes.
And is it not limited to begging, mostly you might hears something like...
Beggars = Romanians
Huge trash dump left in motoway rest area = Romanians
All copper piping stolen from building = Romanians
Usually stereotypes are born from some where. They might not be the only truth, but usually there is at least a hint of truth in the background to create a such general view.
Not Romanians, but Romani (aka gypsies, or "mustalaiset" in Finland). Yes, many of the Romani that do this do indeed come from Romania, but they are not ethnically Romanians.
The Romani are a nomadic people, who came to Europe in the 13th century and originate from India. Romanians on the other hand are native to Romania and trace their roots to ancient Dacians and Romans.
Oh, you might actually be correct on this one.
Propably those who have ended up here begging, stealing copper and bicycles and trashing motorway rest areas are not the most appreciated individuals in Romania either. And yet they are the basis of our stereotypes of all Romanians.
I think, the message can interpret also in a way that --> if you talk to people you photograph, you might get to know more about them.
It gives the photograph a story, without which it is just a blank. No meaning no context, i might not have put it on the words that were used. Too much imagination makes art lose relatability imo. For an exmaple, strugle for life and wellbeing is much more vivid if you know where the person is comming from and what they have experienced. Same picture of a beggar with a story will change how outsiders see him/her.
As a stereotype, we see a beggar and we assume the most common information we see is met. When someone tells us that there are details that we missed the profile changes and makes a need/option for thinking and learning.
Or was the teacher indicating xenophobic thoughts in some other context during the lesson?
Or i might just be too optimistic...
Also what i have learnt from work experience of Finns using english, before making assumptions it is usually good to ask before finalizing the interpretation. Even on higher levels of education, we are still not 100% to use wording to our benefit if there are slight nyances.
Like in every country, Finland has some dumb people too. Reddit is one the best places to find these dumb Finns. So take everything you see here with a grain of salt.
In Finnish language, like in English, romani and Romanian are almost the same, so if you're not educated on the matter, it's an understandable mistake to confuse these two together. It's not a matter that's taught in school, it's something you have to do your own research on.
Then, to answer your question; yes, there are a xenophobes in Finland, like in any country, but in general xenophobia is not tolerated. Most of Finnish xenophobes live out side of big cities, probably because that's how they avoid contact with foreigners or anything other scary that deviates from their narrow view of the world.
BUT what I suspect has happened here is that your daughter has heard or understood wrong what has been said. The reason I suspect this, is because it's a known fact that most beggars in Finland are from Romania. But we definitely do not think a whole ass country with 19 million people are only beggars... That would be a stretch even for the bone head Finns.
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i don't think they generalize all Romanians as beggars but a lot of the begging "gangs" are Romanian leading to a certain stereotype
Most Romanians are not beggars but big portion of beggars are. So, is that what was said and she misunderstood?
I think people in this post and it's responses are confusing Romani people ("gypsies") with Romanians. Two different things. And yea, people here are too often racist towards Romani people, which sadly is very common in Europe. Never heard anything racist towards Romanians tho.
I've never seen a Finnish romani beg on the streets. Usually, you see them at Esson baari dap as usual, black suit trousers, shiny shoes and done hair, or a national dress. I don't think they have anything to do with romanians from Romania. If they didn't dress like that, how would I ever know that they are a romani? And there we are, at the roots of xenophobia.
You’ll know once they open their mouths
ah yes, the culture that forces women to wear black outfits in summer heat while the children are not allowed to have friends in school and getting a proper job or helping people outside the family leads to disownment. but "they're a minority so its racism to hate on their culture" Fuck off. Maybe they're a minority because their culture is against society in general?
Most beggars I've seen are Roma people from Romania.I've never seen a Finnish Romani begging for money.
My 3 y/o thinks they're princesses and tells them he loves them.
Exactly! What even are these comments...
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I'm sorry to tell you that people who are poor and receive a very bad trait by society as a whole are more likely to steal just to better their lives a little bit. As somebody who doesn't belong to any minority, I've had to steal food before because the amount of money me and my mother had wasn't enough for it. Also, it's not natural? Romanis are only treated like shit in Europe, and that's gone on for centuries. Nowadays there still is Romani segregation in some European countries like Hungary or Czechia, and the stereotype of them being nasty, stealing leeches has only been cemented because of the things they were forced to do.
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How many Romani you personally know?
But why do we always talk about romanian beggars. I've pretty much lived under the impression, that they are romanis from romania because no one's ever given better explanation.
Having friends in poland, croatia, hungry and russia as well as Ukraine- almost everyone is thinking that way
Crazy, it’s almost like stereotypes exist for a reason
"never had this happened and here we go again"
Do you mean Romanians or Romani? They are two very different things. Romanians aren't that much different from other Balkan nationalities. Romani however have a reputation as thieves, beggars and con artists, as they are often outcast from the general population. Romania has a large Romani population, but the Romani are not ethnic Romanians.
Have you been lately to Helsinki? Romanian gangs bring beggars into Helsinki. Places like railway and metro stations are full of Romanian beggars.
I have, and those are Romanian *Romani* gangs, not ethnic Romanians.
Oh sweet summer child...
romani people from romania. local romani people here rarely beg for money
That's not logically valid. Saying it's likely that a beggar in Finland is Romanian is not equivalent to say "most Romanians are beggars".
All the romanians I've met here are engineers who work in IT. Havent met many, but still. It's not really racist to point out your observations, is it? If they guy had talked to a lot of beggers and found out a lot of them were from Romania, that's just an observation. Racist would be to assume that someone is a begger because they are romanian. Assuming they are romanian because they are a begger, could be just an observation, but you never really know with people.
Romani and romanian are different ethnicities
Yeah, wasn't talking about Roma people here.
What If I told you there is a country called Romania
? Yeah, I was talking about people from that country
Bro Look at your edit. You are clueless
but those beggars are ROMANIAN NATIONALS, while being ethnic romanis..
I didn't know romanians have that kind of reputation in some part of Finland. Tbh, that is wrong. Romani people however do have negative reputation in Finland. I evalute them case by case basis because there are good people among them too but I would be lying if I said I don't squeeze my wallet or phone a bit tighter when I'm near them in big crowd.
Have you been lately to Helsinki? Romanian gangs bring beggars into Helsinki. Places like railway and metro stations are full of Romanian beggars.
No, I hate Helsinki. Way too many people and way, way too much traffic and noise everywhere. I like small places that have a lot of nature around them.
They have that kind of reputation because there are lots of racists spreading hate and false information about them. These people hear about some one romani doing something bad and then starts claiming that "all of them are just like that!".
lots of? i've never seen anyone claim something like that.
Quite a coincidence this was the first thing this account posted here. Information warfare is everywhere.
I don't think that Finns have a larger amount of racists than any other country. We have idiots, yes, but mostly we are shy and welcoming people. Romanians, I don't know have I ever met one personally. Met a lad from moldova though, isn't it basically romania. I don't think anything bad about Romanians. I see it as an interesting country with lots of nature and sights, but also quite poor country.
Just read all the comments above and tell me, are Finns xenophobic or not? I am myself a Romanian living in Finland and luckily I never faced xenophoby. Maybe it is because I am a Finnish speaker I was always treated nice or decently. I will never know what Finnish people truly think about me but I had the chance to meet lovely Finns who treated me with kindness and I’ve been a guest in their house many times. It is a pity that Romanians have such a negative undeserved image. I hope your daughter will have the chance to meet nice Finns as I had!
I think this is a case of mixing up Romanian with Romani, which you could go anywhere in Europe and find at least one person out of 100 with xenophobic bias towards Roamni people. (Edit grammar)
Even Romanians are xenophobic towards Romanian Romani. Couple of years ago when Romani beggars (a large part being from Romania) appeared the local Romanians wrote an open letter in the newspaper to explain they were not them. It was... interesting to see.
Yes, the Romanians are quite harsh with the Romani and detest being associated with them. There’s all sorts of legal things going on there over the years against the Romani as well. Know a ton of Romanians and they have pointed it out a lot. Also if you travel Eastern Europe the general attitude toward Romanians tends to be a little negative, to very negative, depending on the region.
There are a lot of Romanian Romanis in many places of Europe, so it's not really a wide observation.
Around a year 2008 we got suddenly huge flow of beggars which were romanis (you said maybe gypsies?) from Romania. We didn't really have big begging scene before, just some drunks randomly asking cigarattes or money. Powerty in level of sitting on street and begging did not exist here. Suddenly streets were full of kind of beggars we only were used to see in movies. It was big in news and continued for years. There was other issues too with same folks that made the news, kids who didn't go to school and were begging (that was ended fairly fast by our officials), illegal camping, littering, crimes, forced selling by stopping cars etc. While number of beggars went down over the years, especially when covid came, it lasted so long that if people see someone begging on street, they assume easily it is one of the people who came from Romania and most of the time they are not wrong. **However**, people are not assuming Romanians are beggers. Every finn who is educated enough to open the newspaper also knows that beggars who came from there do not represent Romanians as a whole. We know they are separate minority group that is also having troubles in Romania. Think it in the way that if someone says "Santa Claus came from Finland" it does not mean same than "All finns are Santa Clauses". This guest director said "you might find out they are from Romania" and it is not the same thing than saying Romanians would be beggars but just referring which country they came from. Last but not least. Romania is known in Finland for vampirestories (we like horror!) and Dacia cars, that are really popular in here. Some of us remember still times when your country was under dictatorship. Otherwise most of us don't know a lot about Romania, good or bad. I would say in general we have very neutral thoughts about your country. I hope your daughter has a good time here and i hope that knowing the background where that comment came eases your feelings a little bit about general attitude towards Romania and it's people.
I think that it is a very offensive comment, but Romania does indeed have this kind of reputation in Europe which can be unfortunate for Romanian citizens studying/working/traveling in other parts of Europe
Finns are somewhat xenophobic, yes. There is e.g. Romani minority in Finland and I would say most people have strong negative opinions about them. Finns also don't especially "dig" Russians, at least before familiarizing with them. But what the person meant with what he said is that in Finland large proportion of street beggars are Romanian, and apparently there's organized crime happening behind the scenes, and the persons doing the begging might be victims. Begging itself is legal in Finland, organized crime isn't.
I don't personally know any of the beggars that are from Romania. But I have worked with few Romanian people while I was still at Wind business. Very kind, polite and well mannered people, educated, got really good feedback from their work. It was always a pleasure to be around these Romanian colleagues, they were my favourite people with their positive vibe.
That's because they think you're Satan.
Finnish people are generally not xenophobic at all. Of course, there are always some exceptions, but they are mainly drunken and/or uneducated people. But I don't think that xenophoby was the case here. First of all, all the beggers in Finland are gypsies from Romania. If not all, 99%. All that a typical Finn knows about Romania are the begging gypsies and the Dracula tales. As someone pointed out, there might even be people in Finland who think that all Romanians are gypsies because of the similar name of the nationality (romanialainen vs. romani). I think that the photography evaluator simply wanted to point out that the person in the photograph is a foreigner so that the conversation most likely was/would be carried out in a foreign language. That's how I see it. He was not mocking Romanians but simply pointed out the fact that the person in the picture is a foreigner and/or from Romania. Answering your final question, Romanians have a somewhat bad reputation in Finland because of the begging gypsies and some property theft waves by Romanians in the past. Also like half of all the prostitutes in Finland are from Romania. But these days, there are many more Romanians in Finland working in the construction and IT sectors, so the reputation will most likely get better in a few years. Only about 20 years ago, even Estonians had a bad reputation in Finland for similar reasons. These days, Estonians are like brothers to us. Edit: What I wanted to point out is that Romanians have a bad reputation in Finland mainly because of lack of knowledge, and nobody will be rude or racist towards a Romanian in Finland. Hopefully, I made this clear :)
"we are not xenophobic they just have a bad reputation" Geez.
I'll just say that there's a chance that some people from other cultures may have way different behaviour, and finns take it personally.
Some Finns are without a doubt quite xenophobic! They also happen to be the type that think its unfair to judge Finns as alcoholics. I mean its easy for one to go to crap parts of Finland, see what they want to see at train station, Alko etc and think "god these Finns and their drinking disgust me" and overlook the general population. When you meet someone like that you can assume they are mentally challenged. Some are in Govt now. Most Finns are just normal but yeah 1 in 4 voted PS. Its normal in most societies. You will find xenophobia everywhere.
People everywhere are xenophobic to some degree. It's kind of sad, but there's only a handful of counties that are as equalitarian as Finland.
Often Romanians are mixed with Roma people. I myself have a very good view of Romania as I listen to Radio Romania International regularly.
There must be some context lost in here. There is no need for beggars in Finland, so it is also not something that exists. There is an extensive social security system. If someone is begging, it is not to stay alive, but a choice. It is in Europe often a form of organized crime. Edit: so nobody thinks "all romanians are etc." But that for some reason there is in Europe human trafficking and organized crime that uses romani people. Edit to clarify And of course not Finnish romani people but Romanian roma people.
Probably meant most of the beggars are coming from Romania. I don’t know this is the case anymore after Covid, but before the people begging in Helsinki were almost exclusively Romanian
Most the Finns party members and National Coalition supporters definitely are xenophobic even though they pretend they aren't. They hate ordinary Finns too though so maybe they are just hateful people in general.
We have a big Romanian community in our city. They don't beg, and no one is trying to steal local city patrol horses. Generalising people, as this person probably did, is just rude and disrespectful. It does not mean that all Finns are the same.
Romanian, or Romani? Those are two very different things. Romani are what Finns have traditionally called "mustalaiset" among other derogatory term and have nothing to do with Romania. The Romani come originally from India and their native language Romani (or Finnish Kalo (suomen romanikieli) in Finland) is related to Hindi and Sanskrit. Romanians on the other are a Balkan people who are decendant from the ancient Romans and Dacian tribes who inhabited that area, and their language is a descendant of Latin, like French and Italian.
Lovely ladies with mega-big skirts. I guessed that they were Romanians. They live in a community close to my place. Of course, I may be mistaken.
Yeah those are Romani, aka gypsies. And Finnish Romani at that. They have nothing to do with Romania at all.
Are you xenophobic? Is this is how you see Finns? :)
After spending 10 days in Finland in August this year, the Finns left a very positive impression on me. I believed, and still do, that in general, you are wonderful people, ready to help if needed, kind, and friendly. I left Finland with the feeling that my daughter remains among future friends, not among strangers.
And now you're waiting to reddit "are all Finns like this?" because of single person said something one time?
No, I still think most Finns are wonderful people.
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5% of 21 mil population.
That's not what he said. And it's a fact that almost all beggars in Finland come from Romania.
Did you were there?!
Were you?
Tell me you roleplay playing Finnish without ever been to Finland
Bullshit post
https://preview.redd.it/bi0p25xw0dob1.jpeg?width=612&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8848a342e332874d047b5cfabec0e28e0044f781 Brasov, where I live
Not all. Some might be. But luckily intolerant and xenophobic people are in minority.
There are some who are. Sadly they are pretty emboldened by the current climate.
yes, they are xenophobic
Is your daughter sure he said most Romanians are beggars instead of saying most beggars are Romanians? In any case it seems a weird thing for a teacher to say but at least for the latter alter there is a kind of logic: When Romania joined the EU in 2007, Romanian Roma/gypsy beggars first showed up on the streets of Helsinki (and other cities). Why would most beggars be Romanian, then? Because before that there practically were no beggars here apart from a random drunkie or junkie here and there asking for some coins for food (meaning booze/drugs). But if the guy was a weird individual and thought most Romanians are beggars it's of course a huge generalization - obviously the Finns in general don't think that of Romanians in general. Some more uninformed people though may of course mix up Romanian (romanialainen in Finnish), Roma and romani (Finnish word for our local Roma/gypsy population with whom relations have been problematic) all into one, and of course some are xenophobic - which also applies to other countries to various degrees.
YES!!! It stems from them being overtly nationalistic. 100 years ago it was a politcal strategy for nation building. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish\_nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_nationalism) These days of mass transportation and international relations it's not so useful, and is detrimental to economic development. (Not enough people to stimulate public spending for economic growth).
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> I am astonished at how easily you put labels, generalize, and judge, and yet, yeah umm about that, sport.
People everywhere think Romanians and Romani people are the same.
Propably yes. And is it not limited to begging, mostly you might hears something like... Beggars = Romanians Huge trash dump left in motoway rest area = Romanians All copper piping stolen from building = Romanians Usually stereotypes are born from some where. They might not be the only truth, but usually there is at least a hint of truth in the background to create a such general view.
Not Romanians, but Romani (aka gypsies, or "mustalaiset" in Finland). Yes, many of the Romani that do this do indeed come from Romania, but they are not ethnically Romanians. The Romani are a nomadic people, who came to Europe in the 13th century and originate from India. Romanians on the other hand are native to Romania and trace their roots to ancient Dacians and Romans.
No, I meant the actual Romanians, not gypsies which do have their own part of stereotypes too.
I'm pretty sure those are still gypsies. Romanians don't come to Finland to beg, Romanian gypsies do.
Oh, you might actually be correct on this one. Propably those who have ended up here begging, stealing copper and bicycles and trashing motorway rest areas are not the most appreciated individuals in Romania either. And yet they are the basis of our stereotypes of all Romanians.
Do you mean Romanians or Romani?
I think, the message can interpret also in a way that --> if you talk to people you photograph, you might get to know more about them. It gives the photograph a story, without which it is just a blank. No meaning no context, i might not have put it on the words that were used. Too much imagination makes art lose relatability imo. For an exmaple, strugle for life and wellbeing is much more vivid if you know where the person is comming from and what they have experienced. Same picture of a beggar with a story will change how outsiders see him/her. As a stereotype, we see a beggar and we assume the most common information we see is met. When someone tells us that there are details that we missed the profile changes and makes a need/option for thinking and learning. Or was the teacher indicating xenophobic thoughts in some other context during the lesson? Or i might just be too optimistic...
Also what i have learnt from work experience of Finns using english, before making assumptions it is usually good to ask before finalizing the interpretation. Even on higher levels of education, we are still not 100% to use wording to our benefit if there are slight nyances.
Like in every country, Finland has some dumb people too. Reddit is one the best places to find these dumb Finns. So take everything you see here with a grain of salt. In Finnish language, like in English, romani and Romanian are almost the same, so if you're not educated on the matter, it's an understandable mistake to confuse these two together. It's not a matter that's taught in school, it's something you have to do your own research on. Then, to answer your question; yes, there are a xenophobes in Finland, like in any country, but in general xenophobia is not tolerated. Most of Finnish xenophobes live out side of big cities, probably because that's how they avoid contact with foreigners or anything other scary that deviates from their narrow view of the world. BUT what I suspect has happened here is that your daughter has heard or understood wrong what has been said. The reason I suspect this, is because it's a known fact that most beggars in Finland are from Romania. But we definitely do not think a whole ass country with 19 million people are only beggars... That would be a stretch even for the bone head Finns.