Helsingin Sanomat Survey 2022
A survey conducted by Helsingin Sanomat in 2022 said foreigners should be allowed to live and work in Finland. 49% of people supported the statement, while 46% disagreed. Over two-thirds (67%) of respondents five years ago in 2017 agreed with this statement.
The link between racism, immigration, religion, culture, and security policy might affect the change.
Lena Nare studying migration at the University of Helsinki, and a professor of Sociology, said that the survey was in a different policy situation as compared to 2017. Her other work includes refugee studies, globalization of work, precarious work, unemployment, and inequality from an intersectional perspective. She was the Vice-President of the European Sociological Association and a board member of the European Sociological Association from 2015-17.
Immigration and security policy has led people to think that a fence should be created along the eastern border. Unfortunately, it means that not many think that everyone should be allowed in the country.
However, 71% of the respondents wanted skilled labor immigration into the country. The shortage of nurses is proof that the country does not produce enough workforce.
There has been a lot of political debate on immigration in Finland. The major problem is that politicians consider humanitarian and employment-based migration as two separate issues. This divides the opinion of the people. For instance, people who previously wanted asylum access to the country were given work permits.
According to the report, Nare said that the people of Finland were aware of racism much more than five years ago than they are now. This is because of a drop of 10% in people’s belief of racism happening in the country as compared to 2017.
According to The European [Union’s] Fundamental Rights Agency’s report, Finland people face major discrimination in Europe. Nare thinks that it is difficult to gauge the extent of racism in Finland if people do not have experience or they are not interested in the issue.
