Children's Ombudsman 'shocked' by levels of racism faced by young people with immigrant backgrounds

The Children's Ombudsman says she is "shocked" at the amount of racism faced by children in Finland with minority or immigrant backgrounds, and is urging the government to do more, faster, to tackle the issues. 

It's a topic that has been thrust into the headlines in recent weeks after a child was stabbed at an Oulu shopping centre by a man with a history of far-right violence; and just a week later an Asian man was attacked outside the same shopping mall by a 15-year-old Finnish boy whose lawyer says had racist motives. 

The Oulu stabbings paint a picture of the level of overt racism in Finland, but there is another segment of racism which is 'hidden' from official statistics because it goes unreported online, on social media platforms, and in classrooms.  

"The Islamophobia in particular in this country is a big problem," Children's Ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen tells Finland Insider.

Pekkarinen, who has been in her role for the last five years, explains that the issue of racism against children in Finland has been raised twice by the United Nations, which flagged up the issue in 2011 and again in 2023. 

Although the government at that time painted a "rosy picture" to the UN committee in Geneva, Pekkarinen says, they came to the conclusion that "not much has happened in this discrimination issue" over the years. 

Last summer a series of scandals which rocked the government, forced Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to come up with an action plan to tackle racism in the country.

“There is no room for racism in Finland. Political decision-makers must set an example in building a safe and equal society, and we need all of society to take part,” the PM said at the time.

Children’s Ombudsman Elina Pekkarinen says it was a good start.

"The announcement last autumn from the government on discrimination and equality was good, and quite honestly they admitted there was a problem in this country and they would act on it," Pekkarinen says.

However, the Ombudsman says she is still waiting for the programme to move forward "in a meaningful way," and says she's "puzzled" that working groups set up to look at the issue of anti-discrimination have been lumped in with other, broader, government initiatives with a long shelf-life and "no clarity." 

"When programmes happen at state or ministry level they don't affect deep-rooted structures and cultural values we have in this country. In order to make that change we need charismatic leaders who say this is not the way to go," Pekkarinen states. 

She recalls an incident during President Niinistö's time in office where a young boy was interviewed on television and said he experienced bullying because of his skin colour. At the time, Niinistö spoke out about the issues. 

"I think it had some minor effect for a while when the president said it's not okay to make racist comments, but then social media and the general atmosphere has got worse again."

Study highlights issues for immigrant children

A recent survey into school health issues flagged up that children - especially boys - with an immigrant background are bullied more often than other children in Finnish schools; and face more violence at school, in public places and at home when compared with children who don't have an immigrant background. 

"However we must also be honest here," says Pekkarinen. 

"Boys with immigrant backgrounds are also participating in bullying more than other kids. That's the other side of the coin. Their lives include more violence than other children's lives and at one point they are the victim and at another point they are the perpetrators."

Resources for schools

Overall, the number of children in Finnish schools with an immigrant background is rather low - although in cities the picture is different. 

According to the Ombudsman's office some schools in Helsinki have more than 50% of children with an immigrant background, but across the country some 80% of school have 10% or fewer children who fall into this category. 

That means there's unequal access to tools for teachers to help them educate kids on issues around non-discrimination. 

"The largest problem is in municipalities without a lof of children because teachers might not have a lot of experience using the programmes available to them," Pekkarinen explains.

"It's a question of culture, of structures and values whether we are willing to see and recognise the racism we have in schools."