Racism | Eva’s survey: More than half of Finns consider racism to be a minor problem

About 55 percent of Finns consider racism to be a relatively minor or non-existent problem, according to the newly published data collected last fall by the Finnish Business Delegation (Eva).

Respondents to the survey were asked how big a problem racism is overall in Finnish society today.

40 percent of respondents considered racism to be a very big or fairly big problem. 55 percent of respondents considered it a rather minor or non-existent problem. The remaining 5 percent could not express their opinion.

A little more than half of the respondents estimated that Finland is at least to some extent a racist country, a little less than half did not consider Finland to be a racist country at all.

A survey according to how significant a problem racism is considered to be, the respondent’s party background affects it.

Almost 90 percent of the supporters of the Left Alliance, more than 80 percent of the supporters of the Greens, and more than 70 percent of the supporters of the Sdp considered racism to be a very big or fairly big problem.

Less than a quarter of the supporters of the coalition and only about five percent of the supporters of Basic Finns thought the same way.

Rkp’s supporters are placed in between, about half of whom considered racism to be a very or quite a big problem. About 40 percent of the supporters of the Christian Democrats shared this opinion, slightly fewer of the supporters of the center.

In the survey what Finns consider racism was also investigated.

About 90 percent of Finns considered discriminating against a person because of their ethnic background to be racist. More than 80 percent of the respondents also considered ignoring a person in a job search because of a name referring to a minority ethnicity, as well as derogatory language about ethnic groups and their members, as racism.

For example, humor or jokes referring to the extreme right or Nazism were considered racist by less than 60 percent of respondents.

For example, unconditional Finnish or Swedish language proficiency requirements at workplaces or the introduction of old literature or other art that is now considered racist, as well as scientific research that explains the differences between different ethnic groups were things that 15 percent or less of the respondents considered racist.