Reader’s Opinion | As an immigrant, I knew that I would start my studies from the back

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

Mamu-97. That’s what it said in my second grade class picture. I was in an immigrant adaptation class, where Finnish was hardly learned. The lesson focused on Finnish culture, customs and which side of the cake to spread the butter on. It wasn’t until I moved to a regular class as a S2 student that learning Finnish picked up speed – after all, half of the students in our class were native Finns.

For almost three decades I have been listening to how important it is to integrate our immigrants. If that doesn’t happen, we are mostly an expense item or a problem for society. In this light, the resistance to the equalization of schools and the easing of segregation seems completely absurd.

It feels even worse when children are spoken of as “material” and the problems of urban planning and class society are tried to be blamed on them. I was not material. I was the tenth student and I knew even without the media discussion that I would start from the back. The desire to show off that stems from that is exactly the reason why I have left so many of my native Finnish classmates behind, starting with the average of the certificate.

Every second-generation immigrant knows that the challenge of growing up between two cultures is not a weak Finnish language spoiling the learning of native Finns, but the fact that the culture and language of one’s own parents are forgotten.

Natalia Salmela

entrepreneur, nonfiction writer, Helsinki

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