Do African Immigrants in Turku Experience More Racist Harassment in Finland? A Victim-Oriented-Approach

Abstract

Harassment of immigrant citizens due to their race, colour and national origin is still a disturbing phenomenon in the streets, homes, restaurants, shops, and schools, as well as in the universities across Finland. This harassment and intimidation is usually racially motivated and creates fear in the minds of many African immigrants in Turku. My objective in this paper is to try to understand and evaluate racial harassment and the frequency with which African immigrants experience racial hostility on the streets in Turku. In addition, this is an attempt to identify the characteristics which tend to precipitate racially motivated forms of harassment. Finally, I will also be exploring the reasons why so few official complaints of racial harassment are made to the police. To address these issues of harassment and intimidation, 120 African immigrants were surveyed through a prepared questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were subsequently carried out with 25 of these. The study revealed that the majority of respondents had frequently experienced harassment on the streets, outside restaurants and by their neighbours. In general, males seemed to experience a higher level of harassment due to their frequent excursions in the evenings and at night in Turku. Overall, this study revealed that African immigrants are still sceptical about reporting racially-motivated crimes to the authorities due to the distance between them and the police in Turku. There is a need to raise awareness amongst African immigrants in this city in order for the police to win back their confidence, since they are presently very sceptical of the Finnish police.