"Somali, n-word, you've come here to steal!"
Claudia Lorca, a 26-year-old student and kindergarten teacher from Chile, said she will never forget her first encounter with racism ten years ago.
She was a teenager who had just arrived in Finland as an exchange student when an older woman insulted her on a train. That experience wouldn't be the last.
"Why don't you leave the country?!" a maintenance worker snapped at Lorca when she reported cold radiators in her apartment.
She said the comment brought her to tears.
"I was 20, at home, and alone. What can you say in that situation?"
Claudia says she's leaving Finland once she finishes her master's degree. Most of her friends have already left.
Living with a Swedish-speaking host family, she eventually started working and pursuing studies in Swedish. This is what she says about Finland:
"Thank you, Finland, for paying for my education, which wasn't cheap. If you don't want me here, other countries will gladly welcome me," Lorca told Yle.
In her work, she said she witnesses racism directed at children.
"Children with immigrant backgrounds are spoken about in a negative tone. They are seen as a source of problems, and they are not considered as good as those with Finnish background," she said.
Lorca also said she feels that teachers' training lacks a multicultural facet.
"Finland is becoming a multicultural country, but teacher training doesn't address integration or how to cater to pupils with immigrant backgrounds," she explained.
Finland poured half a million euros into Pezhman Baran's education, but he can't even get hired at Lidl.
Pezhman Baran moved to Finland from Iran in 2012 to study forest ecology at the University of Helsinki.
"I was shouted at: 'Why are you here? Go home.' A bus driver shut the door in my face. One bank told me I couldn't open an account, while another said I could," he recalled.
During the migration crisis in 2015, hostility toward foreigners in Finland became so severe that Baran said he stopped using public transport and bought a car.
But over time, the hatred seemed to subside — at least the worst of it.
"It's how you may not get the same service or treatment as others, or people won't inform you of things unless you know to ask," he said.
"Under the current government, attitudes have hardened, and this trickles down through society."
Now at 43, Baran holds a PhD and is a bioinformatician and data analyst.
Baran's wife, who works at a daycare, and their two children are Finnish citizens, but Baran himself has not passed the language test required for citizenship. He does have a permanent residence permit, though.
The problem is that Baran cannot find a job. He said he has applied for 400 positions over the past two years but has been invited to only three interviews.
Baran remains unemployed — and he hasn't been picky in his job search:
Greek sex counsellor Joanna Samona has been in Finland for a long time. She would like to stay but is seriously considering leaving.
It's the same for French business coach and entrepreneur Esteve Pannetier, who has struggled to find work matching his qualifications.
Forty-four-year-old Pannetier weighs his options: a high-paying job in California or being a bus driver in the Helsinki region — if not for the language barrier, that is.
Samona, on the other hand, speaks Finnish:
Samona, who's 41, said her latest work contract just came to an end. It was a fixed-term, wage-subsidised position at HivFinland, an organisation supporting HIV positive individuals.
"Even though I'm not HIV-positive myself, I truly felt a sense of belonging in a community that understands what it's like to be marginalised," Joanna said.
Master of Laws Georgiana Forsang works as a practical nurse and is studying to become a registered nurse.
Forsang who grew up in Cameroon, isn't the type to give in: not to racism, nor to her dream of finding a job that matches her qualifications, such as a career in the foreign service.
Still, leaving has crossed her mind. Forsang's husband, trained in chemistry, works as a bus driver, and the couple has three children, aged three, eight and nine.
"They are smart, brave children, but will they end up as caregivers too? Or should I fly them out of here before it's too late?"
Forsang speaks Finnish.
She recalls a train ride when the car was full, and she sat in the middle seat between two other passengers. She said her fellow travellers were horrified, inched farther away and turned their heads in the other direction.
"I politely said to one of them, 'Hey, you're going to strain your neck, and I can stand if it makes you feel better.'"
"Then they started laughing, said 'sorry', and took my hand. That was it. Love won."
The All Points North podcast has asked if it's getting more difficult to find a job in Finland.
Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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