African immigrants often bullied at work, but feel satisfied with life in Finland
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Immigrants from Africa suffer bullying at Finnish workplaces more often than other groups.
A survey by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health finds that Africans are generally very satisfied with their work and their lives in Finland.
The survey comprised interviews with 200 workers with an immigrant background, as well as 600 of their Finnish colleagues. Most of those interviewed work in the transport, social affairs, health, or teaching professions.
Three out of four of those from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa said that they were satisfied with their work, and four out of five were satisfied with their lives in Finland. Job satisfaction was even greater among Estonians, while Finns and Russians were the least satisfied.
Those Russians and Estonians who were pleased with their jobs, were slightly less satisfied with their lives in Finland than the Africans and native-born Finns were.
One in four immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa said that they had endured workplace bullying. Only one in ten native Finns had the experience.
Immigrants from North Africa, the Middle-East, and the former Yugoslavia were even more likely to experience bullying.
Estonians were least likely to be bullied. They reported harassment even less than their Finnish colleagues did. None of those from Sub-Saharan Africa or the Horn of Africa felt that they had been targets of negative behaviour on a daily basis.
One in ten Africans who report abusive behaviour say that the harassment occurs a few times a month, and one in four say that it happens less frequently. The perpetrator is often a Finnish colleague, an immediate superior, and in some cases, another immigrant.
Immigrants face abusive behaviour from customers, patients, or pupils less frequently than Finnish employees in the same profession.
Of those surveyed, 38 per cent of native Finns and 27 per cent of immigrants had faced abusive behaviour from customers at their workplace.
Immigrants were more likely to find their jobs monotonous and restrictive than their Finnish colleagues.
Foreign workers felt less pressed for time than Finns were.
Nearly one in four immigrants from Russia felt that their work was often excessively taxing.
In contrast to previous studies, immigrant workers were found to suffer fewer accidents at work than those of the native population. Those who were repeatedly involved in occupational accidents tended to be Finns.
Most of those in the study worked at jobs involving either irregular working hours or shift work. Working hour arrangements were the biggest source of stress for both Finnish and immigrant workers.
Helsingin Sanomat
