Finland teaches migrants how to behave

Migrants arriving in Finland are given lessons on Finnish values and how to behave towards women.

There is a rise in the number of sexual assaults in the country and the government wants to make sure that people from very conservative cultures know what to expect in their new home.

Johanna is one of those energetic, animated teachers.

She uses both her hands to stress her meaning and she always softens any difficult points with a smile.

“So in Finland,” she says softly, “you can’t buy a wife. A woman will only be your wife if she wants to be – because here women are men’s equals.”

Some of the young Iraqi men, who already speak good English and passable Finnish, nod sagely.

Others, particularly the older men, stare at one another with raised eyebrows as Johanna’s words are translated into Arabic for them.

One man, hunkered down inside his black ski jacket seems to be taking notes while there’s a faint smile on the lips of the only head-scarfed young woman in the room.

“ You can go out with a woman here. Although remember, even if she dances with you very closely and is wearing a short skirt, that doesn’t mean she wants to have sex with you.”

A Somali teenager cradles his head in his hands as if his brain can’t cope with all this new information.

“This is a very liberal country,” he says incredulously. “We have a lot to learn. In my country if you make sexy with a woman you are killed!” He turns to his neighbour, a Malian man of a similar age to gauge his reaction.

Johanna turns her attention to homosexuality and the Iraqi men on the back row – it’s always the back row – begin to giggle and snigger.

The men may groan when she tells them that Finnish men share the housework, but they no longer baulk when they see their taxi driver is a woman.

Since the autumn, when Johanna first started giving these classes, female asylum seekers frequently approach her to complain that their husbands are not treating them in the Finnish way.

The lesson at Raasepoori reception centre is drawing to a close and the asylum seekers have been given optional homework to help them read up on Finland’s sexual equality laws.

As we leave the class, an Iraqi man in a colourful bomber jacket says.

“It’s great in Finland,” he says “But when I marry, my wife will be a housekeeper who will cook the food I like – and she certainly won’t go to discos.”