Don’t worry, YLE will do all the thinking for you, and if you dare buck their assessment, they’ll call you a xenophobe till you get your mind right.

Unsurprising leap in immigrant intolerance

The tabloid Iltalehti polled its readers about Finland’s immigration policies in the wake of the attack, and the response revealed a jump in critical attitudes. Every second Finn now says that they are more worried for their safety.

The survey, carried out by pollster Taloustutkimus, suggests that a majority of Finland’s residents, 58 percent, now want the government to come up with tougher refugee and immigration policies. In a similar poll from Yle last April, this percentage was just 40, notes the tabloid.

Eight out of ten respondents say they would be willing to get behind separating rejected asylum seekers from the rest of society and removing them more quickly from the country. The same amount would be ready to pass the expanded intelligence laws and increase the number of police.

A majority of respondents are also against raising the number of so-called ‘quota refugees’ admitted by Finland, a move that most of the political parties in Finland have supported in the past.

Just one third of respondents indicated support for so-called ‘soft’ methods of dealing with immigrants, such as integration efforts and development aid, down from 50 percent in the spring.

The author of the tabloid piece crystallizes the results by saying that “the Finns have clearly had enough of terrorism and insecurity”.

YLE