Sarah Ameyaw moved to Helsinki from Ghana about three years ago. She and her husband have three children, with two-year-old Joel the youngest. As a student, she says day-to-day life in Finland is generally good, but that it is difficult to get to know Finns.
"No, no it is not easy to meet Finnish people," she says with a wry smile.
Minna Säävälä, a senior researcher at the Family Federation of Finland, notes that foreign families and their neighbours often keep their distance because of mutual prejudices and assumptions -- which are often not based on fact.
She says that many Finns assume that foreign women are forced to remain home and that they have a lot of children.
Finns also tend to lump immigrants together without realising the vast variety of lifestyles and backgrounds they represent.
As a result of such preconceived ideas, newcomers frequently feel rejected and turn inward toward their own ethnic group -- which further exacerbates stereotyping from the mainstream population and sets off a vicious cycle, says Säävälä.
More information would help
The Family Federation believes that more information would help to dissolve these stereotypes. For instance, it notes that on average immigrant families have nearly the same number of children as others, statistically three-tenths of a child more.
Meanwhile one in 10 families have at least one foreign-born parent -- with immigrant spouses just about as likely to be women or men, according to figures released by Statistics Finland in late August.
Säävälä stresses that that despite superficial differences in customs or appearance, most families' dreams and goals are fundamentally similar. Asked about her hopes for Joel, Ameyaw replies: "I want him to grow up, go to school, and then I will not force him to do something, but whatever is good for him. He should be a great person in the future."
