Among the many casualties of the economic crisis in Estonia are those who work in the building trades. The absence of new Estonian building construction means that these tradespeople have no work. Many of them have therefore crossed the Gulf of Finland in search of employment.
Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki’s largest daily newspaper, has launched an occasional series on the adverse consequences stemming from the influx of Estonian construction workers to Finland. It seems there are two main problems, both stemming from the existence of unscrupulous construction contractors which, it seems, are most likely to employ expat Estonian workers.
First, many of these contractors have been found to cut corners, avoid tax payments, violate building codes, and generally perform shoddy work. Second, Estonians employed by these contractors don’t always get paid. Intriguingly, some of these unscrupulous contractors are owned by Finns, while others are owned by Estonians. But in both cases their victims are the owners and tenants of improperly constructed buildings — and Estonians with empty pay packets.
This has been a big week for bad economic news from Estonia. Fast on the heels of 
Today we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the most visually arresting symbol of the collapse of totalitarianism across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
As the United States 
Beginning in 1985, the 
Estonia is making achingly-slow progress toward gender equality, and the country still has a long way to go. According to the World Economic Forum’s 
