Tag Archives: helsinki

Estonian economy: good if you’re a fisherman

Posted on 9 December 09 | Leave a comment

Growth industry

In my post on Estonia’s third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) report last month, I took the glass-half-full approach and ventured that the numbers suggested the Estonian economy had turned the corner. The revised figures, just released by Statistics Estonia, show that the corner was not as sharp as we thought.

The original numbers had the Estonian economy contracting by 15.3% in the quarter ended September 30th; the revision shows that actual GDP contraction was 15.6%. This still represents an improvement over the second quarter, during which economic output fell 16.1%, but one that is less pronounced than the preliminary numbers suggested.

The official GDP revision also included some eye-popping numbers on the performance of individual components of the Estonian economy. The only industry that grew meaningfully in the third quarter was fishing.

The biggest loser was construction, where economic activity fell by a whopping 32%. No wonder so many Estonian construction workers have gone to Helsinki looking for work.

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Unemployed Estonian construction workers find Helsinki is no haven

Posted on 27 November 09 | Leave a comment

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.

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The Estonian criminal menace

Posted on 6 October 09 | Leave a comment
Estonian bad boys

Estonian bad boys

An article in today’s Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki’s largest-circulation daily newspaper, raises the spectre of bad-boy Estonians launching a massive crime spree in Helsinki. The accompanying image, reproduced here, offers chilling photographic “proof”. Close your windows and bolt your doors, Helsinki-ites; the Estonians are coming!

According to the article, unemployed young Estonians are being recruited to venture north to the Helsinki region to steal clothing from Finnish department stores, or drive burglary getaway cars, or carry stolen property. But the report offers scant evidence to support the theory that Estonian criminality in Finland is a growing menace.

The article asserts that “the number of crimes committed in Finland by Estonian citizens has … grown,” but the only solid statistical data offered in support is that four Estonians were convicted last year of burglaries in the Helsinki region. And a Helsinki Police Department spokesperson quoted in the story seems to refute the article’s premise: “Crimes that Estonian citizens typically commit in Finland are crimes of larceny, and traffic violations,” says Juha Laaksonen. Traffic violations? Well now, perhaps those boys in the photo are not quite so fearsome as we thought.

Now let’s be clear: Finland and Estonia are both enduring severe recessions. And history teaches us that two likely consequences of economic downturns are (1) higher crime rates, and (2) the tendency to fear and blame “foreigners” for a country’s problems. The first outcome may be unavoidable, but the second is not, and Helsingin Sanomat does its readers no favor by feeding these fears.

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