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Nadja thought she had finally found a place to call home, for her and her four children. A three-room apartment in a row house. A nice terrace and yard, nature close by. All went well with the neighbours as well until one day they saw Nadja's father visiting her. They figured out from the way he was clothed that he, and therefore she and her family as well, must be Romani. Neighbours stopped talking to them and have done pretty much everything to force them to move out. Her landlord invaded her apartment and tried to force her sign papers stating that she is gonna move out. She filed a lawsuit instead. Clarissa in the apartment where she was supposed to live with her family, but which turned out to have water damage and very bad indoor air, which prevented the family to move in and resulted in them becoming homeless. The city that was responsible of the apartment refused to fix it because in their opinion there was no problem. Mika portrayed in a tiny studio flat, arranged him by social workers, where he is allowed to stay a couple of months while searching for an apartment. He says everything goes wrong in the moment when people see he is Romani, no matter all would have been fine in a phone a moment earlier. Mika says the studio where he now stays was dirty when he moved in and he was not allowed to bring own furnitures. He brought anyway his sofa table in order to have at least something beautiful. Mika is scared of heights and therefore feels uncomfortable looking out of the windows of the apartment.


Discrimination that Finnish Romanis face when trying to rent apartments, 2020 / for Iso Numero magazine
© Saara Mansikkamäki 2025