Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2011, Page 69

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (2) 2011 69
hanna ragnarsdóttir
Lives and work of young immigrants
Experiences from ten years´ of residence in Iceland
abstraCt
Immigration in Iceland has increased considerably in the past few decades and
immigrants now live in most areas, rural as well as urban (Hagstofa Íslands, 2011).
Immigrant children and youth consequently attend most preschools and compulsory
schools in Iceland, creating new challenges for school communities which previous-
ly were more homogeneous in terms of students´ ethnicity and languages (Hanna
Ragnarsdóttir, 2008).
The paper discusses the main findings of a qualitative study conducted in January
and February 2011 among immigrant youth in Iceland. The purpose of the research
was to analyse their experiences of life and work in Icelandic society during the past
ten years, with particular emphasis on their school experiences and how they thought
schools in Iceland could better support immigrant children. The main research ques-
tions focused on how the youths had experienced their schooling in Iceland and how
schools could better respond to the needs of immigrant children.
Theoretical perspectives include writings on adjustment to new societies, cultural
and hybrid identities (Bhatti, 1999; Hall, 1995; Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001).
The paper also draws on writings on transnational competences (Vertovec, 2009) and
cosmopolitanism (Hansen, 2010) as important qualities in modern multicultural socie-
ties. Writings and research on the acquisition of target and second languages (Cummins,
2005; Elín Þöll Þórðardóttir, 2007; Hakuta, Butler & Witt, 2000; Samuel Lefever & Inga
Karlsdóttir, 2010) are discussed as well as issues concerning multicultural education
and culturally relevant pedagogies (Banks, 2007; Gay, 2000; Nieto, 2010). The theoretical
chapter also draws on former Icelandic research among immigrant youth (Almar M.
Halldórsson, Ragnar F. Ólafsson & Júlíus K. Björnsson, 2007; Almar M. Halldórsson,
Ragnar F. Ólafsson, Óskar H. Níelsson & Júlíus K. Björnsson, 2010; Hildur Blöndal,
2010; Nína Magnúsdóttir, 2010; Schubert, 2010; Sólveig H. Georgsdóttir & Hallfríður
Þórarinsdóttir, 2008; Svanhildur Daníelsdóttir, 2009; Þóroddur Bjarnason, 2006).
Methods in the study included individual in-depth and semi-structured interviews
with the nine participants, who were six young women and three young men at the
age of 15 to 24. Purposive sampling was used to track the individuals, who all partici-
pated in the author´s previous study, among ten immigrant families in Iceland (2002–
2005). Two of the participants are originally European; from two European countries
and seven of them are originally Asian; from three Asian countries. They belong to
five families. Questions in the interviews centred on their daily lives, their education
and work, their social networks and friends, their connections with Icelandic society
and their countries of origin, as well as their future plans. An effort was made to
learn about their personal histories and experiences since the author´s earlier research,
which included their families, was concluded.