Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.07.2011, Side 11

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 9 — 2011
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They Are Not Leaving
More than 20.000 immigrants are
currently living in Iceland. They
enjoy the safety and serenity in
this country, a rich cultural life and
a functioning social system. Some
of them have even experienced
less discrimination than else-
where. However, many foreigners
have difficulties integrating into
Icelandic society. Their problems
range from direct discrimination
to subtle differential treatment in
work and everyday life.
STeReoTypiNG foReiGNeRS—A
hieRARchy
Foreigners have experienced different
degrees of discrimination in Iceland de-
pending upon their origins. Scandina-
vians are treated the best; they are even
allowed to vote in municipal elections
sooner than other foreigners. Europe-
ans come next, most of them enjoying
freedoms under the EEA-Agreement.
North Americans follow, being cultur-
ally close to Icelanders. Then comes the
rest of world.
As for direct discrimination, studies
show that it is especially experienced by
Eastern European and dark-skinned
immigrants to Iceland.
There are many examples of this.
When asked, Margrét Steinarsdóttir,
legal advisor to immigrants at the Ser-
vice Centre Miðborg and Hlíðar, and
director of the Icelandic Human Rights
Centre, recounts reports about a dark-
skinned woman being denied access to
a downtown club on the grounds that
they had “troubles with dark-skinned
women” before. Barbara Kristvinsson,
advisor to immigrants at Miðborg and
Hlíðar, also recalls: “The media plays
a large role. Sometimes there were re-
ports in the newspapers about crimes
attributed to Polish or Lithuanian peo-
ple with headlines such as ‘Increase in
crime’ right next to them. Newspapers
were even more eager to get pictures of
them, seemingly to stigmatise them.
Of course, this brought the connection:
‘Eastern Europeans are all criminals’.”
A study about Poles in the Icelandic
media published in October 2010 by
the Social Science Research Institute
at the University of Iceland concluded
that “media discourse has created a
stereotype of foreigners as threaten-
ing, usually Eastern European men,
connected to organised crime, rape and
fighting.” Such racial stereotyping is a
practice that was criticised by the Euro-
pean Commission against Racism and
Intolerance in 2007. Equally worrying
is the observation that “those who un-
derstand the language more and who
use the Icelandic media, feel more
discriminated against than those who
don't. Some even say it is better not to
speak Icelandic, so that one doesn't feel
so bad.”
iceLANdic SkiLLS ANd diffeR-
eNTiAL TReATmeNT
In many cases, however, different
treatment of foreigners in contrast to
Icelanders is subtle, often related to
language skills. Barbara, an immigrant
herself, remarks: “Even though I’ve
been here for 19 years and speak Ice-
landic, I have an accent and sometimes
I still feel that people talk down to me
because of that”. A foreign student
commented that Icelandic students
complained about her “bad Icelandic
placing obstacles” in their way during
a written group assignment, although
she had her (Icelandic) husband look
over her part: “It’s becoming a little
better now, but they made me feel as
if I had to prove that I deserved to be
here.” In another account, an English-
speaking woman called a health centre
in Reykjavík, but was repeatedly hung
up on. When she demanded a personal
explanation, the receptionist said that
people had to speak Icelandic in order to
see a doctor. And, Arnþrúður Karlsdót-
tir, the director of radio station Útvarp
Saga, indignantly refused to talk to an
English-speaking woman on her talk
show (see Grapevine.is, 18.11.2010).
JobS—kNowiNG The RiGhT
peopLe
Speaking the language is, of course,
not only important for integration in
private, but also professional life. Nev-
ertheless, it is not the golden gateway
into Icelandic society and the job mar-
ket. Xavier Rodriguez, a lawyer and
journalist from Barcelona, complained
in 2008 to Fréttablaðið about his dif-
ficulties. Having passed a LL.M. at the
University of Iceland, speaking good
Icelandic and having four other Master
Degrees, he did not find a stable posi-
tion as a lawyer. Now, he works as a
freelancer for Icelandic and Spanish cli-
ents, as a journalist for the Catalonian
national Radio and TV, owns a travel
agency and teaches media in a high
school. “You have to reinvent yourself,
if you want to be working here as a for-
eigner”, he says.
Data from Iceland Statistics and
the Directorate of Labour in Reykjavík
show that more than eight percent of
foreigners are unemployed, compared
to around 4.5% of Icelanders. In 2009,
31% of unemployed foreigners had
worked in the construction industry.
While this is admittedly a high num-
ber, it also means that around 70% of
the unemployed foreigners did not lose
their jobs due to the collapse of the con-
struction industry. Another interesting
issue would be to examine how many
educated foreigners are working in low-
skilled jobs.
The problem does not simply reside
in the deliberate discrimination of for-
eigners. It is deeply rooted in Iceland’s
homogenous society, in which giving
jobs to relatives or friends has always
played a large role. But, as Barbara
says: “It is hard to pin down. There are
also a lot of Icelanders who are unem-
ployed. Imagine you have a vacancy and
you have 200 applicants, of which you
know 50. In the end it comes down to
a personal fit”. Even further than this
goes an anonymous Icelandic source
telling me the story of being told in
the Unemployment Office in Reykjavík
that the Icelandic people are in a bet-
ter position when looking for a job than
foreigners: Icelandic companies rather
hire Icelandic people, it was said in an
introductory meeting for the Icelandic
unemployed. Call it nepotism, call it
a-small-society-in-which-everyone-
knows-everyone. In any case, it ref lects
the difficulties that foreigners can have
finding work in Iceland without having
a network of relatives and friends with
whom they could connect also on a pro-
fessional level.
foReiGN woRkeRS—“The diS-
poSAbLe cLASS”
Moreover, many non-EEA-citizens feel
unwelcome after they have lost a job, as
they do not have access to social secu-
rity through unemployment benefits.
Explains Margrét: “If you don’t have a
permanent residence permit, you are
not entitled to unemployment benefits,
no matter how long you have been liv-
ing here. This is different for EEA-
citizens, since the EEA-Agreement
grants certain rights in Iceland, just as
Icelandic citizens enjoy such rights in
EEA-countries. But, of course, I think
that people should get unemployment
benefits simply on the grounds that
they have been working and paying
taxes here.”
The connection between eligibil-
ity for unemployment benefits and
permanent residency represents a big
impediment for immigrants, because
many of them stay using changing,
temporary residence permits for years.
Like Jonas Moody. After losing his job,
he learned that he was not eligible for
unemployment benefits, despite hav-
ing paid taxes in Iceland for six years.
In a striking piece that appeared on
Icelandreview.com entitled ‘Iceland’s
Disposable Class’, he wrote: “My ad-
opted nation has truly let me down...
Despite marriage and home ownership
and being able to decline very difficult
words like ‘kýr’ and ‘ær’, if I don’t have
an income, then according to the Im-
migration Office I am no longer wel-
come in Iceland[...] Because it is best
for the economy if all the superf luous
people left the country, my life here is
being revoked. Cancelled. [...] It angers
me to hear politicians and economists
talk about ‘the imported workforce’ as if
we’re something that arrived on a cargo
ship packaged in a box. As if, when the
nation is done with us, they can crum-
ple us up and toss back into the ocean
whence we came”. Jonas has since re-
turned to the U.S.—now, his Icelandic
husband is an immigrant there.
It is interesting to note that when a
request for residency is declined, there
is no independent judicial body for re-
view. The Minister of Justice, who is the
Appellate Body for decisions of the Di-
rectorate of Immigration, also appoints
its Director. In turn, the decisions of
the Ministry are only subject to a lim-
ited court review on procedure rather
than substance. This has been subject
to criticism in several Human Rights
reports, as for example in the 2009
Icelandic Human Rights Centre report
‘Discrimination in Iceland’.
iS iceLANd ReALLy beTTeR off
wiThouT foReiGNeRS?
Times are tough. Everywhere. Being
an immigrant is tough. Mostly every-
where. But the main question is: Is Ice-
land better off sending Jonas, with his
Icelandic partner, away? Is it really best
for companies to hire someone they
know? Eva Joly recently urged Iceland
in Silfur Egils to “use” foreign special-
ists to help make the country better
after the crisis. In times of internet
and globalisation, in which bananas
“travel” freely around the world, is
there any use in trying to keep foreign-
ers outside? Making them immigrants
somewhere else?
Countries have already tried that.
Concentrating on attempts to close off,
they have neglected the integration of
foreigners into their societies and, now,
have to face the consequences. Iceland,
being decades behind in its experience
as an immigration country, should
learn from these mistakes. Integration
has to start now and not after decades
when people realise that the foreign-
ers are still here. Migration has always
been an integral part of human life on
earth and Iceland should take it as an
opportunity to integrate foreigners,
learn from them and become a better
society, equipped to face the challenges
of the modern world, in which multi-
cultural and broad thinking is essen-
tial.
iceland | Immigrants
Service Centre Miðborg og Hlíðar, Skúlagata 2, 101 Reykjavík,
telephone: 411-1600. You can also contact Barbara at barbara.jean.
kristvinsson@reykjavik.is and Margrét at margret@humanrights.is.
words
Irina Domurath
Foreign workers in Iceland