Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2015, Síða 8

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Recently, over a thou-
sand Icelanders took to
Facebook to pledge their
help to those fleeing
Syria, with participants
vowing to provide food, money, clothes
and anything else to help Syrian refu-
gees in need. But even the most cynical
person would not be surprised by those
kinds of offers. What was surprising,
even to optimists, was that a large num-
ber promised to take refugees into their
homes.
Like AirBnB for people whose
country is in ruins.
If anybody needs a long vacation, it is the
people of Syria. The campaign started in
late August, when Bryndís Björgvins-
dóttir, an award-winning young adult
novelist, created a Facebook event de-
manding that Icelanders grant asylum
to a greater number of refugees from
Syria, upon learning the government’s
plans to accept only fifty, over a period
of two years.
Wow! A whole fifty? You'd almost
need two buses to get them from
the airport.
In the post that kicked off the campaign,
Bryndís offered to personally sponsor
airfare for five additional refugees, and
said that she knew someone who would
be happy to house them—her idea being
that individual efforts might help Ice-
landers increase the number of refugees
accepted. All she asked from the govern-
ment were the necessary residency and
work visas. That is when offers starting
pouring in from other Icelanders and,
eventually, abroad. The cynical among
you might think that internet promises
are cheap, but there are already signs
that people are following through. For
instance, more than a thousand people
registered as volunteers for the Icelan-
dic branch of the Red Cross as a result of
the campaign.
For a thousand people you need a
pretty long bus.
This is not unique to Iceland. All over
Europe, people have been offering mon-
ey, food, housing and other assistance.
And not just regular citizens, but also
artists, businesspeople and even the
Pope, who asked every Catholic par-
ish and monastery in Europe to take in
at least one family of refugees. Many
politicians have responded positively to
this widespread feeling of goodwill—for
instance the Prime Minister of Finland,
who offered up his second home for
refugees.
That does sound a little bit like
the premise of a television situa-
tion comedy.
No such situation, comedic or other-
wise, will involve the Icelandic Prime
Minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugs-
son. He seemed more worried about
the motivations of people offering help,
than about offering any help himself. He
said: “Our reaction can never be aimed
at fulfilling our possible needs to see the
results of our work or be thanked for
it.” By that logic, the one person worse
than someone who does nothing to save
a drowning child, is someone who feels
good about trying saving a drowning
child.
Only people who feel slightly
disgusted with themselves af-
terwards should save drowning
children.
Iceland has a patchy history when it
comes to refugees. The lowest point was
when the government expelled Jews
seeking to escape Nazi Germany. But
through the years, various groups of
refugees have been granted asylum in
Iceland, many of them settling down.
For example Hungarians in the 1950s,
Vietnamese in the 1970s, and Colombi-
ans in the last decade. But it has never
been a great amount of people. Numbers
are only available from 1956, and since
then only 549 refugees have been re-
settled in Iceland. That does not include
those Icelanders who have had to flee
their homes because of avalanches and
volcanic eruptions.
You have to pretty desperate to
want to live on a freezing cold,
storm-beaten, volcano-riddled
rock in the North Atlantic.
It is not an easy thing, starting a new
life in Iceland. Several municipalities
around the country, including Reykja-
vík, have said that they are ready to ac-
cept refugees. Around the turn of the
century, there was a conscious policy
to settle refugees in small towns in the
countryside. Which makes sense, as it is
easier to get to know people when there
are fewer people around.
Also, that's a much better premise
for a situation comedy.
In the last ten years refugees have been
housed in Reykjavík and nearby towns,
which also makes sense since many
services are easier to obtain in the city.
Reykjavík could also accept much larger
numbers than any other place in Ice-
land. Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson has
said that the city could easily take in
“hundreds” of refugees.
Hundreds, eh? Not to get too
bleak, but three million Syrians
have fled the country in the last
few years.
The people who will be resettled here
will be only a tiny fraction of the total
number of refugees. But when you see
a river full of drowning people, you do
not start to worry about how to save
them all. You just start bringing as many
as you can onto dry land. And how you
feel about it is your business and no one
should judge you, especially if they are
standing by doing nothing.
8 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2015
So What's This I Keep Hearing
About Icelanders Welcoming
Refugees Into Their Homes?
Iceland | Is welcoming
Continues Over...
Open
Season:
Iceland’s new law
on foreign people
is a mixed bag
Also, a squandered
opportunity
By Benjamin Julian
The Icelandic legislation on aliens
(96/2002) has been subject to des-
perate and haphazard review for
years. Passed with little consider-
ation for immigration and intake of
refugees, the current, sorely out-
dated law went on to define an ineffi-
cient institutional structure that is ut-
terly incompatible with today’s freer
movement of people.
Patched repeatedly through the
decades, the law was last signifi-
cantly altered in 2010. Iceland’s last,
left-wing government attempted to
completely overhaul the legislation
during its reign, but failed to pass the
new legislation in time for elections.
Icelanders thus now find themselves
presented with a comprehensive re-
view of the law—based in part on the
previous government's proposals—
which was just completed by hardy
workers at the Ministry of the Interior.
The proposed new law has been
met with anxious anticipation and
scrutiny since it was introduced on
August 24. I, along with a number of
associates, spent many days over
the last few weeks poring over the
draft, with the aim of turning in com-
ments to the Ministry of the Interior
before the September 7 deadline (we
made it!). After thoroughly reviewing
the new law, I can attest that it will
smoothen the edges off some abu-
sive and problematic aspects intrin-
sic to the one it is meant to replace.
However, most of the major faults
remain—and some new ones are in-
troduced.
I C E L A N D 4 D U M M I E S
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir