Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2015, Blaðsíða 10

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2015
Politics | Bright?Advice | Not f om you, buddy
THE GOOD
The draft provides for the increased
safety of stateless persons and chil-
dren, and easier reunion of families.
The technical term “asylum-seeker”
has been eschewed for one that’s not
derogatory, namely “applicant for in-
ternational protection,” the European
legal term for an asylum applicant.
While the exorbitant waiting times
asylum applicants are subject to have
recently gotten shorter, the new law
guarantees a time-limited process by
offering applicants a residence per-
mit if their case remains on the admin-
istrative level after eighteen months.
Last but not least, the law decrees the
establishment of a reception centre
for refugees, which will, among other
things, assess their needs and health
condition upon arrival—a significant
improvement.
THE BAD
Refugees should not be punished for
faking their IDs, and this is finally be-
ing put into law—but only in instances
of “uninterrupted travel” from the “ap-
plicant for international protection’s”
country of origin. Of course, it stands
to reason that refugees rarely, if ever,
arrive to Iceland without stopping in
another European country first. This
also allows Iceland to deport many of
them back there, in accord with the
Dublin regulation, which will remain a
cornerstone of Iceland’s asylum pro-
cess.
THE UGLY
When refugees have had their needs
and health evaluated at the reception
centre, the police will get unrestricted
access to any reports filed, in order to
assess their potential criminality, the
draft’s 26th article dictates. Further-
more, the article contains no stipula-
tion that the refugees will be informed
of this. This abhorrent clause is to my
knowledge the first instance of the
state declaring open season on the
private documents and medical re-
cords of a group of people.
All in all, the draft is a mixed bag.
Sadly, a great opportunity to reflect
Iceland’s liberal values in its legisla-
tion has been missed, the law re-
taining a strong current of suspicion
against foreigners. This is ultimately
an indicator of a strong conservative
influence on the law, apparently ema-
nating from somewhere other than
the public’s will.
The reworking of the law is done
under the auspices of a parliamen-
tary committee established for the
task. Lead by Bright Future MP Ót-
tarr Proppé, the committee further
consists of MPs from every party at
Alþingi: Birgitta Jónsdóttir (Pirate
Party), Líneik Anna Sævarsdóttir
(Progressive Party), Svandís Svavars-
dóttir (Left Greens), Unnur Brá Kon-
ráðsdóttir (Independence Party), and
Össur Skarphéðinsson (Social Dems).
Concurrent with these events, unfor-
tunately, has been the appearance of a
small, but loud, handful of detractors
making noise on social media and in
the comments section of every story
about the effort. Just look at Grape-
vine’s Facebook, or consider the fact
that the folks behind “Kæra Eygló”
were forced to spend hours upon hours
deleting racist troll comments off their
own Facebook page. Notable is the
fact that all of these comments share
a number of glaring misconceptions
about Iceland, and feel the need to
“warn” us not to accept refugees, lest
the whole country collapse.
Fortunately, these individuals are
easily overwhelmed by the sheer num-
bers of people who support Iceland’s
initiative. But, the opinions these anti-
refugee people express do reflect an
attitude you can see across Europe
about refugees, and they need to be ad-
dressed.
The anti-refugee contingent’s most
common misconception about Iceland
is that we are a homogeneous society.
This is reflected in the warnings not
to accept refugees and to put serious
controls on immigration, especially if
anyone hoping to move here happens
to be Muslim. The consequences of
ignoring these warnings, they tell us,
is more violent crime, Sharia law, and
eventual total societal collapse.
Well, bad news, guys: Iceland isn’t a
homogeneous country. Close to 10% of
the Icelandic nation are foreign-born.
We have hundreds of Muslims living
here, and have had for decades. We’ve
also been accepting asylum seekers
and refugees from all over the world
since the 1950s. In other words, if you
were hoping to shout your warnings at
some Aryan paradise in the hopes of
preventing it from being sullied by fel-
low human beings you deem unworthy
of compassion, then you’re not talking
about Iceland but some white power
fantasyland that only exists in your fe-
vered, paranoid imagination.
The fact is, Icelanders from large
towns to tiny villages all have experi-
ence with refugees. When they’re relo-
cated to Iceland, you know what hap-
pens? They send their kids to school,
they go to work, they learn the lan-
guage, they pay their taxes, they make
friends, form new families, have more
kids—they become a part of our soci-
ety. Your dystopia is a lie.
This is why your cries of outrage
fall on deaf ears. Iceland does not need
your patrician fearmongering howls
about how many refugees we choose
to accept, if any. We don’t need your
monocultural scare tactics, your pleas
to not let any refugees in and bar Mus-
lims from entry. Because we already
have refugees. We already have Mus-
lims. And we like them.
Those of us living in Europe and
North America cannot simply rain
death and destruction on countries
such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan,
and then tell the people living there
who survived—people just like you
and me, in other circumstances—that
they are unwelcome to have a better
life in the land that destroyed theirs.
Opening the borders to them is liter-
ally the least we can do, because bor-
ders themselves are an act of violence.
They divide, they deprive, they let oth-
ers drown and rot in detention centres
while those inside profit from the de-
struction wrought elsewhere in the
world.
Europeans are beginning to wake
up to this, but there are always fascists,
racists and theocrats who are pushing
back against progress. It’s going to be
a long and bitter struggle to put an end
to global apartheid. Here in Iceland,
we’re doing the best we can do. We
have our own struggles, but they aren’t
against our refugees. Our struggles
are against deeply entrenched, institu-
tionalised racism; corporate elites who
hold the bottom line supreme above
compassion; and culture warriors who
offer hate in patriotic trimmings.
On the other hand, as we’ve shown,
the vast majority of the country wants
more refugees. They have organised
to pressure those in charge to make
this happen, and it’s having an effect.
We do this not because we are starry-
eyed, utopian Pollyannas who need
your condescending bullshit warnings
about what will happen to Iceland if
we accept more refugees. We do this
because we’ve done it before, we be-
came better people because of it, and
we are going to do it again.
Deal with it.
Iceland’s been making international headlines lately,
thanks to a local grassroots movement—“Kæra Eygló
Harðar—Sýrland Kallar” (“Dear [Welfare Minister] Ey-
gló Harðar—Syria is calling”)—meant to pressure the
government into admitting a greater number of refugees
than its originally proposed 50 (read more about it in
our feature, page 16). The story, much like the campaign,
spread like wildfire all over the world. Beyond raising
global awareness, the movement has already had mea-
surable effects on our elected officials, with overwhelm-
ing public support. The jury’s still out on how many refu-
gees Iceland will invariably accept, but the impact that
this solidarity effort has already had is pretty impres-
sive, and will hopefully lead to some positive changes.
Words by Paul Fontaine
Anti-Refugee
Folks: No Thanks,
We Don’t Need
Your “Warnings”