Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.09.2015, Blaðsíða 14

14 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2015
Politics | Bright?Iceland | Becoming
Biljana Boloban
Nationality: Serbian
Age: 21
Year of arrival: 2001
Biljana arrived in Iceland with her moth-
er, father, and younger sister, who was
five at the time. The family were refu-
gees even in her earliest memories, she
says. Thus, coming to Iceland—where
they didn’t have to fear for their safety—
felt wonderful. She describes in particu-
lar the persistent memory of her first
Icelandic shower—how amazed she was
at the abundance of hot water, and that it
didn’t come from a bucket.
Biljana was immediately enrolled
into the third grade, which marked the
very beginning of her formal school-
ing. After briefly struggling with the
language, she came to her own in upper
secondary school, when she moved from
Keflavík to the capital area.
She tells us of untold hours acting
as the family’s interpreter, mediating at
doctor’s appointments and translating
every letter that the fledgling household
received. She and her family have since
made several trips back to Serbia, but
happily call Iceland their home. Living in
Kópavogur with her boyfriend, Biljana is
currently studying to be a social worker
and moonlighting at a short-term place-
ment house for special needs children.
On adjusting to life in Iceland
“As a child, whenever I heard sounds that
reminded me of explosions I’d run into
hiding. Even the sound of a car engine
starting would set me off. Needless to
say, New Year's Eve was a horrible time
for me, with all the fireworks going off.”
On her self-esteem
“I had a very broken self-image, and a
difficult childhood. The other kids had
lived very ordinary lives, and nobody
understood who I was or what I was go-
ing through, so I felt like I was worth less
than everyone else. However, my confi-
dence grew the more I understood the
language and what was going on around
me.”
On being separated from her family
“I remember that when I left Serbia, I
was smaller than my grandmother. And
when I came back, I had grown quite a
bit taller than her, which came as a shock
to me, because I’d always envisioned her
larger. My grandfather later died while
we were in Iceland, and we couldn’t af-
ford to attend the funeral, which I found
very difficult. There are so few left of
our family, and not having a chance to
say goodbye felt rough. Life in another
country meant that I always missed
someone.”
Halldór Nguye
Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 61
Year of arrival: 1979
Halldór Nguye was 25 when he became
one of the first resettlement refugees to
arrive in Iceland independently, catch-
ing a flight to the country after spending
four months in a refugee camp. His first
impressions of the country came during
the drive to Reykjavík, which to him ap-
peared like the moon’s surface. He ini-
tially shared a living space with two oth-
er Vietnamese refugees in a three-storey
house on Reykjavík’s west side. He says
that he wasn’t provided with contacts or
resources where he could seek help or
information, but did receive a six-month
crash course in Icelandic and a job gut-
ting fish.
After studying to become a mechanic,
he worked as one for the city for fifteen
years before switching fields to work as
a translator for the Vietnamese commu-
nity, even creating a digital Icelandic-
Vietnamese dictionary.
Halldór has visited Vietnam on nu-
merous occasions since relocating to Ice-
land, and maintains a relationship with
his family there through the internet.
However, he says Iceland is where he be-
longs.
On racism
“It existed everywhere in the world, but
I didn’t take it personally. Most people
were kind and good to me, and I haven’t
ever regretted coming here.”
On the Vietnamese community
“When I moved here, there were forty of
us living here, and we formed a commu-
nity of sorts, although some eventually
moved to Canada. Now, roughly half of
us are left, and we don’t have that much
contact with each other. We do run into
one another every now and again, of
course.”
On his life now
“I wed an Icelandic woman and had
three children with her before we even-
tually divorced. I then married a Viet-
namese woman, with whom I have one
daughter. We now have four grandchil-
dren. I feel very wealthy.”
Final words
“I just want to thank Iceland for allowing
me to come to the country.”
Irek A. Klonowski
Nationality: Polish
Age: 70
Year of arrival: 1982
Irek was headed for a skiing holiday
in Switzerland with his wife Ewa and
their daughter, when martial law was
declared in Poland following a surge of
massive protests. Rather than returning
to the potentially hazardous situation
at home, they sought refuge in Austria.
Well educated, Irek and his family were
deemed highly eligible for refuge—he
says an informal enquiry into what Ice-
land had to offer quickly turned into an
unconditional offer of admittance. Two
days later, they were on a plane to Ice-
land.
The family was initially put up in a
hotel, as they secured an apartment to
let in Reykjavík. Until his retirement,
Irek worked as a food processing scien-
tist, while his wife was employed at the
national hospital, before moving on to
work on individual and mass grave exhu-
mation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (for
which she was nominated for a Nobel
Peace Prize in 2005, as part of the 1,000
Women joint application).
Irek and his family have since visited
Poland many times, and he’s stayed in
touch with his brother, who found ref-
uge in Australia. He says that of 26 Pol-
ish refugees that immigrated to Iceland
in the early ‘80s, his family are the only
ones to have remained in the country.
When they arrived, Irek says, they en-
joyed widespread sympathy from locals
who were up to speed on what Poland
was going through—in the 21st century,
however, the Polish have a different rep-
utation.
He thinks there’s nothing really ex-
citing about his story, maintaining that
he and his wife are just ordinary retir-
ees, who enjoy life and meeting their two
grandchildren.
On his first impression of Iceland
“It was completely different from what I
expected. We came from Austria, where
it had been 30°C and sunny—and when
we got here, it was 7°C. Everything was
green and in bloom in Austria, but not
even the Icelandic moss was green when
we came.”
On the Red Cross
“We only had the clothes on our back
when we arrived, so we had to start over
completely. We received some things
and furniture from the Red Cross. They
planned and executed everything re-
ally well, and they assisted us for sev-
eral months, arranging for our Icelandic
courses and such. We were well taken
care of.”
On refugees
“I would ask Icelanders to be kind to
refugees. It’s incredibly difficult to come
to Europe, so please welcome them—so-
ciety will in the end benefit from it.”
Jovana Pavlović
Nationality: Serbian
Age: 22
Year of arrival: 1999
Jovana was six years of age when she
came to Iceland with her family, set-
tling in Ísafjörður. She says she had a
hard time assimilating—although her
family was indeed fleeing the Yugoslav
wars, they didn’t arrive in Iceland as
formal refugees, and were therefore not
afforded the same services and support
networks others enjoyed.
She was bullied by her schoolmates in
Ísafjörður, making her feel like a second-
class citizen for having a darker com-
plexion and coming from a different cul-
ture. However, she later connected with
the refugees that came to Iceland, finally
feeling a sense of belonging.
Jovana and her family eventually
moved to Borgarnes, but she now resides
in Hafnarfjörður, and studies political
science at the University of Iceland. She
says that while the prejudices she experi-
enced as a child have become less promi-
nent alongside Iceland becoming a more
multicultural society, she still feels that
prejudice is a very real problem in Ice-
land.
On moving to Iceland
“There was this feeling of insecurity
when we were fleeing, this ever-present
fear that you never forget. It doesn’t take
a lot for me to tear up when I think about
it, even though it was many years ago.
We came to Iceland seeking security,
and that’s it. At first I couldn’t under-
stand why we came here, and it wasn’t
until I was fifteen years old that I actu-
ally understood that we had escaped a
war zone.”
On assimilation
“When people talk about accepting
groups of foreigners into their society,
it’s not just about the foreigners accept-
ing the society, but the society accepting
them back. When we got here people
didn’t accept us—rather, they pushed us
away. I think that’s a problem in Scandi-
navia—people aren’t welcoming to out-
siders.”
On refugees
“I feel the discussion about refugees
often goes along the lines of talking
about them as being riddled with prob-
lems, but that’s an incomplete picture.
There’s never any talk about what their
lives were like before that—they’re just
reduced to being refugees. I remember
when we came to Iceland; our neigh-
bours showed my mother a fridge, like
she had never seen one before. Refugees
are just regular people in extraordinary
situations, people who need help.”

Words by Alexander de Ridder & Gabríel Benjamin
Photo : Archival
Iceland
Becomes
You
Four successfully
resettled refugees
relay their stories
“We came to Iceland
seeking security, and
that’s it. At first I couldn’t
understand why we came
here, and it wasn’t until I
was fifteen years old that I
actually understood that we
had escaped a war zone.”
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson welcomes a group of refugees from former Yugoslavia to Ísafjörður, 1996