Iceland review - 2014, Page 22

20 ICELAND REVIEW
once a year, on a Saturday after-
noon in early May, the streets
of downtown reykjavík stage a
celebration of multiculturalism. Dressed
in their national costumes and accom-
panied by their national song, dance
and music, members of reykjavík’s
diverse population—from Ghana to
Mexico and Japan to Jordan—parade
their way from Hallgrímskirkja church
down to City Hall. The gray build-
ing on the edge of Tjörnin, the city
pond, is transformed into an exhibition
center where reykjavík’s foreign resi-
dents proudly present their countries,
cuisines and traditions to the public.
This year’s intercultural Day, the sixth
so far, was the largest ever with roughly
2,000 people from over 90 nations—of
the 130 represented in reykjavík—par-
ticipating in the parade, and many more
taking part in the festival’s other events.
Signs of iceland’s demographic changes can be seen in
daily life throughout society. Take a walk in downtown
reykjavík and you’ll soon come across some of a growing
number of ethnic restaurants in the city—from nepalese
and Korean, to rwandan. Diversifying the country’s
restaurant menus is just one of the ways in which immi-
grants have been adding another dimension to icelandic
cultural life. Meanwhile, with the large increase in tour-
ists visiting iceland, and foreigners being employed by
the service and tourism industries, english is increasingly
becoming the first language of many cafés and restau-
rants, adding to the international feel of iceland’s capital.
DivERsifYinG sociEtY
Being relatively isolated in times past, iceland’s popula-
tion used to be one of the least diversified in europe. This
changed when iceland joined the european economic
area (eea) in 1994, opening its borders to immigrants
from the eU. Today there are roughly 26,000 foreigners
living in iceland, or around 8 percent of the country’s
population of 325,000, a comparable ratio to the other
By Zoë roBert
PHOTOS By PÁll StefÁnSSon, Zoë roBert and
CourteSy of reykJavík City
New
icelaNders
Once one of the least diversified countries in Europe,
immigrants now make up 8 percent
of Iceland’s population.