Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 43

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Iceland Review
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home and nothing happens afterwards. There’s no
discussion and no context.”
While immigrants may enjoy putting on their
national dress and dancing down Laugavegur, such
events reflect little of their daily life in Iceland.
Tomasz would like to see more events that create
dialogue about culture and migration. “Dialogue is
not just people talking. Dialogue is the screening of
a movie, or a documentary, or having a play in the
theatre that is based around the concept of living in
Iceland as a foreigner. And to have that discussion
continue in the media: this for me is more in the
intercultural spirit we want to achieve.”
A voice for immigrants
Tomasz’ next project extends beyond the Polish
community in a different way. He is part of a group
working to establish an umbrella organisation to
unite all immigrant organisations in Iceland. VERA,
as the organisation is called, is meant to be not
only a space for collaboration, but also a voice for
immigrants.
“It’s something that has been talked about a lot,
but was lacking in the public sphere. With all the
communication that has been going on between
NGOs and government, there was always a need
for a bigger body that would represent the inter-
ests of immigrants. I was in politics for four years,
in the city council. I saw how much pressure there
is to equalise representation between sexes, and
that’s really great. The next step is to give the same
percentage of rights to immigrants, which are a
growing group. Our needs are not really cared for,
the infrastructure is not there.”
VERA goes beyond the Polish community.
“That’s what we wanted: to broaden the spectrum,
and also to take more responsibility for the entire
immigrant community. We Poles are a big group.
Whenever there is an immigrant group or consul-
tative body they always look to Polish people to be
represented because they are the biggest group
within immigrants. I know that some Polish peo-
ple don’t really want to be out there raising their
voice, and that’s fine. But at the same time it kind of
creates this vacuum of leadership, for someone to be
the voice. We want to be that voice, Polish people. We
want to carry this voice up to another level.”
Work, work, work
While some Polish people may not be interested
in speaking out, others may simply face too many
hurdles. Anna Marjankowska, a recent immigrant to
Iceland, sits on the board of Efling, one of the coun-
try’s largest unions. This gives her a clear look at the
struggles many immigrants face: mainly, working so
hard to make ends meet that they’ve got little time
or energy for deconstructing multiculturalism.
While some Polish immigrants, particularly
younger, more recent immigrants, are involved in
the arts or activism in their off hours, others are
very isolated, Anna says. “You cannot see them in
the city. You won’t see them sitting in a café having a
drink, they are just separate.” For such people, says
Anna, “It’s very hard to make friends, it’s very hard
to enter the community that is benefitting from your
skills.”
Labour unions, Anna says, have the potential
to make a huge impact - and dialogue is their most
important tool. “The reality of migrant workers is
that we are spending a lot of time in our workplaces:
8, 12, 14 hours a day. Sometimes one honest, open
conversation or a few pieces of advice, not even how
to make a claim in the union, but even listening to
how people are feeling at their job, can make a huge
difference. If you can show people how valuable they
really are in the workplace, it really changes people’s
lives, because it changes at least eight hours of their
day.”
Looking and listening
The Polish community may not be very visible,
but there’s no question that it’s very active. Yet in
order to participate in Icelandic society beyond the
workplace, it’s going to need Icelanders’ help. “What
immigrants can do – and what we are doing every
day – is to present ourselves from the best angle,
work our best, and sell our ideas. But there has to
be someone else to appreciate or see that work. And
that’s something that I hope Icelandic society can
learn - there is a world outside of Iceland, and these
are people from another world coming into your
society to change things for the better, and you can
appreciate that and listen to them.” It feels like some
great conversations – and changes – are just around
the corner.
The Lava Centre is situated at Hvolsvöllur on the South Coast of Iceland,
surrounded by active volcanoes. It truly acts as the gateway to Iceland’s
most active volcanic area.
The Lava Centre just received two Red Dot Awards, which cement its
position as a world class exhibition.
A world class exhibition on volcanoes and
earthquakes surrounded by active volcanoes
MORE INFO AND TICKETS AT
www.lavacentre.is
Open every day
9:00 - 19:00
Volcano & Earthquake Centre
Austurvegur 14, Hvolsvöllur · South Iceland
VOLCANO &
EARTHQUAKE
EXHIBITION