Iceland review - 2019, Qupperneq 47

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Iceland Review
avoided. As it became understood that all modern
states should bear more responsibility toward asylum
seekers, Iceland granted asylum to 52 Hungarian
refugees in 1956. Between 1956 and 2012, the country
welcomed a total of 525 refugees. Asylum applications
increased from just a few dozen only a decade ago to
over a thousand in 2017. In the last two years, most
asylum seekers have come from Albania, Macedonia,
and Georgia. Because these countries are not con-
sidered dangerous to live in, however, their citizens
generally do not qualify for humanitarian protection.
Nearly all of these were rejected, although 75 refugees
from other countries were granted asylum in 2019, a
significant increase over previous years.
Despite the fact that most applicants for asylum
in Iceland are rejected and duly sent away, the vast
majority of Icelanders are not only friendly but
openly welcoming of vulnerable people from war-torn
countries. LGBTQ+ refugees from intolerant nations
have fared better in the asylum-seeking process,
as have families originally from Syria who had been
languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon and Turkey.
In a recent poll, some 67% of Reykjavík residents
expressed a desire to welcome more war refugees and
other asylum seekers. However, as asylum applications
have skyrocketed, the time-consuming process
of reviewing applications has slowed to a crawl.
The greater number of deportations has not gone
unnoticed by the media and sympathetic members
of the public. Several high-profile cases have led to a
greater awareness of the government’s controversial
use of the Dublin III Regulation to send applicants
back to the countries where they originally requested
asylum before coming to Iceland.
Coming to Iceland
Deciding just how many refugees should be granted
asylum in Iceland continues to be a hot button issue,
but research shows that the majority of Icelanders
believe that more should be done for them. As for the
reality of what asylum seekers experience while trying
to settle in Iceland,
looking back in history
reveals some peculiar
episodes.
In 1982 some two
dozen politically-
oppressed Poles fled
their Eastern-bloc
country amidst growing
unrest between the labor unions and the dictatorship.
Due to a radical and welcome shift in the Icelandic
government’s policy from previous decades, the Polish
refugees were duly granted asylum. Many managed
to blend into Icelandic society quickly, but in the
intervening years only one of these Poles has remained
in Iceland. The rest returned to a free Poland after the
conclusion of the Cold War.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, some 45
refugees were welcomed to Iceland through the efforts
of the Red Cross in the early 1990’s. Great pains
were taken to train the Vietnamese in the Icelandic
language and culture, with mixed results. While some
of these former refugees flourished and successfully
founded businesses and families, they were clearly
in the minority. Most former refugees decided to
move on to the United States, Canada, and Australia
where there were already thriving Vietnamese expat
communities.
With refugee families of mixed ethnicity fleeing
the oppression and violence of the Yugoslav Wars in
the 1990s, there was a similar outcome. The small
Westfjords town of Ísafjörður furnished several
families of refugees with apartments, schools,
mentoring and language training for one year before
they were expected to find gainful employment. Jobs
in the fish processing industry were plentiful and the
quiet town was a welcome relief for the war refugees.
But 20 years later not one is left. In the last decade
the small yet vibrant town has welcomed economic
migrants from Poland who were attracted to the
relatively high-paying jobs in sea-food production. But
where did the former refugees end up? Some moved
to the capital area in Reykjavik for higher education
and a wider choice of jobs, while most moved to North
America or back to mainland Europe. Nevertheless,
Ísafjörður’s residents continue to welcome new
refugees and are reportedly very happy to have been
of assistance to others in their time of need.
A language barrier
The majority of Icelanders are patriotic and
cherish their language. They take well-deserved
pride in Icelandic as a guardian of the nation’s
ARRIVING IN THE TINY EASTERN ICELANDIC
PORT OF DJÚPIVOGUR, HANS JÓNATAN
MANAGED TO FIND EMPLOYMENT AS A
MERCHANT AND EVENTUALLY BOUGHT A
FARM, MARRIED A LOCAL AND LIVED OUT THE
REST OF HIS LIFE WITH HIS FAMILY.