A Nordic Nation Establishing its Unique Identity
Rifts and Tensions
Despite the fact that Iceland is one of the happiest nations in the world, every country has their share of rifts and tensions among the people. In asking my interviewees about any conflicts they have noticed in their country as they relate to culture, economics, race, ethnicity, politics, etc. There were a variety of issues that people found notable, but I discovered several major ones that popped up a few times, so I figured these were worth exploring in more depth. These topics are: immigration, the Icelandic language, fishing quotas, and wealth inequality and gender bias in the media.
“Immigration is a rather new thing in Iceland, and many people simply don’t know how to handle the fact that not everybody is Icelandic,” according to Marc Daniel Skibsted Volhardt, who works at the University of Iceland - and he is correct. As of 2016, immigrants make up about 10% of the population in Iceland, which is a lot considering they are a country of less than 400,000 people (Einarsdóttir 1) (a10). Iceland has always relied on immigrant workers in their workforce, but they were generally temporary and made up so little of the
population that they were ignored from policy making. But around the time of the financial crisis in 2008, many immigrant workers decided to make their move permanent, which meant that Iceland needed to start looking at how they would be integrating immigrants into society on not only a social, but also a political level. In order to make conclusions about the current public opinion on immigration, Einarsdóttir, Heijstra, and Rafnsdóttir, authors of “The politics of diversity: Social and political integration of immigrants in Iceland,” used data from the 2014 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) “to ask how native Icelanders and people with a non-Icelandic background—specifically Poles, Lithuanians, and Filipinos—experience their social and political integration and how they connect this integration to their subjective (self-reported) position within Icelandic society” (Einarsdóttir 2).
One of the requirements for someone to get a work permit or residency in Iceland is that they must complete a certain number of hours of Icelandic language class. This, however, is difficult to practice when immigrants all work together in somewhat segregated labor forces (language is another rift that will be discussed later on). Additionally, foreign workers are
This image, from the Inspired by Iceland media bank, shows one of Iceland's biggest parts of its economy: fish. This is a point of contention, too, as fishing quotas are being debated. (i22).
susceptible to more abuse because of the fact that they are not always educated about what the acceptable rules and work conditions of their host country are - they will often just accept whatever they get because it is better than what it’s like in their home country (Einarsdóttir 6). The study had people (Icelanders and immigrants) rank how much political power they felt like they had (how much their voice matters), what it means to be a good citizen (how important certain civic duties are), and where they rank on the “social ladder” of Iceland, and then compared the data between the groups.
“Overall, the findings regarding political efficacy reveal that, up to a certain extent, participants with a foreign background felt less connected and less cared for by the Icelandic government” however the findings on being a good citizen were pretty consistent across the different sample groups (a mean of around 5 for each question) (Einarsdóttir 11). In terms of where people feel like they fall on the social ladder, all three non-Icelandic background groups scored an average of 5.5, whereas the Icelandic citizens ranked themselves at a mean of 6.1, proving that they view themselves in a higher status than the immigrant groups. The researchers state in their conclusion that, “although Iceland has been attracting immigrants in search of employment, social integration in Iceland has become more complicated because of a segregated labor market [which] makes it more challenging for immigrants to socially integrate, even if they are employed” (Einarsdóttir 15). Thus, what this study ultimately shows is that there is a social and political gap, a disconnect, between immigrants and native Icelanders, and this gap can cause tension within the country.
The Icelandic language is something else that came up a few times in my interviews as a point of contention. It is clear from my interviews and research that the Icelandic language is competing with English and Icelanders are not happy about the fact that their language is not what is used in many public places now. “The Icelandic language, which Icelanders are very proud of, is used less and less in many cafés and restaurants in Reykjavík and Iceland in general because of many foreign workers, and in many places here you can’t order food in Icelandic, which is, understandably, a frustrating fact for many people who are forced to use English in their daily day lives,” says Volhardt. But a new and relevant perspective that I found information on is the impact of technology on this shift.
In an article from the Washington Post called “Digital devices snub Icelandic language, which is a problem for Iceland,” the author, Travis Andrews, explains that many computers, televisions, virtual assistants and other electronics do not have a language setting to change the language on the device to be Icelandic - not even an iPhone. (o23). “Some people believe this -- along with the world's increasing globalization and widespread usage of English -- could lessen the use of the Icelandic language, which is spoken by less than half a million people,” says Andrews in the article. He makes the claim that in order for a language to survive in this digital age, it needs to be available for use on all devices; this is the direction that society is moving towards. But there isn't a strong reason for companies, especially ones in Silicon Valley, to include the language in their devices. Relating it to what happened with Latin, Icelanders fear that the lack of of use of Icelandic everyday life will lead the loss of their language, and ultimately the loss of their tradition.
A topic that both Micalea Leaska and Jennifer Smith brought up in their interviews was the fishing industry and the controversial quota systems that are being put in place. In an article written by Smith and one of my other interviewees, Catherine Chambers, they discuss the quota system and how it has affected the economy in Iceland (o24). Fish is a huge export for Iceland, and can make people extremely wealthy. While the system has worked to some degree, “at the same time, it has increased fish prices for Icelandic consumers and has changed local-level customs, making it increasingly difficult (and also illegal) to go to the harbor to ask for fish, something that was once a very common practice,” which is a fundamental shift in society in general (Smith 31). This issue seems like a very large and multi-faced argument that has many layers, but the general tension within the fishing industry is something worth noting. For more information on the subject, see Smith’s interview transcript.
Wealth inequality is a major problem in Iceland, as well. According to a Grapevine article titled “Iceland’s Richest 5% Own About Half The Country’s Wealth,” the top 5% of the richest families in Iceland brought in 22.2% of the total income earned in the country; the top 1% brought in 8.8%; and the top 0.1% brought in 3.1% of all income earned in Iceland. Jennifer Smith explained that “more wealth inequality is being generated now from the growth in the tourism industry, with for example a small number of individuals owning and profiting from running a lot of AirBnBs.” (o25).
A topic that relates specifically to the media landscape in Iceland that I thought was worth mentioning is the bias that one study found and explained in an article called “Gender Bias in the Media: The Case of Iceland.” (a9).These researchers explain that despite the fact that the number of women who are journalists, managers in the media industry and decision makers in society has increased, there exists an inequality in how often women are represented in the media (news, etc.). They explain that the way women are portrayed in the media can have a massive impact on our worldview in general: “who appears in the news and who is left out, what is covered and what is not and how people and events are portrayed matter” (Jóhannsdóttir 1). The study found that women account for only 1 in 5 of the people interviewed or reported on by Icelandic news media, and this underrepresentation is a trend in Nordic countries.