This research aims to study immigrants’ and Icelanders’ experience of integration and to determine how newcomers become participants in local communities outside of the greater Reykjavik capital area.
New types of economic activity such as tourism have led to increased mobility, leading in turn to significant societal changes across the country. The countryside of Iceland has therefore become multicultural to a large extent. The share of migrants within local populations oscillates between 10% and 50%, depending on area, with the majority coming from Europe. Commonly, migrants make up the greater part of workers in service jobs and manual labour in rural towns and villages.
A field study based on interviews with natives and immigrants
In this research, we set out to study Icelanders’ and immigrants’ attitudes toward integration and their definition of it. Their views of how such integration does happen were also of interest to us. Among other features, we study people’s experience of settling in a new place and the locals’ reaction to their presence.
The research is based on an anthropological field study. The researchers resided for three months in each region, interviewing several individuals of different origins, including Icelanders who had little contact with immigrants and immigrants who rarely interacted with locals. The interviewees were asked about the pros and cons of living in various places and about factors that affect their experience as well as their opportunities for participating fully in the community’s life, such as access to services, access to Icelandic language courses and opportunities or challenges in the job market.
Based on the analysis of interviews, we examine different perceptions of belonging and explore people’s experiences of inclusion and exclusion. To what extent do migrants see themselves as part of local communities? How do they narrate their social positions in those places?
A hierarchy of “otherness”
Our results highlight existing hierarchies of differentiation regarding migrants’ sense of belonging and access to local society. This is displayed in divergent processes of inclusion and exclusion of the various migrant groups to the local labour market and society. Many new jobs have been established in rural Iceland and, with depopulation, new migrant workers from various parts of Europe have taken these jobs. These rural towns and villages have experienced rapid diversification in population similar to many urban areas. Although participating in the labour market is an important way to get access to the local society, it does not necessarily give access to social networks and community life.
Our analysis shows that dominant conceptions of groups as less “familiar” and less “foreign,” entrenched in conceptions of Europe and cultural proximity, affect migrants’ experiences and opportunities. As a rule, those entering Iceland from Western European countries considered “familiar” to Icelanders have an easier time making connections with Icelandic inhabitants in their communities. Rather than being classed as “other,” migrants to rural Iceland from Western Europe, particularly the Nordic countries, are often incorporated into local communities through marriage, establishing businesses, and participation in community organizations.
In contrast, those coming from Eastern European countries are perceived as more “foreign” and feel themselves to remain more marginal to the local social networks. This social and economic stratification is reflected by migrants like the Polish participant who claimed that people assumed she was looking for a cleaning job when they saw her Polish name. Similarly, the narrative of the Bulgarian person who spoke about their difficulties finding housing and positioned the Poles as treated more favourably than they were indicates they are aware of a distinct social hierarchy in which Bulgarians are positioned near the bottom.
Despite these general patterns, we observed that individual experiences can be more nuanced, as numerous factors come into play and positionalities can be ambiguous and changing.
Challenging the stereotype of homogeneous rural communities
The Icelandic case demonstrates that heterogeneity and diversity exist within global rural areas just as in urban areas. Our analysis of data collected during 15 months of field research shows the importance of challenging the images of homogeneous rural communities, as well as the importance of digging deeper; to include different groups of labour migrants of different European nationalities in the analysis and illuminate the role of geographical imagination. Doing so allows us to avoid a simple presentation of migrants’ experiences in rural areas and examine the process of diversification and ongoing segmentation and stratification.
Funding
The research is supported by the National Science Foundation USA
