Berliner Boersenzeitung - Iceland wants immigrants to learn the language

EUR -
AED 3.816824
AFN 72.952252
ALL 98.438583
AMD 415.214404
ANG 1.871662
AOA 947.704654
ARS 1065.882528
AUD 1.667322
AWG 1.87047
AZN 1.762145
BAM 1.954004
BBD 2.096853
BDT 124.101169
BGN 1.956564
BHD 0.391992
BIF 3070.948111
BMD 1.03915
BND 1.411189
BOB 7.176405
BRL 6.435196
BSD 1.038536
BTN 88.400905
BWP 14.423605
BYN 3.398644
BYR 20367.339516
BZD 2.089759
CAD 1.493144
CDF 2982.360366
CHF 0.936087
CLF 0.037309
CLP 1029.464941
CNY 7.581115
CNH 7.592591
COP 4545.148469
CRC 527.310304
CUC 1.03915
CUP 27.537474
CVE 110.159518
CZK 25.136875
DJF 184.677456
DKK 7.461331
DOP 63.26186
DZD 140.508292
EGP 52.886082
ERN 15.58725
ETB 132.231473
FJD 2.411659
FKP 0.822988
GBP 0.829585
GEL 2.920501
GGP 0.822988
GHS 15.26597
GIP 0.822988
GMD 74.818437
GNF 8975.405716
GTQ 7.999571
GYD 217.28031
HKD 8.07113
HNL 26.386749
HRK 7.453725
HTG 135.793893
HUF 410.282908
IDR 16844.880887
ILS 3.793318
IMP 0.822988
INR 88.499314
IQD 1360.449687
IRR 43735.229742
ISK 145.085757
JEP 0.822988
JMD 161.805066
JOD 0.737069
JPY 163.422979
KES 134.216802
KGS 90.406309
KHR 4174.123628
KMF 484.373758
KPW 935.234397
KRW 1514.867615
KWD 0.320277
KYD 0.865496
KZT 538.010367
LAK 22711.908192
LBP 93000.628319
LKR 306.06693
LRD 189.014468
LSL 19.310667
LTL 3.06834
LVL 0.628571
LYD 5.098118
MAD 10.472672
MDL 19.161206
MGA 4898.450968
MKD 61.524406
MMK 3375.118585
MNT 3531.031481
MOP 8.308085
MRU 41.456304
MUR 48.912776
MVR 16.071811
MWK 1800.844944
MXN 20.93311
MYR 4.662652
MZN 66.405559
NAD 19.310852
NGN 1608.187574
NIO 38.214879
NOK 11.803845
NPR 141.441648
NZD 1.842889
OMR 0.400072
PAB 1.038546
PEN 3.867097
PGK 4.214964
PHP 60.790791
PKR 289.11646
PLN 4.258385
PYG 8099.556151
QAR 3.777129
RON 4.974307
RSD 116.995843
RUB 103.913498
RWF 1448.754589
SAR 3.90135
SBD 8.711771
SCR 14.671682
SDG 625.049715
SEK 11.540748
SGD 1.414117
SHP 0.822988
SLE 23.743241
SLL 21790.458555
SOS 593.548791
SRD 36.430535
STD 21508.306454
SVC 9.087299
SYP 2610.89574
SZL 19.319059
THB 35.465649
TJS 11.361558
TMT 3.647416
TND 3.311457
TOP 2.43379
TRY 36.582121
TTD 7.057446
TWD 33.97501
TZS 2514.742726
UAH 43.544105
UGX 3801.469699
USD 1.03915
UYU 46.225737
UZS 13407.162145
VES 53.594628
VND 26435.975372
VUV 123.369966
WST 2.870951
XAF 655.348399
XAG 0.035028
XAU 0.000397
XCD 2.808354
XDR 0.796261
XOF 655.329498
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.177178
ZAR 19.401278
ZMK 9353.59695
ZMW 28.741585
ZWL 334.605868
  • RBGPF

    -0.7000

    59.8

    -1.17%

  • BCC

    1.1200

    123.36

    +0.91%

  • SCS

    0.0650

    11.715

    +0.55%

  • BTI

    -0.0050

    36.215

    -0.01%

  • NGG

    -0.1600

    58.86

    -0.27%

  • CMSC

    -0.1621

    23.74

    -0.68%

  • GSK

    -0.0300

    34.03

    -0.09%

  • JRI

    0.0500

    12.15

    +0.41%

  • RIO

    -0.0650

    59.165

    -0.11%

  • CMSD

    -0.1200

    23.43

    -0.51%

  • AZN

    -0.3300

    66.3

    -0.5%

  • BCE

    0.0790

    22.919

    +0.34%

  • RELX

    0.2450

    45.835

    +0.53%

  • RYCEF

    0.0000

    7.25

    0%

  • VOD

    0.0600

    8.43

    +0.71%

  • BP

    0.0510

    28.801

    +0.18%

Iceland wants immigrants to learn the language
Iceland wants immigrants to learn the language / Photo: Halldor KOLBEINS - AFP

Iceland wants immigrants to learn the language

In Iceland's parliament, six cleaners take a break from their duties to spend time learning Icelandic, seen as one of the principal barriers to integration in the country.

Text size:

Of the roughly 400,000 residents of Iceland, about one in five have an immigrant background and few of them speak Icelandic, which experts say could affect social cohesion.

Six years ago, Kanyamon Juisikaew, 46, moved to Reykjavik from Thailand and married an Icelander, and now works as a cleaner in parliament.

"I would like to communicate with Icelandic people when they speak, and in my family because we are an Icelandic family," Juisikaew told AFP in English.

She also said she was disappointed not to be able to follow along during meetings at work.

She has just started taking classes during her regular working hours -- an opportunity provided by a handful of companies and institutions in the Subarctic nation.

Alongside her, colleague Carolina Rivas hopes the classes will help her develop her career.

"It's really good to get to use working time to learn because this language really require a lot of time to learn," Rivas said, adding that it was difficult to find the time to learn when off the clock.

- Overqualified -

Among OECD countries, Iceland has seen the sharpest rise in the share of immigrants in its population, going from three percent in the early 2000s to 20 percent last year.

The Nordic country opened up for migrants in the 2000s to cope with a boom in tourism and a labour shortage for low-paid service jobs.

But a recent report from the OECD, which advises industrialised nations on policy matters, said immigration increases have not been accompanied by sufficiently inclusive public policies.

"Where does Iceland want to be in the future? One cannot afford having 20 percent of the population not speaking the language. So this is really becoming an issue of social cohesion for Iceland," Thomas Liebig, a senior administrator at the OECD's International Migration Division, told AFP.

Coming mainly from the European Economic Area (EEA), immigrants to Iceland do relatively well and enjoy the highest employment rate in the OECD.

But the labour market suffers from over-qualification as language presents a hurdle to job opportunities matching their skills.

At the Mimir training institute in Reykjavik, students flock to take the Icelandic language exam in order to obtain Icelandic citizenship, and language classes are overflowing.

"We see an annual increase every year around 20 percent," Joanna Dominiczak, director of the Icelandic language programmes at Mimir, told AFP.

Dominiczak added that they also had to stop offering classes in September as their funding for the year had run out.

The OECD has also criticised Iceland for providing minimal public funding for language training, and reserving fully subsidised courses for refugees and the unemployed.

- 'Inferiority complex' -

Kronan, one of Iceland's largest supermarket chains, has a workforce where 25 percent are immigrants.

This presents a challenge for HR director Asta Baerings, who recognises that it is difficult to teach Icelandic to new arrivals who are not sure of staying in the country.

Baerings says the core issue is "communication."

"We are trying to make more languages available for employees," Baerings told AFP.

The company has set up a communication portal for employees in Icelandic, English and Polish -- which make up 10 percent of staff.

"But next year we are going to be offering over 30 languages," Baerings said, explaining this is meant to help the 47 nationalities working in their shops.

Anthony John Saunders started working for Kronan when he moved to Iceland from England after Brexit and has become an assistant manager of one of the stores.

"I think being a fluent English speaker, Iceland was quite easy to integrate in because everybody speaks very good English," Saunders said.

He speaks very little Icelandic but hopes to make progress with a customisable app offered by Kronan, which he has just installed.

But Icelanders' grasp of English can be a double-edged sword as immigrants have fewer opportunities to practise what they have learned.

"It also relates to the way we Icelanders perceive our own language," Yrsa Tholl Gylfadottir, a writer and Icelandic teacher, told AFP.

"Some of us have like an inferiority complex, and a disbelief that anyone would want to learn our language or would be able to," she said.

"So Icelanders often resort to English when they speak to people with an accent."

(G.Gruner--BBZ)