The Icelandic Directorate of Labour estimates that there are currently 11,000 to 12,000 foreigners living in Iceland; but that their numbers will fall to around 10,000 by the New Year.
In the mid summer there were 18,000 to 19,000 foreigners living in the country.
Jobs that foreigners are leaving are first and foremost in industries affected most by the current economic contraction, MBL.is reports.
“They have mostly been leaving jobs in the construction industry where things have really frozen up,” says Karl Sigurdsson from the Directorate. “They have also been leaving the commercial sector where things are slowing down.”
Sigurdsson says he has heard of isolated cases where foreigners are laid off before Icelanders in cases where companies are cutting back. “But the heads of the trades unions tell me this is the exception rather than the rule,” he says.
weel,i was laid of,and a fews foreigners more.i just dont uderstand why,after i went away they put few icelandairs in the company,well i was working fine and both me a flat her in the sumer and i had a raise from the company,so it indicates that the company was liking my work.why did they put personal…..it still my question…..but i dont regreat of my house,is great,at least i own a house.in portugal it was very dificult to have all that i have here in iceland.
here goes jonhy…..
Exception rather than the rule? lol… it seams that the heads of the trades unions are not aware of the reality.
exactly hiijack!!! Me and two other foreigners were laid off and told to train two new icelandic employees before we left. Who can we turn to? no one. Even if I could, they would treat me so bad that I would quit anyway!! This was a great lesson in life, for me, about reality. Since I am on a temporary working visa, even though I have been here for four years, I cannot apply for any benefits!! I am forced to go home, like many others. But at least I know that there are many Icelandics leaving for financial reasons and that they will be humbled by their experience upon return. Its one thing to come from a rich country to another country, but when the world knows you are coming to escape poverty, the treatment is much the same as how the Icelandics treated the polish who came here for the same reason. I hate nationalism, it blinds people!!! But wait until Iceland is forced to join the EU!!! Karma karma karma is coming
cfood13
You do have some rights, even with a temporary visa. You should go to Úrskurðarnefnd
Atvinnuleysistrygginga, down town in from of the Municipal Library and ask a E103 and E303.
Those documents are very important, since they will help to re-open your rights back to Europe and if you paid enough contribution to the national health and pensions organization, which is like 12 months working in full time job you should be entitled to get benefits.
Yes cfood13 I agree you! nationalism sucks everywhere… I’m a enginner and in the same day I was layed off they hired a icelandic enginner… and wasn´t because of the quality of my work… because during the time at the office I had to “put out the fire” several times, thing that the icelanders couldn´t do. I don´t agree with them but I think I can understand… small country, many years isolated, poor country that become rich very fast… what could we expect?
I believe in my country and in Poland also exists but nothing like this… I was living one year in Poland and I felt like at home. More… in Poland, people don´t say loudly how proud they are of their hospitality… do they know here what that means?
Not all Icelanders are racists, I met already some nice persons in this country but generaly speaking I’m quite disappointed with the people of Iceland.
In fact this new have little of sense 18-19000 living in Iceland during the summer now are living around 11 to 12000 and will stil drop to 10000… what? 9000 foreigners suddendly missed their homes and they went back to their countries?
cfood13
You shouldn’t have received such a treatment in any other Nordic countries, think about it. And if you were in Italy instead …. death would be a better choice
Really? Is Italy hard on legal, employed immigrants?
Why everybody is complaining about iceland now? i dont get. u worked here and while krona was very strong u didnt have any complains but now all of sudden everybody is talking about how bad icelander behaved. but that s not true i came to iceland 4 years ago people are so helpful and lovely now more then ever.
From what I read here, foreigners are complaining to get abusively fired… I don’t think you want to expatriate your self and your skills if you end up to be treated like garbage.
But ssssss, from your comment, I will say you are a female coming either from Scandinavia or from US?
dear Bromley86,
it’s quite difficult to explain everything in a few lines….contact me on msn ( dieartze at excite.it ), if you want to learn more about it. ;)
However, let me write a sample: nearly 60,000,000 people with JUST 4,4% of extra-EU foreigners (check this rating for other EU members). Someone said: “How could Italy become a multi-racial place while we are racist against ourselves ?” ^^
Dear all,
I am an italian living in Italy even if it is not easy if you know this rich (bullshit!) country. I would like to say that the ’4,4% of extra-EU foregneirs’ is a misleading argument since the number of ‘extra-EU foregneirs’ without a legal permit/visa is much higher in accordance with charitable associations. 60,000,000 people include the legal new entries and I assure you that we are too much both for the low level of public services&assistance and the resources of the nation.
I have been here in Iceland for twenty years & the Icelandic people are kind & friendly, If you need a helping hand in times of crisis they will be the first to step up to the plate, As this is only a small country then its only right that company’s employ foreigners last and put Icelandics first, Even after all this time of living in this country when the economic crisis hit I went though a time when I thought I could loose my job if the unemployment went to high & if it had happened to me I would of excepted it as its always been an understanding from the first years I came to work here, I am sure if you were in your own country’s & became unemployed you would gripe about how unfair it was that you could not get a job when there was a foreigner taking it from you, Be lucky you are in Iceland as working rights are abided by 90% of the country & if you were to be come unemployed you would be entitled to benefits & the help is there for you if you look for it.
“& became unemployed you would gripe about how unfair it was that you could not get a job when there was a foreigner taking it from you,”
If that happened in the UK the employer would get sued for racial discrimination. You have obviously being living in Iceland too long, such blatant discrimination is illegal elsewhere.
Another good point for Iceland not joining the EU. If they did then, eventually, they’d have to open their job markets fully to EU nationals.
Given that they’ll not be able to join the Euro for the forseeable future and that they’re unlikely to get a sufficiently sizable fishing opt-out, I don’t see the benefit.
Political union with Norway would be the way to go. Think of all the money they’d save when they trim back their government!
I am going to UK as a tourist on January 2009. How can i apply for an IT job there as a foreighner? Is it possible if i apply for a job and when confirmed i will back to my country and take my spouse and baby with me there. My plan to work there and educate my wife and child there. How to do ?
Peter – London said:
“If that happened in the UK the employer would get sued for racial discrimination. You have obviously being living in Iceland too long, such blatant discrimination is illegal elsewhere.”
That does not stop the griping in the UK, does it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/22/bnp-far-right-hazel-blears
The employment rights of workers (male, female and foreign born) in Iceland are of Scandanavian standard.
Much of Trade Union rights are part of law
If any employee is treated otherwise, it is illegal.
hsj said:
“I am going to UK as a tourist on January 2009. How can i apply for an IT job there as a foreighner? Is it possible if i apply for a job and when confirmed i will back to my country and take my spouse and baby with me there. My plan to work there and educate my wife and child there. How to do ?”
Are you Icelandic?
If so
you have full employment rights in the UK, the first thing you need to do is apply for a National Insurance number. You need a UK address.
But consider that the UK is a bureaucratic nightmare. Plan ahead.
The office in the area you chose to live is often not conveniently located.
To contact by telephone is a nightmare. You have to make an appointment at the office. You are are made to wait a ridiculously long time for that. That is if you get the lazy gobs to answer the phone.
The minimum waiting time for a Nat.Insurance nr. after application is a month.
Compare that to Iceland where you get a ID nr as fast as a machine can punch out a lotto number.
As you are an IT expert you can find out much info online before you go :)
@Knowless, you said:
That does not stop the griping in the UK, does it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/22/bnp-far-right-hazel-blears
The employment rights of workers (male, female and foreign born) in Iceland are of Scandanavian standard.
Much of Trade Union rights are part of law
If any employee is treated otherwise, it is illegal.
++++
I do not get the point you are trying to make with the link to this Guardian article.
Are you trying to say that the people in the UK are racists because the BNP is on the rise?
In the last elections (2005) this party received 0,7 % of the votes, some 192.000 in total. Even Iceland has more voters!
In fact, if only 0,7 % of the british population votes a racist party it merely showes that they are a very tolerant and mature people.
Perhaps the BNP will get 0,8 % in the next elections, well…credit to the britons: they are a healthy people if only 0,8% of the population consists of idiots…
About the rights of foreign workers, I have read terrible stories of polish workers in Iceland from Gus for instance.
If times of severe economic and social crisis rules of decency are the first to be ignored, and persons with the weakest position (foreign workers) will suffer first.
Think about Gus whatever you want. I think he is a sincere person and does not make up things like this.
“You need a UK address.
But consider that the UK is a bureaucratic nightmare. Plan ahead.
The office in the area you chose to live is often not conveniently located.
To contact by telephone is a nightmare. You have to make an appointment at the office. You are are made to wait a ridiculously long time for that. That is if you get the lazy gobs to answer the phone.
The minimum waiting time for a Nat.Insurance nr. after application is a month.”
Yes you need a NI number, an address to live in the UK and you have to attend an interview at an office. Having had a few friends do this, none of the found it a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’. You can work while you wait for your NI number and even get paid with an emergency NI number if it does come through fast enough.
In fact you can work for a long time without a NI number and usually your employer will apply for it without any action of any sort by yourself.
So, basically your comments are irrelevant.
Being an Italian living in Iceland I can only thank my hosting country and I hope to become officially a citizen in the next future. Here I was given a chance to buy a home. In Italy, Rome, I couldn’t, unless I accepted to live in a dangerous suburb. Here I could setup my own small company and give work (and thus give back a bit of the “love” I received) to some amazing Icelanders, and a Polish girl (a very skilled programmer) that are now planning to open their own company to develop AI for scientific equipment. Cleanliness, respect, working health system are a great richness of this country, also of its youths (especially compared to what I could see 4 years ago in Italy). Yes, the situation is terrible for some people because of the crisis, and a lot of Poles immigrants I knew had to leave simply because they could not pay their bills here and send the money back at home. Yet, I still think that Icelanders are always extraordinarily helpful when they know you are in difficulty – if you, as an immigrant, try to work toward a better integration into the society, first by learning the beautiful language, you will become part of the society.
Are you talking about Artificial Intelligence, Alberto? Then could she develop something for political “equipment” as well? 8-)