Icelanders, and people all over the world, have often asked whether those on low wages really earn enough to properly support themselves and their families. Iceland’s Directorate of Immigration has now unwittingly answered the question.
A Thai lady, Tipphawan Laopha, has had her application for an Icelandic residence permit turned down by the country’s Directorate of Immigration because she is not financially able to support herself. This comes despite the fact she is in full-time employment and has been since arriving in Iceland four years ago. Furthermore, she is employed in the public sector, in the laundry room at a public hospital.
Laopha came to Iceland to be reunited with her family and got a job at a hospital. She has worked there ever since, as well as other part time jobs, and has paid all due taxes, which are much higher on second jobs than on primary employment.
The Directorate of Immigration decision that the woman cannot support herself comes following the year-old decision to start assessing applicants’ income after taxes. The incomes of Icelandic citizens are, on the other hand, always assessed before tax for all government purposes.
This strange quirk effectively means that her wages would legally be considered sufficient for an Icelandic citizen to support themselves, but not for a foreigner.
Laopha has been working in Iceland on a work permit held by her employer; but after four years, non-EEA foreigners are entitled to apply for residency permits, which are issued to the individual and not to employers.
Lawyer Katrin Theodorsdottir, working on Laopha’s behalf, says the situation is bizarre and asks what message the Directorate of Immigration is sending out to all low-paid workers in Iceland.
“The message from the Directorate of Immigration is that it is simply not enough for a foreigner to work legally full-time in order to support themselves and their children,” the lawyer told Visir.is.
If she came from Denmark and not from Thailand…??? If she was of European decent??? Then this would never have happened. Come on Iceland, can the racism, you guys are not rich enough to claim master race anymore. These attitudes to foreigners are just getting boring. A little humility and a little more humanity might not go astray.
Truly unbelievable.. yet another message from the Útlendingastofa that foreigners are not welcome here.
hi! there are many foreing people with diferent similar problems. i im olways here something about that the imigration office is very often hard on people which are good. just in many cases dont know about new regulation and get ponish as they were big criminals the are real problems that most be sold and be asier on this hard working people and help then more not making then soffer. real criminals are in very good position and they make the real damage to the finalcial sistem and olmost not ponishment compare they do!etc.
Are Icelanders able to financially support themselves in their own country?
At this point i am ashamed of being Icalantic(living in usa thank God)the way you treat foreigners is shamful,it is ok for you to use them to do jobs that icelanders don’t want and pay them less, and then kick them in the gut or out of the country,who do you think you are???your coky self serving and thinking you are better than every other country attitude is a big joke,for haven sakes get real for a chance,this Attitude is not going to get you any where, exept NO RESPECT IN THE WORLD,AND YOU CAN’T AFFORD THAT…..
bölvaðir rasistar í utl utanríisráðuneytið ætti að skipta út öllu fólkinu þar
damn racist in utl the foreign ministry should fire all there
Government cannot solve our problems. It cannot define our vision. Government cannot eliminate poverty, or provide a bountiful economy, or reduce inflation, or save our cities, or cure illiteracy, or provide energy. It is like a big baby – an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the end. That sums it all. So, all these spendings and unprecedented deficits are for nothing but a cash cow for corrupt politicians as usual, and you, the common people are paying for it all. The joke is on you.
I heard UDI is the strictest among Nordic Countries. Could anyone confirm that ?!
What a shame on you útlendingastofnun ( directorate of slavery ) Again treating people like slaves pushing them to do any work to keep their permits alive and that is not enough money .Married , a worker or even unemployed gets just descrimination from this helvitis office .If it is a free and a democratic country that should not happen at all . In countries full of immigration problems do not do that, they follow the fair law not the xenophopic law of the UTL.And why you do that ?? Any way, this office does not at all reprensent the icelandic nation ,culture and its great people .
Afram real Iceland …
” Are Icelanders able to financially support themselves in their own country?”
Good point, LOL this question should be put out to the útlendingastofnun.
Even to point out to them if their workers are able to financially support themselves.
What a shame, then they go around wanting the world to feel sorry for them.
Yip Yip, please don’t think for one single second that anyone is a representative for the bureaucracy in any country. It is the exact same kind of prejudice that this article covers and if you find this article to describe a deplorable act of blatant prejudice, then please reconsider what you just wrote.
For some reason I put in Yip Yip instead of my own name. ;) Sorry about that.
I’m an Icelander living in Canada, and I don’t believe that immigration is anything else than a pain in the butt everywhere. There simply is no political pressure to make any reasonable decisions, at all. It seems that policy is just based on the random ideas of people here and there within the system, not actually to achieve any particular goal.
Helgi, I think you’re right. I am a Canadian who has recently returned home after 6 years in Iceland. I always had a real tough time with permits etc while in Iceland.. . but nothing close to what my Icelandic wife will be going through here in Canada.. Not to mention the cost is much much more here in Canada. Where in Canada are you? I would be interested in hearing from you. Preparing to submit my partners applications now. stainless_steele(at)hotmail(dot)com . I hope you are enjoying my country as much as I enjoyed yours. . . .
The head of the serpent who really treat people bad and do his best to put a beaurocratic porocedure to prevent them from having their permits in this Helviti UTL is (Hreiðar Eiriksson)…and u never see them talk to media ….
Because they know they are wrong but they are Sadic enjoying the suffering of others .
Really disappointed about the racism,i wonder what icelanders think they are,afterall many forigners are better than these icelanders in many ways.If not for marriage sake i wouldnt like to associate myself among them.A word is enough for the wise,give that lady her permit to continue her life afterall she is paying her taxes.Woes to these characters its very disgraceful and nothing to write about.Icelanders you need to go to school of change,change for a better tomorrow in your country.
Utl is just infinitely stupid. I would like to ask the boss of that organization, is your salary justified and more than that, where is it coming from? Probably from the IMF loans? What a shame a literally bankrupt country setting up an extreme example of racism and discrimination. That will only isolate Iceland. If you want sympathy from the world, you better learn how to show sympathy too. This brings us to the question, should other countries and the IMF be giving money to Iceland at all? Lets just ask them to support themselves or go f*** themselves!
I imagine that the government probably want to keep the jobs for the Icelanders. The personal circumstances of immigrants from places like Thailand rarely factor into these decisions. One extra job in a nation of 300,000 people is a big deal. I’m not saying its right, but that is what is probably going on.
I find it very starnge that Icenews, doesn’t post any news from the voting on Eyan about Icesave, I wonder why? neither VIS nad RUV(well, a small, article in some corner where anybody would see it) only MBL did.
>“The message from the Directorate of Immigration is that it is simply not enough for a foreigner to work legally full-time in order to support themselves and their children,” the lawyer told Visir.is.
I am happy ( if this is full story of this person case ) this poor decision making is getting its exposure to scrutiny.
The way that companys own the work permit of people that come from outside the EEA is just wrong. It is not an idea fit for 21 st century.
I hope that the person that did make this decision ( as I say if this is all the information on this case we should know ) does hang they head in shame.
This idea just does come from the owning of people work permits by company though. Reform that stupid law to make it that a person can move to another employer with out reapplying and abuses of people like this will stop.
As to other idiot ideas the best one is still the taxing of company director in the startup companys :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/11/08/iceland-plans-to-subsidise-innovation/#comment-100911
From another perspective http://www.UTL.is is doing a good job keeping downtown Reykjavik far away from what downtown Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm look like.
I have noticed more of a dislike of foreigners since the kreppa and that is no surprise.After all Icelanders have been treated unfairly by many countries since the crash happened.Of course it’s not right but Iceland cannot look after Icelanders right now and all its resources should be directed towards that.
When the new tax laws come in next month(people paying 37% will be paying 47%)even more foreigners will leave the country.Iceland will go back to the time when most people needed to do two jobs to survive.
2010 is going to be the harshest for almost all Icelanders.
Iceland needs foreign workers in order to survive the economic crisis.
How did Icelanders feel to be governed by the Danish crown? They felt a lot of injustice and now they are returning these feelings towards people who are really necessary for Iceland’s survival.
Well, Iceland’s forcing of companies to pay directors at least as much as their previous job seems madness to me. It’s putting nanny socialism right where it doesn’t belong, right into the heart of entrepreneurial capitalism. It would seem to prevent well-paid senior managers from setting up their own companies and happily accepting lower salaries whilst they build the new business. Does any other country also have that law (eg Cuba or North Korea)?
Fred said:”2010 is going to be the harshest for almost all Icelanders”
In fact 2010 will be only the begining. This is going down and will get even deeper before it gets better, I dont think this generationn will see it.
This piece of news seems to confirm the trend.
Some people had already noticed that something was not right about how foreigners were being treated in Iceland not long ago:
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/04/17/a-letter-from-an-icenews-reader/
There is alot of anger and disapointment in Iceland right now, that affects everyone in iceland, people who see themselves as foreigners get just as much of this as i and other native icelanders get, people tend to get depressed in a depression,
life is not easy right now and its going to get tougher, just suck it up,
this blows over when things pick up, lots of icelanders will leave next year because they were ruined in the depression by the banks and the government,
its tough when someone who immigrates from Thailand is considered to be better off in the home country.
I wonder what motive for enyone to stay there exept long and painfull dead
people working at the immigration should be fired. what a shame to the society.if the poor woman cannot support herself how come she still here and not living in the streets.you are all pain in the ***. be nice, who knows thailand can help you in the future, how can you be too proud in time of crisis.shame all on you people at immigration.
Hmm… I was thinking of leaving the USA and eventually retiring to Iceland. Maybe I should reconsider Germany?
Dear Sir: I think Iceland must take a kind of expanding stratedy for
all foreigner who are safe and sound and would like to settle down in
there,because the land of Iceland doesn’t have enough population to
survive more his industry,economy,trade and many more to say.Even
this good royal country must set some advantages for all foreigners
and not as a refugee ,but as a human being to absorb more instead of
retracting them only for the sake of holy country which is called
” ICELAND ” and God bless this land,people,government and all its
unravished nature.Yours.
Wow! Are you people saying that Iceland is racist!? I had no idea!! I have wanted to live there since i was in year 6!!
That totally sucks…
>Wow! Are you people saying that Iceland is racist!?
Small island tight-knit community, historically isolated and harsh living. What’s the surprise.
You need to add it in as a factor when considering the place as a whole. My preferred place is NZ and I can’t move to the South Island for the same reason.
As a foreigner in Iceland, I believe Bromley’s comment is true but harsh. There are lots of foreigners here and most of them have a good time of it. However, there is certainly an interesting attitude.
As a White person, have you ever tried immigrating to China, India or Thailand to become a citizen?? Sorry, wrong colour, and they’ll tell you up front without any p.c. blathering!
Whites amount to only 8% of the world’s population, yet white countries are expected to allow a huge influx of the ‘other’ 92% to flood into their countries without restrictions!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Y8lV_LPxs&feature=player_embedded
http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/canadians-duped-on-multiculturalism/