Marginalisation, Language and New Icelanders
Þýðing: Jean-Rémi Chareyre
Author: Elena Albertina Nagua Ajila, third-year BA-student in Icelandic as a second language
Immigrants who wish to learn Icelandic are confronted with many obstacles. For one, it can be more or less challenging depending on one’s mother tongue. Language acquisition is also a social matter – society can assist you or it can make things harder for you. Unfortunately, I have experienced the latter.
Refugees are granted a kennitala but are simultaneously condemned, along with their children, to living on the brink of poverty and remain forever in the service sector – which can also be a tacit agreement.
At school, children of immigrants encounter learning difficulties. For example, I have a daughter in high school and it was not an easy feat for her to get there. Her class includes three students of foreign origin and all of them are girls. Two of them were born here and my daughter settled in Iceland at the age of nine.
In elementary school, it is as if immigrant children are destined to live a life in the underworld. At first, they are isolated from Icelandic children. It is supposed to help them master the new language. But then there is insufficient planning and goal-setting, and schools are not always ready to provide assistance in such a way that it leads to a successful outcome.
Icelanders are fond of their language and concerns are sometimes being voiced about the language dying out as a consequence of new people settling here. But the problem is not just about whether those newcomers speak Icelandic or not, the problem is much bigger.
I know some teenagers of foreign origin who have had a hard time in elementary school, and grow up to become resentful of society. Is it not questionable whether individuals who have suffered in this way throughout their childhood and teenage years can become interested in the host society’s culture and customs, when this very same society has not contributed to their social integration?
I have myself experienced difficulties of the same kind. It happened once when I was taking a walk with my family who came from Switzerland to visit us. This was about 40 days after the birth of my younger daughter. Suddenly, a middle-aged man (around fifty) approached us and started to insult me and told me to leave Iceland, that Iceland was a christian country and so on. A while later, a polish man appeared and also started to insult me and spit at us. My daughter, who was then twelve years old, told him to leave us alone but the man started to follow us and continued to insult us. This event has been engraved in my children’s memory ever since.
Of course, we parents discuss with our children and teach them to respect every individual, but not everyone is willing to fix such problems.
When a six year old child grows up seeing his parents being abused by ignorant people and then experiences the same abuse at school, what kind of person is it likely to become as an adult?
We have to learn from the experience of some other European countries where a number of young immigrants who have never felt recognised as members of society turn to vandalism because they grew up marginalised, overwhelmed by the feeling of belonging nowhere. Because in their host country – which is sometimes in fact the country they were born in – they were never accepted as legitimate citizens. Many of those teenagers grow up without education and their only way to express their grievances can be one of the worst.
Do we want satisfied citizens who contribute? Of course, but we have to work for it. We need to take down the barriers that prevent effective integration, such as racism and intolerance. We also need to avoid packing all immigrants in one place, even though it can prove difficult as they tend to all end up in the cheaper neighbourhoods.
Social integration is a key to a more human and cohesive society. We immigrants want to be part of the social fabric and contribute to defining the norms and values that shape this Icelandic society that we live in.
Dear Icelanders, do not fear us newcomers. We are not here to take anyone’s job, we are here to do the work you don’t want to do. The Icelandic language will not disappear because of us. On the contrary, if we get the chance, we will learn and it will become easier for us as there are more of us and we are allowed to participate in building up this home country. We just need time, goodwill and opportunities. If you know someone who does not speak Icelandic, a neighbour, a work colleague or a family member, do not isolate them, do not ignore them, as perhaps they are waiting for an opportunity to have a simple conversation in order to listen and learn some Icelandic.