ALEXANDER ELLIOTT
A new report from the Réttur legal office, financially supported by the immigration issues development fund, has concluded that many hindrances still exist for educated immigrants who want to work for government institutions in Iceland. These hindrances lead to wasted opportunities for both New Icelanders and public sector employers.
The report is in Icelandic but has an English executive summary and can be viewed here. Additionally, Réttur will host a one-hour-long public meeting to present the report at 12.00 on Thursday 7th November at Hannesarholt, Grundarstígur 10, in 101 Reykjavík.
The main conclusions in the report are that various hindrances persist preventing educated immigrants landing jobs at government institutions in Iceland. Imperfect Icelandic language skills are probably the biggest, but there are also inequalities in law and in government policy, as well as in execution.
These conclusions echo those in the MIPEX report on Iceland from 2015, which claimed that Iceland’s immigrant assimilation policy sometimes creates more problems than solutions for immigrants’ active participation in society.
