Timarit Eflingar

ment with many other people. One employee who needed to be quarantined stated they were thrown out of the building they lived in with other people and moved to a container away from everything, without even access to food and water during the quarantine. The study showed that workers from outside the EEA were in the worst position. Their residence permit is dependent on employ- ment. If a worker is fired, it creates a very difficult situation for them. Among interviewees from outside the EEA, none were entitled to unempoyment benefit because all of them had either a temporary work permit or no work permit at all. All of the work- ers in this group found themselves temporarily without income for a period of time which forced the majority of them to take up illegal volunteer work. Arndís states that the situation these workers found themselves in was terrible. Some worked in rural areas, tens of kilometers from the nearest urban center, at a time when travel is restricted and borders closed. Workers found themselves stranded there, without income, housing or a social safety net. This highlights how important a social network is to people, especially during times of economic hardship. Foreign workers in the Icelandic tourism industry often lack this social support network and this puts them in a very vulnerable position. Systemic problems need to be fixed Arndís was asked if these results came as a suprise to her and she stated that some aspects, such as the state of housing for workers, did suprise her. She says this is a reality check for her to witnes the serious situation many of her neighbors find themselves in. She feels responsibility for the trust that many of the workers interviewed placed in her to take their message to the places where it needs to be heard. She is optomistic that the municipality of Hornafjörður will consider these results and respond to them. She states it is not effective to tell everybody to work on these problems separately to resolve them because this is a large and system- ic problem. Arndís believes success lies in using defensive measures contained in the law to prevent criminal activity. This has not been done, possibly because the industry has undergone rapid development and not had the opportunity to address this problem and its scale. Arndís stresses the importance of interest groups for tour- ism companies in considering the results of this study. She concludes “It must be advantageous for them to take good care of the workers in tourism. There are many factors involved but it is not benificial to tourism companies to use the workforce in this way on the Icelandic labor market. So yes, I hope the right people will consider the results of this study and work to improve the conditions for foreign employ- ees in tourism.“ TÍMARIT EFLINGAR-STÉTTARFÉLAGS 15