Timarit Eflingar

TÍMARIT EFLINGAR-STÉTTARFÉLAGS 21 Discrimination in the labor market He has not become an Icelandic citizen after decades of living in Iceland. He started to apply several times, but gave up due to the long and complicated application process. This is why he has no right to vote in Parliamentary elections and no representitive in Parliament. He does, however, have the right to vote in local elections and trade union elections. He moved here as an adult and Icelandic society did not have to invest in his welfare or education. He immediately entered the workforce. In doing so he contributed via taxes and duties to Icelandic society but without the opportunity to present his experience of the flaws within the labor market through democratically elected members of Parliament. Immigrants are one of the main driving forces of the Icelandic economy, however they are also the first to take the brunt of its failures while also having the least say in the country’s organization. Efling, the second largest union in the country, has close to 25,000 members. Half of its members are of foreign origin, most of whom are from Poland, and the number of foreign members has increased rapidly. The story of the Polish community in Iceland began with the Polish Revolution of 1989. During this time residents of small fishing villages were moving to the cities and Polish work- ers, mostly women, who now had an easier way out of their home country, took over the jobs in these villages. The real estate bubble a few years later attracted many Polish men to Iceland for work and more workers came when the borders between Poland and Iceland were opened in 2006, around the time the Kárahnjúkar power plant was under construc- tion. In one year the number of Polish people in Iceland increased from 3.629 to 6.572. Victims of class crime Icelanders called for foreign workers to help rebuild the nation’s economy through development of the tourism industry in the wake of the 2008 Crisis. Waiters, cooks, construction workers, bus drivers and hotel staff came from other countries to help build and staff new hotels, sell and organize group tours, and to work in the many new restau- rants. The rapid growth of the tourism industry resulted in Conditions of foreign workers in the Icelandic labor market