Reproduction of marginality: The labour market position of unemployed foreign citizens during economic recession in Iceland

Anna Wojtyńska*, Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Following the economic crash in 2008, many migrants in Iceland lost their jobs and experienced deteriorating working conditions. In 2011, four years after the onset of the recession, the unemployment rates among the foreign population remained significantly higher than among Icelanders. In this article, we discuss experiences of unemployed migrants concerning their changed position on the labour market in order to highlight the different mechanisms of labour market exclusion. On the basis of research among registered unemployed foreign citizens, we analyse the main reasons for their difficulties in finding new employment. The main obstacles as reported by survey respondents and focus groups participants were limited knowledge of Icelandic, increased reluctance among Icelandic employers to hire foreigners and insufficient social networking with the native population.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)702-720
Number of pages19
JournalMigration Studies
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was financed by 'The participation of immigrants in civil society and labour market in the economic recession', which was supported by PROGRESS, the European Community Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity in 2009 (grant number: VS/ 2010/0568 (SI2.574670)).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s).

Other keywords

  • economic recession
  • Iceland
  • labour market
  • mechanism of exclusion
  • unemployed migrants

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