[BRIEF NOTE] Moving to .is
Mar. 27th, 2005 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldAbiola Lapite, over at Foreign Dispatches, has observed that the behaviour of Bobby Fischer as he prepares to leave Japan for Iceland is rather deranged. Speaking--of course--as someone who has no personal experience with the man, based on the press converage I can't disagree with Abiola's conclusion that "it's been a principle of the law since Roman times that the mentally unhinged cannot be held legally responsible for their actions; it would be best for everyone if US action against this lunatic were simply quietly dropped."
Fischer's speedy naturalization in Iceland--he acquired citizenship in twelve minutes--highlights Iceland's very recent evolution into a country of immigration, for, as Jill Lawless' article on immigration to Iceland makes clear, Fischer is only one of many new Icelanders.
What I find interesting about the whole affair is that Iceland--a prosperous country, an innovative country, an attractive community--is frequently positioned by Atlantic Canadians, especially Newfoundlanders, as the future that could have been. And no, this discussion isn't phrased in terms of a successful Vinland, provocative as that idea is. No, in the late 19th century, Atlantic Canada was still a place that people immigrated to; contemporary Iceland was a place that the natives abandoned in massive numbers. If only, the Atlantic Canadian argument goes, something had gone differently, maybe then we'd be in better shape. Maybe we'd be a place that people moved to; maybe the cod wouldn't have been vacuumed up; maybe we could have had a Björk. Ifs and maybes all, but that implicit counterfactual is always seductive. Certainly we'd have had more sunlight.
Fischer's speedy naturalization in Iceland--he acquired citizenship in twelve minutes--highlights Iceland's very recent evolution into a country of immigration, for, as Jill Lawless' article on immigration to Iceland makes clear, Fischer is only one of many new Icelanders.
The number of foreign-born residents has doubled in the past decade, but is still only 10,000 people, just more than three per cent of the population. There are Portuguese construction workers building a major dam in the east of the country, Poles working in northern fish factories and Thai cleaners in Reykjavik's hotels, as well as a smattering of young Europeans and North Americans attracted by the country's coziness, strong social safety net and high standard of living.
"It was clean, peaceful, isolated - just what I wanted," said Paul Nikolov, an American journalist who moved here six years ago. "Not at all like Baltimore."
The downside is that immigrants often feel like a very visible minority. Many complain it is difficult to gain acceptance from Icelanders.
"Most people ask me why I am here," said Mustapha Moussaoui, an Algerian who works as a chef in a Reykjavik cafe. "And when you work with Icelanders, they won't treat you as a friend for the first year or two - until they get to know you and respect you."
Then there's the weather - "depressing, dark, icy."
"To be honest, it's a really hard life here," said Moussaoui, who is married to an Icelandic woman.
What I find interesting about the whole affair is that Iceland--a prosperous country, an innovative country, an attractive community--is frequently positioned by Atlantic Canadians, especially Newfoundlanders, as the future that could have been. And no, this discussion isn't phrased in terms of a successful Vinland, provocative as that idea is. No, in the late 19th century, Atlantic Canada was still a place that people immigrated to; contemporary Iceland was a place that the natives abandoned in massive numbers. If only, the Atlantic Canadian argument goes, something had gone differently, maybe then we'd be in better shape. Maybe we'd be a place that people moved to; maybe the cod wouldn't have been vacuumed up; maybe we could have had a Björk. Ifs and maybes all, but that implicit counterfactual is always seductive. Certainly we'd have had more sunlight.
