Being a desirable migrant: perception and racialisation of Icelandic migrants in Norway

Abstract

In the aftermath of the financial crisis that hit Iceland in October 2008, increased numbers of Icelanders migrated to Norway to seek employment due to difficult economic circumstances in Iceland. Using critical perspectives from postcolonial studies and critical whiteness studies, the paper explores how these Icelandic migrants in Norway make sense of their new position as economic migrants within a global economy characterised by a growing sense of precariousness, while past inequalities and racism continue to matter. We also examine how these migrants are perceived in Norwegian media, and how social discourses of Icelandic migrants reflect larger Norwegian debates on racism, desirability and cultural belonging. Media discourses in Norway and interviews with Icelandic migrants reveal a hierarchy of acceptability of migrants. Icelanders are positioned as highly desirable compared to other migrant groups due to the intersection of perceived racial belonging, nationality and class. Our discussion contributes, furthermore, towards a critical analysis of the category migrant, by exploring how the term immigrant (innvandrer/innflytjandi) is used in narratives of Icelandic migrants in Norway and in Norwegian media discussions, showing the negative and racialised connotations of the term immigrant and how its understanding is linked with vulnerable positions and discrimination. ARTICLE HISTORY

Cultural Precarity: Migrants’ Positionalities in the Light of Current Anti-immigrant Populism in Europe

“…Yet the focus on the seemingly contradictory positions these migrants take can help us to address pressing issues such as the persistence of exclusionary logics of nationalism in the everyday (Bonikowski 2016), and the new constellations of racial inequalities (Back et al 2012;Erel et al 2016). Studying intra-European migrants in post-Brexit-vote Britain also shows us how whiteness as a marker of privilege (McDowell 2009;Fox et al 2012;Guðjónsdóttir and Loftsdóttir 2017) is currently changing to encompass its new shades.…”

Intersecting Experiences: Class, Gender, Ethnicity and Race in the Lives of Highly Skilled Migrants in Finland

“…In the framework of Finland, this differentiation is made by both the Finns and the skilled migrants themselves by describing themselves as 'foreigners', as opposed to 'immigrants' (Koskela 2014;Leinonen 2012a, see also Mozetic 2018 in Sweden). In this comparison, being a skilled migrant is a positive socio-economic class identity in general, as well as a more positive identity than being perceived as 'immigrant', a heavily racialised categorization in all of the Nordic countries (Guðjónsdóttir & Loftsdóttir 2017).…”

“…Conversely to the ethnicised gender of these studies, Clarke (2014) has looked at how American female migrants discuss their gendered and privileged migrant identities in Finland, and Lulle & Balode (2014) discuss 'hierarchies within whiteness' in relation to Latvian skilled female migrants in Finland. Similarly, Guðjónsdóttir & Loftsdóttir (2017) look at how race, nationality and class intersect in the notion of belonging among Icelandics in Norway.…”

Downward Professional Mobility among Poles Working and Living in Norway

“…Polish migrants have been moving in large numbers to Western European countries since the nineties. While Poles have become an increasingly large national group in many countries in Europe (there are currently an estimated 2.5 million Poles living in other European countries), the widespread image of a Pole, more than any other European nationality, has been reduced to the most prototypical labour migrant and an object of discrimination both in Scandinavia (Guðjónsdóttir 2014;Guðjónsdóttir & Loftsdóttir 2017;Loftsdóttir 2017) and in other regions of Europe (van Heuckelom 2013; van Riemsdijk 2010). The stigma of ' otherness' of Polish migrants has been also identified by a wide range of research on media coverage (e.g., Drzewiecka, Hoops & Thomas 2014;Taylor & Śliwa 2011;van Heuckelom 2013).…”