Policy change at Samfylking

'Samfylking' is an opposition party that is considered pro-European, defender of minority rights, humanitarian and multicultural. Now it looks like there will be a change of direction with the new chairman, Kristrún Frostadóttir. At a recent party meeting, immigration issues were discussed. It was strongly hinted that changes in focus are ahead in the party, which are related to the restriction of immigrants and refugees. A discussion that has only been found in far right parties and other extreme small parties.

Certainly, there are unsolved problems associated with the large number of foreigners in the country. The reason for the increase is primarily the enormous growth in tourism, which calls for a large workforce that is not available domestically and must be obtained abroad. Also, the low wage policy has led to a lack of domestic labor to work in services for hospitals, retirement homes and municipalities, and this labor also has to be sourced from abroad. the same applies to factories and fish processing. This calls for a high demand for housing, and construction contractors do not have access to enough domestic labor to build a large number of apartment blocks in a short time, so they also have to source labor from abroad.

The problem is that under these conditions and the housing shortage, housing prices have risen to usurious prices, and the same applies to rental prices. Icelandic is hardly spoken anymore in many workplaces and not at all in tourism and the restaurant sector. English is most commonly spoken. The problem spreads to the schools, where English and Polish are spoken more than Icelandic.

The number of refugees, especially from Ukraine and Venezuela, but also from other war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Palestine have created pressure on the housing market, where the state is obliged to provide housing for refugees.

Domestic refugees from disaster areas have added to the pressure and created tension in the housing market.

As the discussion is now, it seems that the only solution that people see is to put restrictions on refugees and immigrants and to deport people for crimes or any kind of violation of the law.