4 ms·
That was true a few decades ago. Demand for tourism jobs has outstripped supply (especially in summer months) so a good number of people have come to Iceland (s
by ytdytvhxgydvhh 3y ago
That was true a few decades ago. Demand for tourism jobs has outstripped supply (especially in summer months) so a good number of people have come to Iceland (some temporarily, some permanently) to work. Poles are the largest group, making up about 5% of the population of Iceland: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Iceland https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_Iceland
Anecdotally, on a recent trip I briefly felt like there were no Icelanders in Iceland - I had a British masseuse, a Finnish horse tour guide, and a Namibian scuba guide.
- paddim8 3y agoYeah Americans seem to have gotten the idea that nordic countries are completely homogenous for some reason. It's absurd how often I see them act like we can't compare our countries to the US because we apparently have no immigrants.
- AlbertCory 3y ago"Nordic countries" is an inappropriate generalization. The other ones are not islands.
- paddim8 3y agoPeople say this about both Sweden and Iceland and it's not true for either of them.
- dukeyukey 3y agoThey aren't, but Scandinavia may as well be. The only land border is an icy, barely-populated taiga controlled by an extremely authoritarian, violence-happy enemy of the West. My bet is crossing that border is _significantly_ harder than the US-Mexico border
- AlbertCory 3y agothey do have a bridge to Denmark now, though.
- dontupvoteme 3y ago>The only land border is an icy, barely-populated taiga controlled by an extremely authoritarian, violence-happy enemy of the West Finland isn't that bad
- mchaver 3y agoIn the US there are many ideas about how things work in Sweden without closely considering facts. This is often politically motivated regardless of political affiliation.
- bernawil 3y agoIt's a mid 2000s internet trope that somewhat persists. Back when Ericsson and Nokia where cool the media would make an example of Sweden and Finland. Every discussion would be a variation on: - "I want $LIBERTARIAN_POLICY policy" - "In Sweden, they have $SOCIALIST_POLICY and its better!" - "That only works because it's small and homogeneous!" That, or people would motte-and-bailey harder left-wing opinions behind the Sweden motte.
- MrDresden 3y agoIn most cases you have Icelanders running the tourism business, but they won't be fronting the business necessarily. That is where imported labour comes in.