Iceland's Poles

I saw an interesting segment on Ísland í dag about Iceland's Polish community, who comprise more than 1% of the population and are Iceland's largest minority. Although the segment bore the unfortunate title "The Polish Invasion", it did touch on many important points. One of them was the fact that although most Poles coming to Iceland are well-educated, most of them work in entry-level positions. This was attributed (and rightly so) to the ever-increasing cost of Icelandic language classes and their lack of availability in the countryside. I would add that a more immediate cause is Iceland's policy towards people who've been educated abroad.

I've heard numerous testimonials from foreigners living in Iceland who have a degree - sometimes several, at a Bachelor's, Master's or even doctorate level - who are still told by employers that their educations are not good enough. They are told that they must attend a few years of Icelandic university. In some cases, they have to take two years of secondary school before they can even think of attending university.

Imagine the absurdity: Iceland is experiencing a labour shortage, the health care industry is in crisis, yet we are keeping educated and qualified people out of the market. How does this help anyone?

The New Icelanders' Party proposes that, instead of keeping educated and qualified people from contributing to society, that they be made to take an equivalency exam for the position in their chosen field. In this way, Icelandic employers can know that they are receiving qualified staff without having to put them through the unnecessary task of several years' of learning what they already know - at a cost to us all.

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Finally, I'd like to remind those of you who don't already know that the Festival of Polish Culture begins tomorrow at 16:00 at Café Cultura with an exhibition of the works of Ireneusz Jankou. The festival will continue until 1 October, featuring music, dance, art and more. For more information, visit www.polska.is. Hope to see you there!