Eva Heida Önnudottir
Viðhorf Íslendinga til innflytjenda á Íslandi

Bifröst Journal of Social Science, 2009: 3, pp. 67-95
ISSN: 1670-7788

This article reports on the results of a survey by the Bifröst University Research Center in which Icelandic citizens were asked about their views on immi­grants in Iceland. The answers were compared with existing data from similar surveys in Iceland and other European countries. The article begins with a brief discussion of the increased number of immigrants in Iceland in the past few years and Iceland’s development towards a multicultural society. Among the goals of the survey was to see whether those who are socioeconomically worse off have a more negative view of immigrants than those who are in a better socioeconomic position, and the results sug­gest that this is indeed the case. The article considers whether this might be because those who are worse off experience immigrants as competition on the labor market. The survey shows that Icelanders in general have a more positive view of immigrants than in other countries, even though this view has become more negative in recent years at the same time as the number of immigrants in Iceland has increased.