Gendered migration in turbulent times in Iceland

Abstract

Despite the image of gender equality in Iceland, a highly gender-segregated labour market persists, which to a limited extent has been challenged by employment-related migration and ethnification in part of the labour market in recent years. The article, which is based on the various studies by the authors, maps the contours of migrations from the early 1990s. An intersectional approach is applied in an analysis of how gender intersects with ethnicity and class to generate the existing gendered labour market. Iceland is an interesting case for studying gender and contemporary employment-related mobility on the Atlantic rim because it has only recently become an immigration country and has experienced rising emigration of Icelanders in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008. International and internal migration is identified in the country as shaped by socio-economic restructuring at different geographical scales and labour markets characterized by gender and ethnic segregation and hierarchies. Immigrant women have taken over low-strata jobs, following the increased social and spatial mobility of Icelandic women. Meanwhile, fluctuations in the construction industry have primarily affected international migration by men.

Keywords:

• gender
• Iceland
• internal and international migration
• intersectionality
• segregated labour markets