The 2015 Migrant Crisis as an Identity Crisis for Iceland

Abstract

Among small states in Europe, Iceland is unique for its extremely small population, geographical isolation and relatively strong economy. The 2015 migration crisis affected Iceland with a gradually rising number of asylum applications from the year 2012, with a sharp increase in 2016, characterized by a large proportion of applications from the Western Balkans. Despite “the wave” reaching Iceland about a year later, Iceland remained reactive and unprepared in its response. The “crisis” has remained mainly of a political nature as the country has coped relatively well with the administrative, economic and cultural challenges stemming from the increase. Iceland’s main challenges are therefore of a political nature, in balancing the strong human rights culture with an underlying fear of the numbers.

The author would like to put a disclaimer on the use of the term “crisis” in this context. As noted by Pace and Severance “Other countries, many of which have far fewer resources than Europe, have been facing acute versions of this migration flow for some time” (Pace and Severance 2016). International migration has increased in general in the past decades, for further elaboration on this see, e.g. (Martin, n.d.; Eurostat 2020). The author notes that many of the crisis-like circumstances stemming from the increased number of people arriving in Europe were in fact caused by the reaction of European states as well as the European Union, rather than by the inflow of people itself.