Once Booming Iceland Hit by Population Exodus
April 8, 2010
Once wealthy Iceland, suffering from 18 months of economic upheaval marked by failed banks, a collapsed housing market, plummeting currency and still rising unemployment, is being hit by the largest exodus since 1887, according to a story–Destitute and Desperate, Icelanders Opt for Exile–by the AFP news service.
"I just don't see any future here," said Anna Margret Bjoernsdottir, who plans to move to Norway in June. "There isn't going to be any future in this country for the next 20 years, everything is going backwards," she said.
In 2009, more than 10,600 people left the country of fewer than 320,000 inhabitants, according to official statistics, with 4,835 more people moving away than immigrating.
Foreign workers, mainly Poles, who since the beginning of the decade had been drawn to Iceland's financial miracle, were the first to leave.
But Icelanders like Bjoernsdottir have not been far behind, most heading to the country's still prosperous Nordic neighbours, especially Norway.
"I don't think I can offer a good future to my daughter Olavia" in Iceland, Bjoernsdottir said.
Like many other Icelanders who have seen their worlds collapse since the financial turmoil began, Bjoernsdottir's predicament stems from the decision, on advice from her banker, to take up a loan in foreign currency.
Repayments on her loan, in yens and Swiss francs, became insurmountable after the Icelandic krona nose-dived following the banking sector implosion.
"My loans are twice as high as they were," she said, shaking her head in disgust. "The payments keep going higher and higher, so I have to leave, I'm forced to!"
Iceland's economy is expected by analysts to stabilize in 2010; however gross domestic product shrank 6.5 percent in 2009 and unemployment was still going up in the first three months of this year.
