Migration and Cultural Transmission: Making a Home in Iceland A thesis submitted for a final examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology as an External Student of the University of London By Nína Rós Ísberg 2010 1 Abstract The research is about the assimilation of women immigrants in Icelandic society through domesticity and the home. The focus is on the material practices that act to incorporate ‘foreign women’ into being Icelandic, accepting the ambivalence and resistances that act to preserve certain emotional attachments to former identities whilst at the same time considering the role of the senses and emotions in promoting knowledgeable, gendered subjects capable of acting in changed circumstances. In particular I look at the experience of immigrant women in making and running a home, bringing up their children and how this experience is materialized in daily activities. I focus on a group of German women who came to Iceland in 1949 to work, especially in rural areas where cheap labour was needed. Many of them stayed, married and established families and became Icelandic citizens. Immigration policies in Iceland have been strongly assimilationist and therefore the research shows the effects this assimilation has had on the identity of these women and what implications their identities have for understanding Icelandic identity in general. Comparison of this group to another younger one which has arrived in the last five to fifteen years makes apparent the role of domesticity and kinship relations in assimilating immigrant women into the Icelandic society. The research is carried out according to standard anthropological techniques of interviewing and participant observation. Archival and audio-video material is also used. The material collected is put into historical and social context through a focus on oral history and discussions of current memory work in anthropology and cultural Heritage studies. 2 Acknowledgements Various people have helped me along the way in my work on this thesis. It was very helpful to give talks early on in the research process and I want to thank the Centre for Women’ Studies at the University of Iceland and the Anthropology Society of Iceland for giving me the opportunity to do so. My supervisor, Mike Rowlands, deserves many thanks for all the help and advice he has given to me, not to mention the patience. I want to thank him in particular for the opportunity to stay at the Anthropology Department at University College London for a few months, where I presented a draft and benefited greatly from comments and discussions by students and staff. I would also like to thank the immigrant women, and men, for giving me so generously of their time, for confiding in me and allowing me to use their life stories in my research. I have changed their names as we agreed on and I hope to do their stories some justice and give them a certain voice through this work which I want to dedicate to them. Finally, I want to thank my parents for their support and last but not least my husband, Samson, for endless patience and loving support. 3 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................... 6 Research methods ......................................................................................................... 13 Outline of chapters ........................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 1 – Historical background ............................................................. 18 Migration and the making of a new society .................................................................. 18 The arrival of the Germans ........................................................................................... 21 Citizenship .................................................................................................................... 24 Population increase and fertility ................................................................................... 25 Immigration................................................................................................................... 26 Theoretical overview .................................................................................... 32 Theories on gender and nationalism ............................................................................. 32 The narrative of Iceland ................................................................................................ 33 Icelandic Nationalism ................................................................................................... 34 Nationalism and Purity ................................................................................................. 36 Migration theories ......................................................................................................... 38 Memory ......................................................................................................................... 40 Iceland in a regional context ......................................................................................... 42 Chapter 2 - Kinship and marriage .............................................................. 44 Genealogy ..................................................................................................................... 46 Kinship in Iceland ......................................................................................................... 47 Kinship obligations ....................................................................................................... 56 Marriage ........................................................................................................................ 58 The household and the farm .......................................................................................... 60 Children......................................................................................................................... 65 Working on a farm ........................................................................................................ 66 Marrying ....................................................................................................................... 69 Settling .......................................................................................................................... 73 Having children ............................................................................................................. 79 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 3 – Naming and cultural transmission through names ............... 84 The Icelandic naming system........................................................................................ 89 Icelandic names ............................................................................................................. 91 Naming children............................................................................................................ 93 Naming children after kin ............................................................................................. 94 The Name law ............................................................................................................... 99 Names and tradition .................................................................................................... 104 The danger of surnames .............................................................................................. 105 The Name Committee ................................................................................................. 108 Renaming Germans ..................................................................................................... 108 (Not so) Cosmopolitan identities ................................................................................ 111 Passing names on to children ...................................................................................... 113 Children’s names: assimilation at the private level .................................................... 116 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 120 4 Chapter 4 – Making a home ...................................................................... 122 The home in a regional and historical context ............................................................ 127 The backwardness of the countryside ......................................................................... 128 Housing in Iceland ...................................................................................................... 130 The modernization of the agriculture .......................................................................... 131 The housing policies in Reykjavík .............................................................................. 133 The Interior ................................................................................................................. 134 Coming into another home.......................................................................................... 136 Establishing a home .................................................................................................... 140 Making a home in the countryside .............................................................................. 141 Bringing