Once rather indistinct island in the North Atlantic, Iceland recently became one of the most desired tourist destinations. The number of visitors to Iceland increased from 460,000 in 2010 to 2.3 million in 2018 (Sæþórsdóttir, Hall and Wendt, 2020). The rapid expansion of the tourism industry – accompanied by extensive self-branding of the country – inevitably prompted considerable labour migration, some of which was directly driven by the tourism sector. Tourism-related employment in Iceland more than doubled between 2009 and 2018. In 2019, foreigners made up 36% of all employees in the tourism sector, of whom 76% were employed in accommodation and catering (Júlíusdóttir and Halldórsdóttir, 2020). Compelling images of Iceland, predominantly produced for the purpose of the tourism industry, not only established Iceland as fashionable destination for leisure trips but have also inspired migrants who are looking for a peaceful and enchanting place to live or work, whether for shorter or longer periods. The considerable price gap between Eastern Europe and Iceland often inclines young people from this region to either resort to unpaid work for exchange of accommodation and food or to seek for work in Iceland in order to finance their travel. In this sense, Iceland capitalizes double on its exotic image. Clearly, enlargement of the European Union and opening of the Icelandic labour market to citizens of the new member states enabled different forms of mobility, like those combining tourism and work. In this paper, I analyse the narratives of these young migrants in order to reflect on different forms of inequality implied in this tourism inspired migration to Iceland.
