Ever since the last decades of the 19th century has foreign workers migrinated to Iceland to work in fish processing industry. In the latter part of that century was the accommodation of workers very bad and Icelandic employers gave no true picture of working conditions or wages. Trade unions had nothing to do with these immigrants and language barriers made it hard for them to communicate with the locals. In the article The industry situation of foreign migrant workers, Wich was translated and published in the journal Language and Culture (Tímarit Máls og Menningar) 1980, Leah Kay describes the situation of migrant workers in Iceland. The Icelandic translation is published here.

Aðstæður erlends farandverkafólks

Helga M. Novak is a German poet, who lived part of her life in Iceland. She worked in the fishing industry in the Vestman Islands in 1967 and composed a poem, Das Gefrierhaus (freezing plant), which can befound below. Helga also composed another poem "Employer - Work recipient". Thorstein Thorsteinsson translated the poems. They appeard in the journal Language and Culture 1980, and published here at the courtesy of the magazine is copyright holder.

Frystihúsið

Like an animal in a cage is an article by Polish girl. Kaisa Kasprzyk - Copeland were she disuss her in the Icelandic "húsbúri" and communication with  local super-humans, isolation and language difficulties.