Happy Labour Day Everyone!
I’m here today as a member of the new boards of Efling and also, as a worker of care.
For the last year and a half I was cleaning, I was baking, changing sheets, vacuuming, cleaning walls, setting the laundry, moving it to the dryer, serving your food, talking to the guests, caring about your tourists, rooms cleaned on time, fresh coffee in the kitchen, “how was your day, the weather will be better tomorrow, don’t worry”.
I care for your relatives; your grandparents; mothers that need to deal with the children, the house, professional career and their passions; overworked couples who want to feel at home when they’re back from work. I care for them not only by making their houses easier to live in but by chatting, building friendships, using my skills, my personality, my story.
I’m just one of your invisible, foreign workers of care. We are in all the sectors that are needed for this island to work properly, so your tourists will be still coming, so you can gain your money, so your business can run.
Housekeepers, cleaners, receptionists, construction workers, teachers, midwives, doctors, programmers. This island is not working without us. We care for you. Care for us, Iceland. Take care of us and build the infrastructure in which we can live safely, take care of your house market so we don’t have to move every couple of months, take care of the minimum wage and shady employers practices, so we don’t have to hold multiple jobs to make ends meet and to have time to learn your language.
Foreign workers of Iceland are here, we want to be seen and appreciated. We care for you, care for us, Iceland.