Iceland wants immigrants to learn the language

AFP English

In Iceland's parliament, six cleaners take a break from their duties to spend time learning Icelandic, seen as one of the principal barriers to integration in the country. Of the Nordic country's roughly 400,000 residents, about one in five have an immigrant background, and few of them speak Icelandic, which experts say could affect social cohesion.

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00:00I would like to communicate with Icelandic people when they are speak in my family because

00:28we are Icelandic family and at work when we have the meeting all the time I couldn't

00:36understand.

00:37What does Iceland want to be in the future?

01:05One cannot afford having 20% of the population not speaking the language.

01:11This is really becoming an issue of social cohesion for Iceland that there is such a

01:16large part of the population are immigrants who do not speak the language.

01:39What's also interesting is that there is a difference in the reading scores between

01:43those who speak Icelandic at home and those who do not.

01:47The former population was just half of that size and actually if you take an even longer

01:51perspective.

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