Cicenaite Goda

I am doing a Ph.D. in Global Studies at the University of Iceland. My article-based dissertation analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Lithuanian immigrants and migrant workers in Iceland. With the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, the Nordic countries became a destination for considerable numbers of Eastern European labour migrants. For Lithuanian labour migration, Iceland was among desired destinations. While bringing economic benefits, migration to a new country is challenging, which can be seen as enhanced significantly by the global pandemic. This project analyses how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Lithuanian immigrants and migrant workers in Iceland, exploring Lithuanians’ socio-economic status, integration into Icelandic society, and racialisation during the pandemic. Foreign-born workers are more likely to have temporary employment and work in sectors that are the most severely affected by the pandemic. The project asks how Lithuanians balance their lives between Iceland and Lithuania during the pandemic and post-pandemic times, exploring the kind of obstacles that COVID-19 brought to newly-arrived Lithuanians in Iceland and if it exacerbated old issues such as marginalisation. Using in-depth interviewing as the principal qualitative research technique, the research analyses Lithuanian nationals’ labour conditions, experiences of settling in and living in Iceland in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the secondary data gathered from existing literature, and statistical reports, I produce findings that will shed light on the holistic image of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Lithuanians in Iceland and changes in migration.

Migration; COVID-19 socio-economic consequences on particular communities.