The IUAES 2020 congress, Coming of Age on Earth: Legacies and Next Generation Anthropology, hosted by the Institute for Anthropological Research (CROATIA), took place online from March 9-14, 2021.

Kristín Loftsdóttir and her PhD student Sigrún K. Valsdóttir, participated in the panel Imagining Europe – Fantasies Around Migration to Europe, chaired by Sophia Thubauville (Goethe University Frankfurt), Kristín Loftsdóttir (University of Iceland) and Vinicius Kaue Ferreira (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

Kristín and Sigrún gave a presentation called “Investing in the Future: Post-Crisis Migration Between Spain and Iceland“ which discussed an article they are currently writing together and is based on Sigrún‘s PhD research. The presentation focused on migration from Spain to Iceland, and while both countries suffered in the economic crash of 2008, Iceland was quick to recover economically. The expansion of the tourism industry after 2010 drew many people to Iceland for temporary jobs, which were coupled by positive presentations of Iceland in European media. The discussion focused in particular on future anticipations of Spanish migrants in Iceland and how Iceland as a northern European country features within such imaginations. Now a decade after the economic crash, the question is what has happened in the aspirations of those who emigrated, searching for different future elsewhere? Has the belief in a future ‘back home’ been restored, or has it been cancelled indefinitely? The article builds on fieldwork in Iceland and Spain, as well as interviews with Spanish migrants in Iceland.

Other participants who presented their work in the panel were Alina Ioana Branda: “Fluid Europe? On Intra- European Imaginaries and Experiences of Migration”; Annika Kirbis “Fantasies of the ‘Eternal Enemy’: The Figure of the ‘Turk’ and Xenophobia in Austria Today”; Sarah Bittel: “European Dreams – Briding Excepectations and Apsirations”; Helena Dedecek Gertz: “Migrants Imagining Europe Through Media: Making the Case for a Research Agenda” and Vinicius Kaue Ferreira: “Transnational Elites, Intertwined Histories: Postcolonial Imaginaries Amongst Indian Scholars Building an Academic Career in the United Kingdom”.

/25.3.2021