Large increase of families from Iceland moving to Norway

From islandsk.no. Some parts from the article:

The Icelandic shipping companies Eimskip and Samskip report a growing demand for freight services from families leaving Iceland, which has doubled over the amount last year. Every day there is at least one family that leaves Iceland. In February the National Institude for Working Life said that if the situation did not improve there would be dramatically more leaving in the spring and summer, which seems to be the case now. There is a marked increase in those leaving to Norway.

Samskip said that they have had a 20% increase in freight for personal emmigration from Iceland in 2009, compared with 2008. At the same time freight to Iceland has reduced by 40% to 50%.

Unemployment in Iceland is almost at 10%...in addition Icelanders have been used to working long days, working an average of 500 more hours a year than Norwegians...Norway and Canada are the lands that many are looking towards. Since the housing market in Iceland is frozen, people cannot sell their houses, and there are examples of people leaving the country and delivering the keys to the houses to the banks.

The area in Canada many Icelanders are thinking of moving to is Gimli, Manitoba, considering the large Icelandic population already there and the agreement between the provincial government and that of Iceland to expedite the immigration process. Canada is very interested in acquiring immigrants that are as well-educated and productive as these.