Empathy advocate calls for citizens’ assembly on migration
A silage bale blocking an entrance at Magowna House in Clare recently.
Professor Pat Dolan, co-editor of , believes some form of citizens’ assembly would help ease heightened tensions about migration in Co Clare and elsewhere.
We need to have new conversations to debunk the myths but, at the same time, allow a conversation about the concerns that have been raised and find solutions to them, he says.
Prof Dolan, who is Unesco chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement and Director of the Institute for Lifecourse and Society at the University of Galway, says a calmer central voice, based on logic and human understanding, is needed rather than the so-called far-right or far-left positions that too often gain undue attention.
A citizens’ assembly should include a “balanced set of inclusive voices” and would look at the issues from all perspectives.
“Obviously, there is concern about migration, but a more rooted discussion is needed which can both debunk the myths around migrants, while at the same time give way to a realistic conversation around the concerns being raised and the solutions to them,” he says.
On one side, there are economic arguments, not to mention moral ones, that highlight the need for migrants to come here. On the other, there are those vehemently opposed to more porous borders who believe that there are not enough resources — housing, and jobs, for instance — available to those already living here.
“It has been well argued that the impact of migration is felt most among those who have least. This needs to be factored into the conversation. Similarly, this has also been used to heighten unrealistic fears and sometimes fuel false narratives, which equally need to be debunked in the same collective conversation.”
Prof Dolan says there is space to be found in the middle, but this requires real conversations.
And it requires empathy or, to quote his own definition of it, “the ability to emotionally put yourself in another’s shoes”.
Empathy, however, waxes and wanes, he says. Our capacity for compassion was at a palpable high in September 2015 when the horrific image of the death by drowning of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi flashed around the world.
“It moved many of us towards compassion and understanding of others fleeing their country,” he recalls. “But, over time, we may have forgotten the message of Alan Kurdi and the still-real plight of the Ukrainian community. Providing support to others at the initial stage can be robust but can, over time, weaken and lead to ‘empathy fatigue’.
He says ‘empathy fatigue’ in itself is a not a problem, but failing to recognise it and counteract it is.
Bringing empathy centre-stage forms a significant part of Prof Dolan’s work. Last year, he joined forces with actor Cillian Murphy, Gillian Browne, and Mark Brennan to edit the bestselling , published by Mercier Press.
The book of essays, written by several contributors, was designed to launch “a movement and revolution for the development of empathy in Ireland and beyond”.
And it hoped to show the tangible benefits of empathy. Academic research proves that practising empathy has a real, measurable, and positive impact on the individual and society.
“Empathy IS important,” Prof Dolan and Mark Brennan write in . “Not just in a casual sense, but in a deeply personal and proven way that makes individual lives and communities infinitely healthier … Simply, empathy is the foundation of functioning societies.”
On a personal level, Prof Dolan says that empathy helped him to survive a brutal school environment. His father died when he was just seven months old, but the support and empathy of his mother, siblings, and one teacher helped him to negotiate “the harming culture that the school allowed and even fostered”.
“While attending a Christian Brothers school [in central Dublin] which, overall, was neither ‘Christian nor brotherly’, I experienced and or witnessed violence and or emotional abuse, pretty much on a daily basis,” he recalls.
It didn’t help that he was left-handed, an inclination that was discouraged and often beaten out of pupils in the last century.
“It is my view, that the past excessive use of corporal punishment in Irish schools and the hurt and harm it caused, remains an unresolved issue for many of my generation and a remaining ‘blot’ on Ireland’s social history,” he said.
His own experience shaped his interest in empathy and prompted his ongoing work, which includes a campaign to have empathy taught as a school subject. It’s as important as English, science, or maths, he believes.
Actor Cillian Murphy, impressed by the work at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at University College Galway, became a patron.
In , he explains why: “I have two sons. Raising boys in this world is difficult. You do everything in your power to avoid raising proto-bullies, to avoid raising proto-misogynists, to avoid all the evil tropes of masculinity we are confronted by every day.”
Nurturing empathy is one way to help children negotiate modern living and create a better society. As Prof Dolan says, research has shown the truth of that. Now he hopes we can draw on Ireland’s collective experience of emigration to develop a better, calmer approach to migration.
“Migration and emigration have been part of Irish life and culture for centuries. If we remind ourselves of our desire for name, place, and value, it is how and why many of our Irish ancestors sought refuge in other countries and, famously, during the great famine of the 1840s.”
He said we might recall that many of the Irish who emigrated in the 19th century were seeking work, and a better life, along with the hope of not only surviving but thriving in a new country.
In the same way, many of those arriving here, whether displaced by war, insecurity, poverty, or extreme climate events, have the same aspirations.
“In Ireland now, and in our unique way as a full community, we may need to dig deep and find a response to the migration crisis similar to the one at the end of World War II which, in part, led to the creation of Unesco and other UN entities. We have a longstanding reputation as a country of ensuring a céad míle fáilte to others. We need to revisit this, discuss it, and deal with it in better and new ways.
“It’s in everyone’s interest we do so.”
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