Integrating immigrants - Time to plan for future of new Ireland

THE news that Ireland is to pay more than €90 million a year in child benefits to EU nationals whose dependants do not live in this country is just another punctuation mark in the evolution of our society.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs faces more than 20,000 applications for the payments, but 4,000 of these are likely to be rejected. Claims have gone from 30 a week in 2005 to more than 450 a week in the first four months of this year.

Once, not so long ago, these figures would have stirred the invective of those who dreamt we could live in a virtually closed society forever.

That delusion has been replaced by the realisation that mass immigration is with us, and all of the western world, for now and seemingly forever. That is allied to the acceptance that this change must be planned and unless we enjoy successful integration — and not just of EU nationals — we will have sown the seeds of catastrophe.

Writing in this newspaper yesterday, the Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan outlined the three main strands of government policy: the absolute necessity to plan for the social upheaval large-scale immigration into Ireland will bring; the need to teach English to all immigrants and to establish that integration is about rights and responsibilities for both newcomers and existing communities.

All of these positions have a ring of authenticity and practicality but we can only hope that the slippage so often apparent between announcement and delivery does not undermine Mr Lenihan’s objectives.

The minister also referred to lessons to be learnt by looking at Holland, France and Germany but recent census figures from America show the enormity of the change we are likely to face.

Once, with an eye towards Europe, America proudly declared: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...”

Now that eye must look away from Europe to welcome the new Americans. Whites are now outnumbered by other ethnic groups in one in 10 of that country’s 3,141 counties.

In 2000, according to the US Census Bureau, whites were in a minority in only 262 US counties, in 1990 that figure was just 183. This is a result of immigration from Central and South America and the higher birth rates among blacks and Hispanics.

This issue will play a huge part in next year’s presidential election but already the tensions are apparent.

Some local authorities have introduced measures banning landlords renting properties to illegal immigrants. Prince William Country, near Washington, recently passed a motion seeking to deny public services to illegal immigrants.

In England we have extremist protesters calling for cession and demanding to be allowed establish a caliphate. In 2005 in France there were weeks of nightly rioting in the low-income suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois after the deaths of two teenagers of Mauritanian and Tunisian origin.

American bylaws, insane demands in England and violence in France are all part of the same narrative and are just versions of what we will face if we do not successfully integrate the “New Irish” with all that is decent about traditional Ireland.

Once, Ellis Island was a beacon for Europe’s disenfranchised and poor, now that hope may be represented by an Irish ferry port or a low-fare airline arrivals hall. Our new-found affluence has made Ireland an enviable destination and we must work to ensure that it remains so.