Homeless immigrants - We have duty because of our own past

“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members – the last, the least, the littlest” – Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a 1998 letter, Creating a Culture of Life

If, as Cardinal Mahony suggests, a nation or society should be judged by the compassionate way it cares for its weakest and most in need then a report in today’s Irish Examiner suggests we have much work to do.

With images of more than 700 people queuing outside a Dublin friary for free food parcels still fresh in our memories and the continuing problem of long-term alcohol and drug-related homelessness well documented, our report today reveals how a new class of “homeless” are living in our midst.

The people at the centre of this new worrying development in Irish society are not excluded from, but do not typically share the alcohol, drug and psychiatric problems at the root of most homeless cases. They are a growing community of, almost exclusively, foreign nationals who cannot access social welfare or other support systems in our society. Unable to pay rent and not entitled to any state benefits they are forced to live in a growing number of squats in our towns and cities. These people are living on the margins of society – unregistered, unnamed and invisible.

Ironically, the story has been heard before.

If, as a community, we shake ourselves from the apathy that undoubtedly exists in relation to the plight of this new “squatter” society, we will not hear the Eastern European or African voices of Ireland’s newest arrivals but the voices and accents of our forebears in places like Britain and America.

As a nation we can listen to the voices, despite the new accents, and act to ensure that this marginalised section of Irish society is immediately and quite literally, brought in from the cold. The worrying thing, however, is that this issue has yet even to be acknowledged as a problem by mainstream society.

That does not bode well. As a country our investment in the charities who dedicate themselves to dealing with the addiction and psychiatric problems that keep so many Irish in the chains of homelessness can only be described as pathetic. One can only hope the unforgivable public and political apathy that allows this situation to continue will not be extended to the plight that so many new arrivals to Ireland now find themselves in.

Our own history of emigration dictates that we, as a society, should not only be compassionate towards the plight of economic migrants, but should be at the forefront of the international campaign to ensure their rights are protected and their voices heard in recessionary times. Those unmoved by these arguments would do well to recognise that solving this problem now makes economic sense as well.

As was the case for the marginalised Irish throughout the world in years gone by, it will not be long before those who are unable to get a foothold in established society turn to drugs and crime in an attempt to break free from the poverty in which they find themselves.

That scenario will come at a much greater cost to Irish society than dealing with the problem now.

If Cardinal Mahony is right in proposing any society is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members then it can only be hoped that we are not forced in the years ahead to look back in shame at our past.