Sarah Harte: Top-down approach to asylum takes Irish welcomes for granted
Last weekend, two events showed the different faces of Irish people reacting to foreign nationals.
The first on Saturday was the exceptionally sad funeral of Joshua Odonkor, a toddler who died when a grape lodged in his windpipe. I know Joshua’s family. Without wishing to breach their privacy, I also know that Joshua’s dignified, hard-working Ghanaian parents who made Skibbereen in West Cork their home were supported by the local community.
This support was both emotional and practical as they faced the life-changing trauma of burying their youngest son.
In the days preceding the burial, local people networked consulting the doctor, the priest, and the undertaker using the apparatus of the town to help the bereaved family.
It was entirely natural the way people reached out and came together, the Irish are good at death, particularly in rural Ireland.
On Sunday, people in Lismore, West Waterford, told me of their upset about the news that the Lismore Hotel was to be used as a temporary emergency accommodation centre for some 117 asylum seekers.
This resulted in a protest of a few hundred people. There has been a spate of ugly protests at direct provision centres in Dublin, Cork, and elsewhere, sometimes with a grim far-right ‘Ireland for the Irish’ rhetoric.
In Lismore, nobody had communicated to the townspeople about the proposed reception centre although they believed “the deal had been done three months previously”.
Their concerns mirrored those heard in other towns that the infrastructure was not in place for the needs of asylum seekers to be met. Since the hotel was closed in 2016, there had been a hope that it would reopen and give the town an economic boost.
There was also a worry about who would be coming. One older man, a businessperson in the town said: “They could be nice people, we just don’t know.”
On balance, he seemed to be positively inclined towards the idea of having asylum seekers.
It has since been reported that the resident breakdown for the asylum centre will be for families and single females.
Several TDs around the country have complained about the fact they weren’t told anything by the Department of Integration, which meant they couldn’t communicate decisions on reception centres to the people they represent.
It’s reasonable to have questions if a big change is afoot in your locality. By acting in a high-handed manner, officials many of whom live in Dublin (often one suspects in areas without reception centres) risk letting false narratives take root, opening up space for racism and anti-migrant feeling.
We need this like a hole in the head. According to the Irish Network Against Racism, there has been a spike in racist incidents with increased numbers of people of colour targeted in public.
High-profile black Irish people have recently shared negative experiences in the news and you can feel it in the ether but we’re not alone.
Last Saturday, Simon Kuper wrote in the that “surveys show a remarkable growth of acceptance of immigrants across the west”. Apparently “French racial tolerance is at an all-time high”.
Yet on Monday, French prime minister Elisabeth Borne announced a new drive to fight racism, anti-semitism, and discrimination of all kinds because although French society is ‘generally’ becoming more tolerant, increased, unabashed racist attacks are happening on the ground. They have a four-year new national plan to combat racism.
There is also a strong view among French people of colour (particularly among the adult children of migrants who were born in France) that the French policy of operating a colour-blind approach to race — making discussion of race taboo — has not worked but simply masked discrimination something we would do well to note.
Last month Germany’s anti-racism commissioner called for an end to years of ignoring structural and everyday racism in German society.
It was recently reported in this paper that a new poll found that almost half of Irish people are dissatisfied with the Government’s handling of the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Should this be ignored or faced head on?
Is there a chance that building a rapport with communities, not rubbishing them, and maybe sharing the stories of people who are coming might work better than failing to communicate with them?
Listening to the radio on Sunday, I was struck by what one demonstrator who turned up for the ‘East Wall Here For All’ group, had to say on the issue of asylum seekers housed in the former ESB building.
He said that he was from East Wall and wanted to welcome asylum seekers which was why he lent his voice to the community group. But he also had a message for the Irish Government, which is that working-class communities felt they were being left behind.
We saw what happened in the US when rust-belt workers felt they were being talked down to and ignored by metropolitan elites. In 2016, they voted for that orange-skinned lunatic who caused untold damage with his America first unilateralism and insidious ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan.
There will always be a cohort who don’t want ‘foreigners’ in their country. Sometimes it’s because people have been thrown on the slag heap. They’ve got nothing to lose, and so in a type of personal revanchism they throw their lots behind nefarious actors who manipulate them for their cynical ends. Other times it’s because they’re plain racist or xenophobic.
But the community groups that have sprung up across Dublin, Cork and other places show solidarity with asylum seekers and refugees and an understanding of the unique challenges that asylum seekers face. Already, a campaign group has been set up in Lismore to show support for the new arrivals.
The European Commission plans to make legal migration easier. Our president has said that climate change will behove us all to accept more migrants.
We don’t need to draw a tighter line around our international responsibilities to refugees.
However, we must articulate our policies and communicate with communities asked to welcome people if we are to maintain a shared belief in a single community, something that has dwindled in the US. And the experience of our European neighbours shows we need a plan.
The future of Ireland depends on how we rise to the challenge (and opportunity) of integrating migrants or refugees into our society. Riding rough-shod over people isn’t smart. You need to treat people with respect if you want them to play ball.
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