Let's welcome our immigrants

I FEEL that spending money (be it 20 or 20m) hunting people out of this country and making criminals of them just because they come from a different part of the world is wrong ("Asylum Seekers are a costly burden", the Irish Examiner, July 30).

The author of the letter seems to think that I am arguing an economic point. I am not. I am saying that the way we are treating human beings who can’t all trace their grandparents back to Blarney is unjust and racist. Surely our country would be better protected from “gross exploitation” by allowing people from different cultures to work on this island, and to offer them education and to allow them to become part of our culture. If “preserving our country” and culture is purely a financial issue, then I want to change our country and culture.

Peter Dowdall,