Ireland and immigration

by STEPHEN McCLOSKEY

[This article is part of a series called Answering Ireland’s Call: Thoughts for a new republic (Freagairt ar Ghlaoch na hÉireann: Smaointe ar phoblacht nua). The series will publish articles discussing the reunification of Ireland but within the context of early 21st Century ills such as the climate crisis, capitalism and fascism. If you like what you read, please share the articles far and wide. If you have insights and ideas on the subject and want to make a contribution, the project team would love to hear from you via irelandscall@mailbox.org.]

A toxic debate constantly swirls around the issue of immigration that often deploys myths and stereotypes to ‘other’ immigrants as an impediment to development, competition for native employment, a drain on resources or a threat to border security.  Incendiary political statements and policies on immigration can spread racism and hostility to migrants, and put wind in the sails of the far-right.  Where Ireland might once have been considered a European outlier of the far-right, evidence from the European Union and Local Council elections held on 7 June showed new far-right parties gaining a political foothold.  One of these parties, Independent Ireland, won a seat in the European Parliament in the Midlands North-West constituency receiving 57,000 first preference votes.  The Irish Freedom Party and National Party each managed to each get a local council candidate elected and are the first-ever members of registered far-right parties to hold office in Ireland.  Three independent far-right candidates were also elected to local councils but the return of five councillors was a small percentage of the more than one hundred people who stood for far-right parties or as far-right independents. 

Whilst it is important not to exaggerate the influence of the far-right on the Irish political system, the election of a small number of far-right candidates signals the extent to which immigration has become an increasingly inflamed issue in Irish society as the country has struggled to provide state accommodation for more than 100,000 refugees from Ukraine accepted since February 2022.  Earlier this year, hundreds of asylum-seekers were forced to live in tents in central Dublin due to the lack of availability of state-provided accommodation until being moved to the less conspicuous Crooksling in south-west County Dublin.  But the tents returned to central Dublin as newly arriving homeless asylum-seekers set up makeshift camps along the city’s quay that have been targeted by men armed with knives and steel bars.  On 16 July, fifteen Palestinian and Somali international protection applicants sleeping in tents on the quays were set upon late at night, had their tents slashed and thrown into the river Liffey, and had to flee for their lives.  In Coolock, an area of high deprivation on Dublin’s Northside, there has been serious unrest including the throwing of petrol bombs, at the siting of a former paint factory for an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers.  While Ireland’s national economy has improved, deprivation and disadvantage continues to plague inner city areas like Coolock.  The migrant debate has been a trigger point for local anger, particularly at the lack of consultation with local representatives on the siting of the accommodation centre.  But essentially, we are seeing an increasingly mobilised far-right preying upon the effects – not the causes – of neoliberal policies, including cuts to services, the lack of social housing and persistent levels of unemployment.

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