Ireland, A Xenophobic Melting Pot

The Intelligent Life is a lifestyle magazine by the Economist and I had always found it a fascinating read, so to my delight, I found its website online with a ready store of articles.

Coming across this article, it did strike a chord with me after some of my unpleasant experiences in Ireland such as my trip to Galway. Despite being there for only four months, I had a few stories to share. Such as the man who thought that we four Chinese girls couldn't speak English and hurled abuse at us, then realized that we understood him, tried to offer us fish & chips that he spat on. Or my girlfriend who was simply waiting at a traffic light who got approached by old Irish gentlemen who asked her what her rates were to clean his house. Or how I was wandering in Superquinn, a high-end local supermarket there, where strangers yelled abuse at me, even though I was just entering the supermarket.

I think that we are all educated enough to understand that the actions of an ignorant sub-set of society does not represent the society as a whole. In order for a democratic society to progress, extreme and opposite views exist to create a liberal balance in its place. Four days in four months do not represent that Ireland has only uneducated, uncouth, ignorant idiots, just that, no matter how many nice Irish people I met I could not permanently erase those experiences from my mind.

IRELAND, A XENOPHOBIC MELTING POT

"Trade's bad on Moore Street's markets, and many traders blame foreigners", writes a correspondent for Economist.com. Immigration is at the root of all Ireland's ills, say increasingly angry locals ...

From ECONOMIST.COM

Belgium is not the first thing that comes to mind when you mention Brussels on Dublin's streets. "I haven't got any love," Annie, a trader, tells me, thinking I was looking for the edible kind. Trade's bad on Moore Street's markets, and many traders blame foreigners. Recent polls show that over 66% of adults in Ireland favour more restrictive immigration policies, and the recent rejection of the Lisbon Treaty testifies to rising resentment of the European Union.

The Moore Street Market, a national treasure of traditional Irish fare and straight-talking "true Dubs", with its carpet of wet cabbage leaves and even a horse-drawn cart if you're lucky, is the first port of call for the uncensored version of why some are changing their minds about immigration. How's business, I ask Colin, another trader. "Ah sure, look at them, they're all going in there," he sneers as he points an accusatory finger at a shiny white complex. He turns to serve a customer and I totter down to the mall to see what all the fuss is about.

Doli, one of many strapping eastern European security guards manning Dublin's shops, hails from Croatia. "The Irish are the best," he says blithely; "they take everyone." Asked if he thinks that's a force for good, Doli has a surprising reply: migrants should be legally bound to apply for a mortgage once they've been working here for a year.

He gives me a lively tour of the mall, taking in an Indian diner, a Lithuanian food market, a Nigerian boutique called Godfirst, a Polish bookshop, and, he says, "the best Romanian café". This may be a familiar scene in London but not yet in Ireland. Here traders say business is also slow. The most profitable businesses are the café and a vitamin shop run by Poles ("In Poland we are very healthy", an assistant boasts from behind the counter).

Outside the mall Colin calls me back for a chat, his finger now directed at a gang of Romanian gypsies. "See them, they broke into a house in Tallaght [south Dublin] last year and have been living there ever since." He claims the police were told unofficially to steer clear. They are "taking our money, shipping in their own produce, buying their own produce." Western Union and the post offices are doing well but we're not, he says, pointing at his stall laden with sugary treats.

My 92-year-old grandmother, a Moore Street regular who grew up in an altogether poorer and harder Dublin, is afraid to go there anymore. "They'd push you. The blacks", she insists. Playing Devil's advocate, I broach the subject at the fruit stall. Joan, a fruit-seller, harbours similar fears. "The police shut down their shops and got them all out. They were killing each other here in broad daylight, in front of all the children and everything", she says, alluding to a spate of drug-fuelled knife fights between Nigerian men.

But there's another equally ugly side to that coin. Racial discrimination claims rose by 70% in the first three months of 2006, and 36% from 2006 to 2007, according to Melanie Pine, the former director of Ireland's Equality Tribunal, an independent body that adjudicates claims of discrimination. In a poll taken by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) last year, 35% of all visa-holding immigrants said they had been insulted, threatened or harassed. Among black people that figure rises to 53%. But according to an EU poll this year, 80% of immigrants said they experienced no ethnic discrimination.

In the current downturn, analysts predict a pounding hangover. Welfare assistance expects a stretch this Christmas: around 63,000 more people are claiming unemployment benefits this year than last. The construction industry, the biggest employer of eastern European migrants, has forecasted 20,000 to 30,000 job cuts. Now the papers brim with reports of money "lost" to immigration. According to figures released two weeks ago, the government has spent almost €2m ($2.5m) in the last three years repatriating non-EU nationals.

I cross O'Connell Bridge over the river Liffey, admiring the reds and purples in the evening sky and take in one final gasp of salty sea air. As I'm about to get on the airport shuttle for my flight back to Heathrow, a young blonde woman in a shiny purple tracksuit, weighed down by enormous gold earrings, aggressively stomps after a black man, shouting, "Go back to your own country, stop robbin' our money."