The challenge of welcoming migrants and asylum seekers

By Fr. Shay Cullen, Founder since 1974 The Republic of Ireland is known as the "land of a thousand welcomes." It has welcomed 19,846 Filipinos who are now permanent residents or Irish citizens, data from the country's Census 2022 showed. Ireland's population is small: 5.127 million. The nation has never completely recovered from the devastating famine of 1845, caused by the greed and inequality under British colonial rule that left millions of Irish in dire poverty and surviving on the potato, its staple crop. The infection of potatoes by blight led to that famine and the country's population starving. As many as a million Irish died of hunger and disease from 1845 to 1851. The British government ruled Ireland with an iron fist and without concern or compassion. It failed to provide sufficient food for thousands of starving people. The wealthy English landlords in Ireland continued to export grain and cattle to their country during the famine. There was no choice for the Irish but to escape certain death and leave their country. More than a million of them did so as a quarter of the population perished. The Irish who rebelled against British rule were hunted down and executed. Others escaped and migrated to or sought asylum in the United States and Canada. They were welcomed there, as these growing nations needed them. If we can remember this terrible human tragedy and colonial injustice, we will then understand why there are hundreds of thousands of hungry, poverty-stricken people, many of them victims of war and tyranny, fleeing to rich countries. They are escaping hardship and death by hunger or violence. Five wars are being waged simultaneously in the world today — in Ukraine, the Palestinian Territories, Myanmar, Sudan and Haiti. War has devastated Syria and Afghanistan, and thousands of people have fled to Europe or the US. There are almost 2 million refugees living in dire circumstances in tent cities in Turkey and Jordan. The starving and jobless poor from Africa are displaced and heading north, where there is a shortage of workers and an abundance of food, much of which is wasted. Filipinos in Ireland were invited to come and work as nurses and caregivers, as homegrown ones were diminishing and the population ages. Of the 20,000 people with Filipino blood in Ireland, more than 6,000 are employed in the nursing sector. That figure represents 7 percent of the workforce and the biggest number of non-European workers in the country. The once-generous welcome to migrants is diminishing as 22,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in Ireland in recent years, almost doubling their number in the first six months of 2024. The Irish government is almost overwhelmed in providing shelter for these people as required by international law and European Union directives. In recent months, anti-migrant protests have increased almost weekly as small groups of extremely right-wing, anti-migrant militants have staged loud and violent demonstrations. These protests have revealed how deep-seated the racism is, with much of it fueled by agitators spreading anti-migrant propaganda on social media. The arrival of migrants is rejected in some Irish communities where there are few government resources, neglected infrastructure, and reduced community services and facilities. These communities are not prosperous and have few well-paying jobs they can offer. They resent what they believe are Irish taxpayers' money being spent on supporting migrants and asylum seekers. But this is false information. Ireland is currently getting 1.4 billion euros from the European Commission's Cohesion Fund, which was released in 2021 and will last until 2027 to encourage the acceptance and integration of migrants and asylum seekers. Education standards are low, and many live on unemployment benefits. The inequality of Irish classes causes anger and gives rise to racist tendencies, attitudes and fear of the foreigners. Buildings believed to be selected for migrants' accommodation have been fire-bombed. The government has also neglected to provide representational education and consultation with communities where migrants are to be accommodated. The failure of government to provide community education and address social neglect in these communities has led to what is called structural racism. This racism, fueled by misinformation about migrants on social media, leads to conflict. A strong response from the positive and welcoming Irish has to be more pronounced in counterprotest, showing that the vast majority of the Irish people welcome migrants who have suffered greatly from oppression, life-long poverty and violence in war. Most of these oppressed people hope for a new start in life. Would they find it in Ireland, a nation once afflicted by civil war, unrelieved famine and mass migration? Those who know nothing of history will surely make it present again. Our values have to embrace the poor, oppressed migrants and asylum seekers. We must share with them a better life, recognize that we are one humanity and that they suffer the global colonial injustice of the past and present. We must welcome the stranger and help them. If Christianity means anything, it means that we are Good Samaritans. We reach out and help the wounded who are victims of exploitation, abuse, greed and injustice. What greater mission or love can we have for humanity than to give them welcome, help and support? We can say: "There go I but for the accident of history." We must share the blessings we have and make this a better world. END