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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Anti-immigrant surge likely as Irish economy deteriorates -- Resentment of foreign doctors and workers tip of the iceberg

Posted on Monday, April 09, 2012 at 08:15 AM
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Immigrants in Ireland Credit: Irish Star

I predict Ireland is set for an anti-immigrant surge given the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

I can’t count the number of times the issue of immigrants and taking Irish jobs has arisen in conversations during recent trips over there.

Ironically it begins in the hospitals where there have been a number of recent high-profile cases involving foreign doctors being charged with negligence and in some cases even sexual assault of patients.

The influx of foreign doctors is, ironically, a clear sign of the Irish brain drain. Australia, Canada and other countries are snapping up Irish medical graduates who have cost the Irish taxpayers tens of millions to educate.

In order to fill the gap foreign graduates often from pretty exotic countries have been brought in.

While the vast majority is highly qualified it is also clear some are not given the number of incidents that have been reported.

It is an utter paradox that those most recently qualified leave for better careers abroad. 76,000 people left Ireland in the year to April 2011, the equivalent of one million Canadians leaving their country. It is an incredible figure.
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“We are losing our young, our best and brightest,” said David Monahan (48), the  Dublin artist whose photographs of emigrants leaving have caught the sad moments.

“It’s affecting our future economy, but also our sense of community,” he told the Toronto Star recently.

In many communities where immigrants were previously welcomed there are now clear signs of strain.

Some people assume that the “foreigners” are ripping off Ireland’s still generous social welfare system. With local Irish being crippled with taxes to pay off bankrupt banks, the anti immigrant sentiment seems a convenient scapegoat.

Time will tell if the anti immigrant lobby will grow but my anecdotal belief is that it will. I would not be surprised to see some Le Pen type political party take hold in Ireland if the economy continues to deteriorate.

Alas, that is the price for frustrated change and economic gloom.


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98 comments

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timbobdennehy | Apr 12, 2012, 03:13 PM EDT
Send the culture vultures away since,multiculturism is so enlightening for them.they are usually well to do people. European Immigrants have only improved timekeeping and work Habits,good for employer,bad for employee.As for the asylum seekers,put them on a commerce course and ship them back over the water. I will have to get another can of boot polish in order to have my car insurance paid for me.

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ciaradexy | Apr 12, 2012, 02:25 PM EDT
Dillon, Your family are settlers in another country! Your family are the same as anyone who moves here from another country. Awoken, no wonder you don't post on the journal, you cant spell! You're an illiterate freak show! Thank feck for those migrants who come over to find work, they do the jobs you're too retarded to do! Learn the difference between 'you're' and 'your'. Throw the odd full stop into your posts too, you gimp. I can't believe my taxes go to support people like you. Oh the irony!

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 12, 2012, 02:03 PM EDT
Awoken: You should know that ciaradex and laoise ryan are the same person. Two IDs, one garbage can. The Irish people, despite the lies of ciararyan/murphy, have NEVER given their approval for the Mass Settlement of their country by foreigners. I don't care how many of ciararyanolongsighswinefood there are because you're right, they are just useful idiots for the Irish ruling class, they swallow the swill that the system feeds them. This is a class that has always hated Irish nationality. Even now, they are pumping money out of Ireland and into the German banks. Irish workers are picking up the tab. As to swinefood, this great pseudo fan of multiculturalism has admitted that he joined in an attack on a foreign country (Vietnam). I could accept that he was a victim of circumstances, but he has never expressed any remorse here for the disgraceful actions of his youth. What reparations have you made to Vietnam and Cambodia, you lousy warmonger swinefood? Unlike swinefood my own late father never signed on to attacking an Asian country he knew nothing about. He took steps to avoid the draft. My father was a man of principle, swinefood is a hypocritical jerk.

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awoken32 | Apr 12, 2012, 01:44 PM EDT
@ciaradexy,lol oh sorry i dont post on the journal,its pure trndy isnt it? lol,i wouldnt waste my time,sure i barley waste in on this site,not like somebody i know,(hint anti irsih),listen ciara your so far up your own arse you cant smell the brown,your a disgrace to the irish,your a brainwashed brain dead sheep,you havent got a clue about the real world,you beleive everything that the system wants you to beleive,your not a free thinker whatsoever,you ignorant to the core,you would varnish the horse of troy,enough said to the anti irish traitor

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LaoiseRyan | Apr 12, 2012, 12:50 PM EDT
Bythebay, Irelands immigration policy is the same as the UKs. George, no one ever in the entire world who is pro-anything marches for it! People march when they are ANTI- something so show me the anti-immigration websites set up by people who will show their faces unlike the racists on here who hide their identity. Show me the political leaders who are setting up parties in opposition to the current immigration policies. If youre entitled to an Irish passport then you CAN live here. If you are from outside the EU and get a job offer here then you CAN come here legally and work. I know several Americans working and living in Mayo & Cork. Tom, I take your point and I do actually get Georges but his vulgarity and the vile way he puts his points across are disgusting. he needs to spend more time focusing on his own country rather than mine. The Irish language will never be a majority language. It never was going to be either regardless of migration but it will never die out completely. People also need to remember that this article is an Americans OPINION and not whats actually happening.

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LaoiseRyan | Apr 12, 2012, 11:36 AM EDT
LaoiseRyan, ciaradexy and DanOLoingsigh, generally, I agree with your position on emigration/immigration. It is enlightened, humane and reflects the reality of the world we live in. Dillon's world view and attitudes are mostly repugnant to me, in part because of the abusive and insulting manner in which they are presented. Yet, I do believe he makes an argument here that has merit - but, as usual, overblown and exaggerated. The Irish Republic is a small island nation with one of the oldest and, arguably, purest languages and cultures in Europe. Its isolation for millennia in the North Atlantic gave rise to this unique national character. I believe that insofar as possible it is the responsibility of the government to preserve this heritage. This does not mean closing the door on immigration - for, God knows, a little new blood, coupled with valuable and needed skills, would benefit the country. What is needed is a rational and coherent immigration policy rather than the 'come one, come all' that was the outgrowth of the Celtic Tiger period. I accept without argument that immigration was the fundamental driving force of American exceptionalism, that which made the U.S. the world's economic collossus - for this success native Americans paid a terrible price. It may well be that in this century we will witness the inexorable destruction of many cultures and the emergence of, to me, a depressing sameness. Perhaps this is an age thing. And, finally, a reality check: The 2011 Irish census shows the Irish population to be ..... overwhelmingly native Irish, close to 90%.

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 12, 2012, 11:24 AM EDT
Laoisedexy: "Countries such as the US etc.have welcomed the Irish to their shores". You don't seem to know that Americans have no right to immigrate to Ireland, regardless of how many generations connection with Ireland they can show, or how much of that country's history and language they know (usually far more than the Irish know). So your dumb attempt to establish reciprocity is a flop. When the young Irish Argentines tried to go to Ireland a few years back to escape the collapse of their country's economy, maybe a decade ago, the Irish government told them to F*** Off back to Argentina, even though Argentina had accepted the ancestors of these people when Ireland gave them nothing but poverty and oppression. That's reciprocity Irish style. And where'e the Irish tradition of emigrating to Pakistan, Russia, Poland, Phillipines etc? Those are some of the countries that are pumping people into Ireland. Where's the reciprocity? SO cut out the nonsense. And you still haven't answered my question--"Where are all the pro Mass Immigration demonstrations in Ireland?"

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LaoiseRyan | Apr 12, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT
Ok, so George, we hired people from outside of Ireland. Thats what happens all over the world. People came here legally so they are doing nothing wrong. No Irish people have protested against these people or the welfare payments to some kids who are outside the state. No Irish people have set up political parties with a view to closing the door to migrants. Countries such as the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand among others have welcomed the Irish to their shores so why do yo think it would be fair of us to close the doors to others? Is that not a bit hypocritical? Are you Native American? Should we tell all those who migrated in the past from Ireland that they now much leave their homes and move back to Ireland? Why shouldn't we educate the children of migrants? I have never ever heard an Irish person say 'Id really love the job of chambermaid or waitress but all the foreigners have those jobs'. Should we deport all Irish from other countries?

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 12, 2012, 09:30 AM EDT
LaoiseDexy--Where are all the pro Mass Immigration demonstrations in Ireland? If an Irish political party ten years had gone to the people saying "Our policy is to import huge numbers of foreigners into our country over the next ten years. Many of these foreigners will take jobs that Irish people would otherwise have had. Hundreds of thousands of Irish will be unemployed or forced to emigrate, but we'll still import foreign migrants. We will educate the children of these foreign migrants for free, we will give these migrants subsidies of hundreds of euros for every child they have, even if those children have never been to Ireland. We'll give these migrants free health care, and pay them lifelong benefits if they are not working, even if they don't live in Ireland and just fly in occasionally. We'll even arrive at a stage where one prisoner in three in Irish jails will be a foreigner. It'll be great." Tell us, laoise dexy, how many votes would have gone to a party running on that platform? And how many of the Mass Immigrationist Irish political parties even now have the honesty to put that in their platform?

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ciaradexy | Apr 12, 2012, 09:15 AM EDT
Awoken, Ive noticed you dont post your opinions on immigration on forums such as thejournal .ie which is an irish website. You like to do it all anonymously on this website like all the faceless cowards,racists and keyboard warriors.

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LaoiseRyan | Apr 12, 2012, 09:02 AM EDT
Awoken, get it into your thick head, there is no such place in the 1st world that is a monoculture! Wake up! Where are all the anti migration protests, websites and politicians? There are none so why dont you get out there and form your own? Oh I know why you wont, because youre all mouth! Either put up or shut up!

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ciaradexy | Apr 12, 2012, 08:56 AM EDT
GeorgieDillon,''As one man said to me "Just what benefits did the immigrants bring to Ireland?" What did immigrants bring to the US other than murdering the natives? The Irish are not being murdered by migrants coming here.

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IrelandNorth | Apr 12, 2012, 08:04 AM EDT
God bless multiculturalism! As a politically-correct citizen of a petit-bourgeois state, I can now enjoy being harassed by paramilitary-esque, neo-fascist, proto-totalitarian contract security firms (STT), who specialise in hiring beefy/bulky former Serbo-Croats military mercenaries to patrol Connolly/Heuston Railway Stations in Dublin. Wow! How contract law can undermine civil liberties. And thanks to CIE (Ireland's transport holding company) and Irish Rail for the shortsightedness of using Irish taxpayers subsidies to do so. Thanks for the peculiar prvilege guys. Think I could do without it though, not lease as a onetime military security man myself, in a previous occupational incarnation.

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BrianO | Apr 12, 2012, 03:46 AM EDT
I want to be an Irish citizen where do i fake it?

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esatdigiwank | Apr 12, 2012, 02:01 AM EDT
Bythebay, I did not post here re. the total absence of immigration security on the Republic-North international frontier, to indulge in small talk about the train service splendid though it is. Please do not be so flippant about the issue I have raised. As you yourself have revealed to IC, "no there are no manned spots on the Northern Ireland - Ireland border any longer". There is NOBODY patrolling the border to detect or filter ILLEGALS.

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