A new wave of anti-migration protests is rising currently in Ireland, one of the most stable liberal democracies that has recently developed a plan to welcome bigger numbers of migrants in the coming decades for the growth of its economy so that it has more consumers and a greater number of workers.
The working class in the country which has been the voting base of the country´s historic ruling party, Sinn Fein is however against such developments since they have suffered some of the least attractive alleged consequences and side effects of Ireland accepting a large number of people from mostly non-European Muslim societies, with a rise of street crime and violence towards women and children from mostly military aged men from the increasing refugee waves entering the country.
This reveals a series of strategic challenges regarding immigration that are becoming increasingly bigger in the face of the new Ireland that the Irish state plans on creating through making the country inclusive and liberal to become ever more connected to a globalized world.
However, the state has had recent logistical and resource related problems with integrating the newcomers to the country, especially migrants and refugees with the state having its budget almost exhausted and running increasingly low in places to reallocate the migrants.
It has recently made the decision to send the migrants to working class neighbourhoods of local Irish citizens without them being warned first-hand with migrants being housed in hotels and office buildings given the lack of new spaces left to house the strong increase of high numbers in similarity to the UK governments response.
The security issues and the conflicts between different migrant communities and locals has also created a increasingly more tense environment with the working class suffering more from it and consequently getting increasingly less tolerant.
The protests come thus as a reaction of these same local communities organizing themselves in grass-root civic groups to form a series of large anti-migration demonstrations throughout Ireland focused in the big cities, rallying around the slogan “Ireland is full”, with around 2000 protestors having showed up in Dublin in East Wall district.
It was in this area where the biggest protests happened after the government converted a state building into a migrant residence without consulting locals, with hundreds of protestors demonstrating over the last weeks and their numbers increasing each week and with other similar demonstrations happening in the district of Drimnagh, Finglas, Ballymun and Fermoy.
With the protests getting bigger it became clear that they were different from other different from other anti-migrant demonstrations in Europe, with the protest clearly signalling a new paradigm shift inside Irish society and how it sees immigration and politics.
The demographic profile of each faction revealed a class division among the different parties that defend the opposing positions that increasingly getting more polarized of pro-migration and anti-migration.
Those on the anti-migration side of the protests being from working class background and the counter-protestors from a university educated middle class background and with the curious aspect of an increasing proportion of the anti-migration faction being women.
A central element for this phenomenon is the security situation that is being felt by public with increasing numbers of reports of migrants mistreating women and children and accounts of sexual assault happening.
The impact of such incidents has had a direct result in the national polls with a survey carried out by The Business Post accounting that only 38% of women showed support for the construction of o new public housing projects by the state for the migrants compared with 55% of men, with The Irish Independent noting that Ireland has taken in too many refugees is notably stronger among women in working-class communities.
This also comes as a result of the public interpreting the large numbers of non-Ukrainian migrants taking advantage of pro-Ukrainian sympathy and openness to Ukrainians, which has upset a lot of Irish citizens.
This is further confirmed by “The Business Post” report that of a recent surge of 200% of international protection applications in the first half of the last year compared to an average increase of 25% in such applications across the EU, with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth reporting that about 50% of the 20,000 non-Ukrainian asylum seekers were military aged single men.
This report thus shows that there is a clear dissonance between the government´s official depiction of refugees being women and children fleeing Ukrainian war and the observed reality of suspicious young single men from non-Ukrainian countries rapidly increasing.
One should also have into account that although in other European countries, the state has faced similar protests with the addition of hard right-wing parties taking advantage of such movements, Ireland does not have as of how a strong populist hard right movement such as in France or Italy.
This however can quickly change since if the ruling establishment party continues ignoring the demands for higher control and security regarding the type of migrants get in Ireland, there will be a drastic change with the inevitable rise of far-right movements throughout the country which will be in turn supported by the same working class of Ireland which constitutes the most crucial voting demographic of Sinn Féin´s.
The Business Post journal as furthermore provided data that demonstrate that the figure of supporters of the establishment party that believed that only the far-right opposes taking in refugees dropped from 75% to 45%, showing a clear change in views regarding border policy by the voters which is in strong contrast of the party’s leadership.
Consequently, another challenge that rises from this new phenomenon is the increasing alienation of the elite from the electoral citizenship given their starkly different interpretations of reality- this in ultimate form inevitably corrodes the democratic institutions and the publics faith in the competence of the state and in democracy.
It is thus a national priority to create platforms of open strategic discussion between the voters and the leadership of the country for a clear understanding of what are the issues that the state must change regarding migration and how to mitigate the growth of populist of extremist views in Irish society without resorting exclusively to censorship.
Censorship should only use as a last resort since obfuscating dissenting opinions will only create a stronger base for more radicalism which in turn will create a future stringer base for populist leaders.
A greater issue that needs to be effectively tackled and dealt with by the state and that is of greater strategic priority both on the shorth and long term is the security situation in Ireland regarding clashes between different migrant communities and end the sentiment of insecurity felt by many, especially female citizens.
The state must express in a clear manner to all new comers that there will be serious consequences for those how commit any crimes and create, if necessary, a repatriation process for those that refuse to integrate.
It should also be taken in account that in order for the situation to not get as extreme as it currently is in some urban spaces in France and the UK- countries that have had to deal with similar issue for a longer time than Ireland- where police simply put have given up on going.
The Irish state should thus focus on punishing those who commit strong crimes and creating a new legal system that allows its security forces to deal in a measured and appropriate manner with violent protests or potential organized crime.
Currently is already a party named Irish Freedom Party, a hard right populist anti-EU party connected with the Brexit party of UK conservative politician Nigel Farage, which currently does not have institutional power but it can quickly gain power in the coming election- the establishment should then focus in finding a measured response that puts into effect moderate policies to the situation in order to thwart the possibility of the IFP gaining aby power.
It is thus in the national interest of the Ireland to counter its security issue regarding migrants, separating those that are willing to integrate and promote a moderate and tolerant society at the same time it tackles unstable and criminal migrants for both its political stability and the long-term strategic stability of its society.
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
