unemployment was low. In the 1930s and
People Before
Profit
1980s, when
there were very few
immigrants, there was
Immigration and Racism
Fact sheet
even higher unemployment
than there is
‘In times of recession politicians and the media are
always on the look-out for scapegoats to blame for
the unemployment and hardship they inflict on
people. One of their main targets is immigrants and
foreigners and this can lead to a rise in racism. This
fact sheet is designed to help counter some of the
myths they spread. All People Before Profit
candidates, canvassers and supporters may find it
useful in the election campaign’, Brid Smith,
People Before Profit candidate for Europe.
unemployment was low. In the 1930s and
1980s, when there were very few
immigrants, there was even higher
unemployment than there is now. Then as
now it was caused by the recession not
immigrants.
Once a group is stigmatised and regarded
as not having any right to work they can
always be blamed for unemployment. But it
makes no more sense to blame immigrants
MYTH: Ireland is overcrowded and ‘full
or non-whites than it does to say women
up’.
are taking men’s jobs or brunettes are
REALITY: Ireland is not densely populated. taking the jobs of blonde people.
The Republic of Ireland has a population of
4.5 million (plus 1.5 million in the North). In
the 1820s before the famine it had just over MYTH: Immigrants are all on welfare.
8 million. The population density of Ireland
REALITY: Over 80% of immigrants of
is only 65 people per sq. km compared to
working age are in work. The reason most
260 per sq. km in the UK (four times as
dense as us), 102 in France and 493 in the immigrants came to this country was to get
work and make a better life for themselves
Netherlands.
– the same reason generations of young
Irish have emigrated. When job
opportunities declined after the crash
MYTH: Ireland is being ‘flooded’ with
immigration went down too.
immigrants
REALITY: Immigrants make up only 14%
of the population. From a very low base,
immigration rose substantially during the
Celtic Tiger reaching a peak of 150.000 a
year in 2007. Since then it has fallen to
about 55,000 a year.
MYTH: Immigrants are taking Irish jobs.
REALITY: Immigration is not the cause of
the high level of unemployment. It was the
financial crisis of 2008 and the recession
that caused the huge rise in joblessness. It
was bankers, not immigrants that took our
jobs. In the 1990s and early 2000s during
the boom, immigration was high but
Yes, many immigrants are unemployed but
that is because they have been hit by the
recession like everybody else. In fact,
because of discrimination, unemployment
has increased faster among immigrants,
rising to 18%, than among Irish nationals
where it is 14%
MYTH: Immigrants are a drain on the
nations’ resources and put the
economy under stress.
REALITY: The age demographic of
immigrants is lower than that of Irish
nationals, precisely because it tends to be
younger people who migrate. As a result
more immigrants are of working age. Also
Ireland are not allowed to work, receive
the average level of educational
only €19.10 a week, and are forced to
qualifications is higher among non-Irish
live in grim conditions in accommodation
than it is among Irish nationals - over 46%
centres so these are not economically
rd
have 3 Level qualifications, compared to
attractive conditions. Only 950 people
32% of Irish. Among Asians the figure rises
applied for asylum in Ireland last year.
to 72%.Consequently immigrants
contribute more to the economy than they MYTH: Immigrants are taking over this
take out of it, especially in the HSE, which country and Irish culture is being sidelined.
could hardly run without them
REALITY: This is scaremongering.
Immigrants are NOT taking over. How can
MYTH: We should look after our own.
14% rule 85% when they have neither
Things would be better if everyone
wealth, nor guns, nor police. The median
stayed in their own country.
income of non-Irish households is about
€5000 a year less than that of Irish
REALITY: What prevents us looking after
nationals. The presence of immigrants
our own is the bank bailout and the
from many different countries enriches and
massive debt the Irish people have been
saddled with because the government puts broadens Irish culture rather than
diminishing it, just as Irish immigrants
the interests of its rich cronies before the
enriched the culture of America, Britain
interests of the people.
and Australia.
Everyone staying in their own country
wouldn’t just mean ‘foreigners’ being
MYTH: The Irish people are being taken
kicked out of Ireland, it would also mean
about 30 million Irish being forced to return advantage of by foreigners.
from around the world. There has NEVER
been a time when everyone stayed in one REALITY: The Irish people are certainly
place and if they had the world as we know being taken advantage of - by bankers,
bondholders, multinational corporations
it would not exist. There would be no
modern America, north or south, for a start. who won’t pay their taxes (like Starbucks
and Facebook), crooked politicians and the
And all modern humans came out from
super-rich, like Denis O’Brien, who are
Africa about 150,000 years ago.
getting richer while ordinary people are
suffering. Some of these are foreign, some
MYTH: But then there are asylum
are Irish, but it is not the ordinary
seekers who are really ‘economic
immigrants who are doing this.
migrants’ taking advantage of benefits
The real divide in society is between rich
and welfare.
and poor, bosses and workers, not ordinary
REALITY: Most asylum seekers have fled people of different countries. Blaming ‘the
extremely dangerous, life threatening and
foreigners’ just lets the real crooks and
inhumane situations .There is nothing
exploiters off the hook and divides us
wrong with being an economic migrant –
among ourselves. We should unite against
it’s what millions of Irish have been for
the 1% super-rich who are the real cause
decades –Asylum seekers in
of our problems.
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